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The modern “Christian” use or meaning that is falsely assigned to Paul’s phrase “Under
the Law” is usually interpreted with an unbiblical meaning that implies that Christians
“no longer” have to “obey the Law” literally; even though this is not logical nor
is it applied consistently in practical Christian doctrine, since most Christians
still agree that believers are supposed to keep “at least” 9 of the 10 commandments
literally (the 4th commandment having been totally abandoned now over the last 75
years alone; whereas for the previous 1700 years Christian doctrine and statements
of faith still affirmed a literally application of the 4th commandment except that
they kept it on a non-
If you study the specific verses in the Bible where Paul coined the phrase “under the Law,” it is always described as a condition BEFORE salvation comes. Therefore, to go “Back Under the Law” is to try and “earn” one’s salvation or return to a state “before faith or salvation came.” Thus anyone who is NOT saved is correctly noted as being or remaining “under the Law,” however, once salvation comes, we are no longer “under the Law,” (or no longer “not saved”), but we are now “under grace,” meaning we have moved from a position of no faith to faith, and from no salvation to salvation via God’s grace.
Keeping the commandments of God (ie. OBEDIENCE TO GOD) CANNOT be considered or defined as“going ‘under’ the Law” or “back under the Law,” because that would MEAN that disobedience is required for grace and obedience for sinners?
In both cases this is impossible in that if we have received grace then our response should be obedience to God, not rejection of His Commandments or even some of His eternal Commandments.
We know from Romans 8:7 and elsewhere that it is impossible for sinners to obey God. Only the redeemed, who have been given a new nature in Christ, can even begin, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the knowledge of Truth as given to us in Scripture, to obey or keep God’s commandments.
Every person is born “under the law” (i.e. We are all born “under sin and death” since we are all born of Adam); and without faith, we will die because of this fact. BUT, when faith comes, we are no longer under the law of sin and death, we are no longer under the penalty of sin, we are under grace, meaning we don’t get the penalty we deserve. In other words, we are no longer considered sinners, we are considered God’s sons and daughters and acceptable because of Christ’s sacrifice for us and our acceptance of His sacrifice for us. Therefore, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (i.e. All, both Jew and Gentile, are considered “sinners” according to the fact that all have broken the Law/Torah of God, but all can have the faith of Abraham and experience God’s grace such that they are no longer under condemnation).
To be “under the Law” is to be under condemnation, but a BELIEVER who is KEEPING God’s Commandments according to FAITH CANNOT BE CONSIDERED “under the Law” according to Paul’s use of the term! In other words, keeping the 4th Commandment literally CANNOT be considered “going back under the Law.” Because obedience to God’s commandments out of a heart of faith cannot be considered earning one’s salvation via works otherwise a believer could never obey God and would have to walk in disobedience to all other 9 commandments too. There is no legitimate way to remove one of the commandments and say obedience to it is now sin or trying to earn one’s salvation yet obedience to the other 9 commandments literally is not sin and does not constitute earning one’s salvation. Yet, that is exactly the kind of nonsense that people today teach!
In reality, when we accept Yeshua/Jesus as our Lord and Savior, there is no longer any condemnation for the believer in his/her relationship to God’s Torah. Now what once produced only death in the “sinner,” produces life in the “believer.”
Just as a rejection of Christ, the living Word, produces death in the sinner, so
also acceptance of Him produces Life in the believer. In the same way the written
Word (i.e. Torah/Prophets/Writings/& Apostolic Scriptures) only bring forth the fruit
of death to the sinner, so also the Torah of God (as well as the Writings/Prophets/&
Apostolic Scriptures), now bring forth life and peace for the believer (John 8:31-
Obedience to God is the only appropriate response for those who have received the grace of God. A sinner for example, rejects God’s authority and covenant, and therefore, does not keep the 4th Commandment which says to remember and keep the Sabbath (which is defined in Scripture very clearly as the 7th day of the week, not the 1st day of the week). The holiday of First Fruits is always on the 1st day of the week, and this is when we celebrate/remember (during the week of Unleavened Bread), the Lord’s Resurrection, in its appropriate biblical context. But the fact that Jesus was found to be out of the grave early on the first day of the week cannot redefine the 4th Commandment, nor make it changed, nor invalidate it altogether (i.e. The Significance of Christ being found gone on Sunday morning cannot add to, take away from or otherwise change God’s eternal Word; otherwise we have much bigger problems that we create, because our eternal Word is then proven to be not eternal at all!). Such nonsense breaks basic principles of hermeneutics taught in every major conservative seminary in the U.S.
