Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — not Entertainment
CHRISTIANS COMING UNDER THE LAW — PART 1
How many Laws in the New Testament (NT)?
Which Law Aren’t We Under? It’s better than you think.
Brace yourself! This is more of a teaching blog than an entertaining one. It may not be an easy read because there is more here than a normal, well adjusted person would normally want to know but it will be worth it. It is the detail which makes me a boring person that brings the Bible alive for me. But if you happen to like what you read, there’s more to be found here
[NOTE: Important words analysed below are identified with Hebrew/Greek transliterations into English and Strong’s Numbers so that whoever wants to can check them out — it is strongly recommended that you do. I use the Blue Letter Bible (https://www.blueletterbible.org/ )]
A number of NT Saints are Torahfied by the Old Testament (OT) and shy away from it for fear of , “Coming under the law.” The most quoted piece of evidence being, Romans 6:14(b) “. . . for you are not under law but under grace.” But there are a few incongruities in that logic because:-
- Jesus was a Jew. Actually King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2, 27:11, 27:37)
- He was born under the Torah/Law (Galatians 4:4–5)
- On a page count, Israel occupies about 83% of the Bible (OT + NT).
- The organising principle of the Old Testament is that Israel left Egypt a Nation and became a Holy Nation at Mount Sinai with the giving of the Torah/Law five weeks later. This remains a big deal to Israel.
- The Torah occupies about 21% of the Israel focused pages.
- The Torah occupies about 17% of the total pages
A reasonable person could be forgiven for deducing that such relative volume of evidence is not left for nothing.
The Holy Spirit chooses His words well and places Law and Grace (Torah and Gospel) in the same sentence so, like fish’n’chips, one cannot be considered without the other. This is a vitally important topic and cannot be left to dangle. LAW will be examined first in a series of short pieces
will be addressed in the same manner as eating a Big Mac. If one tries to stuff the entire burger into the mouth in a single go, one will surely die. It must be devoured in bight-sized, chewable, pieces. This article is the beginning of a series of several (number to be decided) manageable pieces of evidence presented in order to shed light on LAW. The topic of GRACE will be covered in time.
The first question: What Law?
It can be easily found that the Greek word for Torah is G3551 (Strong’s number) νόμος (Greek) nomos (Transliterated), translated LAW.
A word-search of the NT shows that there are at least eighteen (18) nomos Laws. It can be seen from the list that some are positive for Humanity and some negative.
The second question: Are the Saints not under any of the Laws in the positive column?
You must answer that question for yourself.
The third question: What Law are the Saints NOT under?
Those who are diligent will read all of Romans 6 & 7 to decide that answer for yourself. It’s way better than you think.
SPOILER ALERT: The answer is it’s the Law of sin and death.
Romans 6 & 7 require rigorous thinking. More explanation will come in a later post. Meanwhile …
Jesus says that the Law will never pass away. He cannot lie.
At the beginning of Romans 6 (vv3–11), “You died and were resurrected.” So Jesus did not die for you, a long time ago, far, far away. As far as God is concerned, you died with Jesus and were buried and resurrected with Him. It was an intimate act, not a distant, cold one. (God can do things like that.)
In Romans 7:1–6 Paul explains that God actually caused the old spirit (metaphorically, the wife) to die and be buried (Romans 6:3–11) so that sin no longer has dominion over us. All of Humanity after the Resurrection are now in a condition to choose to have an intimate relationship with God Himself. That includes those who choose to be become the Hitlers of this world by rejecting the offer. (If you think this logic promotes Universalism, I haven’t done a good job explaining in a few words. There will be a dedicated post in future. So many nuggets — so little time.)
So God did not get the incorruptible Law out of the way of the people. He got the corrupted spirits of the people out of the way of the Law. Our spirits were not repaired. God never repairs the old. He replaces with the new. Jesus didn’t come to make bad people do good things. He came to bring Life to dead people.
Because we have died with Christ the penalty for sin has been paid. The Law we are no longer under is the penalty for sin, which is death. But it is conditional that each of us accept the offer and have faith that God is Faithful to keep His Word.
Conclusion
Just a simple word-search has uncovered that the true situation is clarified not by philosophy, logic nor deep intellectual thought of the scholars, but by a simple word search that anyone in the pews could perform. What else may be hidden in plane sight behind the English translations? Part 2 examines how many Laws there are in the OT.
There is more good news than bad for the Child of God.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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