@Inquisitor @Oncefallen
See what they do?
For example:
Conveniently starting the passage late and ending it early to dodge what they don't believe.
Let's look at the Romans passage as a whole:
8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
The "law of sin and death" is the same law they demand people obey.
Paul is actually contrasting their garbage belief to uphold the Sinai law with the law of the Spirit.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
So, they stop here. But the passage continues...
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Do you see how it is a shift in identity and not behavior? If the Spirit of Christ is in you, you have...
1. Died to yourself. - Your connection to Adam has ceased.
("For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.")
2. Died to the Sinai law - The Sinai law has no power over a dead man.
("Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.")
3. Received the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. - God fulfilled His promise to inhabit His people.
("He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.")
4. You are now included in the beloved of God as a son. - We are His flesh and His bones.
("For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.")
It's number 4 that make the Judaism's message
anti-Christ. God reckons that we are His children so He obligates Himself to raise us as our Father. This is true because we are of Christ and in Christ. The Judaizers, by declaring that those in Christ must follow the Sinai law, are
saying that Christ must follow the Sinai law. As their proof, they will point to the life of Jesus.
What they miss is that Jesus was born under the law to that He could redeem us from the law:
"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."
The redemption
is adoption.
It is a change in identity: from Adam's son to God's son.
God's sons were never given the law. They could be born under the law, but when they died, the law had no power over them. A man who has God as his Father doesn't need a law to teach him correct behavior: that is accomplished spirit to Spirit, as the Father walks with the man, His son.
This is what it means to be "in Christ".
In Christ, we are reconciled back to the time when Christ the Son was with God the Father. This is a time when they spoke face to face. And the Son always did what He saw His Father doing.
That was the standard of righteousness: do what your father tells you to do.
This was the righteousness that Abraham displayed 430 years before Sinai. This was the greater promise: that such a man would be the sons of God. Sinai cannot override what was given 430 years hence.
"Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. 17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect."
The Judaizers believe Christ is not in your body. That is anti-Christ. That's why they insist you follow the Sinai law.
But if Christ is in you, you have died to the law. God is your Father because He adopted you. You are His child. And He speaks to you by His Spirit to your spirit.
