The issue of what type of contract the Mosaic Covenant is is independent of the issue of who it is made with.
I don’t agree. Every contract is for a number of terms for a distinct person or group. The Mosaic covenant was given to Moses to give to Israel. The covenant for the Christian church is the new covenant of blood depicted in
Luke 22:20.
For example, God said that he was a husband to Israel (
Jeremiah 31:32) and Israel's unfaithfulness was described as adultery, with eventually got so bad that God wrote the Northern Kingdom a write of divorce (
Jeremiah 3:8).
Nothing here about the Mosaic covenant being like a marriage contract. It was a covenant between God and Israel which included the 613 laws and commandments.
That is not what Jesus stated. A sum is inclusive of all of its parts and the reason why the greatest two commandments are the greatest two is because they are inclusive of all of the other commandments. For example, if we love God and our neighbor, then we won't commit adultery, theft, murder, idolatry, rape, favoritism, kidnapping, and so forth for the rest of God's other commandments. The greatest two commandments as much easier said than done, so thankfully God graciously gave us the rest of His commandments in order to flesh out what it looks like to correctly obey them. Someone who was correctly living in obedience to the greatest two commandments would be indistinguishable from someone who was correctly living in obedience to the rest of God's other commandments because they would both be following the same example that Jesus set for us to follow.
When, we are going to disagree because that is what Jesus stated. The summary of the law into two changes the laws that are being summarized to the extend that they no longer apply. Keeping the Mosaic law was impossible. Only Jesus was able to keep it perfectly. The redeeming sacrifice of Christ fulfilled the terms of the old covenant fully.
“When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is about to disappear.”
Hebrews 8:13 NASB2020
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is about to disappear.
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He has “made obsolete” παλαιόω which translates to worn out, decay, declare obsolete. If the old is declared obsolete it means that all the terms of the old covenant are by default obsolete.
The Greek word "ekklesia" is translated as "church" and is used many times in the Septuagint to refer to Israel in the wilderness. In
Ephesians 2:12-19, Gentiles were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this world, which is in accordance with Gentiles at one time not being doers of God's law, but through faith in Christ all of that is no longer true in that Gentiles are no longer strangers or aliens but are fellow citizens of Israel along with the saints in the household of God, which is in accordance with Gentiles becoming doers of God's law.
Actually no. Israel is no longer part of the tree. They were cut off in favor of the gentiles (Romans 11).
In addition the gentiles did attain righteousness by faith which is something that Israel could not do because the law is not of faith.
“What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, but the righteousness that is by faith; however, Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though they could by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,”
Romans 9:30-32 NASB2020
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, but the righteousness that is by faith; however, Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arriv
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Israel is not the church.
In
Psalms 119:29-30, it describes the one and only way of salvation by grace through faith, so the salvation formula did not change. Salvation was never earned as the result of our obedience to God's law, but rather God graciously teaching us to be a doer of it is the way that He is giving us His gift of salvation.
Agree. But the “doing” does not include the law for the Christian. The Christian by the grace of God through faith without works is made into Christ’s workmanship and does the works prepared in advance for us to do (
Eph. 2:8-10). The works of the law is not the works prepared in advance for the Christian to do.
Our salvation from sin would be incomplete if we were only saved from the penalty of our sin while our lives continued to be directed at being doers of sin, so there is an aspect of our gift of salvation that we are experiencing in the present by being a doer of God's law, which is what
Titus 2:11-13 describes.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to
redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, eager for good deeds.”
Titus 2:11-14 NASB2020
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age,
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You should have included verse 14. Christ redeemed us from every lawless deed. No need for the law. Justification is a very powerful act. G.E Ladd once said that “the root idea in justification is the declaration of God, the righteous judge, that the man who believes in Christ, sinful though he may be, is righteous—is viewed as being righteous, because in Christ he has come into a righteous relationship with God.”
I’m in total agreement with Ladd. Even after being justified it is impossible to stop sinning hence repentance. Repentance should be a daily or very frequent activity. It is true that those with saving faith sin much less than before and are also working in partnership with the Holy Spirit in their lifelong sanctification.
