https://youtu.be/JFdS3X1sb1k
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans we are between chapters 7 and 8 and because of what Paul is teaching about here we have started a topical study of the Mosaic Law.
When we stopped last time we where at 1Tim 1:8-11; where we see a perpetual application of the Mosaic Law.
8 "We know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully.
9 Knowing this fact that the Law was not made for the righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who murder their fathers and mothers, for murderers in general,
10 for fornicators and homosexuals, for kidnappers and liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrinal teaching,
11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which gospel I have been entrusted."
The perpetual application of the Mosaic Law brings people to the place where they recognize the need for a savior. Using the Mosaic Law lawfully means no distortions, no distractions, and no Christian activism. All of these categories refer to things that both believers and unbelievers do.
The Mosaic Law contains truth that applies to every generation of history, that is, the principles of freedom, authority, property, and jurisprudence and all systems of freedom are based on absolute truth, John 8:32.
The freedom of the royal family completely excludes the Mosaic Law. Gal 5:1, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Keep standing firm in it (your freedom) and do not become entangled again in the yoke of slavery (the legalistic believer who lives under the misapplication of the Mosaic Law for spirituality)."
Temporal freedom is the heritage of physical birth. Spiritual freedom is the heritage of the new birth, 2 Cor 3:17, "Now the Lord (God the Holy Spirit) is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
The Mosaic Law is completely excluded from the believer's spiritual freedom, but it has value in defining and maintaining human freedom in the human race.
The characteristics of temporal freedom include the recognition of the sacredness of privacy, property, and life, emphasis on and recognition of the sacredness of self-determination a personal sense of responsibility for one's own decisions, and subordination to the authority of establishment government.
The characteristics of spiritual freedom are not based on the Mosaic Law, Gal 5:1. Spiritual freedom is based on the absolutes of Bible doctrine, John 8:32 and the filling of God the Holy Spirit, 2Cor 3:17; and we must not use our freedom to destroy liberty. 1Pet 2:16;
Temporal freedom is the heritage of everyone who is born physically in a free nation. Spiritual freedom is the heritage of believers only from their regeneration at second birth. Spiritual freedom is only located inside the spiritual life in the heart of the soul and can function with or without the support of temporal freedom.
Some the greatest believers in the Roman Empire were slaves. Paul told them to "Remain in slavery." You can grow spiritually in slavery just as easily as you can grow spiritually as a free person because the details of life from temporal freedom don't affect the believer's spiritual freedom.
This is because temporal freedom is based on human merit but spiritual freedom is based exclusively on God's merit that is not limited by the details of life.
2Cor 3:13-18; "And they are not as Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel might not see it (his face) while the glory was fading away.
14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the Old Testament, the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart, `
16 But when anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.'
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 But we all, with an unveiled face looking into a mirror (God's Word) to produce a reflection (spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity), the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that same image (of Jesus Christ in the spiritual life of the hypostatic union) from glory (the glory of the humanity of Christ) to glory (the glory of the believer who executes God's protocol plan for the church), from the Lord the spirit."
When Moses went up on Mount Sinai and got parts of the Mosaic Law, there was a glory related to it, and it was seen in the glow from his face. But when he came down, the glory faded.
So that the Jews would not see the fading glory of the Mosaic Law, God commanded Moses to put a veil over his face so that the Jews were not to see that the glory of the Law would fade away.
2Cor 3:14; tells us that the glory of the Mosaic Law fades because of scar tissue in the soul. Throughout the Church Age the scar tissue in the soul's of the Jewish people will keep the veil unlifted unless they believe in Jesus Christ as their Messiah.
If you look into God's Word of Truth with scar tissue of the soul, you get nothing. The mirror is God's Word of Truth and when you see it and you do, the glory is there.
In Romans chapter 8 Paul explains that In the Church Age the Mosaic Law as a total code was rescinded. Therefore, only what is specifically restated in the New Testament remains as part of "the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus."
Rom 8:2-8, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the Mosaic Law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the sin nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and for a sin offering judged sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the legal requirements of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh (old sin nature), but according to the Spirit.
5 For those (believers) who are according to the flesh keep thinking about the things of the flesh, but those (believers) who live according to the Spirit (filling of the Spirit) keep thinking about the things of the Spirit.
6Consequently, the thought pattern of the flesh is death, but the thought pattern of the Spirit is life and prosperity,
7 because the thought pattern of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subordinate to the law of God, because it is not able to do so;
8 furthermore those who are controlled by the flesh (the sin nature) cannot please God."
The Mosaic Law does not define the Christian way of life. Matt 5:17; "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill." Rom 10:4; "For Christ is the end of the Law for the purpose of righteousness to every one who believes."
The Mosaic Law is a very specific expression of God's perfect, holy, and eternal character, Exod 19. The Mosaic Law is designed for several specific purposes. While the Law regulated the life of the Jews in the dispensation of Israel, its primary purpose was to anticipate the first advent of Christ.
