Don’t they say we’re still under the law of God as believers and have to keep it as well as teach others too keep it? How would you answer this or explain it to others?
Romans 3:31 “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
Matthew 5:17-19 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
With Romans 3:31 you have to read the whole chapter to get the context of verse 31. You’ll find the context has got nothing to do with believers having to continue in the law but everything to do with using the law to lead people towards faith in Christ. The chapter is showing that the whole world is unrighteous and under the law of God whether they realize it or not, and that the law is needed to bring the knowledge of sin so that people will turn to Christ in faith. Once we come into faith we are released from the law (Galatians 3:23-25). However, we do not do away with the law because it is needed to reveal to the lost that they are not righteous. When it comes to the lost we establish the law, or uphold the law. Basically we use it to bring the knowledge of sin to the self-righteous. When we originally came into faith it was because we realized that our own attempts to be righteous before God were useless. And this only really became know to us through the law according to:
Romans 3: 19, 20 “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Galatians 3: 24, 25 “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”
Once we came to Christ we were released from the law, however it would be foolish to do away with the law in trying to lead sinners to Christ. It was put in charge to lead people to Christ by dismantling their self-righteousness. We must continue to uphold or establish the law when it comes to the lost, don’t do away with it – it reveals to people that they need Christ.
With Matthew 5:17-19, again the context is very important. It’s crucial to accept that Jesus wasn’t speaking to the future Church he was speaking the current self-righteous Israel that were trying to be righteous by the law! Jesus was heightening the law back to its highest demands to show Israel how impossible it is to fulfill God’s law and be righteous. He was saying that in order to be righteous you have to not only teach the law (like the Pharisee’s) but you have to do all that is in the law and all of the time without even breaking it once! That means 100% law keeping 100% of the time. This fits in perfectly with our previous scripture! Jesus was using the law to expose self-righteousness in order to lead people towards faith in himself and to receiving the gift of righteousness!
No one can fulfill the demands of the law except for Jesus. He fulfilled the law and credited us with having fulfilled it by justifying us and giving us the gift of righteousness! Once we come onto Christ then the law does pass away from our lives! It has the legal right to pass from our lives because Jesus fulfilled it as our scriptures reveal:
Matthew 5:17b “…I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”
Matthew 5:18b “…not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
Jesus accomplished a legal right for the law to pass from our lives by his finished work in fulfilling the law, being a perfect sacrifice and rising from the dead!
Colossians 2:14 “…blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross”
Ephesians 2:14 &15 “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace”
What about Matthew 5: 20 “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Well the Bible tells us in Romans 3:10 that no one is righteous, not even one. Therefore no ones righteousness can exceed that of the Pharisees! It’s only Christ’s perfect righteousness, given to us as a gift, which can exceed that of the Pharisees and see us entering the Kingdom. Confidence in any other righteousness is hell-dangerous!
The whole point here is that you cannot use these scriptures (or any others) to try and show that believers are still under or accountable to the law of God. To do that you would have to take them out of their context and out of the context with the entire breadth of New Covenant teaching. In doing this you would also put a heavy yoke back on believers, lead them into bondage, into the flesh and ultimately towards condemnation and to dying a slow sorrowful death. There is a much better way and it’s called faith, love and hope! It’s the new way of the Spirit based on a New Covenant of better promises and not the old way of the written code that is a ministry of condemnation and death!
Bottom line, the law is not meant for believer it’s meant for unbeliever! Grace, pure grace is for the New Testament Church!
