The Narrow Path Ministries

Steve, I'm listening to your series Authority of the Scriptures". In that you mention something to the affect that the Law is passed away because we have died to the law and live for Christ. Since we are married to Christ we are under "Christ Law".

I actually agree with what but there are passages that still trouble me like:

Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Since heaven and earth have not passed away, it seems that the law is still in effect? I guess we could say that all has been fulfilled (in Christ?). But Paul says:

1 Corinthians 15:25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

It seems that not everything has been accomplished.

Also, Jesus said that love fulfills the law and the prophets. It seems like this would have been a good time for Him to say that while love is His commandment, the law and the prophets were (to be) fulfilled in Him and not by us. Instead He states that we fulfill the law and the prophets by love.

Can you help me understand this?

Both Paul and the Rabbis agree, that when someone under the Mosaic Covenant dies, that soul has left this earthly plane and no longer is under the earthly Mosaic Covenant. He or She is released by death from all earthly social, national, religious or business charters, contracts or covenants. In the Case of a Soul that has passed on, it is now under the Heavenly Covenant Law upon which all earthy Covenants enacted by God with Man are based.
Paul asserts this Jewish principle clearly. When an Israelite accepts His Messiah and is Baptized into the New Covenant Faith and National Charter of Messiah, that individual is considered by the Old Covenant Faith and National Charter deceased....free. Thus Jews who accept Messiah are deceased according to the Mosaic Law of the Old Covenant and are reborn to live anew in the Messianic Law of the New Covenant. Gentiles who have never been alive to God in the Old Covenant, can now be reborn as living members of the New Covenant too.
The Decalogue which was the Heart of the Old Mosaic National Covenant of Israel (i.e. the Church of God) is also the Heart of the New Messianic National Covenant of Israel (i.e. the Church of God), but instead of being inscribed on stone by the finger of God it is now inscribed on our hearts by the indwelling Holy Spirit. So says Jeremiah and the rest of Scripture. Messiah did not come to nullify the Torah and Prophets, but to confirm their validity. We are called to likewise love God as His son did according to John. And Love is the keeping of His Commandments..which is the obedience of Faith which both Paul and James repeatedly discuss. Do we reject the Torah (i.e. the Decalogue)? God forbid it! We are called to uphold the Torah! Or as James the Messiah's brother and Judaism calls it, "The Law of the King." YHVH God is called the King of the Universe (I.e. Yahveh Elohenu Melekh haOlam), and His Decaloge (I.e. the Celestial Torah) is termed the Royal Torah or the Torah of the King.
James says,"But those who look to the "Perfect Torah", the "Torah of Liberty", and persevere, being not only hearers {in our synagogue meetings} who then forget but doers who act - they will be blessed in their observance." and again he says,"You will do well if you truly observe the "Royal Torah" according to the Scripture,'You shall love your neighbor as you do your own soul.' Now if you show favoritism , you commit sin and are convicted by this Torah as transgressors. 'For whosoever observes the Torah consistently but fails in one small detail has become liable for transgressing it all.' For He who declared,'You shall not commit adultery.' Also declared,'You shall not murder.' Now if you are not an adulterer but actually a murderer, you have become a transgressor of the Torah. So speak and live like those who are to be judged by this Torah of Liberty. For your Judgment will be merciless if you have shown no mercy yourselves. Mercy triumphs over Condemnation."