After Christ fulfilled the Law it no longer governs any people or any nation. However, the rescinding of the Law does not leave either or believers or unbelievers in a state of lawlessness, Rom 6:15.
While the Jews of the Old Testament lived by the Mosaic Law, Church Age believers live by God's protocol plan.
The dispensation of the Hypostatic Union stands as a permanent line of demarcation between Israel and the Church because during the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, Jesus Christ in His unglorified humanity fulfilled the Mosaic Law and simultaneously established God's protocol plan as God's precedence for the Church.
God's perfect character remains immutable through all dispensations in history. God expressed His perfect virtue to mankind long before the Mosaic Law existed, and He continues to provide ethical norms, morality, virtue and spiritual instruction after the Law ceases to govern.
Before, during, and after the time the Mosaic Law was in effect in Israel, God's law functioned among the Gentiles, to whom the Mosaic Law never applied, Gen 26:5; Ex 19:5; Rom 2:14-16; 1 Cor 7:19, 9:20.
In the Church Age, God's operational law is Law of Christ not the Mosaic Law. 1Cor 9:20-21; Gal 6:2; because in the in the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union the unglorified humanity of Christ in Hypostatic Union fulfilled the Mosaic Law in the power of the Spirit.
The Church Age believer fulfills the Law of Christ by following Jesus' precedent, that means the execution of God's protocol plan under the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit and the perception and application of God's Word of Truth.
Because the first advent of Christ included both the fulfillment and the culmination of the Mosaic Law (Matt 5:17-19; Rom 10:4; Gal 3:22-25; Gal 5:3-4; many practices mandated for the nation Israel are not included in God's plan for the church.
While the Mosaic Law as a total code became obsolete, not only was the spiritual code fulfilled and replaced but the temporal portions of the Law were terminated.
The temporal aspects of the Law, like codex one and three, define freedom within the national entity. Codex three instituted the laws of divine establishment specifically for the nation of Israel.
During the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, our Lord inaugurated new policies for both the Church and the Millennium. In doing so, our Lord restated many individual commands found in the Mosaic Law. But if a command was not restated for the Church or the Millennium, then it is no longer applicable.
This continuity existed because the source of all divine law has always been the same immutable essence of God, Heb 13:8. Although continuity with the Law exists in both the Church Age and Millennium, the new policy for both dispensations is not the Mosaic Law itself.
The Church Age derives its doctrine from the New Testament epistles under the classification of mystery doctrine, Rom 16:25; Eph 3:2-6; Col 1:25-27.The Mosaic Law was revealed to Old Testament writers; therefore, it cannot be part of the mystery doctrine for the church
In the New Testament Gospels Jesus prophesied of God's policies for the Church Age, the Second Advent, and the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. The Upper Room Discourse anticipates prophetically divine policies for the Church Age, John 12-17.
The Olivet Discourse, Matt 24-25, describes policies for how Jews will survive the last half of the Tribulation in order to remain until the Second Advent.
The Sermon on the Mount is for the millennial reign of Christ. The Sermon on the Mount can only be enforced when Jesus Christ personally rules on the earth.
The New Testament epistles provide the mandates for God's protocol plan for the church. If Old Testament precepts apply, they do so, not because they belong to the Mosaic Law, but because they are repeated to the church as a part of the function of God's royal family honor code.
Some of the precepts of codex three are given to the Church in its relationship to the laws of divine establishment in Rom 13:1-10. Some of the principles of divine establishment found in codex one and three are restated as the law of Christ or law of God.
The excluded principles are still God's truth, but they do not carry the force of law for any nation except the five Jewish client nations of the past. It is possible that in the future that much of the Mosaic Law will again apply to client nation Israel during the Millennium.
Wise political leaders in the Church Age, who desire freedom and prosperity for their nation, will extrapolate and use principles found in the Mosaic Law, and integrate them into their culture and heritage like the founders of the USA did in the constitution.
During the Church Age the principle of separation of church and state leaves many establishment issues to the judgment of civil government. For example, capital punishment is restated for the Church Age in Rom 13:4, but not some of the specific applications in the Mosaic Law, such as adultery, homosexuality, and juvenile delinquency.
However, the Mosaic Law continues to fulfill certain functions because it defines freedom in any client nation to God, both establishment freedom and spiritual freedom.
It defines the function of the laws of divine establishment in terms of both morality and virtue. It verifies certain principles, such as freedom through military victory. It defines common law in terms of both trial and punishment.
It experientially reveals that man is a sinner under real spiritual death and points the way of salvation and everlasting life through personal faith in Christ and It illustrates the saving work of Christ on the cross through ritual illustrations.
The Mosaic Law was written for our instruction, in order that we might learn establishment principles, Rom 15:4.
The Mosaic Law was written for our example. 1Cor 10:11-12, "Now these things happened to them as an example, furthermore, they were written for our instruction, upon whom the accomplishments of the ages (the execution of the plan of God under the power of the Holy Spirit) have come.
12 So let him who thinks he stands be careful so that he does not fall.