The law is in effect...for those who do not believe in the sacrificial atonement of Yeshua's death on the cross. I fully agree. The part you don't get is that the believers in Yeshua are no longer under the law. He was the sacrifice once for all.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 24011342 I can't resist jumping in here. What I don't get is why everyone always associates lawfulness with an attempt at acquiring, by works, one's own salvation.
That's not it at all. The law is a part of the testimony.
20 You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
your ears are open, but you do not listen.”
21 It pleased the Lord
for the sake of his righteousness
to make his law great and glorious.
22 But this is a people plundered and looted,
all of them trapped in pits
or hidden away in prisons.
They have become plunder,
with no one to rescue them;
they have been made loot,
with no one to say, “Send them back.”
23 Which of you will listen to this
or pay close attention in time to come?
Quoting: Isaiah 42:20-23Not that it's done away with, or of no effect. Did the law ever have the effect of saving one's soul?
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.
Quoting: Psalm 19:7-9The law is for teaching righteousness! It is not a weapon to turn against those you disagree with, or to burden you with the impossibility of keeping it, but to make one wise in the ways of God!
19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
Quoting: Acts 15:19-2119 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Quoting: Matthew 5:19How can you honor the sacrifice of the Messiah if you do not honor the law for which he gave up his life? You would speak of his death as though it was for you, but that has to equally imply that he died for the law that stands against you. If it were not so, then his death had no meaning, but as a mere sign.
Yes, the law is not given to the gentiles (NATIONS)... at least not yet. Israel was supposed to become a light to the gentiles through their observance of God's great law, in a contest of governance between God's one kingdom and the other kingdoms of the earth.
You say he came to fulfill the law, but it is not yet fulfilled. We are still looking forward to the fulfillment of the later feast days, when all will be accomplished.
Even then...
16 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain.
Quoting: Zechariah 14:16-17I absolutely believe that if a nation adopted the whole law and observed it carefully (do not add to it, and do not take away from it), that nation would shortly become the greatest economic strength in the world. But that is reserved for Israel, first.
The earth and all of it's inhabitants will perish if we keep following the folly of man's governance. Tell me, who can keep THAT law?
Consider: U.S. penal code VS 613 commandments. If you have no hope to keep those 613, then you have to admit that man's law is utter folly and it's works are death. What greater LEGALISM is there, than to dismiss God's law and adopt man's in it's place?
If 613 little commands that every Hebrew boy can learn is yet too difficult for us to live by, then there is no hope for mankind to live under any law, but only by anarchy.
But it is not so.
11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
Quoting: Deuteronomy 30:11-16It is a tree of life to those who take hold of it, and all it's paths are peace.
