This is absolutely and perfectly correct! But then, wouldn't it be correct to assume that one can gauge one's walk with Messiah by how closely one is conformed to Him, and thus by how closely we conform to the Torah, which is what YHWH has wanted for us all along, and what Yeshua came to show us by example?
It is not that we have license but when we fail, and we all do, we have an advocate with the Father...Our sin is not counted against us...Jesus however will give us a quick kick in the hind end from time to time...
Can we sin willfully and still be a Christian??? Yes...We ALL do whether we will admit it or not...
Sure, which is why one needs something to meter with... to measure by... How does one know he is being obedient to his master? We are all bought with a price - how do we serve, and how do we know we are doing a proper job? John can tell you....
One might notice that there isn't a Christian within the context...It is Jesus teaching Jews... I believe since the context is the Kingdom of Heaven, it is speaking of the Kingdom that was offered to the Jewish audience right there who were under the law but ultimately rejected Jesus as the Messiah...
I would submit your own discipleship should stand in the way of that statement. There is no more Jew or Greek... No male or female ... No slave and master... We are all bought with a price, and we are all in service to the Master, who purchased us. In that, the words written in red are direct instruction. What He said and did is to be emulated and enacted by those who follow Him. His example is paramount.
Prophetically, it applies to the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ on Earth...AFTER the Rapture of the church...The church is gone, the Wedding has taken place and those in the Kingdom with it's Head in Jerusalem are those who come out of the Great Tribulation, who, again, will be under Faith and works/the law... As the scriptures here show, they will again be under the authority of the Torah...And during that thousand year reign, every jot and tittle of the law will be fulfilled, literally...
Doesn't it seem odd that the Torah, revealed from the beginning of Creation, should suddenly be set aside and then brought back again? Does the Master desire a lawless bride? Surely not! His bride will honor Him in obedience, and keep the laws of His Father's House, even as He does Himself! A wife obeys her husband because she loves Him.
And the passage we are looking at (Mat 5:17...) directly speaks against your statement - Yeshua plainly says that every Jot and tittle is in place until heaven and earth pass away, and all is fulfilled. Are heaven and earth still here? YES. Is all fulfilled? NO.
Furthermore, We reign and judge with Him, right? We are with Him always after the rapture, yes? Where is He then? Taking back the earth and establishing the Kingdom How can it be that we (who don't have the first clue about the law) are the ones who help establish Torah in the whole earth?
Who is it that Yeshua condemns for practicing lawlessness (torah-lessness)? Those who cast out demons in His name? By what standard is He judging?
Do you see that the mechanism of it cannot work with the logic applied by most of Christendom?
As for vs. 20, my righteousness as a Christian does exceed that of the scribes and pharisees because I have the righteousness of Jesus who fulfilled the law...But that's a scary thought for those going thru the Tribulation...
"I don't have to keep the Law cuz my Jesus did it for me!" No offense, brother, but that ain't gonna cut it. The Master said to do and teach the Torah. Whether you are slave, disciple, or wife, obedience is the calling. He kept the law in order to be eligible to take our hit - but that doesn't mean we don't have to try.
I dont' think any Christians disregard the Torah...That where we learned what sin was amongst many other things...It's just that we are not under the penalty of the law when we fail...
Well, that wasn't my experience until about a decade ago... and in my ongoing experience, I would submit that most Christians I come in contact with are absolutely ignorant of the Torah. Nobody lives it, nobody knows it. Keep an open mind and keep reading the RF in that light. You will find very little argued from the Torah, ever.
With that I agree...Catholics sin so little they have only to go to confession once a year...Can you imagine??? Taking the Ten Commandments out of our schools was one of the worst things that could happen to Christianity...What should be black and white is now a shade of gray...
Think of that the other way around... the BIG 10 are great, but think of what we would be if the whole Torah were observed like we used to observe the BIG 10... Because like the BIG 10 are the elaboration of the BIG 2, the rest of Torah is the elaboration of the BIG 10...
While that historically can be true, I believe it can and should be applied to all scripture since I believe the bible was not written for those only back in the first Century and before... There is plenty of scripture written yet for the future...
I am not saying the NT is not inspired, but I am saying it's definitions, norms, and references all derive from the Torah, as they must. By the very nature of the thing, everything has to be passed through the Torah. That severely limits interpretation, and interpretation is why there is disagreement.
I can gauge my walk but not yours...But I don't think so, so much...Conforming to the Torah requires a lot of work of the flesh...Being led of the Spirit is a whole 'nother ball game...
Sure, which is why one needs something to meter with... to measure by... How does one know he is being obedient to his master? We are all bought with a price - how do we serve, and how do we know we are doing a proper job?
Jesus tells me, constantly...Again, I have the law written in my heart...He reminds me when I go crashing off the path...
There is no more Jew or Greek... No male or female ... No slave and master...
For those in Christ, that's true...
Doesn't it seem odd that the Torah, revealed from the beginning of Creation, should suddenly be set aside and then brought back again? Does the Master desire a lawless bride? Surely not! His bride will honor Him in obedience, and keep the laws of His Father's House, even as He does Himself! A wife obeys her husband because she loves Him.
God's wife in the Old Testament left him...Jesus' bride in the New Testament is the church...In the Old Testament, the wife could not keep the laws of the Father's house...Jesus became the Sacrifice because he knew they(Jews) and we (Gentiles) couldn't keep the laws...He traded his life for our inability to keep the laws...
It's not that we are lawless, it's that we fail at it so much...Jesus took care of that problem...
And the passage we are looking at (Mat 5:17...) directly speaks against your statement - Yeshua plainly says that every Jot and tittle is in place until heaven and earth pass away, and all is fulfilled. Are heaven and earth still here? YES. Is all fulfilled? NO.
You're right, I misspoke...I don't know what I was thinking...
Jesus did fulfill the law...But looking at the rest of those verses, if my righteousness (under the law) doesn't exceed that of the scribes and pharisees, I will never see the Kingdom...And in that case, I'm a lost cause...I can give up now because it's way too late...
But praise God...
Rom 3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Rom 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Rom 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Rom 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
"I don't have to keep the Law cuz my Jesus did it for me!" No offense, brother, but that ain't gonna cut it. The Master said to do and teach the Torah. Whether you are slave, disciple, or wife, obedience is the calling. He kept the law in order to be eligible to take our hit - but that doesn't mean we don't have to try.
There's all kinds of instruction all over the NT to walk uprightly and do those/or not those things contained in the law...I don't get where you think Christians feel they can act as tho they never had a personal experience with Jesus Christ and no change in their spirit has taken place...
Let me ask this...When you violate any aspect of the Torah, and everyone does, where do you go for the required atonement???
Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
I now have the substance. I don't need the shadow.
Romans 14:5-8 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.
Hebrews 10:1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
If I want to live closely conformed to Jesus, THIS is what I'm after....
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Otherwise, I just descend into legalism.