----- Original Message ----- 
From: <malajaa@...>
> Your language about Christ being our new Law is somewhat
> suspect to me.

Actually, it's not my language.  It's Christ's, it's John's, it's Paul's, 
etc.  It's exegesis of John and Paul who are both telling us that Christ is 
the New Torah.

> Because there is a relationship between Christ and the Law written on our
> hearts, it does not follow that Christ IS that Law.

The law foreshadowed Christ himself.  The exegesis of John and Paul (and any 
other NT author) require us to see what is in the OT as a shadow of the 
reality.  Christ is the Lawgiver, Lawkeeper, and Law.  *All* of it (Luke 24) 
foreshadowed Christ.  It's not merely metaphor.  It's not merely analogy. 
It is a shadow of the reality, with the reality working backward behind the 
shadow.

>He is more than
> that.  He is much more than that.  "Christ is our life" Col. 3. and etc.

True.

> To emphasize that relationship to the point of calling Christ the Law
> makes a connection which will probably bring more of the Torah of Moses
> (as represented in your citations -Leviticus) into the New Covt, and
> de-emphasize the newness of the new walk by the Spirit, in grace.

First, the Torah of Moses is evident in the New Covenant in that Christ, 
Paul, James, and John all quote various portions of the Torah as if they are 
still realities in their day.  The uses of the Torah are in present tense. 
It is simply a reductionist hermeneutic to simply wipe large portions of 
passages off the screen by quoting Romans 6 or Galatians 2.  There's a 
reason our CT brethren tend toward the error they do... the Torah is 
actually in the text.  They aren't concocting verses... they are reading 
*what* is there.  We cannot delude ourselves into thinking that we can 
simply dismiss the way they are reading those verses with a slight swing of 
our Romans 6 wand, as if it is obvious for all to see.  We *have* to spend 
the hard exegetical work necessary to harmonize the existence of Torah in 
the New Covenant with Romans and Galatians and James without resorting to 
what amounts to proof-texting verses from contexts in which they must 
remain.  We cannot do justice to the text by simply slapping a "we're no 
longer under law, but grace" verse over against CT when the verse does not 
answer *why* Christ, John, James and Paul are using Torah as command.

Second, Christ and the New Torah is part and parcel to that newness of the 
new walk... it is not antithetical.

>Yes,
> we are slaves to Christ, but our Christian life should also be
> characterized by fruit bearing, and manifestation of the life of the Son
> of God.

Correct.  We are fruit-bearing slaves, images of the Son.

Chad Bresson
Xenia, OH