Unlearning Man’s teachings and relearning God’s teachings.

Chapter 2: Unlearning Man’s teachings and relearning God’s teachings.

by Rafael Batista

If you a Christian you must be clothed in the Armor of Christ. What are the characteristics of Christ? The very characteristics listed in the excerpt of scripture listed in Ephesians 6:10-17 and also in Chapter 1. Truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, and the spirit which is the word of God.

So as we can see in Chapter 1, some may have a very narrow view of truth and righteousness. Let us look at the other element in the armor of God, the spirit, which is the word of God. In this people are divided. People accept that the study of the word is a good thing, but some put limits on how and with whom (for fear of having members falling into false doctrine usually). Other churches frown on free thought and discourage questions that dig too deep. Many want to maintain a simple Christianity free from complexity.

In my opinion it is good for a church to be cautious of theology that limits salvation to a particular thing. For example: you must be baptized a certain way or in a certain name to be saved, you must speak in tongues to be saved, you must follow church doctrine to be saved, you must go to church every service to be saved, you must believe in this particular aspect of Jesus’ teaching to be saved. It is exactly this kind of thinking that has separated Christians from other Christians for 2 millennia. Unity in Christ can only come by lessening the importance given to non-biblically based theology.

The bible is very clear on what is required for salvation.

John 3:3

In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:35-36

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Romans 1:16

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

Romans 10:9

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

2 Corinthians 7:10

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

In these verses we can see examples of the very things we were talking about. Firstly knowledge in believing that Jesus did, in fact, exist. This knowledge is in opposition to what atheists and skeptics believe, that Jesus was just an ordinary man. Jesus was the lamb offered for the sins of mankind. Believing in that truth leads you to salvation. Belief then leads to faith. So maintaining that belief is the power of faith. Note that the Hebrew word for faith (emunah) means to support and/or to persevere. Also note that the New Testament Greek word for believe is “peitho” and peitho carries a connotation of obedience. If you look it up in a concordance or study the Greek word it means “to follow, listen, and obey while having trust in”. So when you see the word “disobey” in the New Testament, the Greek word is often “apeitho”. The prefix “a” means “not”. In other words, to NOT follow, listen, or obey, or as usually translated to DISobey. So belief is not merely being assured, but also being faithful and obeying that assurance. So belief is not merely trusting, but also being faithful and obeying that trust.

Righteousness can be seen in the John 3:35 and 2 Corinthians 7:10 (in the verses shown above) where key words such as obey and repentance are evident. To obey the son of God is just as much a part to salvation as knowledge and faith. To discover truth you must be willing to seek knowledge to know if what you believe is reliable.

The Journey to Rediscovering your Christian Roots.

There are many who have written books on this subject and I encourage people to read these books to know why they believe what they believe. One great one I always encourage people to read is “The Case for Christ”. If you do not know why you believe what you believe then you are no different from the typical Orthodox Jew who follows the teachings of his rabbi blindly, not knowing what he does or the typical Muslim who follows the teachings of his Imam or Sheikh without question. If you are a Christian I feel it is of the utmost crucial importance to:

A. To try to the best of your ability to know Jesus whom you have chosen to serve for life and love.

B. To try to the best of your ability to learn what Jesus expects of you.

C. To understand who Jesus was in respect to whom he was prophesied to be.

Point A is the simplest. It is not good for someone to marry someone they do not know, because they may very much dislike the person they are marrying. It is not good for someone to adopt an older child they have never met, the child may be more than they can handle. When it comes to religion most people are in an “arranged marriage”. They receive most of what they believe from their parents. They may have a difference of opinion on certain topics but the framework was still inherited. The upside, to this, is that everyone has the ability to decide if they want to go through with the arranged marriage or not.

Consider a teaching from Jesus.

Luke 14:28-31

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish”. Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

In layman’s terms, if you want to enter a relationship with Jesus, it is crucial for you to discover who it is that you are serving. How can someone claim to know Jesus and you’ve never even taken the time to really truly read about him? Jesus is not simply the little voice in your head telling you to do good. He is soo much more than that.

