IS THE LAW STILL VALID?

Are we yet "under the law"?  Does the Law of God still exist?  Aren't we under Grace?

Paul and the other apostles wrote that we are no longer under the law, but they also wrote:

Against false gods - 1 Corinthians 8:4-6
Against graven images - Acts 19:23-27
Against greed - Colossians 3:5
Against idolatry - Ephesians 5:5
Against profanity - Ephesians 5:4, Colossians 3:5
Against murder - Revelation 21:8, 1 John 3:15
Against adultery - 1 Corinthians 6:9, Galatians 5:19-21
Against stealing - Ephesians 4:28, Titus 2:10
Against lying - 1 Corinthians 6:9, Ephesians 4:25, Colossians 3:8,9
For Obedience - Ephesians 6:1-3

So what's the deal?  Why all the mention of law in the New Testament if we're not under the law?

Matthew 5:17-18
17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

The Law was never done away with.

BUT! We ARE free from the law, under one condition.

Galatians 5:16-25
16: This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17: For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18: But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
19: Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20: Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21: Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23: Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24: And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.


There is a HUGE distinction between walking in the Spirit and walking in the flesh, and if you walk in the Spirit you have no need for the law because you won't be breaking the law!  The law has NO power over you if you do not break it!

We are no longer under the law, IF we walk in the Spirit.



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