The third part of the Law

[B-A-C]

Sometimes when "the Law" is mentioned in certain church circles. It is all lumped together in one large pile. Kind of a "all or none" affair to some people.
Yet the law itself was divided up into three parts.

The first part of the law defined what sin was. It told us what kind of things were considered sin.
There were hundreds of these laws in the old Testament, Exodus 20 is a good example.

Exo 20:2; "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Exo 20:3; "You shall have no other gods before Me.
Exo 20:4; "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
Exo 20:5; "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Exo 20:6; but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Exo 20:7; "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
Exo 20:8; "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9; "Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
Exo 20:10; but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.
Exo 20:11; "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
Exo 20:12; "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
Exo 20:13; "You shall not murder.
Exo 20:14; "You shall not commit adultery.
Exo 20:15; "You shall not steal.
Exo 20:16; "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Exo 20:17; "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

The second part of the law explained the penalty of breaking Gods laws or commandments.
Lev 20:27; 'Now a man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones, their bloodguiltiness is upon them.'"
Lev 24:23; Then Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and they brought the one who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. Thus the sons of Israel did, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Num 15:36; So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Jos 7:25; Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you this day." And all Israel stoned them with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.
Lev 21:9; 'Also the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by harlotry, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.
Jos 7:15; 'It shall be that the one who is taken with the things under the ban shall be burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.
2Kin 15:5; The LORD struck the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death. And he lived in a separate house, while Jotham the king's son was over the household, judging the people of the land.

Then there is the third part of the law. It explained forgiveness, atonement, confession and repentance from sin.
Exo 29:36; "Each day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement, and you shall purify the altar when you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it to consecrate it.
Lev 4:3; if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer to the LORD a bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.
Lev 4:28; if his sin which he has committed is made known to him, then he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without defect, for his sin which he has committed.
Lev 23:19; 'You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
Num 15:27; 'Also if one person sins unintentionally, then he shall offer a one year old female goat for a sin offering.
Num 5:7; then he shall confess his sins which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it one-fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged.

Obviously all of these verses or just a few examples of literally hundreds of similar verses.

The first part of the law hasn't changed. Sin is still sin.
The second part of the law hasn't changed either. The wages of sin is still death.

The third part of the law changed partially. This is the part I would like to discuss.
There is still a sacrifice required for our sins, however we don't have to go out and by an unblemished animal to be sacrificed every time we sin.
We still need to confess, but we confess to Jesus who is our high-priest, not an earthly priest (who has committed sins of his own)
There is Grace now, we don't have to perfectly 100% obedient.. "or else".
Jesus sent us a helper now (the Holy Spirit) which most people in the old Testament didn't have access to.

So when the Bible talks about doing "dead works of righteousness" or the "law of death". It isn't talking about doing away with the entire law.
In fact Jesus said...
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.
Matt 5:18; "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

The requirements for the law didn't change.
Rom 6:23; For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rev 20:15; And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

The part that changed is that Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins.
Eph 5:2; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
Heb 10:12; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,

He is our high priest now.
Heb 3:1; Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;
Heb 4:14; Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

 

[Boanerges]

Just my point of view, I do not mind if you do not agree, I do not wish to offend anyone- just my point of view:
Gal 3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

God's Word makes no such distinction of dividing the Law and placing the church under "part of the Law". but declares us free from the Law- not part of the Law but simply the Law.

2Co 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
Not tablets of stone like Moses was given.

Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

We do not put to death the deeds of the flesh by rules and regulations- we walk in the power of, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The great Apostle penned the following verses at the leading of the Holy Spirit- they do not concern ceremonial Law but address many of the same issues origfinally confronted in the Ten Commandments that Moses was given:
Gal 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Gal 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

If we have the better, the New Covenant, and are filled with His Spirit we do not need rules- we walk with Him and abide in His; His Love flows and godly fruit is born. The Law was a teacher- it revealed sin- that was it's stated purpose- Jesus reveals His very own righteousness in His people if they but yield.

.Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Gal 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Gal 3:4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
Gal 3:5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Gal 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Gal 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Gal 3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Gal 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
Gal 3:12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Gal 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Gal 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Gal 3:15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.
Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
Gal 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
Gal 3:18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
Gal 3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
Gal 3:20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
Gal 3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Rom_3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

 

[B-A-C]

God's Word makes no such distinction of dividing the Law and placing the church under "part of the Law". but declares us free from the Law- not part of the Law but simply the Law.

I agree with everything you say here, but would add two points.
First, this new law doesn't get written on our hearts and we aren't free from the "old law" until we get saved. Everyone else is still under the law.
Even though we may not be under the OT law, we are still under a law. The law of Christ, the law of the Spirit, the law of Grace, the law of Love, the law of Liberty, the law of Faith...

Second, even though there is a "new law" written on our hearts, it's still a law.
Rom 8:2; For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
2 Cor 3:3; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Rom 2:15; in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,
Gal 6:2; Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
Jas 1:25; But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
Jas 2:12; So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.
Rom 7:25; Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Rom 3:27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

Rom 3:31; Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

 

[Boanerges]

Agreed, and may I add a few more thoughts of my own
We follow the Holy Spirit- He leads us into all truth fulfilling Jesus commands which were love, forgive, love. We walk by faith in Christ and the life of the Vine is revealed in these braches; godly fruit is produced. But, try to walk following rules instead of walking in the Spirit you are back under the letter of the regulations which are :
1.fleshly bondage
2. the smell of filthy rags before God.

We are to walk in the footsteps of our great example Jesus. While He was God, He walked as a man, and is our pattern:
He was lead of the Holy spirit in all He did and every step He took.
He only spoke what He heard the Father day.
He only did the works He saw the Father doing.

Like Christ we are to do the Father's works and not our own which were prepared for us before we were born; like Christ we are to be totally lead of and empowered by the Holy Spirit who leads us into the only walk that can please God.

 

[james1523]

The law of right versus wrong works like this: By the law you know it's wrong, you try to obey it but you fail, sin and death results, and condemnation is in your conscience. But the law of the Spirit is something in us and something we are in. If we are in Christ we are in the law of the Spirit of life and it is in us, setting us free from sin and death. This law of the Spirit is the inward principle by which God changes our hearts to bear the fruit of the Spirit and look like Christ. It's not according to our mental concepts of right versus wrong. Wherever there is death inside of you, the Spirit will apply life to that area. If you have an anger problem , alcohol problem, whatever, the Spirit will apply life to that part. He doesn't even necessarily show you it's wrong or right, He just applies the cure and you're healed. When the woman caught in adultery came to Jesus, He didn't tell her "adultery is wrong", he just gave her life, love, forgiveness. If we follow any other law than the Spirit, whether old testament law of Moses, superstitions, the natural law of conscience, old wives tales or granma's rules for living, we are walking in death and darkness.That's because only the law of the Spirit has the power to change us from the inside out, whereas all the other laws are external to us, or only in our mind/thoughts, and do not deal with the deeper parts in our heart.

 

[Boanerges]

Hallelujah! God delivers us from the dead works of the flesh and brings forth life from these branches as we abide in heaven's Vine.