Matthew 5:18 - How are we not still bound by the Mosaic Law?

[StGerardMajella]

There is no such thing as a Jewish Christian.

What do you make of Hebrew Catholics? They are in full communion with the Church, practice as Catholics, and still maintain a robust Jewish identity, even adhering to Mosaic Law in keeping kosher, celebrating the Jewish festivals, etc. They are the very definition of Jewish Christians.

You also have Messianic Judaism, which believes in Christ, but does not typically fall under the jurisdiction of the Church.

You can also very well be ethnically Jewish and Christian. Just as you can be Irish Catholic, you can also be a Hebrew Catholic.

 

[Pana]

This is right-we’re still bound to fulfill the law, but the right way-by the Spirit, not by the letter. And this means to fulfill it by love. Jesus, Himself, would often not fulfill it by the letter, picking grain on the Sabbath, preventing the woman caught in adultery from being stoned. There’s no essential difference between the following two statements, the first from Jesus, the second from St Paul:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matt 22:37-40

**Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. **Rom 13:8

Great response here thank you think I’ll use it on my brother :+1:t2:

 

[fisherman_carl]

You are bound to fulfill the Law by means of love in action, not merely by abstract love, as I am sure you are aware. (Christianity, as Judaism, has many types of love.) Jews, as well, are required to fulfill the Law by the spirit, not merely by the letter. In fact, a literal interpretation of the Written Law is generally incomplete and must be supplemented by Talmudic rabbinical commentaries, as well as Kabbala mysticism at times.

The often-cited example of Jesus’ picking grain on the Sabbath is really problematic since there is no law against doing so by hand without tools, only against gathering the grain. So in fact, Jesus did not break the Law by working on the Sabbath. Further, the word Sabbath itself in this passage is ambiguous: does it refer to the Day of Rest or to the grain harvest of Sabbaths, that is, the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)? The stoning of the adulteress also raises some issues, namely, whether there were in fact two reliable eyewitnesses to the crime? If not, there cannot be any punishment according to the Law.

Just curious. How do practicing Jews handle those commands to stone people today?

 

[fisherman_carl]

The short answer is that we have a new found freedom in Christ. Not a freedom to sin, but a freedom from the law.

According to St. Paul we are no longer under the Mosaic Law (including 10 commandments) because in Christ we have died with Christ and are thus no longer under the Law. Since one who has died has been freed from any contractual requirements. In the New Testament we are commanded to live by the Spirit instead of under law. The only reason the 10 commandments have any bearing on us is not because they were a part of the Mosaic law but because they are eternal moral truths that do not change. Except for the day we come together to honor God, which is not a moral truth, but for the Christian is now on the 8th day of Creation.

1For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

2Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law**. 4You are severed from Christ, you who would be justifieda by the law; you have fallen away from grace**. 5For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

7You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11But if I, brothers,b still preachc circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

13For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Keep in Step with the Spirit

16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

(Galations 5)

As St Paul says you can not be justified by the law. In fact the law only serves to condemn us because we can not uphold the law perfectly. The law is still good and holy, but we can not be justified by it, but only condemned. Thus, St. Paul says that if we are in Christ we are justified by faith and not by works of the Law. It’s not that we don’t want to uphold eternal moral laws, we still do and must, but we are not justified by them. For the Christian is justified by grace and not law. For if we are justified by law then Christ died for nothing as St. Paul states. Now, if we live by the Spirit there is no law against the fruits of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace… But if we live according to the ‘flesh’ we will die.

19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy,d drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 

[fisherman_carl]

1Or do you not know, brothersa—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.b 3Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

4Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.c

(Romans 7:1-6)

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

(Romans 6:3-4)

 

[fisherman_carl]

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

( Gal 2:21)

 

[fhansen]

The short answer is that we have a new found freedom in Christ. Not a freedom to sin, but a freedom from the law.