Notice that James the Just shows the unity of Messiah's Golden Rule and the Decalogue here, even citing both together. He uses Classic Jewish nomenclature for the Decalogue too (i.e. Royal Torah, Perfect Torah & Torah of Liberty) So you see the Decalogue is still in effect for New Covenanters. When Paul stated that Messiah is the terminus point of the Torah, he did not say Messiah terminates the Torah. Any proficient Koine Greek student knows the word translated in English as "the end" means goal or end result...not conclusion. Thus Paul states in accurate English, "Messiah is the Torah's ultimate goal.", not,"Christ brings an end of the Law." as many infer. Now this puts a real crunch on those who assume that New Covenanters in Messiah have no obligation to observe the King's perfect Torah. Even Luther, who espoused such a view, realized James corrects this misrepresentation of Paul's view and sought to remove this Book from his Protestant NT Canon. He called it "a pithy little work", that did not deserve it's position in Scripture. It was too Jewish and it conflicted with his Augustinian perspective of Law verses Grace. But Grace was always in the Torah, so Luther's views are called into question. For Martin Luther and for many others there seems to be a dualism between the God of the Old Covenant, who is Severe in His Justice and demands the Obedience of Faith to His Royal Law as King of the Universe, and between the God of the New Covenant, who is Tender in His Mercy and demands the Obedience of Faith in His Messiah as King of the Universe. The First is viewed as Law, Judgment and Condemnation and the Second is seen as Grace, Mercy and Justification...and both are opposites of the One God. This Augustinian and very Lawyerly theology of the Latin West is foreign to the Graeco-Semitic Eastern Christian Traditions. There is Torah, Grace, Judgment, Mercy, Condemnation and Justification through the obedience of Faith in all the Covenants established by God from Adam unto Messiah. It is the very unchanging nature of God and His Will which is attested to throughout the Whole Canon of Scripture. Obedient Faith has always been required of Covenanters with God. Grace or Condemnation has always been the two states mankind could walk in, and Salvation has always been dependent upon our Loving and Faithful obedience to our Divine Father and King of the Universe as well as to His Royal Law..which Is our Liberty in Him. The dualism many see is a false dichotomy imposed upon selectively used scriptures...not the whole of Scriptural witness.
Augustine was a dualist Manachaean Gnostic before being converted by Ambrose of Milan to Latin Catholicism. Ambrose, as was Tertullian and other Latin Fathers before and since, were Latin Lawyers firstly. They interpreted the scriptures in this legalistic mindset and Augustine received this Latinate Faith. He also never fully divested himself of his old dualistic and gnostic ways, as is shown by his dualistic gnostic views on human sexuality, the females, eschatology and soteriology. Ambrose took Augustine out of gnosticism, but he did not take the gnosticism completely out of Augustine. Sadly his views have lead to a low view of the status of women, a dark and sinister view of human sexuality and the act of Love, Antinomian Radical Protestantism, Jansenist Catholic Theology, Calvinist Reformed Theology, Grace verses Law Theology, as well as Catholic and Protestant Amillenialism. Strange as it may be, Augustine's particular views were never fully accepted by Roman Catholicism, nor were they ever tolerated anywhere in the East or Orient. It was not until the Scholastics in post Medieval Seminaries that He was again reviewed and hailed. Augustine's Neo-Platonic views were checked, critiqued and replaced by those of the Aristotlean Thomas Aquinas.
It took Augustinian trained and devoted disciples such as Martin Luther, Zwingli, Beza and Calvin to truly resurrect his views into their own theological likenesses to again make his teachings hold sway in much of the West. Roman Catholic Bishop Jansen then took up Augustine's teachings in order to refute the Protestants..only to form a faction within the Roman Church which eventually took refuge in Calvinist Holland and became the Old Catholic Church of Utrecht.
So you see not everything is as it seems, because each doctrine has it's own roots and can be traced to it's source eventually. The view I have tried to refute is one of these...it has it's roots in Manichaeanism via Augustine, via Medieval Scholastics via their heirs among the Reformers.

I hope this assists you.
+Ken Huffman

Thanks, but that didn't really answer the question.

You said "Do we reject the Torah (i.e. the Decalogue)?"

So what about the Sabbath? And why not the other laws too?

It's not just a matter of do we accept or reject it. It's what role does the law play in our lives today, and why only the Decalogue? Jer 31:31 doesn't say some laws go away and some stay.


You said: "So you see the Decalogue is still in effect for New Covenanters."
My question is not is this (the Decalogue) still in effect, it's why not the rest of the law too. If Jesus only came to meet the goal of the law and "not one jot or tittle will pass away until..." then why have some things passed away?