The first problem with the law is that it does not justify. The second is that is not suggested as part of sanctification anywhere in the New Testament. Nowhere does it say follow the law. In fact Paul calls it weak (Rom. 8), call it a curse and explains what happens if one tries to follow it. Christ redeemed us from the law so no reason to return to what Christ redeemed us from.
“Now, that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “the righteous one will live by faith.” However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “The person who performs them will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
Galatians 3:11-14 NASB2020
Now, that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS ONE WILL LIVE BY FAITH.” However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “THE PERSON WHO PERFORMS THEM WILL LIVE
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The content of a gift can be the experience of doing something, such as giving someone the opportunity to experience driving a Ferrari, where the gift intrinsically requires them to do the work of driving it in order to have that experience, but where doing that work contributes nothing towards earning the opportunity to experience driving it. Similarly, the content of God's gift of eternal life is the experience of knowing Him and Jesus (
John 17:3), and the gift of God's law is His instructions for how to have that experience, which we are intrinsically required to follow. God's law is His instructions for equipping us to do every good works (
2 Timothy 3:16-17)
I have no desire to test drive a Ferrari. I would equate the law with an Edsel or something similar.
“All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 NASB2020
All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good w
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Nothing here about following the law. All scripture is indeed necessary. The OT including the law is Christological in nature. It shows us the need for a savior so Paul is indeed right.
The Psalms are the OT book that is most quoted by the NT, so the authors of the NT certainly considered it to be applicable to the Christian church.
As far as poetry and other teachings. I read them but I don’t use them for Christian doctrine. They do contain some great teachings.
According to Deuteronomy 27-30, the way to be blessed is by relying on the Book of the Law while the way to be cursed is by not relying on it, so
Galatians 3:10 should not be interpreted as Paul quoting from that passage in order to support a point that is arguing the opposite of that passage. Rather, the way to be cursed is by not continuing to do everything in the Book of the Law, which is why everyone who relies on "works of the law" instead come under that curse. In
Romans 3:27, Paul contrasted a law of works with a law of faith, in
Galatians 3:10-12, he contrasted the Book of the law with "works of the law" and in
Romans 3:31 and
Galatians 3:10-12, he said that our faith upholds the Law of God in contrast with saying that "work of the law" are not of faith, so that phrase does not refer to the Law of God, which is why it is not of faith.
Yes. I’ve heard this argument before and it really does not hold water in light of the rest of the New Testament. Paul is indeed calling the law a curse literally and Christ literally redeemed us from the curse. Paul calls it weak in Rom. 8 and overall teaches that the Christian is not under the law and does not want to be under the law.
In
Galatians 3:10-12, Paul associated a quote from
Habakkuk 2:4 that the righteous shall live by faith with a quote from
Leviticus 18:5 that the one who obeys the Law of God shall live by it, so the righteous who are living by faith are the same as those who are living in obedience to the Law of God. In
Isaiah 51:7, the righteous are those on whose heart is God's law, and in
1 John 3:4-7, everyone who is a doer of righteous works in obedience to the Law of God is righteous even as they are righteous, so the righteous living by faith does not refer to an alternative manner of living that is not in obedience to God.
God is trustworthy, therefore His law is also trustworthy (
Psalms 19:7), so the way to trust in God is by obediently trusting in His instructions, it is contradictory to think that we should trust in God for salvation but in in His instructions, and the position that God is a giver us untrustworthy instructions that are not of faith is a position that denies the trustworthiness and faithfulness of God.
In Deuteronomy 28, it describes the blessing of the law for lawfulness and the curse of the law for lawlessness, so being set free from the curse of the law is being set free from lawlessness in order to enjoy the blessing of lawfulness. In
Titus 2:14, it does not say that Jesus gave himself to redeem us from the Law of God but in order to redeem us from all lawlessness.
Sorry but the rest of this wall of text is quite the repetition of the argument that I have already responded to. In short, following the law does not add to Jesus sacrifice. In fact it takes away from His sacrifice and power. Jesus sacrifice is plenty powerful to take care of each individual believer’s sins and testify before the Father that each one of His followers are righteous. The law for the Christian is finished but remains to the people of Israel.
Also the combination of your quoted post and my response exceeded the 1800 character limit so I cut some of your quoted post in order to post this reply. We can always go back to your original post if we have to.