I hate to disagree with you, if you believe that all would be well if we would but obey the 10 commandments. What they propose who believe this is simply not the gospel of Christ. It is instead running back under the covering of the law. Paul wrote to the Galatians that if we do that, Christ profits us nothing. You simply cannot mix law and grace, for it is one or the other.

The 10 commandments, as holy as they were, are called by Paul the covenant of death and thank God, they have passed away. Read Romans. it says we are no longer under the schoolmaster.

Listen saints. The purpose of the law was not to give us guidelines to living a holy life. They were given to make us fail, to become fully guilty before God so that we would see our tremendous need for a new nature that does not sin, a nature we must receive by faith from the hand of Jesus Himself.

Look at Romans 7 for this is what you will reap as a Christian trying to please God by keeping written precepts. You will, if you truly try to get your heart pure through outward obedience, finally hit the brick wall of "O wretched man that I am." If you have not hit it yet, you have simply not tried hard enough. You have not yet resisted unto blood in your attempts to free yourself of sin.

The pharisees were taught clearly that outer obedience to try to clean the inside of our cups is an effort in futility. Have you lusted? Adulterer. Have you been angry? Murderer. The law cuts its poractitioners no slack, gives no power, it just demands obedience and and it demands it 100% of the time, no exceptions, no excuses, no impurity of thought let alone action. Do we really hear the law? It is the hard taskmaster and can lead no one to life, only reveal to them the need for it.

So if the law has done its appointed work, where does that leave us? It leaves us melted at the feet of our savior crying out for Him to deliver us from ourselves....and when we finally willingly cast all of our righteousness at His feet and say "The law is too high, too hard, and I have no power with which to obey...help Me, my Lord!", He does help, and in spades.

He only asks us to yield all effort, all of our will, all of our strength, and instead in our weakness believe the good news of the new nature. He asks us to boldly "reckon our old man dead and our new man alive unto Him."

No more are we to spend 20 years trying to die to self. We are to believe it is done...finished and that our new nature can obey Him in all things as we simply abide in the vine of Christ's life.

It is not that we are too weak...it is that we are still too strong that causes us to walk on in disobedience. It is to those who have NO MIGHT that He increases strength.

Until we finally see that no matter how hard we try, all of our righteousness is still as filthy rags in His sight, we are not truly ready to walk by faith as humbled and kept children of God.

God has promised clearly that obedience, the weak link in the old covenant, is now a gift in the new covenant. Self control, which eludes even the best of us, is now a fruit of the spirit of this wonderful abiding life.

He promises that He will cause us to walk in His statutes. If we have not found this to be the case, there is but one cause...unbelief.

Until our eyes are opened as to why we have reached this low state as His body and in our individual walks and cry out to Him to open our eyes to the full truth that we ARE light in the Lord, we will fail continually in our attempts to walk as children of light.

Now some will rebut what you have said by saying the law and the 10 commandments are not the same. Just a warning.

I however would agree with all that you said. The law is fulfilled in Christ and we are in Christ.

Galatians

2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Hmmmm.

Regarding the "Law" - which in Hebrew is "Torah" - it is true all those regulations in the Law/Torah "were given to make us fail" to use your words.

But the actual Ten Commandments transcend the Torah (Law). "Thou shalt not kill", "Thou shalt not commit adultery", etc.: Who can deny that these eternal laws must be obeyed?

I would ask you to read this brief overview of how the Ten Commandments pertain to our life in Christ: The Ten Commandments

Originally Posted by CatholicCrusader

Hmmmm.

Regarding the "Law" - which in Hebrew is "Torah" - it is true all those regulations in the Law/Torah "were given to make us fail" to use your words.

But the actual Ten Commandments transcend the Torah (Law). "Thou shalt not kill", "Thou shalt not commit adultery", etc.: Who can deny that these eternal laws must be obeyed?

I would ask you to read this brief overview of how the Ten Commandments pertain to our life in Christ: The Ten Commandments

CC, I understand what you are saying but we must still understand, that lust IS adultery and anger IS murder. By the works of the law shall NO flesh be justified.

Perfection is required, for the law demands that we MUST continue in all the precepts and if we have erred in just one area, we have broken the whole covenant.

Yes, perfection is required and imperfect is not good enough according to the law. Of course God does not want us adulterers or murderers, and the law agreeably does lay the rough form of what God wants. But what He is after is pureness of heart and love. The problem does not lie in the goals of the law, but the implementing of them.

Where is the power in the 10 commandments to not lust, or be a covetous person, or be a murderer? Where is the power to get the pure heart God wants...nay... demands we have, for it is the pure in heart who shall see God. There is none offered, except found in our own strength and resolve, a strength and resolve that is simply not enough. It will fail, and it will fail completely.

