JS5777 said:

The Lord Jesus Christ did not walk contrary to the Law of God, He became the very fulfillment of the Law of God and He STILL is the very fulfillment of the Law of God IN and THROUGH every one that believes in Him.

No one has said that Jesus walked contrary to the law, but this is a good point. I believe that we can say that the righteous requirement of the law was fulfilled in Him, but I do not believe that you can say He was a man in the flesh living by the law. According to His word, He lived by eating the word, and lived because of the Father. In other words, He lived by the law of the Spirit of life, not by the law of commandments. Jesus did not need a school master to bring Him to God. He ate,(received) the rich grace and the sweet love of the Father and that is how He lived.

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

John 6:57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

Isaiah 7:15 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

There is a world of difference between fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law by walking according to the Spirit, and being a person under the law. No one under the law, can fulfill the righteous requirement of the law. That is the whole point of Romans 7.

JS5777 said:

Mat 5:17         Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. The words “think not” is an imperative, it is a commandment.

Notice He says "fulfill" not "keep the law." This is the crux of our discussion. According to Paul, we believers are not under the law with any intention to keep the law. The righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled however, by those who walk according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

As I understand this, Jesus was joined to God based on the promise made to Abraham. He was the promised "Seed." What Moses did was to bring God's people into a "sheepfold", a corral, called the law, to keep them confined until Christ could come. Jesus was never in this sheepfold called the law. He was the Good Shepherd to bring us into life to lead them (and us) out of the fold into the rich green pasture, a figure of the grace of God in our spirit.

The New Testament begins with "The generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David (referring to the kingdom) the son of Abraham (referring to the promise of the Spirit) with no mention of Moses.

JS5777 said:

The law that has passed away because of the cross, is the law of sin and death, which came about because of the fall in sin. Again, the Law of God IS NOT the same as the law of sin and death.

When Paul speaks of the law that is in our members, the law of sin and death, he makes it plain.

Romans 7:17 , but sin that dwelleth in me.

Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:

Romans 7:20 it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Romans 7:21 evil is present with me.

Romans 7:23a But I see another law in my members

Romans 7:23b bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Romans 7:25 So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

These verse express what Paul calls, "sin that dwells in me" "evil is present in me" "a law in my members" "the law of sin" "the law of sin and death." 

Neither this law nor the law of God has passed away because of the cross. Many think that Romas 7 is the normal Christian experience, and it is Paul's testimony. It is neither. It is Paul carefully explaining what happens when we bring ourselves under the law. It brings sin and death.

Romans 7:10-11 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

With our good mind, we agree that we should keep the law (v.25), this arouses the flesh and brings us under another law, the law of sin and death. This is the subject of this chapter. We are freed from sin because we are freed from the law. (6:14)

Neither the law of sin and death nor the law of God was crucified with Christ. The old man, which was under the law (Romans 6:6), the "husband" in Romans 7:2 died, which the law regulated. We will have the flesh with us until we either die or the Lord returns. It is a grave error to think we are free from the law of sin and death in the flesh. It dwells in our members. The only answer is to turn to our spirit where the Spirit of Jesus is. He is the victory over sin and death. 

In a sense, we are back in the garden. Good is in our mind and evil is in our flesh. Life is the Spirit in our spirit. I chose life.

JS5777 said:

Mat 5:19         Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least (G1646) in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great (G3173) in the kingdom of heaven.

Ok lets talk about this verse. 

Paul said in Philippians 3:5-9, that in his former religious life, "as to touching the law, a Pharisee...as to the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." He then said, after his conversion, that he did not wish to be found "having his own righteousness, which is out of the law."

Was he teaching men to break the commandments? He said he did not wish to have anything to do with the law. He counted his status as a Pharisee (the strictest of the law keepers) and as blameless under the law as dung. Should he be called least in the kingdom of heaven? I don't think so.

Christ did not come to help us keep the law. He came to replace the law and fulfill the righteous requirement of the law in us who walk according to the Spirit. Paul did not want to be found under the law, but to be found in Christ. This is my wish as well. 

JS5777 said:

John 1:4    In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

You conclude with life. Life is God Himself. Life is the way.

Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Christ , who is our life!!!!

Who was the author of the Torah, God or Moses?

Shalom,

JS5777

   There is so much to the Law through Moses that is typing and preparing for the reality.  I think the main danger in the insistence that the Law be part and parcel of life in Christ is that the Law appeals to men's soul to perform good and refuse evil.  Yet in the new covenant that reality of men's need to preform died with Christ.  What rises with Christ is a new nature realizing that it's only hope and joy is living through the risen glorified Christ by faith.  The accuser has no power as that life grows and becomes the reality of the believer.  Satan's primary tactic is to lure men to what all men's his earthly experience tells him = his life with GOD depends upon his performance, and this at the expense of the grace and mercy of GOD establishing life in Christ Jesus.  Yet what is defined as life from GOD in the law is indeed of increasing import to those coming to Him through Christ.  As the love of GOD clears out all that nature of man which would at any point displease GOD, the holiness of GOD finds ever increasing manifestation in His own.  This not through the insistence on performance, but rather in the reality of relationship growing into Christ Jesus' love, trust, and fear of GOD.

