Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: firth@sei.cmu.edu Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: To Fulfill the Law Message-ID: Date: 19 Nov 89 19:29:06 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 36 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Supersedes: [The Christian and the Law] Please permit me to offer a personal perspective on the relationship between a Christian and the Law as we find it in the Old Testament. Previous discussion has wondered whether Jesus repealed, fulfilled, or somehow changed the Law, and others have asked why Christians don't feel bound by all the detailed regulations in Leviticus and elsewhere. Let me offer an analogy. If you look at the statute laws of some States in this Union, as they were in, say, 1850, you will find a lot of legislation about slaves. About importing them, buying and selling them, proper and improper treatment, disputes over ownership, status of fugitives, and much more. Now, on 1865 December 18, something very strange happened to these laws. They were not repealed or amended individually; the 'letter of the law' remained on the statute book. But they all suddenly ceased to be operative. The reason was not a change in the law; it was a change in US, in the human condition. At that moment, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, and hence made obsolete all laws relating thereto. Similarly, on Good Friday 781AUC, something very strange happened to the old Law, and for the same reason. By His Atonement, Christ changed for ever the human condition, so that the Law and the Covenant no longer applied. Before His sacrifice, we were separated from God, related to him by commandments, and laws, and contracts. Thereafter, we are reconciled to God, and our relation with him is forever different. In the terms of the Prophecy of Elias, the Age of the Law ended, and the Age of Grace began. But the change is not in the Law, but in us: we that were slaves to sin are now free men in Christ.