The goal of the 10 commandments was love out of a pure heart....but where do you get such a thing? Self control? It will wilt. Determination? It will fade away. The flesh cannot obey, no matter how hard it is driven, no matter with what punishment it is threatened with. Nothing profits but a new creature.

We do get this new creature by obedience, but not the obedience of our outer man, as under the 10 commandments. The law, if it has done its job correctly, has taught us that. We simply cannot clean our cup from the outside in, which is how the law seeks to work. It must be an inner cleansing that then flows out to wask our outer bodies and actions. Once the hearts is made pure, all else is just a matter of time.

Have we yet learned that:

"I know that in me dwells no good thing."?

No, outer obedience cannot do it. It is too high, too hard. The obedience required, the obedience of a pure heart must be the obedience of faith.

This is the great mystery of the gospel. This is why the law has become a giant stumbling stone to millions. We have not yet seen our limitations, that in us dwells no good thing. We may want to do good, but how to perform it? We cannot find it thru the law of commands, no matter how holy they are. The law simply cannot empower one's soul to truly obey out of a pure heart.

That is why God has amazingly offered us a new covenant, NOT like the one given on the mount. In this covenant, not based upon our strenght but upon our recognition of our weakness and great need, HE becomes the author and finisher of this covenant IN us, and He promises to cause us to obey by putting a new spirit within us, if we will be do two things...

1) Reckon our old man as dead.

It cannot obey. It cannot do better. Do not attempt to reform it. Do not attempt to kill it bit by bit. It will not die that way.

There is but one way to get rid of our flesh, the one way we seemingly do not want to partake of, the way of faith in reckoning it dead. We must believe that Christ's work on the cross became our death as well and that when He died, so did our old nature. it is the only way out of our mess into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

2) Put on the new man, created in rightousness and true holiness

Only our new man is able to hear and follow the voice of its loving master. This "new creation", we are promised, cannot fall, and will always triumph. Sin shall NOT have any dominion over it, victory is assured, and no temptation can ensnare it. It ALWAYS triumphs as we cling to the amazing promises of God given to us!

...and then? We simply abide. Remain under His wing, old things passed away by faith, all things now new...by faith still, hidden in the shadow of the most high, protected as He has promised us, empowered as He foretold us, victorious as we continue in His strength, not ours.

Where is boasting in this covenant? It is excluded, What shall we be proud of?

Our strength? It was the cause of our fall.

Our faith? it is a gift of God.

Our diligence? Ha. Without Him, we can do nothing.

Ahhh, but with Him. With Him, we can do all things thru Christ who strengthens us! Now we are light in the Lord. Let us therefor walk as children of light.

Amen!

Originally Posted by Daniel

Now some will rebut what you have said by saying the law and the 10 commandments are not the same. Just a warning.

I however would agree with all that you said. The law is fulfilled in Christ and we are in Christ.

Galatians

2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Amen and amen Daniel. Great scripture. As Paul said:

"Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature."

Originally Posted by BruceG

CC, I understand what you are saying but we must still understand, that lust IS adultery and anger IS murder. By the works of the law shall NO flesh be justified.......

Well, it is true that our initial justification is soley by grace.

And while we must obey the Ten Commandments, they do not justify.

However, works of charity do contribute to our continued justification. But, since that has nothing to do with the Ten Commandements, I guess that is another subject

Originally Posted by BruceG

Amen and amen Daniel. Great scripture. As Paul said:

"Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature."

I thought it was "Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith WORKING through love." (Gal 5:6)

Originally Posted by CatholicCrusader

I thought it was "Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith WORKING through love." (Gal 5:6)

You are absolutely right CC. And that is the only way we can do it, is thru the new creature....

"Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" Galatians 6:15

Originally Posted by CatholicCrusader

Well, it is true that our initial justification is soley by grace.

And while we must obey the Ten Commandments, they do not justify.

However, works of charity do contribute to our continued justification. But, since that has nothing to do with the Ten Commandements, I guess that is another subject

No, Terry, this is a common misconception about the law and has brought defeat and misery to all who truly try to obey in their own strength written commandments rather than thru the spirit of God inside us. Any works of charity we do are Christ in us doing them, not our our righteousness. We are clearly told we are no longer under the law. It is simply our schoolmaster to bring us to depend fully on Christ. But after that faith has come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster, and of that the word of God is quite clear in Romans and as well in Galatians.

Having begun in the spirit, are we now going to be made perfect in the flesh? Gal 3:3

No, justification starts out of grace, ends in grace and we get from point A to point B by....grace, thru faith.

I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Gal 2:21

What exactly is continued justification anywayz?