JacobMartinMertens wrote:Are you resurrected? I have no idea if I ever have been.
Yes! I've died and been resurrected with Christ, because Scripture promises my faith expressed in a prayer of trust to YHWH has accomplished what the Law and my flesh could never do through a once-for-all perfect sacrifice!
You can also experience this resurrection life, by a simple humble prayer to God the Father expressing a trust in Christ to save you from sin and death, that you are bound to! A simple prayer similar to
"YHWH I believe you have sent Christ to fulfill the Law on my behalf, not abolish it. You command me to reckon myself crucified and dead in Christ and my sins forgiven by his blood, and when I do, you fulfill the spirit of the Law instead of the letter of the Law in my heart; because I know that no amount of feasts, or sabbaths, or sacrifices, can ever make me love you, God, the way I should and my neighbor as myself. And I know that just one infraction anywhere has made me worthy of nothing but death, for the soul that sins must die! But right now I express faith and trust in Christ to be my perfect life, and my perfect death, that fulfills the Law, instead of me abolishing the Law which commands my death, by me continuing to try to keep it, and not killing myself as the Law commands me. Now that I trust Christ be my all in all, and perfect Torah keeper, you have promised his life will resurrect me by the glory of the Father, and I will walk in newness of life, and the blinders of religion will fall from my eyes as they did from the apostle Paul's, and I will no longer be in the flesh that can never please you, but by faith in the one promised seed of Christ I shall escape the curse of the Law that condemns me forever, and find the blessing of Christ's life in my heart. Amen!"
If you pray something like this with a sincere heart of faith, God promises that you have experienced his resurrection afterwards. Then you should also go be baptized to fulfill all the Law, as Jesus himself said he was baptized to fulfill all the Law. If you've previously been baptized without an understanding of what it means, and that it fulfills all the Law, it is perfectly okay to be baptized again, this time with your faith in Jesus. I was baptized religiously as a child, but when I realized Jesus called me to follow him of my own choice, I was baptized again with a proper understanding that it fulfilled the Law by my death in Christ.
Jesus saves while the Law condemns. But here we are talking about if as Christians we should obey God's commands.
Of course everyone should obey God's commands, but not the external religious ceremonial Laws that Paul said were a shadow of spiritual realities, but the substance was the Person of Jesus Christ himself. I recommend you study Hebrews very diligently to see how Scripture teaches that. Also we don't obey God's commands to love by the Law, for the Law is for the wicked man and the Law is a ministry of death, and the Law is a tutor to Christ and the Law shows us our bankruptcy and inability. We need a resurrection miracle to ever obey the Law after the spirit and not the letter, and to really love as we should.
God bless and I hope and pray the Spirit guides you into all truth.