Point B Know what Jesus expects of you. Very close to point A. When you enter into a relationship with someone it really helps to know the person, their likes and dislikes. Even with a friend. If someone hates when you smack them in the back of the head and is willing to even fight you because you did it, it would be beneficial for you to know that about someone you call a friend. You would not want your friendship to end because playing around you decided to smack him in the back of the head and found yourself in a fight. If someone hates when you touch their face soo much so that they take great offense at you touching their face, it would be wise to know that. So friends get to know one another and so friendship successfully continues. In the same way people in a relationship get to know one another so that their relationship may flourish. In the same way should you get to know what Jesus expects of you so that your relationship with Jesus may be an ever-lasting relationship.

Point C This one requires more study but is nonetheless, very important. The mistake made today is that we look at Christianity from a perspective 2000 years modified. A Christianity that started with Jesus was passed successfully to his apostles, then to the earliest church fathers. Disagreement and contention arose with most of the church fathers we are familar with today. Anti-Semitism became very prominent due to Jewish rebellions in the Roman Empire and Catholicism eventually hi-jacked Christianity stripping away the Hebraic roots of the faith. Protestants eventually came about by breaking with the catholic church and as a result all the denominations we have today. After centuries of change and missionary work eventually you receive the religion from your parents.

I think as Christians we need to start looking at being a Christian from the perspective 2000 years ago. When we take a look at the New Testament there were no Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, or Pentecostals. All they had were the Old Testament Scriptures. So anything new that could arise needed to be in accordance with those very scriptures. The sayings of Jesus were initially preserved verbally. If something came along that contradicted the divinely inspired scriptures and said it was “from God” the inevitable result would be that it would be rejected and not believed. Why? Because no one can contradict God. God was very clear in his scriptures as to what he wanted.

Deuteronomy 13:1-3

Complete Contradiction

The Importance of Agreement between scriptures.

There is a very big reason why the majority of Christians do not accept the book of Mormon as scripture. There are big reasons why the Gnostic gospels and the other writings were not accepted as scripture. For the most part (other than authenticity disputes) the reason why those scriptures are not accepted is because they do not agree with the scriptures we have and accept as divinely inspired. Many times it was prophesied in the New and Old Testament that many will come deceiving the people of God with lies.

How can we prevent people from deceiving us? By first praying, but not limiting ourselves there. We then need to study his scripture for ourselves and making sure we know what God has said he wants.

1 Samuel 15:22

But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

In other words prayer, praise, and worship has always been good, but God’s preference has always been obedience.

So for point C when I say it is important to know who Jesus was in respect to who he was prophesied to be, I proclaimed it is important to look at Christianity from an untainted perspective. What was the perspective of believers back then?

If Jesus taught what was in the scriptures

the scriptures prophesied about a messiah

Jesus fulfills all the messianic prophecies

then Jesus is the Messiah.

This statement cannot work a different way. If Jesus did not fulfill prophecies he is not the messiah. If a person as great as he was not even mentioned or prophesied about in the Old Testament then a messiah is not scriptural and he is just making stuff up. Who would believe a savior from God that God nor his prophets never spoke of nor mentioned? (This is why we do not believe in Mohammad or Joseph Smith). If Jesus contradicted scriptures this would be another clear indication that he was not the Messiah. Jesus in the New Testament constantly contradicted tradition. This is well known by all who study the gospels thoroughly. But Jesus never contradicted scriptures. He expounded on and explained scriptures.

Matthew 5:17-20

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

John 3:36

36Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever does not obey the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

Some translations have “but whoever does not believe the Son”. The reason for this is just like i stated earlier. The original word for believe in Greek “peitho” carries the connotation of obedience. In this verse the word used is “apeitho” which in Greek means to disobey. You can find this word in a Strong’s concordance under #544 along with its definition of “disobedience”.

So why where the Pharisees, Saducees, and Scribes of that time angry with Jesus? Well there were many who weren’t actually. Many met and spoke with Jesus and there are many scriptures to prove that. It would seem that those who really had knowledge of their scriptures and held them in higher regard than man-made traditions, clearly saw that Jesus did not speak against scripture. Unfortunately those who remained attached to their traditions, or those who did not like being corrected, these would quickly develop problems with Jesus. In other words ignorance can lead to a lack of revelation. In this case, people lost their salvation because they clung to what they had learned as opposed to what was actually true and in scripture.

