Had a problem with the five minute edit rule...so needed to repost
All completely out of context...
is seeking to be justified by the Law and following it the same thing?
because Paul who wrote that also wrote this:
[FONT="]Romans 3:28, "For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law."[/FONT]
[FONT="]Romans 3:31, "Are we then doing away with the Law through the faith? By no means! Rather, we establish the Law!"[/FONT]
As per usual wild cherry picking is going on here...
What law is Paul establishing?
The Torah!
No way!
Lets put these verses in context and see what happens:
"
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith?Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law." Rom 3:27-31
Paul has spent all his time in this epistle establishing this point:
"
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Rom 3:20
Now Paul is ready to move on and explain on what basis the New covenant believer is justified; the real source of righteousness, since it cannot come from the Law!
"21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all[h] who believe." Rom 3:21
So what is Paul about to reveal?
The following verses unveil the mystery:
"
For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Rom 3:22-26
Paul reveals that justification and righteousness before God is PURELY by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who serves as a propitiation (expiation or atonement) for our sins.
God justifies those who have faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ (Rom 3:26).
Then Paul introduces a new concept that he calls the law of faith (Rom 3:27).
He states again that man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the Law - in other words working at the Law or obedient to it does not save.
Paul then emphasises that God is not just the God of the Jews but of the Gentiles also. And he explains the basis on which either can be justified and it is only one thing: by faith (Rom 3:30).
In Rom 3:31 he then goes on to make the statement that all the legalists misinterpret, either in ignorance or deliberately, "
Do we then make void the law through faith?Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law."
What is the law Paul is referring ot here?
The Law - as in the Torah?
Most emphatically not!
Paul is referring to this, "
but by the law of faith." Rom 3:27
He has been talking non-stop since vs 20 about faith, and the fact that faith is the basis for justification!
And does Paul stop here in vs 31?
No!
The whole of Romans chapter 4 is spent explaining how faith justifies, with an in-depth exposition of how and why Abraham was justified by faith!
So there is no conflict at all between vs 28, "
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. ", this talking about the Law (Torah), and Paul then saying, vs 31, "
Do we then make void the law through faith?Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.", because, what is being established is the law of faith, not the Torah!
[FONT="]Acts 24:14, "But I confess this to you, that after the way which they call heresy, so I (Paul) worship the Father of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets."[/FONT]
I am in the same boat here with Paul, I too believe all the things written in the Law and Prophets...
And, like Paul I understand, because I believe the things that are written in the Law and the Prophets, that the Sinaitic covent is NOT binding on New covenant believers!
[FONT="]Romans 7:25, "Thanks be to YHWH, I have deliverance through Yahshua Messiah our King! So then, with this same mind, I myself serve the Law of YHWH, while in the flesh that is yet subject to the law of sin."[/FONT]
I cannot quote the whole of chapter 7.
However, Paul has explains how one is free from the Law (Torah) in vs 1-7.
He then explains how the Law itself is not evil, but the only result of the Law (Torah) is to produce sin, and its consequence, death! (Rom 7:7-25).
Paul compares and contrasts two laws in this passage, the law of God, and, the law of sin.
He also talks about the law of my mind, and, the law of my members.
The law of God is linked to the law of my mind, and, the law of sin to the law of my members.
How can this be decoded as what is being referred to ?
Rom 7:6 is the key, "
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."
Paul tells us we have been delivered from the Law (Torah), and are no longer held by its demands.
Instead we are to serve God in the newness of the Spirit rather than the oldness of the letter!
So the law of God referred to later is the newness of the Spirit (not the Torah), and the law of sin referred to is no the Torah either, but the law of sin is nonetheless informed by the Law (Torah), "
13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful." Rom 7:13
So, conclusion: Romans 7:25 is not reference to the Torah and serving the Torah!
[FONT="]Acts 21:24, "Take them, and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads. Then everyone will know that those things they were informed about you (forsaking the Law), were lies, and that you (Paul), yourself, walk orderly, and keep the Law."[/FONT]
If this quote is to try and "prove" that Paul kept the Law (Torah) then it is doomed to failure!
Look what happens just a couple of verses later, "
28 crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place; and furthermore he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” " Acts 21:28.
It is Paul who is being, correctly accused fo forsaking the Law (Torah).
And lets back up a couple of verses and see whether the events between Acts 21:24 and Acts 21:28 were ever meant be generalisable to all New covenant believers...
vs 25 gives the answer, "
25 But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing,[d] except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.”"!
Is this a command to observe the Torah?
Absolutely not!
It is a summary of the prior decision made during the Jerusalem council and explicitly states that none of the observances (based on the Torah) that those four Jewish believers were about to make had any bearing on Gentile believers!
Considering the conclusions drawn above in exegeting Romans chapter 3, these observances were not binding on Jewish believers either!
[FONT="]1 Corinthians 7:19, "For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of Yah?"[/FONT]
If Paul can say that circumcision counts for nothing, AND, only the circumcised (Jews) were bound to the Law, how then can the clause, "
but keeping the commandments of God" 1 Cor 7:19, be a reference to the Law (Torah)?
[FONT="]Romans 8:5-8, "For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against; (bitterly opposed to), YHWH; for it is not subject to the Law of YHWH, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are of the flesh cannot please YHWH."[/FONT]
[FONT="]
he even said above in Romans 8 that the carnal mind man can not even make himself subject to YHWH's Law...
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Look above to the discussion on Romans chapter 7 to see why the phrase "
the law of God" Rom 8:7, is not a reference to the Torah.
The discussion Paul is engaging in here in chapter 8 is just a direct continuation of that in Romans chapter 7!
The context, starting in Romans chapter 7 makes it abundantly clear that the "law of God" is mediated by the Holy Spirit, and not the Torah.
It just becomes more obvious in chapter 8...
And, yes it is clear that trying to follow and observe the Law (Torah) is EXACTLY the same as trying to be justified by the Law!