The Purpose of the Law

[Drew]

There has to be some explanation of what 'done away with' means. And it has to recognize the differences between laws that were given by God.

"...love your neighbor as yourself." (Lev. 19:18 NIV1984)

"God...will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through...faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law." (Romans 3:30-31 NIV1984)

How do you explain the retirement of some laws and not others...if you even believe that?

The Bible itself makes the distinction and helps us understand what laws are now obsolete and which ones are not, and helps us understand what the purpose of the law was/ is.

You raise good questions. Busy now, but I hope to address them later.....

 

[Broncobilly1972]

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Romans 8:6 KJV)

Most people look at the law in a physical way, they can't see it in its true form

Even in old testament times, did God want a physical law adhered to?
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6 KJV)

Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: (Psalm 50:13, 14 KJV)

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. (Isaiah 1:11 KJV)

David understood what God wanted, that's why David was loved

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it : thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (Psalm 51:16, 17 KJV)

To them it was a stumblingblock, they clung to a physical law
To us it's a stumbling block, we won't even consider it

Can I show it to you? Can another man show it to you? No we can't, only God gives understanding. Yet we turn to other men for understanding

Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of? (Isaiah 2:22 KJV)

 

[smaller]

The 'sacrifices' brought by the hands of the people of Israel were burnt to crisp by Divine Instructions in Purpose to show they were WORTHLESS and as NOTHING.

This was a pleasant AROMA to God.

s

 

[Jethro Bodine]

The 'sacrifices' brought by the hands of the people of Israel were burnt to crisp by Divine Instructions in Purpose to show they were WORTHLESS and as NOTHING.

This was a pleasant AROMA to God.

s

Sacrifices for sin, specifically, were totally consumed on the altar and not allowed to be eaten, while other sacrifices were cooked and then eaten by the person who brought it with a portion of it going to support the ministers of the covenant. One's sin was symbolically transfered to the sacrifice (by the officiating priest if I'm not mistaken) and then offered up irretrievably for total destruction by fire to God.

It's a pleasant aroma to God when we bring our sin to God and allow it to be completely burnt up by the Holy Spirit on the altar of our hearts. The smoke of that sacrifice is pleasant to God and acceptable.

 

[Sparkey]

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. - (Gal 2:16 KJV)
​

Clearly then, if the purpose of the law is justification - all is failed.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness [come] by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. - (Gal 2:20-21 KJV)
​

Again, if the purpose of the law is to enact righteousness (if righteousness [come] by the law) - all is failed, and further, Christ is dead in vain.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. - (Mat 23:23 KJV)
​

The Pharisees, being under the law, focused on the lessor matters of the law such as tithe but they neglected (failed to use the prudence of any reasonable man) to observe or even consider the weightier matters: Judgment (they judged themselves better), Mercy (of which they had none for others), and Faith (which would have been counted righteousness for them, as it was for Abraham).

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 made perfect by the flesh? ... Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, [saying], In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. - (Gal 3:2-3, 6-9 KJV)
​

If we, who are not physically descended from Abraham, are counted "the same" as Abraham, through Faith -- the whole issue of the "Law of Moses" being given to the Children of Abraham (only) is moot. All nations are blessed through the promise of God given to Abraham, not through the law given to his physical seed, but even through the Holy Spirit given by his physical seed, our Christ. Remember that if we are to keep the whole law, and yet offend in a single point, we are guilty of all.

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. - (Rom 3:19 KJV)
​

 

[smaller]

Sacrifices for sin, specifically, were totally consumed on the altar and not allowed to be eaten, while other sacrifices were cooked and then eaten by the person who brought it with a portion of it going to support the ministers of the covenant. One's sin was symbolically transfered to the sacrifice (by the officiating priest if I'm not mistaken) and then offered up irretrievably for total destruction by fire to God.

It's a pleasant aroma to God when we bring our sin to God and allow it to be completely burnt up by the Holy Spirit on the altar of our hearts. The smoke of that sacrifice is pleasant to God and acceptable.

You see the matter quite differently than I do. I'm sure all the participants 'thought' they were being legal and obedient, but that was really not the case whatsoever as Israel showed us. In christianity we suffer a lot of the same issues yet, still thinking we have something to give to God when in fact God is only pleased with Perfection.

We all tend to see ourselves, our understandings and claims as perfect and obedient, when in fact quite an opposite conveyance has always been made.

From there we take on our 'imaginations' to 'get there' claiming our perfections via someone else.

Sometimes I wonder if the produce wasn't always just to be honest.

s

 

[Jethro Bodine]

You see the matter quite differently than I do. I'm sure all the participants 'thought' they were being legal and obedient, but that was really not the case whatsoever as Israel showed us. In christianity we suffer a lot of the same issues yet, still thinking we have something to give to God when in fact God is only pleased with Perfection.

We all tend to see ourselves, our understandings and claims as perfect and obedient, when in fact quite an opposite conveyance has always been made.

From there we take on our 'imaginations' to 'get there' claiming our perfections via someone else.

Sometimes I wonder if the produce wasn't always just to be honest.

s

Not sure what you're trying to say. All I know is God is pleased when we turn our sin over to be burned up by the Holy Spirit.

"...find out what pleases the Lord." (Eph. 5:10 NIV1984)

"...understand what the Lord's will is." (Eph. 5:17 NIV1984)

 

[Jethro Bodine]

Perhaps we can see through this illustration how the law, the law of sacrifice for sin in this case, was given for a purpose. That purpose being to atone for sin so a person can continue in the privileges of covenant (as Elijah is suggesting in the OP).

We know this purpose failed. For two reasons: man is continually and irrepairably sinful, and the law of sacrifice simply can not atone for all of man's sins. For that reason a new way was introduced that does atone for all sin and make a man perfect before God, and which puts an end to the cycle of continual and irrepairable sin as he also becomes holy through that new way.