According to St. Paul we are no longer under the Mosaic Law (including 10 commandments) because in Christ we have died with Christ and are thus no longer under the Law. Since one who has died has been freed from any contractual requirements. In the New Testament we are commanded to live by the Spirit instead of under law. The only reason the 10 commandments have any bearing on us is not because they were a part of the Mosaic law but because they are eternal moral truths that do not change. Except for the day we come together to honor God, which is not a moral truth, but for the Christian is now on the 8th day of Creation.

Yes, we’re not “under the law” any more even if the law’s still valid and we’ll still be judged by it (Rom 2:13). The difference is that now we’re under grace. This doesn’t mean carte blanc forgiveness with no obligation for obedience. Rather this means that obedience must come via grace transforming us into beings who love which then fulfills the law (Rom 13:8), the right way. This is what it means to fulfill the law by the Spirit rather than by the letter.

 

[fisherman_carl]

Yes, we’re not “under the law” any more even if the law’s still valid and we’ll still be judged by it (Rom 2:13). The difference is that now we’re under grace. This doesn’t mean carte blanc forgiveness with no obligation for obedience. Rather this means that obedience must come via grace transforming us into beings who love which then fulfills the law (Rom 13:8), the right way. This is what it means to fulfill the law by the Spirit rather than by the letter.

I agree with you. I am not sure what point you are trying to make. Nothing I said contradicts what you have said. My point is no one will be found righteous by virtue of the law. As the law only serves to condemn the transgressor, which is all of us. As Scripture says not one is righteous. For Paul the only thing that counts is faith working in love. We are now under grace if we live by the Spirit. That is if you have the Holy Spirit in you. If you are trying to be justified by the law it can not be done. Otherwise Christ died for nothing. Our freedom from law does not give us license to sin or disobedience. As Paul says those who do such things… Will not inherit the kingdom. Living in the freedom of the Spirit is the freedom to love. It is not merely an empowering to keep the law. But, it surpasses the law by transforming the inward man into the image of Christ. We are transformed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The law, though good, has no power to save.

 

[fhansen]

I agree with you. I am not sure what point you are trying to make. Nothing I said contradicts what you have said. My point is no one will be found righteous by virtue of the law. As the law only serves to condemn the transgressor, which is all of us. As Scripture says not one is righteous. For Paul the only thing that counts is faith working in love. We are now under grace if we live by the Spirit. That is if you have the Holy Spirit in you. If you are trying to be justified by the law it can not be done. Otherwise Christ died for nothing. Our freedom from law does not give us license to sin or disobedience. As Paul says those who do such things… Will not inherit the kingdom. Living in the freedom of the Spirit is the freedom to love. It is not merely an empowering to keep the law. But, it surpasses the law by transforming the inward man into the image of Christ. We are transformed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The law, though good, has no power to save.

Very well put.

 

[po18guy]

Why would the United States’ bishops give us such a poor, misleading translation – and make it the official one?

The $64,000 dollar question. Why was the prayer to the Holy Spirit (present at least from the D-R to the Confraternity bibles) removed? Why were notes allowed that (among many other doubts) suggest that Luke fabricated Mary’s Magnificat and we have no idea who wrote Matthew? Why is Mary “favored one” when protestant bibles call her “highly favored” or “most favored”? Why is Stephen the Martyr filled with grace, but Mary is not? Why does Paul no longer forgive sins in persona Christi, but only in His “presence.” Why is Catholic doctrine easier to defend using the King James Version? The list goes on and on.

Why, indeed?

JerryZ has it right (even if he did not mention it here), the 1941-1969 Confraternity Bible is far superior. The notes are very solid, edifying and confidence inspiring. Pick one up used and be amazed at the difference. The fog will clear.

 

[Autumn_Smoke]

We don’t even obey the “new laws” that were given to the early Gentile Christians in the Acts of the Apostles.

“It is the decision of the holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right.”

If we obeyed this perfectly, we’d only be buying meat from Kosher Butchers.
I love a good medium-rare steak.

 

[kdbueno]

The Mosaic law assures a Papal tradition, the supreme Magisterium deems us understandable by reason of divine and true perfection.