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When a believer becomes a new creature in Christ, he is dead with Christ to the Law. He was crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, rose with Christ, and is seated at the right hand of God with Christ. The Mosaic Law cannot apply to someone who is dead to it. The Scripture says: "For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose (Galatians 2:19-21).I disagree. My previous posts on another thread I demonstrated this quite clearly, Here is more scripture from the OT demonstrating this.
Ezekiel 36: 25 ¶ Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
So let's look at the results of the new covenant.
Jeremiah 31: 31 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Now let's compare this with John 17: 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Jesus said knowing He and His Father results in eternal life. That is an exact parallel to the results of the new covenant. It is also exactly what I said in the other thread about loving God as we don't love people we don't know. In fact, we can't love people we don't know, as love between individuals is a relationship between them. So loving God will not, cannot, result in legalism.
This ties in well with Galatians 5: 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Notice that the fruit of the Spirit breaks no law. Therefore the fruit of the Spirit in the heart enables that person to keep the law of God. It does away with the sins of the flesh and enables them to inherit the kingdom of God, just like, as Jesus said, knowing He and His Father results in eternal life.
Messages like this are found throughout scripture. There is perfect agreement between the OT and the NT. Each reinforces the other.
The Law only applied to those who were subject to it before Christ had ascended to the right hand of God and who had sent the Holy Spirit to transform the disciples and made them into totally new creatures in Him. Therefore those who insist on keeping the Law show that they have come short of being new creatures in Christ, even though they may wear the Christian badge and are very religious. If they are depending on righteousness through keeping the Law, they cannot have righteousness through Christ, because the latter is bestowed only on those who have been genuinely converted to Christ and are part of the new creation in Christ.
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