https://youtu.be/ykLb-YS7sX8
In our verse by verse study of Romans last time we completed Romans chapter 7 where we encountered the doctrine of the Mosaic Law, the doctrine of the old sin nature and the doctrine of the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit and the doctrine of the soul. We will now spend some time discussing these doctrines before we move on into Romans chapter 8.
In Romans chapter 7 Paul described the Mosaic Law as the marriage counselor for the first marriage to the sin nature at physical birth.
The Mosaic Law is divided into three parts. In the English translations of the TNACH they are described as the Decalogue, the Ordinances, and the Judgments that we will refer to as codices.
Codex one is the Ten Commandments, aka the Decalogue.
This is the freedom code. These commandments form the basis for the heritage of Israel's freedom. The Ten Commandments define freedom in terms of human activity. They are addressed to believers and to unbelievers except for in the worship of God because unbelievers can't worship the true God.
Human freedom is described in terms of the laws of divine establishment. There can be no freedom without morality so both the believer and the unbeliever can and should be moral.
The Ten Commandments define human freedom in terms of morality, privacy, property, life, and authority. The Ten Commandments also define human freedom in the categories of relationship with God and relationship and interaction with people.
While some sins are mentioned in the Ten Commandments, its purpose is not to define sin. The sins that are described in the Ten Commandments are violations of privacy, private property, and freedom. Human freedom requires authority that protects and guards freedom.
This authority is defined in terms of volition that is the basic authority in life, and establishment authority that is summarized in the Ten Commandments in Exod 20 and Deut 5.
All of the rights of a group of people must be defined in terms of personal responsibility from volitional authority. To maintain freedom everyone, believer and unbeliever, is responsible use their volition to follow establishment rules.
When these rules are violated, it is called crime. Punishment for crime is described in the law. Criminals have the right to use their own free will to recognize these rights and principles. Other factors include good manners, thoughtfulness of others, with special regard for women.
Establishment authorities are set up to guarantee freedom. For example, the authority of the husband over the wife, parents over the children, and the civil government over the citizens.
"You shall not" defines morality by establishing prohibitions. Morality is compliance with the law by doing the right thing. Morality when complied with is the system whereby freedom can permeate the entire human race. Freedom requires morality from every human being, not just believers.
Virtue that is defined as doing a right thing in a right way at the right time for the right reason is required of believers. Virtue is much more demanding than morality. The believer in spiritual maturity who is filled with God the Holy Spirit produces the highest form of virtue.
We have seen in ou4 study of Romans 7 that codex one also reveals to the unbeliever that he is married to the old sin nature and has a bad marriage.
Jesus summed up the entire Mosaic Law in Matt 22:36-40
Codex two is comprised of the Ordinances or the spiritual code that is found in, Exod 25:1- 31:18; When you have freedom from the Ten Commandments, you are free to hear the gospel and to accept it or reject it.
This emphasizes the fact that believers are designed to function under both the laws of divine establishment as well as Bible doctrine that has been programmed into in the heart of their soul.
As the marriage counselor from biological human birth, codex two reveals that salvation by believing in Jesus Christ is the solution to the failed first marriage to the old sin nature.
The ordinances are the spiritual heritage of Israel. They are the theological code designed to present Jesus Christ as the only Savior.
The spiritual heritage of Israel includes a complete but shadow Christology and soteriology, the essence of God, and the explanation of justification in terms of God's integrity, and the adjustments to God's justice for blessing from God.
In Israel these doctrines were communicated through oral teachings and ritual. Oral communication initially came through Moses, and Aaron followed with the ritual teachings and then oral teachings of the Levitical priesthood after Moses and Aaron died.
Always remember that the ritual always represented reality and that ritual without the reality of what it represents from God's Word of Truth is worthless.
The ritual communication included the structure of the Tabernacle and its furniture (Exod 25-27), the delineation of the Holy Days (Lev 23:10), the function of the Levitical priesthood (Exod28-29), and the significance of the Levitical offerings (Lev 1-3). All of these things were rituals that in some way pointed to of the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Ordinances are a means of communicating the Gospel and they are also a means of appreciating the salvation that our Lord has provided for all of us.
Codex three is the Judgments, that comprise the establishment code that describes Israel's national heritage. This includes the political and functional heritage of the nation Israel. Every principle and function related to the life of a client nation was reduced to writing, oral communication, and the activities of the government.
This includes mandates regarding the functions of freedom and authority, privacy, rights, property rights, personal privileges, marriage and divorce, military policy, taxation, diet, health, sanitation, quarantine, criminal law, trial, punishment, laws of evidence, and capital punishment, Exod 21:1-23:9.
The government's responsibility is to ensure freedom. The Mosaic Law has everything necessary for ensuring the freedom of its citizens. The amplification of the freedom principles related to government and private citizens. Freedom is predicated on the principle of personal privacy.
