THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE - II

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE - II

Hebrews 10:9  Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O Elohim. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

The last posting ended with:  “Not then, nor now has the gentile ever been under the Law of Moses.”  This is confirmed by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans:

Romans 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
15  Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

The Ten Commandments were not a series of radical ideas, laws that uniquely separated the Jew from the Gentile.  They were simply the codification of what was already written in man’s DNA.  IAUE created within man an awareness of these basic common sense rules for human life.  They did not need to be written on tablets of stone to be obvious to man.  We have an instinctive knowledge that we should do or should not do the things contained in the law.

As we saw last week, the Law was not an end unto itself.  It is the covenant with IAUE that is important. The Law has absolutely nothing to do with the covenant.  It is a restraint, a bit in the horse’s mouth, a collar on a disobedient dog. The Law was required to restrain a rebellious and stiff-necked people until IAUE could bring His son into the world.  It controlled the outward behavior, only.  The inward man of the heart still raged on in rebellion, replacing obedience to IAUE with obedience to the Law; and moving one’s confidence to stand before IAUE away from obeying His will (which required a change of heart) to obeying words on a page (which leaves the heart to its own devices). 

Hebrews 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

The Law was a shadow.  Messiah is the substance.  IAUE is the Light, which cast upon the substance of His son, casts that shadow.  The shadow was designed to bring the Hebrews to His son…to the substance.  Now that the substance has come, why would anyone want to remain with the shadow?  The answer is both obvious and frightening.  It is to be able to retain control of our own hearts.  We can keep the Law and still be selfish, pursuing our own interests and desires, loving only ourselves, all the while deceiving ourselves that we are right in the center of Elohim’s will.

It is my belief that it was the inability of the early Jewish believers to understand and walk in the freedom from the Law that Messiah brought to them that resulted in a virtually exclusively gentile expression of the church for the past 2,000 years.  For the first 25 years, the body of Messiah was comprised almost exclusively of believing Jews; but they were Jews who continued to keep “Torah.” 

Acts 21:17 And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.
18  And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.
19  And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things IAUE had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.
20  And when they heard it, they glorified IAUE, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
21  And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.

James, the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, and all the elders explained that ALL of the believing Jews were still fierce Law-keepers.  Because of this, they instructed Paul to comply with the Law in a way that all could see that he, too, was a Law-keeper.  This was willful, premeditated deception; and the ultimate consequence of this action was two years imprisonment in Ceasarea, a two week battle against a raging hurricane in the Mediterranean Sea, a shipwreck, a poisonous snake bite, and finally, incarceration in Rome.

Paul tells us in Philippians 3, that he was the ultimate Jew.  As a Pharisee, he was a dedicated Law-keeper.  If anyone had reason to have confidence before Elohim based on his keeping the Law, it was Paul; but Paul said he counted his faithfulness to keeping the Law as dung in contrast to knowing Messiah (the objective of the Law).  Paul no longer recognized any need at all to keep the Torah, because through Messiah, he had been separated from the Law/

Rom 6:7 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?

2  For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3  So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

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

5  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

6  But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

Many believers have read this passage and have completely misunderstood its implications.  Paul explains that the Law has dominion over a person as love as he is alive.  He then uses the illustration of marriage.  A woman is under the law to her husband as long as he is alive.  However, should the man die, she is freed from the law of that marriage to be able to marry another.  If she marries another before the man dies, she is an adulteress.  Paul explains that we are the man in this illustration, not the woman.  The woman represents the Law.  Both Jew and Gentile became free from the law (for the Jew, the tablets written in stone; for the Gentile, the law written in his heart) through death.  We died in Messiah, and were raised a new man in Messiah.  When we died through our identification with Messiah, the law of the marriage to the Torah ended.  When we were resurrected in Messiah, we were introduced to “new law.”

 Hebrews 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things…

Hebrews 9:11 But Messiah being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

Hebrews 7:11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
12  For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
13  For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.
14  For it is evident that our Master sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
15  And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,
16  Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
17  For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
18  For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
19  For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto Elohim.

The Law was under the administration of the Levitical priesthood.  Yahushua, our High Priest of the new covenant, is of the tribe of Judah.  It is apparent that a high priest that is from a tribe other than Levi does not have the position to continue to administer a body of Law that was given to the Levitical priesthood. “The priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.”  Therefore, if any man be “in Messiah,” he is under NEW LAW.  What is this new law?

Romans 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Messiah Yahushua, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yahushua hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, Elohim sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

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

The new law administered by our High Priest from the tribe of Judah is called, “the law of the Spirit of Life.”  Notice the difference between this law and the Law of Moses.  If the Spirit instructs you to fast today, or visit your brother today, or give an amount of money to someone, the will of IAUE has been revealed, and your obedience is required.  If you are under the Law of Moses, you can say, “The Law does not require me to do this, so I don’t have to do it.”

Hebrews 10:6  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.

7  Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O IAUE.

8  Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;

9  Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O IAUE. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

10  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Yahushua Messiah once for all.

Messiah revealed the purpose of IAUE in renewing the covenant.  He demonstrated that man’s purpose was to do the will of IAUE.  This cannot be accomplished while straddled with the Law of Moses.