Ahhhhhhh! Now I see your question!
You wonder why the Torah alone remains in the New Covenant, and not the stipulations, prohibitions and regulations of the Mosaic Covenant. Well, the Covenant we now have is different from that given by God at Sinai...thus the difference in stipulations,prohibitions and regulations. We are the Temple and the Priesthood..thus the earlier temple, priestly and dietary codes do not apply. We are a People now found in all Nations, Tribes and Lands...not a Localized Population under our own Government. Thus the earlier National and Civil Codes do not apply either.
When you leave Washington State and enter Oregon State you change State Constitutions, but your basic Law stays the same. So it is with the Old and New Covenants and the Torah (Decalogue). We have left the Old Covenant and come into the New Covenant, but have retained the Torah of God which is the basis for both.

In Messiah,
+Ken .H

Ken, I do not understand how you deduce from scripture that any part of the Law is still in effect. Paul clearly states in Galatians 4:24&25 (edit Aug 04/04, My typo here influences Ken's answer below. It should have read Gal 3:24&25) (summing up his argument up to that point) that we are no longer under the Law. One of the bases of Paul's argument is the salvation of a Pre-Decalogue man, Abraham, by faith. Please explain how the discounting of the Law in Galatians does not result in the discounting of the decalogue given his use of Abraham as an example. God's covenant people lived for 430 years without the Decalogue, or the rest of the Law. The purpose of the ENTIRE Law was to draw us a picture of Christ so that we could identify him when he arrived. Now it is fulfilled, finished, has reached it's goal.

Just on a side note, this is the kind of faith that includes obedience, see Gal 5:6 which agrees 100% with James 2:14-26 despite what the modern "Scholars" say. Paul is not discounting obedience and demanding faith alone for salvation as Calvin would claim, he is discounting the Law as a means for salvation (note Gal 5:6 is from the same book, a continuation of the same argument from Gal 2:16&17). That is the message of the entire book

If you can find one pre-Moses reference to the Decalogue, or a New Testament clarification that the decalogue can stand alone without the rest of the Law, my argument is false, and the SDA's are right. Good news is the opposite can be found. Romans 14:5&6 states that a Christian can observe a special day (sabbath), or not observe a special day. It is up to him. This is a direct voilation of the decalogue. Therefore the Decalogue cannot be binding now.

I am not arguing that we can live lawless, but that the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law results in a new Law, the Law of Christ. Love God with everything that you are, and love everybody else as you love yourself.

