I think under the law means dead. There is a commandment contained in the law that says those who transgress God's Law dies. The wages of sin is death. This is called the "Law of sin". We are freed from this law which was against us, Christ nailed it to the cross. I think it is not true to preach that no longer being under the law means we are no longer to consider it as our instruction. Being free from the Law of sin, does not mean being free from the rest of God's instruction which defines sin. IMHO.
And the whole concept of the New Covenant was written long before Jesus the man was born. Jeremiah was instructed to write that God would write HIS Laws on our heart. So His Laws are His Laws, right? That would include His Sabbaths, and 10 Commandments for sure. He also said HE would take our sins away and remember them no more. A job that was ordained for a Levite Priest. He said He would write His Laws, so no more administration by the Levitical Priesthood.
Heb. 7:
11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (
for under it the people received the law,)
For these reasons I believe the Mainstream preaching regarding the New Covenant has been corrupted many years ago, the same way God's Laws were corrupted by the Pharisees hundreds of years before Jesus was sent to set them straight.
God prophesied, through His Prophets, a time when we no longer relied on a "Priesthood" to filter His Word, or the Levitical Sacrificial "works and Deeds of the Law" for remission of sins.
The administration and cleansing of sins, the Covenant God made with the Children of Israel that was ADDED to God's Laws, "Until the Seed should come" this was the old covenant. It was for the Jews. But the New Covenant:
13 But now in Christ Jesus
ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.(Gentiles)
14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one,
and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
This was the Levitical Priesthood and it's administration of God's Laws, and for the rituals for cleansing of sin which was forbidden for the "Heathen" to participate in.
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity,
even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in
himself of twain one new man,
so making peace; Jew and Gentile, all one under God's New Covenant.
But there is no scriptural support for the preaching that God's Definition of sin or instructions in righteousness had ever changed. Paul speaks to the Levitical Priesthood ceremonial, sacrificial "Works and deeds of the Law" for remission of sins, but he doesn't mean by that, the definition of sin.
This is a huge problem in Mainstream Christian understanding of what Paul preached and if one doesn't get this foundation right, it makes Paul sound as if he is preaching against Peter, against Jesus and Moses:
and sometimes against himself. Rom. 2:
13 (For not the hearers of the law
are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
Paul himself corrects any doubts that I had about his teaching in:
Acts 26:
18 To open their eyes,
and to turn
them from darkness to light, and
from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
19 Whereupon, O king Agrippa,
I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:
20 But shewed
first unto them of
Damascus, and at
Jerusalem, and
throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and
then to the
Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and
do works meet for repentance. (All of them, God showed no difference)
21 For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill
me.(Same as they did Jesus and the Prophets who came before Him)
22 Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day,
witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:
Anyway, very good topic, I am an uneducated man and sometimes have difficulty explaining myself. I hope HE has given me utterance sufficient for you to understand the point on my heart.