Here is an excerpt from the article 'The Sermon On The Mount Is For You' concerning the law.
http://bible-truths.com/lake16-D3.htm --------------
Here it is, simply and profoundly:
"A NEW commandment I give unto you, That you love one another [same as the Old Commandment, right? No, here is were the new "AS" part comes in...]
...That you love one another AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, that you also love one another" (John 13:34). Now that brings a whole lot more meaning to the "old" commandment which they had from the beginning. Loving "AS" Jesus loved, is a whole new ball game, as they say.
There was and is nothing wrong with the Law of Moses. God calls it "MY law."
The problem was never with the Law, but with the people:
"O that there were such an HEART in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always..." (Deut. 5:29).
The problem was never with God's Law, but with the peoples' heart-they were carnal, and when one is carnal, he cannot keep a "spiritual" law:
"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:6-7).
And here is absolutely proof that there needed a change in the Covenant, not in the LAW OF THE COVENANT:
"For if that first covenant ['covenant,' not law] had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For FINDING FAULT WITH THEM, He said, Behold, the days come, says the Lord, when I will make a NEW COVENANT [not a New Law] with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah... For this is the covenant that I will make... I will put my LAWS [same old laws-but new covenant] into their MIND, AND WRITE THEM IN THEIR HEARTS..." (Heb. 8:7-9).
There it is!
The New makes alive and ends in
"eternal [eonian-immortal]
LIFE.""Who also has made us able ministers of the NEW Testament; not of the letter, but of the SPIRIT: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives LIFE (II Cor. 3:6).
This along with the blood sacrifice of Jesus IS the New Covenant; the Gospel; the Kingdom of God.
The Old letter of the law was glorious, but the newly applied Spirit of the law does
"much more exceed in glory" (II Cor. 3:9). The Old Covenant law was how God's people were judged under Moses: the New Covenant law is how God's chosen Elect will be judged under Jesus.
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mercy, peace and love
Kat