Glenn

You are correct that Torah Observance (i.e. Works of the Law) does not merit salvation or grant righteousness. I have not said such a thing. All Covenants are defined by stipulations, benefits for observing and curses for breaching...and all divine Covenants require the Abrahamic obedience of Faith. James and Paul agree on this, that Faith without works (i.e. Observance) is dead. Synergy is the word James uses for Faith and Works united to effect a Living Walk with God. I am not a Protestant, so I do not see a dichotomy between Faith and Works...Faith is a verb, and action is the fruit of Faith, not inaction.
As for Galatians 4:21-31, it is a very clear typological lesson about the Two Covenants.....not the Torah. The Two Women represent the 2 Covenants given to Israel. The first was given through Moses at Sinai, and the second was given through Messiah at Jerusalem. Where is the term "The Law" (ho Nomos/ha Torah) found in this text? Eisogetics? This passage detailes the difference between the Old and New Covenants, not the Torah inscribed by the finger of God.
Now all students of Hebraisms know that "the Law" has a specific and a general usage..dependent upon the context. Look it up. Yes the Law of Moses (Pentateuch), which he wrote and placed before the Ark which contained the Torah, draws a picture of Messiah and all the Temple/Priestly details typologically foretell of Him...not to mention Moses' prophecy concerning Him. But the Torah inscribed by the Finger of God once on Stone and now in our Hearts does nothing but express the Royal Will of Our King and God for us....it does not foretell the coming of Messiah, but describes what we shall and shall not do if we Love Him in Faith.
The Old Covenant (i.e. the Law of Moses) has reached it's goal...Messiah and His New Covenant. All of the Ten Commandments are referenced in the New Testament. Paul cites them all, and James also details them as apart of the Law of Christ. Lawlessness means those who live without or contrary to the Law of God i.e. the Decalogue. It is so in the Hebrew and the Koine Greek texts. What other Law could there be? What Commandment does not apply in the Garden? 1st, 2nd 3rd? Ah the 4th maybe? Nope, God created Sabbath for Man when He himself rested on it and set it apart. He hallowed it...for who? Messiah said for us..mankind. Yes the 4th Commandment re-enforces this sacred day and declares it a day to reflect on our Liberty and redemption in Him. Is the 5th, 6th, 7th 8th, 9th or 10th Commandment not apply in the Garden? Murder was ok? Adultery maybe? It is like saying the Trinity is not an eternal Truth because it was not clearly revealed prior to Messiah, nor defined specifically until Nicea. This is illogical, Sabbath is mentioned before the Fall when sin was not found. It was Hallowed by God and set apart....for whom? Again I refer to Messiah's claim to be God of Mankind and the Lord of the Sabbath Day.
This is not really an issue of 9 of the Commandments, since all Christians accept that they remain in effect under the New Covenant. John himself states this in his Epistle. James too...as does Paul and Peter. Yet you seem to think the 4th, which confirms what God sanctified and hallowed for Mankind in Eden, is only for Hebrew humans. Then Paul's statement to Hebrew Christians is strange: "Sabbath observance still remains for the People of God." Yes, this is a literal translation from the Greek. I do not care what the SDA Church says, they are not my concern. I do care what the Scriptures say. The Prophets declare that the Gentiles will offer up sacrifices from Sabbath to Sabbath, and that God will be Father over all. Now this Promise will take place when Messiah returns. Sabbath seems to be a fearful thing to many Gentile Christians, like garlic or a crucifix to vampires. LOL! We observe both Sabbath and the Lord's Day of Resurrection (Sunday) in My Church.....Why? Because we are zealous for the Torah as were the first Nazaraeans. The issue was never the status of the Torah in the Church, but the status of Gentiles.
