Not Under the Law – Really?

by C.W. Mayberry

So. we are no longer under the Law of Moses?

I don’t understand how anyone reading Matthew chapter 5 could come to that conclusion. Jesus said that not even the least important part of the law would be done away with until heaven and earth have passed away, so when do heaven and earth pass away?

Any student of the Bible can tell you that present heaven and earth will be replaced at the end of the seventh millennium. As I look out my window, I can see that neither the heavens nor the earth has passed away so I would have to conclude that the Law has not been done away with. If that were not enough, the fact is that if Jesus returns today the law of Moses will be in effect for the next thousand years.

The law of Moses forbade adultery, but Jesus taught that simply looking at a woman with lust is equal to adultery. Jesus not only upheld the Law He reinforced it.

He actually put forth a more stringent standard than Moses.

In another example, we see that He also equated bitterness toward anyone with murder. That doesn’t look much like doing away with the law, does it?

The responsibility to adhere to the Torah is actually greater for the present-day believer than it was for those living in the days of Moses. Many people use Colossians 2:14 as a proof text to support the idea that the Law of Moses and the mandatory observance of the Sabbath and feast days are no longer necessary.

Colossians 2:14 does not teach that the law is done away with as many seem to believe. It teaches that the offenses you and I would have been charged with are blotted out and nailed to the cross – not the law but infractions of it.

Let me say that again. It isn’t the law that is nailed to the cross, but our infractions of the law. However, we must remember that the blotting out of our sins is dependent on our obedience to the Law, among other things. In Matthew chapter 7 Jesus states that many would stand before him in judgment claiming to have been his own people, workers of miracles, enlisted in his cause. His response was to reject them while charging them as workers of iniquity.

The root of the word for “iniquity” is best translated as lawlessness, or to be even more precise – without Torah. Think about it, they were preaching in His name, working miracles convinced that they had been obedient to His desires. But obviously that was not all that God was looking for, not all He required. There was more: adherence to His law.

I know that many people reading that will say, “but all that was just for the Jews!” But if God was so dissatisfied with Israel for the rejection of the promised Messiah that He had chosen to forever reject them as a people and turn to the Gentile nations exclusively, that would have been spelled out in scripture and no doubt in multiple verses. God has NOT rejected the nation of Israel because of their rejection of their Messiah. In fact, their rejection of the Messiah was foretold long before it occurred.

In fact, the Apostle Paul tells us that Israel’s failure to receive the promised Messiah opened the door to the Gentile nations. He further states that we are grafted into Israel just as a branch is grafted into an olive tree. We do not bear the root; the root bears us. As a Gentile people, we are to put away the customs, traditions, and religious systems of our forefathers.

The book of Zechariah teaches that during the millennial reign of Messiah on earth all nations will be responsible for sending representatives to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles annually. It will be a requirement.

Furthermore, the same portion of scripture states that any noncompliant nation will have no rainfall the following year. If this is enforced for one thousand years, following the establishment of the kingdom of Messiah in the earth, does it not stand to reason that all the other prescribed feast days will be observed as well?

Jesus kept the Law, Torah, and you should keep the law as well. Scripture tells us that Jesus, the lamb of God, kept the Passover.

If you are truly not under the Law try this, commit murder or robbery, then call the police. I’m sure they will understand that you are not under the law!

The fact is, all of western law is based in the law of Moses, the Torah.

You are already keeping portions of the Law whether you intend to or not. The problem is there are portions of the Law that are directedly linked to your salvation which you are not keeping.

The best example of this is Passover. Passover is mandatory. It is repeated throughout the Torah that failure to keep the Passover will put you outside of the kingdom of God.

How is it that we celebrate Easter and not Passover? One is prescribed by the word of God and the other is not. In fact, by the biblical standard, it is an abomination. The most detestable act you can commit is to worship a foreign deity and claim you are doing it in honor God that saved you. That is what Easter is.

Some would say “but all that’s just for the Jews.” I would challenge you to find support for that position in the word of God. The fact of the matter is that salvation is of the Jews. All Gentile believers are grafted into Israel and we become part of the existing body of believers. It applies to all of us – ALL OF US.

God did not change His mind after four thousand years of progress. God did not abandon Abraham and his lineage in favor of a people who did not know Him. His intent was to bring Gentiles into the body of Messiah, the Israel of God. We are Rehab and Ruth; these women did not constitute a new system, they joined the Israel of God.

There are not two bodies, just one body built on the Apostles and prophets (the Old and New Testaments), you cannot separate the two. Jesus is the fulfillment of all that was promised in the Law and the prophets. His ministry is not an abrupt change of direction, it is a smooth continuance flowing through Israel and into the Gentile nations. It is like rivers of water flowing into the desert, bringing life to the nations that knew not God.

The Law is the constitution of the people of God. No people can be governed without law. No society can stand without law to protect the weak form the powerful, the just from the wicked. The idea that the Law is of no importance is absurd. No system can sustain itself without law. No system biological, social, political, or spiritual can exist without law.

The keeping of holidays, Holy days, reinforces the belief system of any people. Look at the annual celebrations of any nation and you will discover who their gods truly are. The observances of the nations are built on three primary principles: Greed, sexual perversion, and death, or rather Christmas, Easter, and Halloween in the west.

So why would anyone suppress the teaching of the Law? Simply put, because it would challenge the distorted religious system that has been established in the name of Jesus. It would mean a return to God honoring observances of the prescribed holidays. It would send shock waves through the financial and geopolitical structure of the nations. It would bring down governments and religious systems that hold the minds of men captive. It would collapse the spiritual hierarchy that presently rules this world through the institutions of men.

Related Posts

Jesus Fulfilled the Law: What does that mean?
Exposing the Fallacy of “We’re Not Under the Law”
What Law did Yeshua Fulfill?
“The Law” and the “613 Ordinances” Myth Debunked