The Mosaic Law distinguishes between criminal and civil law, and established laws of evidence that excluded hearsay and assigned just punishment for criminal acts and for civil transgressions.
No one could be convicted unless there were two or three witnesses who independently presented the same facts to the court. Criminals were punished immediately. There was no concept of rehabilitation of a criminal and established punishment severe enough that it restrained the criminals.
Part of the establishment code is capital punishment, that was established by God in Gen 9:5-6 and incorporated into the Mosaic Law in Exod 21:12; Num 35:30; and transferred into the Church Age in Rom 13:3-4.
It proscribes a just system of taxation. Tithing was the system of taxation and was levied on all citizens, believer and unbeliever. There was a separate system of offerings for believers only, Deut 18:1,5; Neh 13:10. The offerings of believers did not have any specific amount or percentage.
There were three income taxes in Israel. There was a ten percent income tax for the maintenance of the Levites, Num 18:21, 24; Lev 27:30-33. There was a ten percent income tax for feasts, Deut 12:18; 14:22-24. And there was a ten percent income tax every third year for the poor of the Land, Deut 14:28-29.
Mal 3:8-11 describes income tax evasion. "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me. But you say, `How have we robbing You?' In tithes (taxation for everyone) and offerings (spiritual giving by believers only)
Unbelievers did not want to pay income taxes to support of the Levitical priesthood but Gods Word told them. You are cursed with a curse, for you, the entire nation, are robbing Me.
`Bring your entire tithe (income tax) to the treasury, so that there may be food in My house (the client nation), and test Me now in this,' declares the Lord of the armies, `if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out on you so much blessing that it cannot be contained.
Then I will rebuke the devourer (anything that would destroy the economy, like bad weather, insects, pests, or invading armies) for you, so that it may not destroy the production of the ground."
We see from this the God blesses the client nation with great prosperity when its citizens faithfully pay legitimate income taxes.
Spiritual giving does not have any specified amount. Never give so that it deprives your family. While spiritual giving is mentioned, it is not an issue in the establishment code of the Mosaic Law. In the spiritual code, the offerings of the believer were a private matter between a believer and God. No predetermined percentage was involved.
Codex three included the function of free enterprise and profit motivation and rejected all forms of socialism, communism, and the welfare state, but does mandate giving for charity.
When you destroy wealth in a nation, you destroy jobs in a nation. Charity is always a valid part of the spiritual life, both in the Old Testament and the New. Civil disobedience, violence, and insurrection were to be rejected as evil.
The laws of divine establishment are for believer and unbeliever alike. Morality mandated by the Mosaic Law was for both believers and unbelievers; it was not the means of spirituality.
Morality is not spirituality. Spirituality is infinitely greater than morality. Morality is produced by human self-determination and it is good because it does the right thing but spirituality is produced by God the Holy Spirit and is infinitely greater than human good because it does the right thing in the right way for the right reason at the right time.
The Mosaic Law was given to the nation of Israel as the first client nation to God in B.C. 1440, Ex 19:3; Lev 26:46; Rom 3:19, 9:4.
The Mosaic Law was never given to Gentiles, Deut 4:8; Rom 2:12-14, because Israel was God's client nation.
In the Church Age Codex three was given to the entire world, when it was reiterated in Rom 13:1-10; and other New Testament passages.
The Mosaic Law was never given to the Church, Acts 15:5, 24; Rom 6:14; Gal 2:19. This is the fallacy of non dispensational theology. The Church has a higher code in the royal family honor code.
Except for the Lord's Table the Church has no ritual, no animal sacrifices, no specific Holy Day or Holiday worship, and no specialized priesthood.
All of these passages make the point that morality must be distinguished from spirituality. Morality is for the entire human race. The more morality you have in a country the better off you are, because the purpose of true morality is to provide true freedom.
Believers are not to reject morality because the believer has an even higher mandate as part of the unique spiritual life of the Church Age and the royal family honor code is that is much greater then morality.
The Mosaic Law has limitations that are described in Heb 7:18: as "weakness and uselessness of the Law." The Mosaic Law as a system of works cannot justify anyone before God Acts 13:39; Phil 3:9.
The Law was given as a system for understanding what is sin, not as a system for salvation. The Law explains the fact that we need salvation but it cannot save.
The Mosaic Law reveals Jesus Christ as the only savior. It presents a complete Christology and spiritual life. The Jews complied with the ritual legalistically by rote without relating it to the reality of Christ as savior.
Rom 3:20-22; "Because by the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified in His sight, for by the Law is the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law, the righteousness of God is manifested...even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe for there is no distinction.
Rom 3:28; "Therefore, we contend that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law."
Gal 2:16, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ that we might be justified by faith and not by the works of the Law. For by the works of the Law no man will be justified."