Sean, You wrote:
Marriage is a covenant relationship. The Jews relationship to the law is also a covenant.
I agree that marriage is a covenant relationship. I disagree, however, with your next statement.
The "Jews" were in a covenant relationship with God. Your statement would be similar to saying that a wife was in a covenant relationship with the conditions of the contract, rather than with her husband.
Actually, it was the children of "Israel" that were married to God. But then they played the harlot and God finally divorced them. He divorced them because they broke their agreement and did not obey Him....even though they had agreed to do so, by taking the vows.
God's perfect and abiding Law states that once a man divorces his wife, that he cannot remarry her after she has become another man's, even if the other man divorces her or dies. This was the condition that God was in. He could not remarry the people, because He had divorced them. The Law was not put away. Nor, has it died. If it was, then God could have simply remarried His people, when they repented of their adulteries. But, He calls this an abomination...the remarrying of the first husband with the wife, after she has given herself to another to marry.
So, I'm trying to figure out who you think died, in Paul's example in Romans 7. We know that it was not the Law that died. Because Jesus and others show that heaven and earth will pass away before God's Law does. And that the Law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. No one is married to the law, so the law is neither the husband nor the wife. The Law is spiritual and will not die. So, we can eliminate the equating of the law with the husband in Paul's teaching.
We also know that it was not the wife that died. Or was it? In Paul's analogy, it is the husband that dies. It is the first husband. Now, who was the first husband? It cannot be the Law. Acccording to the passage you quoted, it is the body of Christ that died. It is Christ Who died.
But Christ wasn't married you protest!
Christ was, I believe, representing His Father in this case. Since God cannot die....How could God ever remarry the people that He had previously divorced, and after they had "married" others?
So, God came in the form of His Son and died. He was the first husband. Now, upon His resurrection He was a "New" Creature. A New Man. This man is now free to marry. Even free to marry a "former harlot"...if He chooses. (Hosea)
Anyway, He is coming back for a glorious bride! One without spot or wrinkle. A virgin too> after having washed her and made her clean by His own blood. He is also coming back for a people who have not put away His Law! He is coming back for a people who are in complete agreement with Him.
We must remember not to forget Paul's teaching in the preceeding chapter. He teaches that it was "we", in Christ, who died. Died, not to the "Law", but to sin! (which is the transgression of the law). He answers his own question of "Shall we continue in sin (the breaking of the commandments.)? He answers it with "God forbid! How shall we who have died to sin live any longer therein?" So, our "old man" is crucifed with Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we no longer serve sin! For he that is dead is freed from sin! he is not free from the law, but free from transgressing against it!
Once again, I believe it to be a grave mistake to think that it was the law that died! The Law did not die! If the law could have died, then Jesus would not have had to! The very fact that Jesus died, shows that the Law lives! And, indeed, it should live! It is sin that needs to die! It is the transgressions of the perfect, holy, just and spiritual law that need to be done away with. The law is
established through faith! It is not done away with! (Romans 3:31)
Thus, those who transgress against God's Law, not keeping His commandments, even though they think they know Him, are liars, according to scripture, and the truth is not in them. As it relates to this thread, those who violate the Sabbath day command to keep God's sabbath holy, are proving that they do not yet know God.
As for the other participant's idea that one can simply just pick any day to keep holy....this counsel is not from God.
Peace, dmatic
So while one can gather on the Sabbath, it's not commanded, nor is Sabbath observance our way we serve/obey God.
