Being "under the Law of Moses" in the context it was used, means being dead. A dead man can not serve anyone. But Jesus "freed" me from this "Death" so I am free to SERVE again, as it is written.
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.
I did things which caused my death as do all men.
6 But now we are delivered from the law,
that being dead wherein we were held; that we
should serve in newness of spirit, (Alive) and not
in the oldness of the letter. (Dead in my sins with no hope)
This time I understand that "MY WORKS" will lead to nothing but my death. So I am to repent of serving my own mind, and "turn to God" and Serve Him. Those who do this are granted "Repentance" as it is written.
I also know there are voices who would turn me away from the God of the Bible to serve religions of man. Jesus, as the Word, in His tender mercy, gave me the perfect example of how the perfect deceiver will do this. All I need to do is believe in Him.
Gen. 3:
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman,
Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
The deceiver will use Part's of God's Word to deceive us as the Word which became Flesh show us here. Very cleaver tactic, but it has perfected this deception to a tee.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
The next thing the perfect deceiver does, who uses God's Word to deceive, is to convince folks they are already saved. Already immortal. This is important to SEE in this example Jesus, as the Word, had written for us.
5 For God doth know that
in the day ye eat thereof, (in the day you reject God's instruction)
then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Then the serpent goes in for the kill. It convinces folks that God is not interested in our well being. That God's Laws are against us and that we are already gods in our mind and therefore OUR VISION is righteous while God's instructions are burdensome, a Yoke we can't bear, and are against us. And it uses parts of God's Word to do this.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it
was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise,
she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat.
But that wasn't all. She not only was deceived herself of these things, but she also convinced others around her of this very same deception.
"and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."
So I don't believe in the implications of the religious doctrines of many who claim God created Law so Grievous, so burdensome, so many in number that it is impossible for mankind to follow them, then, at the same time murdered men who didn't follow them. The implication that man is simply an innocent victim of an unjust God with unjust Laws is a popular doctrine but false just the same.
Then they preach a Messiah, named Jesus, had to come and "Free" us from the unjust Wrath of this unjust God, and "remove" His unjust instructions, including the impossible to honor 4th Commandment.
They don't tell us that it is our "DEATH" that Jesus freed us from, our deserved death. And they don't tell us that God's Laws are "good" "Just" and "Holy". They don't tell us it was the Temporary Priesthood and it's "Works of the Law" for remission of sins that Jesus replaced. It is written in the Bible for folks all to see, just like Eve knew God's instructions in her heart and rejected them anyway.
So why do men allow this to happen to them? Jesus also tells us the answer to this question.
Jer. 17
:
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it? (Only God can reveal this truth about ourselves.)
10 I the LORD search the heart,
I try the reins,
even to give every man according to his ways,
and according to the fruit of his doings.
And again.
John 3:
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
So like Paul, I believe "ALL THINGS" written in the Law and Prophets. Since I believe in Him and His Word's I understand that I can not listen to any other "voices" even if they claim to be from God, and in some cases, because they claim to be from God.
Duet. 8:
1 All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.
2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee,
and to prove thee, to know what
was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know;
that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
And He said this again just so it would stick in my human mind.
Matt. 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.
I am posting this for you JPT in the hopes that you might consider that maybe the Bible is truth, and religious man with all their doctrines and images of God and religious traditions are not.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.
Is. 65:
6 Also the sons of the stranger, (The gentile) that join themselves to the LORD,
to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
In His Love.
SM