In addition, if no longer being “under the Law” really meant that believers can violate the 4th commandment, why can’t believers violate the other 9? Why must a believer, according to Christian religious tradition but NOT according to Scripture, keep 9 of the 10 commandments literally, but they can completely reject the 4th commandment, or spiritualize its meaning away altogether so as not to look like they are rejecting it totally, but somehow still appear to agree with it in “principle.”
The problem with saying you agree with something in “principle” but not “literally,” is that it is impossible to do just that!
You cannot agree with the “principle” of not murdering without actually not doing it literally. In the same way, you cannot agree with the principle of Sabbath in “principle” without keeping it literally also. Sure, you can murder in your heart and not physically murder and be wrong, and so also, you can not keep Sabbath in your heart even if you physically don’t work and still be wrong. BUT, you cannot, keep the commandment not to murder in your heart while still killing someone physically, nor can you keep the idea of Sabbath in your heart but still violate it literally. Sorry folks, it just doesn’t work that way. Jesus taught us to keep the commandments both literally and in our heart. We are to not lust in our hearts nor walk out those lusts. We are to keep the Sabbath literally as He kept it (and taught it to be kept through His personal example and explanations in the Apostolic Scriptures) and keep it in our heart.
In addition, we cannot accept only the metaphoric use of the term “Sabbath,” without accepting its literal meaning as well. When the metaphoric use of the term is appropriate to the context, Sabbath can be understood and accepted according to its metaphoric use, but when it is given to us in literal terms, it is violation of sound hermeneutics (I.e. Interpretive principles) to interpret a literal use with a metaphoric meaning. Such a practice would be like applying the metaphoric use of the term murder, such as slandering someone and “murdering” their reputation, but not accepting the literal meaning of murder. In the same way such a manipulation of the rules of language makes no sense when applied to murder, they make no sense when applied to Sabbath. ONLY the traditions and doctrines and teachings of men allow for such a manipulation of the Gospel of Christ. But such a manipulation is perversion of the truth and leads only to our and our children’s destruction, and the destruction of the family as modern culture plays out every day in churches across the country. Barna’s stats don’t lie.
Consider the fact that if you asked your children to clean their room, and they told you they agreed with your “commandment” in “principle” and that they agree with you that they should clean their room every Friday (for example), but then they tell you that really every day was a day to keep their room clean because they agree with you in principle about the value of a clean room, but then they never literally cleaned their room; are they really obeying you or that commandment you gave? No. Of course not.
Yet this is the “ocean front property in Arizona” theology that modern Christianity teaches regarding some of the commandments of God. It doesn’t even make any logical sense, but if anyone dare question modern Christian “doctrine,” regarding things that specifically conflict with the natural meaning of the Word of God, they are labeled a heretic, or “dangerous,” they are maligned by others, and/or often kicked out of their communities for even suggesting that, for example, the 4th Commandment should be kept literally.
It is a sad day in Christian history when God’s people persecute their own for trying to obey God’s commandments literally.
1 John 3:4 clearly states that a violation of the Torah is sin/lawlessness/Torahlessness. A person coming to faith in Christ does not REMOVE or CHANGE GOD’s DEFINITION OF SIN simply because they ask Jesus to come into their heart! Adultery, idolatry, murder, taking God’s name in vain, dishonoring father and mother, and not keeping the Sabbath etc. are all still SINS after we come to Christ just as much as they were used to define us as sinners for violating them before we came to Christ.
If you are a believer and you murder someone, even if accidentally, you’re still a murderer. You’ve sinned. BUT, the difference is that you are no longer under condemnation; therefore, your sins are no longer held against you. BUT that does not mean murder is not still a SIN just because it is no longer held against you! Yet today, Christians say that breaking the 4th commandment, or breaking the Sabbath is no longer defined as a sin.