You ask about references to the distinction between the Torah and the Mosaic Covenant in the NT, then I ask you what did Paul mean in Romans when he said,"For we believe that a person is declared righteous by Faith apart from Torah observance. Or is God the Deity of Jewry alone? Is He not the Deity of of Gentiles also? Yes, He is their God too! For God is One, and He will make righteous the circumcised on the basis of their Faith and the uncircumcised through that same Faith. DO WE THEN CAST AWAY THE TORAH BY THIS FAITH?! BY NO MEANS, WE STILL MAINTAIN IT." Now it would seem odd that Paul would say this and not mean it Glenn. Remember the issue was not Sabbath Observance, but the misguided attempt to impose Pharasaic Legalism on the Church and forcing Gentiles to become Old Covenanters before becoming Nazaraeans of the New Covenant. These false brethren saw the New Covenant as just a revival of the Old, not a New Covenant with New ordinances. The old ordinances of the Mosaic Covenant were nailed to the Cross. But the Torah remains for the People of God, as Jeremiah explicitly states in his prophecy concerning the New Covenant with a united Israel and Judah. There was no need for a Covenant in Eden, yet the Sabbath was established and set apart by God even then. Moses had Israel observe the Sabbath prior to the giving of the Torah and the Mosaic Covenant! The Church observed Sabbath as well as Sunday as all authorities attest. Only after Nicaea was this custom of the Apostolic Church suppressed in the West, and modified in the East.
You argue that the Ten Commandments are nullified in Christ, and only the principle of Loving God and your fellow man remains......yet this principle is from the Law of Moses. That golden Rule is a mere description of the two parts of the Torah. Commandments 1 through 4 define the Love God and Commandments 5 through 10 define the Love of your Neighbor. The Golden Rule does not nullify the Torah but reveals it's intent.
To say that 9 of the Commandments are Universal but the 4th is Jewish is illogical and makes a distinction the Scriptures do not make. The Universality of these Commandments is clear.
Can we serve another God? Can we make Idols? Can we make a mockery of God's Holy Name? Can We disrespect our Parents? Can we commit Adultery? Can we Murder? Can We steal? Can we give false testimony? Can we seek another man's property? NO!! Were these ok in the Garden of Eden? NO! Was the Sabbath Day set aside by God in Eden and sanctified for the sake of Man? Yes! Is Messiah the Lord of the Sabbath? Yes! If Sabbath was made for Man in Eden does this not make Sabbath also Universal like all the other Commandments? Yes!! This is very logical and does not disrupt the integrity of the Torah, nor the continuation of these Commandments in the Messianic era of the New Covenant. What text in all of Scripture states that any one of the Ten Commandments is now cast away by Faith in Messiah and the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven? Messiah did not come to do away with the Torah, on the contrary, He came not to do away with the Torah, but to confirm it. "Now by this we may be sure that we know Messiah, if we obey His Commandments . Whoever says,'I have come to know Him,'but does not obey His Commandments is a liar; and in such a person the Truth does not exist:; butwhoever obeys His word, truly in this person the Love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in Him: whoever says,'I abide in Him,' ought to walk as He walked." And Christ observed the Commandments of His Father."All who obey His Commandments abide in Him, and He abides in them. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit that He has given us. By this we know that we love the Children of God, when we love God and obey His Commandments. For the Love of God is this, that we obey His Commandments. And His Commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the Victory that conquers the world, our Faith. And the Dragon was angry with the Woman, and went off to make war on the rest of Her Children, those who keep the Commandments of God and hold the Testimony of Jesus." This is the Witness of John concerning the Torah of God. The very Commandments of God His Father, and the very Commandments written by the Finger of God on Tablets of Stone and now on the Tablets of our Heart through the Holy Spirit which abides in us if we Love Him. If we Love Him we shall observe His Commandments. All of them. If you divorce the New Covenant from the Torah, you tear out the Heart of the New Covenant...you deny the Prophecy of Jeremiah and the very meaning of the terms "Torah" and "The Commandments of God" used throughout the Scriptures for the Decalogue. The Christian Faith is not contrary to the Torah, no, it upholds the Torah and is zealous for it. We walk in the Way of Messiah, and He kept the Decalogue as Lord and God in Human Form. He is the same God who gave this Torah to Moses in Stone and now gives it to us in our Hearts. Same Triune God, Same 10 Commandments, Same Covenant People, Different Covenant and Different Ordinances. The New Covenant is the final installment of the same Divine Revelation which has been given in various means, prophets and types and now is finally complete in Jesus Christ.