 

[elijah23]

There is some merit to that. When the conscience is clear, we are that much more able to hear that small, still voice of the Lord. When it is muddled, we are often clouded by the confusion we've created in our minds and that voice isn't as clear as it should be.

But... sometimes the Lord has to hit you upside your head so you can hear clearly again.

Trust me, I've been there and it hurts. You can't climb over mountains unless you've been in the valley first. ;)

Perhaps I exaggerate when I say that life is paradise when I don’t sin. I struggle with temptation, and that is not paradise. Still, when I sin, life becomes very unpleasant. When I resist temptation, life is without problems. That is, what problems that do exist, which I am unable to solve myself, can be ignored, because I know the Lord is taking care of me. In my fifty-nine years, the Lord has yet to leave one of my problems unsolved.

 

[elijah23]

The law has always been for the lawless.

It is helpful for me to know what the Lord's will is. The law he has taught me helps accomplish that.

 

[elijah23]

Are you referring to the Law of Moses?

If so, I would say the answer is no. The Law of Moses:

1. was only ever given to the nation of Israel;
2. was retired at the cross.

So while the Law had a purpose, that purpose has already been fulfilled.

I am referring to a set of rules the Lord has taught me. I describe it like this:

But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jer 31:33 RSV

 

[elijah23]

I do not doubt it. But I agree with Webb - the Law of Moses is "done away with". This does not mean, of course, that God does not guide us. But the Law of Moses is a specific set of written laws given to Israel at Mount Sinai and now "retired".

The rules that the Lord taught me keep trouble out of my life, if I obey them. I value these rules greatly, therefore.

 

[smaller]

It is helpful for me to know what the Lord's will is. The law he has taught me helps accomplish that.

Difficult subject matter.

Were it not for the presence of lawlessness with us, we would have no issues.

The Law surely shines on that fact, that we may avoid many traps and pits.

To stand obedient also means to stand knowing that the presence of lawlessness is never legal. We make the serpent eat his own tail/tale and find dominion in speaking honestly.

s

 

[Sparkey]

The first Psalm isn't very long. Only 6 verses total.

PSALMS 1
Blessed [is] the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly [are] not so,
But [are] like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish. - (Psa 1:1-6 NKJV)

 

[Jethro Bodine]

The rules that the Lord taught me keep trouble out of my life, if I obey them. I value these rules greatly, therefore.

Yes, and the NT talks about them at length. They all boil down to how we treat other people. We can't be proud, or hateful, or full of rage, or full of envy or jealousy, or division, or gossip, or slander and expect to be pleasing to the Lord and dwelling in his benefits. Wont' happen. Few know this. This is rarely taught in our churches.

8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God." (Romans 8:8 NIV1984)

19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like." (Galatians 5:19-21 NIV1984)

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other...

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." (Colossians 3:5-9,12-14 NIV1984)


Instead of knowing and teaching these things as the primary duty of the believer the church tends to think having correct theologies and doctrines and worship practices, and serving in a ministry is how you please God and stay in the place of his blessing. Those who serve the flesh in any way as taught in the passages above (and others), but who are sure they have correct doctrinal beliefs and worship practices and serve in ministry, will surely not dwell in the place of God's blessing He has set apart and ordained for his obedient people only to possess. That doesn't necessarily mean you don't belong to him if you don't dwell in the good land. It means you have not obeyed the rules for being eligible to dwell in and enjoy the good land of God's blessing.

 

[Webb]

Jesus said in Jn.4:24 "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship His in spirit and in truth." Sometimes we have the problem of trying to separate the spirit from the truth. They are, in fact, inseparable. To worship in spirit involves the right motives, such is absolutely necessary and is man's part in true worship. To worship in truth involves doctrine and doctrine is teaching which necessarily means sciptural teaching, right doctrine, right teaching. Paul told Timothy to "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in so doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee" II Tim.5:16. Its quite possible for one the have the right spirit but not the right doctrine. Its equally possible for one to have the right doctrine and not have the right spirit.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

27 ...I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." (1 Corinthians 9:27 NIV1984)

Too many people take false comfort in correct doctrine and service to God, not knowing that if they themselves do not come into submission to the Spirit and live according to the fruit of the Spirit they will not enter into God's blessings.

God's blessing is not contingent on knowing the truth, even correct truth. No, his blessing is contingent on a person living correct truth by the Holy Spirit. But many think simply knowing truth, and worshiping and serving correctly in a church meeting, and defending the faith, all by itself is what they need to do to be blessed. This is perhaps the biggest deception in all of Christianity. In fact, in all religions...thinking God is appeased through believing the correct facts about him and worshiping him correctly and defending the truth, alone.


22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7: NIV1984)

25 ...the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:25 NIV1984)

This truth is seen in what Paul says about the sacred duty of circumcision so highly esteemed by the Israelites and the duty upon which their confidence rested:

"27 The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker." (Romans 2:27 NIV1984)

Possession of the knowledge of God and carrying out correct rituals, and even defending them, does NOT solicit the blessing of God all by itself (but so many are deceived into thinking it does). Obedience does.

Elijah 23 is right on. You can not be blessed if you do not obey God. It's not enough to just search out correct doctrine and defend it. It scores no points towards God's pleasure unless you are first obedient to walk by the fruit of the Spirit. Plain and simple.

 

[JonahofAkron]

I am always mystified that so many people believe that the Law of Moses is for everyone. I suggest the Biblical arguments against this position are conclusive.

As just one example, from Psalm 147:

He declares His words to Jacob,
His statutes and His ordinances to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any nation;
And as for His ordinances, they have not known them.

The Law of Moses was only ever given to the nation of Israel.

So we don't join Israel in the promises? Interesting.