https://youtu.be/SHc1tGmRWZY
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans we are in between chapters 7 and 8 where we have taken up some topical studies on the subjects Paul is discussing in Romans. At the moment we are in a study of the Mosaic Law.
Last time we noted that even though the Mosaic Law has been annulled as a code and is not part of God's protocol plan, for the Church it is still part of the canon of Scripture so it is God breathed and profitable for doctrine if it is properly understood.
The annulment of the Mosaic Law does not mean cancellation from Scripture because the Law is a teacher of sin and it reflects God's perfect standards so it is a tutor that leads us to Christ.
The Mosaic Law has a pre-salvation function in the unbeliever. Rom 3:19-20; "Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be accountable to God;
v20 because by the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified in His sight; for by the Law is the knowledge of sin."
1Tim 1:9-10; "Realizing this fact that the Law was not made for a 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,
v10 for fornicators and homosexuals, for kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine."
We see here that the Mosaic Law defines sin primarily for the unbeliever, but it also defines it for the believer as well. Gal 3:24-26, "Therefore what is the purpose of the Law? It has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
v25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under the tutor.
v26 For you are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus."
The purpose of the Law for the unbeliever is to reveal sin, but not to remove it, to reveal sin, but not to prevent it, to prove that all human beings are sinners, but it was not a standard that could be used for establishing oneself as being righteous.
The Law was added because of transgressions, Gal 3:19. Though the Law was ordained to life, it is a sentence to death, Rom 7:10. Therefore, the Law is an agent of condemnation not of righteousness, 2 Cor 3:9.
The Law is a minister of spiritual death, 2 Cor 3:7. The Law was not made for a righteous man (the believer because he has God's imputed righteousness), 1 Tim 1:9.
The believer is not under the Law because it is not a part of the Christian way of life in the Church Age, John 1:16-17; Rom 7:4-6; Eph 2:15; Gal 3:19-25; 2Cor 3:7-13; Col 2:14; Rom 6:14; Gal 5:18.
No one can be justified by the works of the Law, Acts 13:39; Rom 3:20-23; Gal 2:16, 3:10.
The Mosaic Law defines the animosity between God and man. The animosity between God and man is based on that part of the Mosaic Law that describes and defines man's sinfulness.
This is illustrated in 1Tim 1:8-11. "But we know that the Law is good if one uses it lawfully.
v9 Knowing this fact, that the Law was not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious (rejecters of authority), for ungodly persons and sinners (unbelievers), for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for murderers (in general)
v10 and fornicators, for homosexuals and kidnappers, for liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,
v11 according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted."
The Mosaic Law was and still is the best description of authority.
Keeping the Law is not a way of salvation, Gal 2:16; it reveals that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way of justification and salvation.
The Mosaic Law is the way of human freedom and integrity by adjustment to God's justice, and the way of prosperity under establishment, Rom 3:20, 28. The Law reveals the problem of spiritual death and faith in Jesus Christ as the solution.
Keeping the Law is not spirituality, Rom 8:2-4; Gal 5:18, 22-23. There is a contrast between God the Holy Spirit and the Mosaic Law. The filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit supercedes the protocols of the Mosaic Law so God's Royal Family, that comprises church, is not under the Law.
The Mosaic Law is referred to with different names. It is called "the book of the covenant," Exod 24:7-8, 34:27-28; Deut 4:13-16, 23, 31, 8:18, 9:9, 11, 15. The addendum to the Mosaic Law is found in chapters 29-30 of Deuteronomy that uses a number of words to describe it.
It is called "the book of the Law," Josh 1:8.
Prophecies describing the breaking of "the covenant" are found in Deut 31:16, 20; Jer 22:9. "The book of the Covenant" is the subject of Jer 11, which is not to be confused with the New Covenant to Israel, Jer 31:31-33.
During the Jewish age the Mosaic Law was the authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood, Heb 7:11-12. It authorized the Tabernacle as a sacred building and a means of communicating the problem of sin and of Jesus Christ being the solution to sin, Heb 9:1-6.
It authorized the Levitical sacrifices as training aids to teach salvation, Heb 9:12-13.
It authorized the animal sacrifices as a dedication of the shadows, Heb 9:18-22; Heb 10:1; and it established a pattern of blessing and prosperity under the laws of divine establishment within the framework of any nation that adopts these laws, Deut 6:5-12;
In the Dispensation of the Hypostatic Union Mosaic Law describes the doctrine of the impeccability of Jesus Christ that includes the fact that Jesus was born under the Law, and the fact that He kept the Law perfectly and was the fulfillment of the Law. He had perfect integrity and perfect righteousness without sin. Therefore, He fulfilled the Law in every point.
Jesus Christ condemned the legalistic distortions of the Law and the Pharisees who sponsored them, Matt 23.
Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law, Matt 5:17. He fulfilled the spiritual part of the Law by being sinless. He also observed every ceremony. Codex one was fulfilled by His impeccability, codex two by the cross, and codex three by His patriotism, Matt 22:21.
Rom 10:4; tells us that Jesus Christ is the end of the Law for all who believe because of His sacrifice on the cross.
In the Gospels, Jesus Christ presents Himself to Israel as their Messiah, the son of David, the legitimate king of Israel. Rom 1:2,4, "Which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
v3 concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,
v4 who was declared to be the Son of God in an act of power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord."
The first advent of Christ was designed to fulfill the unconditional covenants to Israel but they were not fulfilled because most of the Jewish people rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah and continue in their rejection of Him at the present time.