In Messiah,
+Ken H.

This is a great topic. I know we've strayed a little from the original question, but I've always been puzzled about the Sabbath and I think you make a lot of sense, Ken. My question is what do you make of Paul's statement about some preferring one day as sacred and another person feeling that all days are the same and that both of these are acceptable (I'm obviously paraphrasing)? I've always thought this to mean that we are not required to keep the Sabbath. I've also heard Steve state that his view is that the Sabbath has been fulfilled in Christ and we have ultimate spiritual rest b/c of Him, therefore the traditional Sabbath is no longer necessary (please correct me if I'm misrepresenting your view, Steve).

Thanks!
Nicole

Thank you for your kind words. Some think me a bit radical, but really I am just a Traditionalist in the Ancient sense.
In Rome some observed just the Sabbath Da, while others considered everyday to be set apart for Good Works in Christ. This passage does not infer Sabbath (One Day) is no longer a valid Commandment, it clearly shows that it is a minimum standard. We feel in My Church that if you keep only Sabbath you will do well, but if you go further and set apart each day for God's work and cease from your own efforts then you will do even better. Sabbath observance is a start, but sanctifying the other 6 days for service to God is even better. For Our Father continues to His work of Salvation everyday and still sets aside the 7th Day as Holy...yet even on the 7th Day He continues His work of restoration. He is our example.
Now does this perspective conflict with Sabbath observance? No. Does it terminate it? No. It upholds it and even offers us a chance to go further than just observing one day a week. If you truly observe each day as set apart for man's rest from self serving work, and as a chance to do good for the sake of Christ..how then when the 7th Day could you not observe the 4th Commandment in it's purity and sanctity? Every day includes the 7th Day.
Those who have deduced an antiSabbatarian principle in this passage of Romans or any other letter of Paul are using Clintonian type logic and a antinomian parsing of the English texts. No where does it state that any of the Ten Commandments of the Torah of God, as specified clearly in Jeremiah 31, are revoked or nullified with the New Covenant enacted with the united House of Israel and Judah (i.e. The Church of the Israel of God in Messiah). If Sabbath was nullified, while the other 9 Commandments were intact..where is this memntioned by Messiah or His Apostles. "Let no one judge you based upon Sabbath observances, new moon celebrations, holy days etc.." clearly means what it says...that how these Biblical observances are observed should not be a point of contention or a standard by which you determine who is or who is not in Messiah. That they are observed is obvious, but the way in which they are being celebrated and used by some false brethren as a means of bringing condemnation is being scrutinized and denounced. I do not observe Sabbath in the same spirit and way Talmudic Jewry or Judaizing Seventh Day Adventists do.
I observe it as a day of relaxation, family socializing, spiritual reflection, Scriptural study and Community fellowship. I do not worry about how I must try and not break the Sabbath by walking, enjoying nature or just having fun. I also Celebrate the Resurrection of Messiah each Sunday morning, as is the Ancient Tradition of the Church also. This is not a Sabbath Day, but a day of Community Celebration and solemn assembly as the Body of Christ to worship and receive the Body and Blood of Christ at His Table. We seek to maintain this spiritual attitude the rest of the week, thereby hallowing each day to God. Thus you can say we Keep the Sabbath, Sunday and every other day in between....just as Paul said some chose to do. We meet during the Week also, many Parishes meet daily. But this "keeping of every day as holy" does not mean we reject Sabbath Observance.
One must use this logic to think Paul teaches no Sabbath Observing...It goes like this. Some People consider one child to be better than all others, yet others see each Child equally good. This must mean that one can no longer see that one Child is better than all others or at all. Sorry this logic fails.
"Some consider the Sabbath as better than all the rest of the days of the week, while others determine that each weekday is equally good. Let everyone be fully convinced in their own minds on this subject. Those who observe the Sabbath Day, observe it in honor of the LORD........Let us therefore no longer discriminate against each other, but determine instead never to place a road block in each other's way."
Whether you observe Sabbath alone, or in conjunction with hallowing the rest of the weekdays it matters not to Paul or to my Church. Whatever floats your boat. What we are against is anyone who would diminish any of the Ten Commandments of God and then Teach others to do the same. This type of person will not be spoken highly of in the Kingdom of God. This is Messiah's teaching, not just ours. Yes it is a literal understanding of the texts, and it conflicts with other folk's views.....but we are not concerned about how well we are received by those who oppose us or may disagree with our traditional position.
In our Church you can either observe Sabbath alone, along with the other Biblical Holy Days...or you can incorporate Sabbath Observances, Festivals with Sunday Observance and the unique Christian Festivals. Either way is acceptable to us. Thus Jewish Nazaranis can retain their Jewish Culture and Identity and Gentile Nazaranis can retain their Ethnic Culture and Identity...yet both can fellowship, worship and celebrate together in unity from Sabbath to Sabbath, Sunday to Sunday and from Day to Day as Disciples of the Lord. This fulfills the Prophets who declared that not only Israel would properly observe Sabbath under the New Covenant with God, but that in all places Gentiles would offer up sacrifices from Sabbath to Sabbath. And God would be the Father of All. We take Messiah and the Prophets at their very word.