So what happened? Why do we not follow many of God’s original commandments anymore? Did the apostles believe and teach the commandments? Actually they did. This is very evident in their writings. But unfortunately many do as Peter stated.

2 Peter 3:15-17

And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

Note that Peter says ignorant. In other words if you have not studied scripture (Jesus and the apostles always referred and taught from old testament scripture since it was all they had) then you are capable of misunderstanding what it is they were trying to say. In the same way ignorance also makes you susceptible to be incorrectly taught these very same doctrines.

Did Paul keep the law?

Acts 25:8

Then Paul made his defense: “I have done nothing wrong against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar.”

Was Paul lying when he said he had done nothing wrong against the law of the Jews? What was the law of the Jews? The very same laws in the Old Testament! To say that Paul did not keep the law is to call Paul a liar. What did Paul teach?

Romans 3

31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Paul knew his teaching about the difference between law and grace was a very hard teaching. He also knew some people would read his teachings and pervert them saying you no longer had to keep the Old Testament law because Paul said so. So in this portion of scripture he sets the record straight. People take Paul’s writings and twist them as Peter spoke. Paul never spoke against the law. His quarrel was amongst those who said the law was their salvation. he also had an issue with those who told gentiles that they were not allowed to be Christians because they did not follow the law. This is wrong in many ways which is why Paul argued so ardently against it. Firstly, law cannot be your salvation. Law makes you conscious of your sin but your salvation is Jesus Christ. Are you saved because you do not murder, nor lie, nor steal? Of course not. Rather these are a secondary consequence and bear testimony to the fact that you are saved. Would you believe that someone who remains a murderer, slanderer, or thief will enter heaven? Of course not.

1 Corinthians 6:8-10

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

So by obeying God’s laws and refraining from doing these things are you saved? Of course not. You are saved through Jesus. But will you continue to do these things after you are saved? Of course not. Because of your relationship with Jesus you will try to obey. So then do we nullify the law by this faith? Not according to Paul. We uphold the law. Just remember that the observance of the law does not save you, but Jesus. But also take notice that most today keep the laws that are convenient to their lives and present day culture. But we cannot pick and choose which we want to keep. We must keep them all.

Now the second quarrel Paul had was with those that taught that Gentiles must keep the whole law to be saved. Why did he have a problem with this? Because, no one can make a complete turnaround immediately after they are saved. This requires work. The Jews were taught the law since childhood. It was very unreasonable to hold new converts of Christianity accountable to the law when they haven’t had time to learn the law, much less try to incorporate its teachings into their everyday life. It is important to realize therefore that not only did Paul keep the law himself (as Jesus did) but that he also taught that as Christians we should uphold the law. But he warned to not withhold people from converting to Christianity due to unreasonable expectations and to not consider their own righteousness as their salvation. Salvation comes from Christ and we follow the law because we love him, not because we are saving ourselves.

If Jesus followed the law and Paul followed the law, did the person who converted Paul follow the law?

Acts 22

12″A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there.

Did Paul make it very evident (beyond a shadow of a doubt) that he indeed followed the law?

Acts 21 17-24

When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers received us warmly. The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present. Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul:

“You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law.”

In this text James the brother of Jesus and one of the leaders of the Christian church tells Paul to participate in a Nazarite vow. Why? The answer is in the very last verse. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. Would Paul teach a faith contrary to how he believed and practiced?

Were gentiles expected to keep the whole law right away? To that the New Testament would attest to the fact that this was definetly not the case. The early Christians formed a council in Acts 15 to decide what part of the law Christians should follow right away and what they will learn later on as they matured in their walk as a Christian. This was the verdict of the first Christian council recorded.

Acts 15:19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

Note the very last words there are very important. “And is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath”. In other words James was saying that all other laws they will have time to learn them since Moses is preached in every city in synagogues every Sabbath. If James did not care for them to learn the Law of Moses he would not have included this in his decision. This bears to say that James expected them to go to the synagogues and learn the law of Moses. I think it’s even more interesting to note that preaching and congregating took place on the SABBATH (Saturday) and not Sunday. So early Christians did not worship on Sunday, this is a theology taught by the Roman Catholic Church.

