Who is this "everyone"?? This is what I'm asking you. Where are you getting this additional information about them?? We're supposed to be going by the gospel accounts primarily. That's truth. Any secondary accounts must support the gospels. You're talking about reputation as understood by "everyone". Since when do the opinions of others establish truth over what the scriptures say?? "What do the scriptures (and specifically Messiah) say about this group" is the only thing you should be concerned about. The SCRIPTURES say they weren't righteous. You say they were (based on "everybody")???
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To the following quote, I added my responses in brackets.
Please read my responses ^^^ in your quote here. Hopefully, you'll begin to see the relationship between the Messiah, the Law and the believer.
The law is the scales of justice...ever-present...weighing (and will weigh) all people.
View attachment 230229
Our sins weigh us down, and nothing we could do would "
balance the scales" and lighten our load...until belief in Messiah. This is specifically His work in heaven, to set the balance right again.
His work isn't "to obey FOR US". One of the many reasons He was obedient was because only a sinless person's blood can cleanse the tabernacle of sin and restore mankind's relationship to Almighty.
AFTER belief in Messiah
we...WE are set right,
WE are no longer guilty according to the law anymore...until we sin again. If one still believes they're guilty in the eyes of the law
even after professing faith in Messiah then they don't actually have faith in Messiah, because that's what faith in Messiah affects...the cleansing of guilt (
Hebrews 10:22)...until we sin again.
THE MESSIAH DID NOT COME TO ABOLISH THE LAW! He said this. He didn't come to get rid of the scales or to stop the balancing of them. His work wasn't against the law, it was to fulfill the law;
it fulled up the other side of the scales that we're on and to clean off the sin weighing down our side...and we're expected to stop weighing down our side again with sin else it's a wasted effort from Messiah (
Hebrew 10:29).
I'm not either. I'm copying & pasting scripture; literal verses and passages from multiple apostles and from Messiah that say one must do good.
This is what I mean...I posted
Matthew 15:1-9 twice now - words from Messiah's own mouth - that literally proves the complete, 180 degree, opposite of this statement of yours in red, and yet you keep making it. Why don't you want to accept what the Messiah says over what you believe about the pharisees?
Again, you have a false premise because of a faulty understanding of the issue between the Messiah and the pharisees. And if you don't accept the gospel record then you refuse to accept anything other than your religious traditions regarding them. Ironic. The Messiah wasn't against the law. Paul wasn't against the law. The pharisees were but pretended like they weren't.
The Galatians' problem: They kept trying to "balance the scales" themselves.
Start back in
Galatians 2:16-18
16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
...And again
Galatians 2:16-18 [with my brackets based on what I've shared here about scales...]
16 Knowing that a man is not [balanced on the scales] by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be [balanced on the scales] by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be [balanced on the scales] .
17 But if, while we seek to be [balanced on the scales] by Christ, we ourselves also are found [weighing down the scales more], is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
3 ideas in this passage:
- Faith in Christ
- Works of the law
- Sinning
The "Works of the law" are NOT "obeying the commandments"!! The "works of the law" were the shadow/mock efforts of "balancing the scales" that one was to do
after one broke the commandments. These mock efforts prefigured Messiah's work of truly "balancing the scales".
When Messiah came He "balanced the scales", so those mock efforts - meant to "balance the scales" after one breaks the commandments - are no longer necessary to do. But at the same time one can't continue "weighing down the scales" while having faith in Messiah for "balancing the scales". One must
obey the commandments, because the Messiah isn't
the minister of sinners but of the righteous.