In Messiah,
H.G. Mar +Kenat'el W. Huffman

P.S.
Steve hold an Allegorical view of Scriptures that I do not feel are necessitated by the texts but rather are necessitated by his assumptions. Spiritualized Sabbath Keeping...nice. How bout Spiritual Baptism and Spiritual Communion...ah Quakerism! LOL! We can spiritualize almost anything in Scripture...even the Resurrections of Christ, the Saints and the Wicked. Full Preterists spiritualize the Second Advent of Christ as the Coming of Vespian's Legions under His Son Titus on Ab 9, 70 CE....so I am not inpressed with eisogetics based upon spiritual allegorics.
"Sabbath Observance remains for the People of God." Paul to the Hebrew Nazaranis.

Ken, sorry it took me so long to reply. I have been a bit busy. The side note about faith and works was not directed toward you. It was just to correct Luther and Calvin's erroneous definition of faith which is discouragingly popular still today.

Let's start with the passages in Galatians. Oops, my bad. My two finger picking has Galatians 4:24&25, but it should have read 3:24&25. I can see how you considered my argument strange.

The question is, is the Decalogue "A Torah, or is it "The Torah?" Paul clearly states in Galatians 3:24&25 (summing up his argument up to that point) that we are no longer under the Law (Gr. Nomos = Heb. Torah, compare Deut 27:26 with Gal 3:10). One of the bases of Paul's argument is the salvation of a Pre-Decalogue man, Abraham, by faith (Gal 3:15-18). Please explain how the discounting of the Law (Nomos/Torah) in Galatians does not result in the discounting of the Decalogue given his use of Abraham as an example. God's covenant people lived for 430 years without the Decalogue, or the rest of the Torah (Gal 3:17&18). The purpose of the ENTIRE Torah was to draw us a picture of Christ so that we could identify him when he arrived (Gal 3:24). Now it is fulfilled, finished, has reached it's goal (Gal 3:25)

Rom 14:5&6 states "one person esteems one day (Saturday) above another, another esteems every day (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, & Saturday) alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind." We know that Paul doesn't teach that anything goes, so which is better? Romans is written to a mixed Jew/Gentile church. The letter to the Romans is about how to unify the two groups into the New Covenant now that the Old one is fulfilled (the first/old covenant was obsolete by 65 AD as Heb 8:13 says). Which one of the two groups in Rome was known for strict religious observance of a special day? We can see that grace has been extended to the people who observe a special day, which must be the Jewish Christians and their Saturday Sabbath. You have admitted in your posting that you observe both Saturday and Sunday as different from Monday to Friday. Paul says to Gentiles in Galatians 4:9&10 that the observance of Jewish special days is equal to a return to thier ungodly gentile religion.

The principle above shows that we should extend grace to the people who are sensitive in their conscience to things that are not actually commanded (as long is it is not sin). The one person that Paul would never extend grace to is somebody teaching extra observances as being required. Voluntary observance is different, compare Acts 16:3 (Timothy circumcised to further his ministry opportunities) to Galatians 5:3&4 (circumcision alienates you from Christ if done for religious observance).

Paul constantly refers to the works of the old Law (Nomos/Torah) throughout Galatians as being separated from the New Covenant. There is only one acceptable Torah, The Torah of Christ, Gal 6:2. The Torah of Christ is to bear one another's burdens, which is simply Love/Charity (a concept which our society cannot comprehend).

I do not understand your assertion that the Sabbath existed before the fall. I don't see that mentioned anywhere prior to Sinai. Yes God rested on the seventh day of creation, but there is no recorded human observance or requirement of observance prior to the Exodus. The Decalogue is not introduced until Mount Sinai. How therefore does it have any bearing outside of the Old Covenant?