Now, no one is going to hell for not keeping the Sabbath, but a believer is walking in sin if they break the Sabbath according to the Word of God. Why should a believer continue to walk in sin just because they are no longer under condemnation for that sin? Wouldn’t that be abusing the system? Of course it would, therefore, we should all be diligent to keep God’s commandments and keep our feet from sinning. We have the Holy Spirit to help us do this. But if we call evil, good (breaking Sabbath, good) and good, evil (keeping Sabbath, evil), and agree with the enemy who rejects God’s Sabbath and always, throughout history, tried to get God’s people not to keep it, and in doing so not identify to the world that God is still the Creator of the Universe, and not identify themselves as being in Covenant with God through keeping it, then we agree with the devil in our actions because of our false theologies, teachings and doctrines of men.
If breaking the Sabbath was a sin that could put you in hell before you came to Christ, then it is still a sin to break it (even though your not keeping it perfectly is not going to separate you from Christ) after you come to faith in the Lord. God looks at the heart, and a heart that is doing its best to keep the Sabbath is a very different heart than one that rejects God’s authority altogether and turns a stiff neck toward His 4th Commandment altogether.
We do not have the privilege of reinventing the DEFINITION of SIN simply because we want to make it fit OUR (not GOD’s) religious system, yet that is exactly what the Christian church does today to their own detriment and the detriment of their children who are not coming to faith in Messiah at alarming rates. The baton of faith is not being passed to the next generation because we try to force feed babies in Christ “steak,” and never give them the “milk” of the Word in the simple commands such as Sabbath, Feast Days etc. that God specifically designed to train our flesh and grow us in our faith and knowledge of Him so that we can then move on the maturity and focus on learning and applying the “weightier” matters of Torah. If we don’t feed the children nourishing milk, they never learn how to digest steak properly, and many will choke and die on the vine (as the statistics show they are doing today, leaving the “church” at 18 and never looking back).
Therefore, when salvation comes, we are no longer under (the penalty of) the Law (we are no longer “not saved”), but instead we are empowered to keep God’s Commandments/His Torah through the power of the Holy Spirit living in us, because “faith has come” (Gal 3:23). It is ridiculous to even say we are not “under the Law” today, because every day people are still dying in their flesh (just look at a newspaper obituary section any day of the week). Your flesh is “under the Law” because you were born of Adam, and are Adam’s seed (your flesh is going to die because it is under God’s Law, under His authority, living under His Kingdom Rules), but your Spirit has been regenerated if you are in Christ, therefore, you will eventually receive a new regenerated body to match your regenerated spirit at the Resurrection/New Birth.
But even then, God’s house rules will still apply, you will just likely be more capable of keeping them than you are in your current state where your flesh is at war with your regenerated Spirit. Your flesh rejects the Sabbath, but your regenerated Spirit desires to keep it because your regenerated Spirit has the Torah of God written on it. A quick test of the heart is to see whether it will accept God’s commandments. Your flesh may not “feel” like keeping God’s commandments all the time, but if your heart doesn’t want to keep it, then you better really check your heart and test yourself to see whether you are really in the faith or not (2 Cor 13:5). I can tell you right now, my flesh doesn’t always want to keep God’s commandments, but my heart does, and my heart can overcome my flesh via the Spirit of God in me, and I will pray for the power and ability to keep God’s commandments and He has promised to help me do it because I pray according to His will when I pray to keep His commandments. While my flesh is often weak, my heart wants to do anything and everything it can do to demonstrate love and appreciation to the Master who saved me, even if that means breaking cultural norms or religious doctrines of men to do so.
Romans 8:1-
Here we see that the flesh rejects God’s Law/Torah, it is hostile toward’s God’s commandments, and is not even able to keep the commandments of God; BUT, The Spirit obeys God’s Law/Torah. To live according to the Spirit of God is to NOT be hostile toward God’s Law/Torah, but to KEEP and SUBJECT ONESELF to it, because we love God and desire to demonstrate our thankfulness for the grace we have received by allowing God to be God (meaning He get’s to make the rules of His kingdom for us to obey, not us).