If you will notice that in every posting that I have made about the Law of God, I am very careful to state, without fail,

that the fulfillment of the Law of God IS NOT by our own works WITHOUT HIM, and that it is ONLY possible by and through the power of His Life dwelling within us to fulfill His own obedience through us.

Sadly, there are some people that think that ANY fulfilling of ANY part of the Law of God has been completely eliminated.

But the Law of God describes how His character behaves, and if THAT is eliminated... then the result is that we can behave in just any way that the flesh in its fallen condition imagines to do, and STILL claim salvation.

But there ARE changes in our behavior that naturally and automatically happen when we have been saved and filled with the very Life of God.

Those changes reflect His character and fulfill every description of His behavior.

Just because it happens THROUGH our flesh, does NOT mean that it is being done BY the nonexistent abilities of the fallen flesh WITHOUT Him.

This is a concept that is difficult for some people to understand because they have not experienced the living reality of the power of His Life dwelling within themselves.

But just because they do not understand it, or just because they have not experienced it, DOES NOT mean that it does not exist or that it is impossible, or that the manifestation of the power of His Life through us to fulfill the expressions of His character through us, in some way bring us into bondage.

Just the opposite, THAT expression of the power of His life is the very thing that shows us that our experience with His salvation is a living reality.

We are NOT saved by the works that we try to do WITHOUT Him, but if we are saved, His works WILL follow and demonstrate the living reality that He is, even through our flesh, because the Power of His Life is far greater than ANY and ALL of the results of the fall in sin, so much so that there eventually is coming a change in our mortal bodies.

But the change begins in the inner man being conformed to His divine nature FIRST, then the change in our bodies will follow at its ordained time.

It is ALL a resurrection, either from the dead works of sin, or from the saved physically coming forth from the graves, and the most of the time it is BOTH.

Shalom,

JS5777

   James:   Sadly, there are some people that think that ANY fulfilling of ANY part of the Law of God has been completely eliminated.

   Paul:   sad indeed.  1Pe 1:14-16 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:  But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.   This with all it means is fulfilled in the life promised us.

JS5777 said:

If you will notice that in every posting that I have made about the Law of God, I am very careful to state, without fail, that the fulfillment of the Law of God IS NOT by our own works WITHOUT HIM, and that it is ONLY possible by and through the power of His Life dwelling within us to fulfill His own obedience through us.

I have noticed this brother. 

What we are contending for here is the faith, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. What is commonly thought, by Christians everywhere, is that we are saved by grace through faith, but then we are perfected by Jesus helping us keep the law. There is an entire denomination with maybe millions of adherents, who has codified this doctrine and made it the foundation of their faith, the Seventh Day Adventists.

According to Paul, who was saved out from under the law (Galatians 2:19), we received the Spirit through the hearing of faith, we are being perfected through the hearing of faith, and we are supplied with the Spirit through the hearing of faith. Our full salvation has literally nothing to do with the works of law.

Galatians 3:2-3 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now being perfected by the flesh (works of law)?

3:5 He therefore that bountifully supplies to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

The hearing of faith is through hearing the word of God.

If you ask these dear ones who have placed themselves under the law, do you know that you have a spirit? They will answer, no. Do you know that God is Spirit? No. Do you know that the Spirit Himself is with our spirit, and even mingled with our spirit? No. 

According to the plain words in Romans 7, which I have cited over and over, either in part or in whole, to make up our good mind to keep the law is to do it without Christ, because Christ is in our spirit. To bring ourselves under the law is to be in the flesh and to walk according to the flesh. Jesus, who is in our spirit, cannot help us if we do not substantiate, experience, and walk according to the Spirit with our spirit.

Here are the main points as I understand them:

1. The person that was held in slavery under the law was crucified with Christ. It is not that the law died, but we who were under law died.

Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

2. This is the basis to say that we are not under law, because we died.

Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

3. If we no longer live, but Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20) then the law no longer has dominion over us.

Romans 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

3. We are now like a widow, free to marry another, to be joined to another, to Christ, who is the Spirit with our spirit.

Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

We can be either people in the flesh trying to keep the law (with Jesus' help) or people in the Spirit living Christ, not both. If we could make up our good mind and Jesus would help be good law keepers then there would have been no need for Romans chapter 7.