The Torah is Still Binding and We Must Obey It

We need to talk about your salvation experience.
Jesus told the Pharisees in John 39 “You search the scriptures thinking that through them you have eternal life, but the scriptures point to Me. Yet you won’t come to Me…”

That was the most important declaration about the Torah to the Pharisees (like yourself) that Jesus made reference to.

So you are on your way to hell. Don't tell me that you obey the law perfectly, only Jesus has done that.

This is error. There are things we can learn from the OT law, but the OT is no more.

Jesus took it away so He could establish the new covenant

Now, there is a new house, the Body of Jesus Christ! Under the New Covenant that the Lord said would come forth, we see Jesus Christ as the High Priest. The old covenant with it’s laws and regulations have been taken away because thru Jesus Christ a new and better covenant has come in to place.

Hebrews 10:9
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
(God said He would make a New Covenant - see Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Hebrews 8:6
But now hath Jesus obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

And with the changing of the priesthood, God’s Word tells us there is also a change of the law.

Hebrews 7:12
For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

Jesus came to live within us, in fact live His life through us, thus “fulfilling the law.”
This is just basic common knowledge Christianity 101 - the milk (not the meat) of the gospel.

In Romans 10:5-8, it references Deuteronomy 30:11-16 as the world of faith that we proclaim in regard to saying the Torah is not too difficult for us to obey and that obedience to it brings life. In Deuteronomy 32:46-47, the Torah is our very life. In Revelation 22:14, those who obeyed God's commandments are given the right to eat from the Tree of Life. In Proverbs 3:18, it is a Tree of Life for all who take hold of it. In Proverbs 6:23, for the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life. In Luke 10:25-28, Jesus said the way to inherit eternal life is by obeying the greatest two commandment. In Matthew 19:17, Jesus said that the way to enter eternal life is by obeying God's commandments. In Hebrews 5:9, Jesus has become a source of eternal salvation for those who obey him. In Romans 2:6-7, eternal life is given to those who persist in doing good. In Romans 6:19-23, we are no longer to present ourselves as slaves to impurity, lawlessness, and sin, but are now to present ourselves as slaves to God and to righteousness leading to sanctification, and the goal of sanctification is eternal life in Christ, which is the gift of God, so having the experience of living in obedience to God's law is the content of His gift of eternal life.

God's way is the way to express aspects of His character, such as righteousness and justice (Genesis 18:19), which is the way to know God. In Exodus 33:13, Moses wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him to walk in His way that he and Israel might know Him, in 1 Kings 2:1-3, God taught how to walk in His way through His law, and in Matthew 7:23, Jesus said that he would tell those who are worker of lawlessness to depart from him because he never knew them, so the goal of the law is to know God and Jesus (Romans 10:2-4), which is eternal life (John 17:3). The Bible also repeatedly connects knowing God by walking in His way with life, such as with Jesus saying that narrow is the way that leads to life (Matthew 7:14), and that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and the way to see and know the Father (John 14:6-7).

So in regard to John 5:39-40, it is abundantly clear that eternal life can be found in the Scriptures and that the Pharisees were correct to search for it there, but they needed to recognize that the goal of everything in Scripture is to testify about how to know Jesus and how to come into a relationship with him for eternal life.

In Jeremiah 9:3 and 9:6, they did not know God and refused to know Him, because in 9:13, they had forsaken God's law, while in 9:24, those who know God know that he delights in practicing steadfast love, righteousness, and justice in all of the earth, so delighting in practicing those and other aspects of God's character is the way to know Him, and the way to know the Son who is the exact image of God's character (Hebrews 1:3). Likewise, in 1 John 2:4, those who say that they know Jesus, but don't obey his commands are liars, and in 1 John 3:4-6, those who continue to practice sin in transgression of God's law have never seen nor known him.

The problem is that people can go through the motions of obeying God's law while neglecting to express aspects of God's character that God's law was given to teach us how to express. For example, in Matthew 23:23, Jesus said that tithing was something that they ought to be doing while not neglecting weightier matters of the law of justice, mercy, and faithfulness. In Romans 9:30-10:4, the Israelites had a zeal for God, but it was not based on knowing Him, so they failed to attain righteousness because they pursued the law as through righteousness were earned as the result of their works in order to establish their own rather than pursing the law as though righteousness were by faith in Christ, for knowing Christ is the goal of the law for righteousness for everyone who has faith. In John 5:39-40, they were in the same situation, and well as Paul in Philippians 3:8, where he had been keeping the law, but not while being focused on knowing Christ, so he had been missing the whole goal of the law, and that is what he counted as dung.

Why does it make sense to you to think that the way to hell is by relying on God's instructions and the way to avoid going to hell is by rebelling against God's instructions? The only reason why someone would need to have perfect obedience is if they are going to give themselves to pay for the sins of he world, otherwise the rest of us can have our sins forgiven and still be saved in spite of having imperfect obedience.

Jesus lived in obedience to God's law, so that is also the way that we live when he is living within us, which is also the way that we fulfill the law.

My mistake-wrong link.

http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php...-99192021000300007#:~:text=ABSTRACT,Different

Should read something like this--

That a מְקשֵׁשׁ is one who gathers something can be inferred from "let them go and gather (וְקשְׁ) straw for themselves" (Exod 5:7). Evidently the man was warned about the consequences of his action, since otherwise he would not have been subject to capital punishment prescribed by a human court. The wood gatherer was brought before the elders, who sat in judgment with Moses and Aaron, after which he was kept under guard until his trial. His sentence was known in advance-"whoever does work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death" (Exod 31:15)-but the form of execution was never stated. Only in the wake of this man's action was stoning prescribed as the punishment for public desecration of the Sabbath (Num15:35). Some believe that this penalty was applied to all Sabbath desecrators-a view reinforced by the Talmud: "It once happened that a man rode a horse on the Sabbath in the Greek period and he was brought before the Court and stoned."7 The rabbis believed that the wood gatherer merited capital punishment. However, Moses was not sure about the mode of execution.8 "Our master Moses knew that the wood gatherer [had incurred the penalty of ] death as it said, 'He who desecrates it shall be put to death' (Exod 31:14) but he did not specify by what mode of execution he should be killed."9 Therefore he consulted the divine oracle and the answer was "death by stoning."10 It is not clear if the wood gatherer's action is a violation of the commandment about resting on the Sabbath.11 However, the gathering of the wood had one purpose; to use it for lighting fire, which, according to Exod 35:3, is forbidden on the Sabbath day.12 Phillips sees the story as an extension of the Sabbath ethics to all forms of domestic activity.13

J.

Do you think that the law brings us to Christ so that we can then be free to do what it reveals to be sin? Or does the law bring us to Christ because it teaches us how to know him? Do you think that the way to have faith in God is by refusing to rely on His instructions?

What about you mention the Ruach HaKodesh/Holy Spirit and HIS role in our lives as believers IN Christ Jesus?
or do you want to establish your own righteousness APART from Christ and the Spirit?
J.

You almost sound right. But you keep stressing law. What is your real motive? I don’t think you have a salvation experience yet, since your post dealing with an issue the Pharisees and Saducees crucified Jesus over. Your words Jean more in line with them than Jesus.
I would encourage you to ask Jesus into you life and to save you from your sins. Romans 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 10:9-10

I agree with the verse, but not with blatantly false interpretations of it, such as that the law leads to Christ so that we can be free to do what it revealed to be sin.

Clearly you are unable to understand scripture.

I'm not the one who thinks that it makes perfect sent to interpret God's word as promoting rebellion against Him.

J.

Man, when you’re dealing with non-Christians it’s impossible to discuss anything beyond salvation.