As for you statement that John, Peter, James and Paul all reaffirm the Decalogue in thier epistles, I am puzzled. You are attempting to sway opinions, but you offer no real evidence like quotes or references. I will take a guess at which passage you may be refering to in James. James 2:8 sees a reference to the Royal Torah, which by it's description is the Law of Christ. No Decalogue there. 2:10&11 reminds us of an Old Covenant truth (not ordinance) which is still valid, that breaking one part of the Torah makes you a Torah Breaker. The point is that you don't have to break every rule before you are considered guilty. No affirmation of the Decalogue there. 2:12&13 is the point of the passage. We will be judged by the Torah of Liberty (Royal Torah). We will be judged by the standard that we hold others to (if it is higher than God's, we cannot lower God's expectation of our holiness by granting excessive mercy to others) or else God would be guilty of playing the hypocrite with us.

You quote Romans 3:31 as "DO WE THEN CAST AWAY THE TORAH BY THIS FAITH?! BY NO MEANS, WE STILL MAINTAIN IT". Your selective choice of the word "maintain" makes you argument appear strong. You can just as easily translate it as "establish", which would be my preference. Paul is not talking about the Decalogue anyway, He is referring to the Old Covenant (see 3:21). You are therefore arguing for observance of the entire Old Covenant, which we both know cannot be. Therefore he must be referring to establishing the Law of Christ, which is the Old Covenant Spiritualized (or written on our hearts as Jeremiah says in Jer 31:33).

I'm not against the principals in the Decalogue, I just would like to see them in thier proper place. Tha Decalogue, just like the rest of the Covenant from Sinai, was designed to be a billboard for the New Covenant. It shows us who Messiah is. You accuse Steve of Spiritualized Sabbath Keeping, but it is 100% in line with Colossians 2:11-23. What is the circumcision without hands if it is not spiritualized circumcision? Spiritualized Baptism? That is an absurd statement. Baptism is the public recognition of our spiritualized death and resurrection. Nobody would ever argue for double spiritualized death and resurrection. Your attempt to show a logical fallacy collapses under it's own illogical weight. The Old Covenant is a physical representation of the New Covenant's spiritual nature. Yes I am guilty of practicing spiritualized death, resurrection, circumcision, etc. because Jesus and the Apostles commanded it.

As for your extended quote from Revelation, I ask why you arbitrarily attach the word "commamndments" to the Decalogue. It is referring to the commandments of Christ (see also Matt 28:20). The Decalogue is part of the scaffolding that helps us degenerate fools understand the requirements of God. Once understanding has come we no longer need the scaffolding. As a matter of fact, it is only when the scaffolding is removed that we see our true structure.

In Colossians 2:16-18 it says (paraphrase mine) "Let no one judge you concerning the keeping of Sabbaths, Feasts, New Moons, Food, or Drink. These are only a shadow of the Body of Christ". Let's see, earlier in the paragraph Paul is arguing for the replacement of physical circumcision with spiritual. And then he groups together the Sabbath with four other undeniable Old Covenant observances (special food and drink, feasts, new moons). The grouping of these five things together is proof of the Decalogue as exclusively part of the Old Covenant, and it's validity from Moses until Christ only. Then he argues that these observances are only a shadow of the New Covenant. Given Paul's statements in Galatians 4:9&10, which I have already mentioned, and the fact that the Colossians were Gentiles, we would have to conclude that this is an encouragement to be bold in not observing the Jewish Sabbath.

So then, what did the Sabbath paint a picture of? It is a picture of resting forever from our own works, and obediently dedicating every remaining second of our lives to Messiah's works. Hebrews 4:9-11 teaches that we keep the Sabbath (spritually and perfectly) as long as we diligently continue to cease from our works.

This is perfectly in line with Messiah's teaching on how to really obey the Law in Matthew 5:30

No adultery really means no lusting after women (or men).
No murder really means no anger without cause.
Keep the Sabbath really means no personal business, because we are dead.

This is how we obey the Law of Christ, by spiritualizing the Old Law. If we never lust we can never fall into adultery, and if we never do our own works, we can never break the Sabbath. We are exempt from the Sabbath rules just like the Old Covenant priests (Matt 12:1-5 Jesus & Disciples, I Peter 2:9&10 Us Gentiles).

Glenn