Jesus lived whilst the old covenant was in operation. Plain fact, gentiles were only asked to follow four laws
Right. He was born as THE Son of God to save us from the curse of the law. And, while He was alive as Jesus the man, He was accountable to the statutes of the law.
But then He died. And the law has not power over a dead man. Furthermore, He died for another - us - which surpassed the requirements of the law.
You see, God paints pictures so that we might see something in His words.
There is sin and there is the nature of sin. Sin is a word of art that literally means "to miss the mark". It is an archery term. It is the distance between the center of the target and the arrow that was fired.
In archery, you cannot have sin without first having a target.
The same is true for the sin of man: without a standard by which one can be measured, there is no sin. For humanity, the first standard by which all are measured was God, Himself...
"And God said, Let Us make man in our image, after our likeness..."
Knowing that the first man, Adam, would sin, God, before time, paid the price for Adam's and his progeny's failures.
"..whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
Nevertheless, because of Adam, sin ruled over all men and brought death to all men.
"..sin reigned in death.."
Death was the incontrovertible proof that man was not connected to God the Father: The Father Who never dies. Because of death, there was an awareness of sin, a missing of the mark, for all men.
Later, God, intended to change men by calling them into His presence. The people refused. This was at Sinai:
"When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sounding of the ram’s horn, and the mountain enveloped in smoke, they trembled and stood at a distance. “Speak to us yourself and we will listen,” they said to Moses. “But do not let God speak to us, or we will die.”
Consequently, God gave man a list of standards instead. This was called the 10 Commandments and the Law.
"The law was added because of transgressions."
By these things, man would know the impossibility of meeting God's standard. These standards were mere lists of behavioral requirements and even then, man would fail to meet all the requirements. By design,
this was to increase the urgency of a Savior.
And, since the Savior already paid the price of this intervention, man need only wait for the Savior to appear.
"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."
The Son of God was sent.
"Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’"
Because God added the Law and the Commandments as a requirement and a standard for man, God had to rescue man from those requirements or else man could never measure up to the likeness and image of God and be adopted.
So, the Savior was born when the Law was in full force.
"..born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law..."
Redemption is a price, paid in full, for an owed debt. Under the Law, the only thing a man could call his own was his own life. BUT, because
the law as meant to preserve the people through whom the Savior would come, God could never demand, AS A STANDARD, that man give up his own life.
So, to pay the price of the Law and the Commandments imposed upon man,
THE SON PAID THE PRICE OF SIN (missing the mark) EVEN THOUGH HE HAD NO SIN.
What love He has for us!
The Enemy of man used the threat of death against man to gain the cooperation of man and thereby disqualify him from being the object of God's eye.
But, once the Son paid the price of death WITHOUT OWING THE PENALTY THEREOF, He disarmed the power of the Law over man.
The Son showed
that a man could rise above the requirements of the commandments and the law AND GIVE UP HIS OWN LIFE FOR OTHERS! Because of this, God the Father declared that the Son was the Chosen One.
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
This was the appearing of the Savior who was needed for man.
But, because Death still took Him (the consequences of sin), God determined that the Son would even rule over Death Itself.
"I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death."
This is how, by exceeding the requirements of the commandments and the law as a man, and by His obedience to the Father unto a death He did not deserve, that He made a public spectacle of the enemies that pursue man.
"He (Jesus Christ) has made alive together with Him (God the Father), having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
How? Because One who was greater than the law and the commandments had come.
He was now the standard for man; not as one who obeys the law. But as one who surpasses it in His death for others.
"Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it."
Because of this, the Father determined that THIS is the man made in His image and likeness. Furthermore, all who would receive Him, Christ Jesus, would likewise share in His inheritance.
"The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him."
In Christ we can be adopted into the Godhead and take up the work of our Heavenly Father.