God's policy for Jesus' earthly kingdom was stated as an amplification of the Mosaic Law where He said his policies would be superior to the Mosaic Law, the Sermon on the Mount.
But when Jesus as the Messiah is rejected, the Sermon on the Mount is postponed until the Millennium.
Some of the mandates that are stated in the Mosaic Law are restated in the epistles, and are therefore a part of God's protocol plan for the Church. Unless a principle of the Sermon on the Mount is specifically restated in the epistles, it is not a part of the Christian way of life during the Church Age.
This brings us to our next topical study on the Doctrine of the Sin Nature.
Biblical documentation of the sin nature is found in Rom 5:12. "Therefore, just as through one man (Adam), sin (the sin nature) entered into the world, and (spiritual) death through (the) sin (nature), so (spiritual) death spread to the entire human race because all sinned (when Adam sinned).
The characteristics of spiritual death include: The status quo of dichotomy in the human race, having only a body and soul but no human spirit at physical birth. Without a human spirit a person is spiritually brain dead so it is impossible to have a relationship with God, 1Cor 2:13-24;
Total depravity involves both moral and immoral degeneracy, depending upon the functional trends of a person's sin nature at the time.
If a believer's fragmentation from becoming arrogant and staying that way is perpetuated, the believer becomes morally or immorally degenerate.
Total depravity is separation from God in a status of total helplessness to perform any works, sacrifice, or any change of life whereby we can enter into a relationship with God.
The only way a person can enter into a relationship with God is to accept the work God has done for the human race and means a person must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to have a relationship with God.
The essence of the old sin nature includes an area of weakness that produces personal sins and eventuates in consequent evil in the form of moral or immoral degeneration, Heb 12:1;
The sin nature has an area of strength that produces human good, resulting in moral degeneracy, Isa 64:6; Rom 8:8 and a lust that pattern motivates sin and evil, lasciviousness and asceticism, and moral and immoral degeneracy, Rom 7:7; Eph 2:3.
After the fall in the Garden of Eden The old sin nature became Adam's trend. Immediately after Adam sinned he had spiritual death and with it new historical trends.
When Adam chose to eat the fruit of the tree instead of obeying God, he surrendered to satan and by default chose satan's policy that immediately established satan as the ruler of the world.
The fall of man resulted in numerous changes from the Garden. Satan became the ruler of this world, the old sin nature became the ruler of man's body, mankind became spiritually dead, and therefore under the condemnation from God's justice that became mankind's point of reference.
A new trend toward sin, that produces personal sin in three categories: mental, verbal and over sins occurred.
A trend occurred toward good and evil that reproduced satans policy for establishing a new pseudo-millennium on the earth.
God's judicial imputation of all personal sins to Jesus Christ on the cross, sin is no longer an issue except in rebound but he trend toward good and evil is still an issue.
Adam took a perfect soul and, with his negative volition, he revolted against God's authority and thereby created the old sin nature. Adam's volition was a perfect instrument. But being free, he could reject God's authority.
We all have this original mold. While the soul is not occupied by the old sin nature, the soul becomes the battlefield that the old sin nature attacks and where it is often tactically successful.
The influence of the old sin nature on the soul is seen in mental attitude sins and motivations. The condition and status of the body often affect how you think. There is no question that the body affects the soul and the mentality, just as the soul affects the body.
This phenomenon of not only the immaterial influencing the material but also the material influencing the immaterial is noted in the "heart" passages of Jer 17:9; Matt 12:34-35; Matt 15:19; Mark 7:21-23.
The Biblical words that are used to describe the old sin nature include the singular of the Greek word "hamartia" that generally refers to the old sin nature, Rom 5:12, 7:14; 1Cor 15:56; 1 John 1:8.
"Hamartia" in the singular can also refer to Adam's original sin. The singular use of "hamartia" for the old sin nature is usually found with the generic use of the definite article "ho," and it can be used for the principle of personal sin.
The plural of "hamartia" generally refers to personal sins.
Rom 5:12; "Therefore, just as through one man (Adam), sin (the sin nature) entered into the world, and (spiritual) death through sin (the sin nature), so (spiritual) death spread to the entire human race because all sinned (when Adam sinned)."
Rom 7:14; "Certainly, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of (belonging to the realm of) the flesh (sin nature), sold in bondage to sin (sin nature)." The Mosaic Law is spiritual because it came from God. It is God's establishment mandate for the entire human race.
Another word that is used to describe the old sin nature is "flesh" translated from the Greek word "sarxz."
The Greek word "sarxz" means "flesh," and it emphasizes the location of the old sin nature in the cell structure of the biological body. Because the sin nature is related to the biological life, it is called the flesh.
We are sold into bondage to "the flesh" at physical birth, when Adam's original sin is imputed to the genetically formed old sin nature.
Gal 5:16, "But I say, walk by means of the Spirit and you will not execute the lusts of the flesh."
Eph 2:3 mentions the lust of the flesh; 1 John 2:16; Rom 6:6, 7:14.
Another word for the old sin nature is "The old man" translated from "palaios anthropos" that emphasizes the origin of the old sin nature: Adam's original sin is propagated and perpetuated through the twenty-three male chromosomes that fertilize the female ovum at conception.
Eph 4:22, "With reference to your former lifestyle (self- fragmentation through post-salvation sinning), you yourselves lay aside (through rebound) the old man (sin nature), you who are becoming degenerate on the basis of the lusts of deceit."
The sin nature is classified as the old man because it originated in the Garden of Eden and propagated throughout the entire human race at biological conception so it is oldest thing in the human race, Col 3:9.