Oh, really?
Submitted by Dirk Gently on July 09 2000 01:34:13
In reply to actually, all laws are explicitly revoked submitted by F.O.D. on July 02 2000 21:44:39
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I'm sure you don't believe that ALL laws have been revoked. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." "Thou shalt not kill." Do you really want to take the position that the vague statement you referred to in Col. 2:14 permits idolatry and homicide? What about rape? Is that now permissible under the "covenant of grace"? What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Or how about, Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. Either Paul is preaching two different gospels, or your anti-nomian interpretation of Colossians has something wrong with it. What do you make of this passage? "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. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." The last time I checked, heaven and earth hadn't passed away. In fact, in his epistle to the Romans, Paul indicates that the "fulfillment" of the law is something which must take place within each one of us. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Note the relation between pleasing God and the law in this passage. Of course, the greater context for this passage begins several chapters earlier -- we're coming in near the conclusion of the argument which he's been developing for the greater part of the letter thus written. One important question which most Protestants fail to ask is "How has the body of Christ dealt with (insert issue here) in the past?" If we take as given the promise that the Holy Spirit would be sent and would lead Christ's disciples into all truth, it seems incredibly foolish to presume that I can throw away two millenia worth of unanimous teaching simply because I think I'm right and everyone else has been wrong. Dirk |
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