Sabbath or Sunday?

Acts 13:13-15

13From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. 14From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath they entered the synagogue and sat down. 15After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue rulers sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak.”

Acts 13:42

As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath.

Acts 13:44-45

44On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.

Note that the Jews saw the crowds. So the crowds here weren’t Jews. So which people were congregating on the Sabbath if the Jews grew jealous at them? The only answer is gentiles. Gentile believers congregated on the Sabbath

Acts 17:2

As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

Note that it was Paul’s custom to congregate on Sabbaths.

After Catholicism, people began to read their scriptures and realize that the Catholic Church was incorrect in their interpretation of many things. But many of them still kept many of the traditions and teachings Catholocism perverted. One of the things Catholicism did, was change the Sabbath worship to Sunday. This was called the Council of Laodicea. In this Catholic council bishops outlawed Saturday worship stating “You shall not Judaize by worshiping on the Sabbath”. This took place in 345 a.d. showing that the majority of early Christians still worshiped on the Sabbath 300 years after Christ, so much so to the fact that it had to be outlawed! Why? This would be an entire lesson and maybe i will dedicate a chapter to this later on. But there is a history of anti-Jewish sentiment in the first, second and third centuries due to Jewish revolts in the Roman empire. This ultimately led to a rejection of all things Jewish. How could you identify a Jewish man? Simple, offer him a piece of pork to eat and see him squirm in his chair or the disgust in his face. Or ask him to help you do work on the Sabbath day, he will refuse. So Christianity eventually separated themselves from most similarities to the Jewish culture. Including biblical commandments themselves.

The following is an excerpt from a church at Constantinople and a perfect display of the severe Anti-Semitism that arose.

“I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms, unleavened bread & sacrifices of lambs of the Hebrews, and all other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspersions, purifications, sanctifications, and propitiations and fasts, and new moons, and Sabbaths, and superstitions, and hymns and chants of observances and Synagogues, and the food and drink of the Hebrews, in one word, I renounce everything Jewish, every law, rite, custom and if afterwards I shall wish to deny and return to Jewish superstition, or shall be found eating with the Jews, or feasting with them, or secretly conversing and condemning the Christian religion instead of openly confuting them and condemning their vain faith, then let the trembling of Gehazi cleave to me, as well as the legal punishments to which I acknowledge myself liable. And may i be anathema in the world to come, and may my should be set down with Satan and the devils.”

Did Jesus oppose the Sabbath? Of course not. Why would Jesus oppose something his father instituted when he said he and his father are one? The truth is that Jesus opposed the things instituted on the Sabbath by the traditions of the elders. Things like not being able to heal on the Sabbath or for a poor paralytic man to not even be able to pick up his mat on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was intended to be a day of rest, not a day of strenuous laws making the Sabbath a difficult day.

So people create false doctrine, stating that they worship on Sunday because Jesus rose on this day. Is this what Jesus taught? Is this what the apostles taught or did? Be careful not to change the word of God for your traditions. Jesus strongly taught against this.

Mark 7:7-9

They worship me in vain;

their teachings are but rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”

And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!

I think we need to start drawing lines in the sand and say to ourselves. If God tells me that something is wrong, will I stop doing it? If God tells me something is right will I start doing it?

The Pharisees believed they were doing right by God in their traditions. But Jesus has a major issue with their tradition and it is simply this. It CONTRADICTED the commands of God! Sunday worship is in every fact a tradition. What is the command of God? Remember that in the day of Jesus and the apostles only the Old Testament existed. The Gospels and epistles of the New Testament had not yet been written. So what does the Old Testament say? What command are we contradicting?

Exodus 20

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Am I trying to remove the focus of Christ by supporting the Sabbath? Of course not. Is it removing the focus of Christ to teach men to give offerings and tithes? No because those offerings and tithes are holy unto the Lord. The Hebrew word for holy is “Hakodesh”. Hakodesh means “set apart for the Lord”. When you tithe you set apart one tenth of all your earnings and it becomes holy unto the lord. Because Holy means set apart. God teaches us that in the same way that he wants 10 percent of your earnings he also wants one day of your week set apart for him. One day that you will make a stand and not work for money. One day that you will pray, worship, and study his word. A day to spend with family and friends and talk and discuss about God and things of God. Also to reflect on him and meditate on him. A day where you will refuse to work for yourself.

