Originally Posted by Big Bill Price
As to the issue of the Law, let me share what I see in Paul Washer's, as well as my own theology. The Old Covenant fulfilled in Christ, but the lost are still under said, because it is the schoolmaster which brings us to Christ. In Christ, the old Law is elevated and made deeper. How? Under the Old Covenant, it simply states that you shall not murder, but Jesus said that if you have hatred towards your brother, you are liable to judgment. Under the Old Law, it states that we are not to commit adultery, but Jesus taught us that if we look on a woman to lust after her, you have already committed adultery with her in your heart. This higher law of Christ is in Christ, and can only be fulfilled in Christ, through the power of the Spirit, a work of God.

Hope that makes sense.
1. Welcome to our community. [Linked Image]

2. Could it be that Jesus, in His 'Sermon on the Mount', within which is contained your two examples, was expounding upon and applying the true meaning and depth of the 6th and 7th Commandments? This is how the vast majority of the Reformers, Puritans and those following them have understood those passages.

There is only One "lawgiver" (Jam 4:12); GOD. And the three persons of the Godhead are surely in perfect agreement and harmony concerning the moral law, no? In short, some do make a serious mistake/error in usurping, or diminishing, or appending, or even eradicating the eternal moral law of God which was and continues to be part of the "imago dei" (image of God) that belongs to all mankind (Rom 5:12-14). The Ten Commandments were not something new or peculiar to national Israel, but rather that which was given to man internally as part of man's very being, and that which set man apart from everything else of God's creation. The moral law is an expression of God's very nature and thus is not time-bound and cannot be improved upon, God being infinitely holy, righteous and good. Lastly, the Lord Christ was the very embodiment of the moral law and fulfilled its requirements through His own personal perfect obedience. It is that "active obedience" which is imputed to every believer unto salvation. Thus, how could there be 'another law' which supersedes or surpasses it? Oh, and I don't want to be remiss by failing to mention that it was the Son of God himself who gave Moses the Ten Commandments (cf. Heb 12:18ff), thus establishing the perpetuity of the moral law, not only as "schoolmaster" to lead sinners to Christ but as the ultimate standard to which ALL mankind is under obligation to keep perfectly. Sinners are saved by Grace Alone (Sola Gratia) through Faith Alone (Sola Fide) on the basis of the merits of Christ Alone (Solus Christus), but not by a faith that is alone. True saving faith always exhibits itself through a believers life in its progressive conformity to God's moral law. Historic Christianity has always held to the "3 uses of the law"; civil (foundation for a body politic), pedagogical (to expose sin and lead sinners to Christ), normative (as a rule of life). Antinomians and the current neo-Nominans, of course, deny this truth and consequently, they most always refuse to be "confessional". (cf. [b]Praxis: The Doctrine of the Christian Life[/b]) under the first heading, "The Christian and the Moral Law". bigglasses

3. Re: "This higher law of Christ is in Christ, and can only be fulfilled in Christ, through the power of the Spirit, a work of God."... See above in #2 regarding a alleged "higher law of Christ". Sanctification is accomplished indeed by and through the indwelling Spirit working in conjunction with the new man, the regenerated new nature, of the believer (Phil 2:12,13; et al).

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simul iustus et peccator

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