Isaiah 56

1 This is what the LORD says:

“Maintain justice

and do what is right,

for my salvation is close at hand

and my righteousness will soon be revealed.

2 Blessed is the man who does this,

the man who holds it fast,

who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it,

and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

God does not make senseless rules. God makes things for a purpose. To say the Sabbath is not necessary is to say that God made a senseless rule. In the passages above, abstaining from work on the Sabbath is equated with righteousness just as abstaining from murder, theft, or adultery is equated with righteousness today. There is no distinction. God wants you to follow ALL his commands whether you understand why you are following them or not. But if you ask God, he usually provide you with the understanding.

Isaiah 58

13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

and from doing as you please on my holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight

and the LORD’s holy day honorable,

and if you honor it by not going your own way

and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,

and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land

and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”

The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

So if you read this and are a practicing (church-going) Christian, a key New Testament verse may come to mind. One that is taught from most pulpits. If you don’t know the verse, if you ask your teacher or pastor concerning our lack of keeping the Sabbath commandment, the answer will probably be.

Colossians 2:16

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

It is important to note that the Sabbath day was not the only Sabbath. There were special Sabbaths also known as High Holy Sabbaths. So when it speaks here about not judging over a Sabbath it is not referring to the normal Sabbath day because everyone worshipped on Sabbath. This was not changed until 300 years later. So the Sabbath days he is referring to are the High Holy Sabbaths.

Remember early Christians did not know about all of these things. They were untaught. So to expect them to celebrate days they have never heard of, Special Sabbaths or festivals they have never celebrated is like expecting an infant to solve an algebra problem. So the issue here is two things. One, that Christians were not raised as Jews so should not be judged for things in which they may have not yet learned. And two, that you should not judge.

The word “judge” is a very misused word today. It is believed that as soon as someone tells you that you did something wrong that they are “judging” you. The word judge means to pass sentence. By telling you about something they believe you did wrong, a person is not “judging” you. They are trying to help you. A perfect example of judgment would be when someone tells you that you are going to hell if you do not do what they say or what they believe. That is the true meaning of judgment. To pass sentence. Another judgment can be that you are not a true Christian unless you listen to them. This is another passing of sentence since they are calling you a non-Christian. A Christian is someone who follows the teachings of Jesus and that is a process. The process entails one over time learning what Jesus wants them to do and incorporating these teachings into their life. Read Chapter 3 for what the bible says about “judging”.

Back to The Law of God

Galatians 3:10

All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

Paul in this chapter of Galatians goes on to explain that through knowledge of the law they became cursed. Why a curse? Didn’t Paul keep the law? Isn’t that what he stated in front of the court? Did he not say we should not make the law void and that we should uphold the law? Did James not say that the claims about Paul teaching people to break the law were untrue? Then why is it that now people who are under the law are under a curse?

Is a person with brain complications held accountable for his lack of knowledge? If a retarded person kills someone out of his ignorance and goes to heaven, will he not be allowed in? After all, the bible does say that murderers will not enter the kingdom of heaven. The truth is that because he is retarded and does not have sufficient knowledge to understand what murder is, and how it is wrong, his ignorance therefore saves him! He is not under the curse of understanding. Because if he did understand that murdering was wrong he would have been condemned by his sin and would not be allowed into heaven. So then the law “Do not Murder” becomes a curse to those who understand it. So then in knowing what sin is you are now condemned. You are under a curse.

So Paul was trying to explain to the Jews in Galatia that the law does not save. That it does not have the power to save. It only shows you what sin is. The only way to salvation is through Jesus.

Romans 3:20

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

So does this mean we can kill, steal, and commit adultery? Of course not. Because scripture shows us these things are sin. How do we know what sin is? Scripture. And since there was no New Testament scripture at the time, we must understand that they were referring to Old Testament scripture.

Let us imitate the original followers of Jesus. Who even for Jesus’ own burial refused to break commandments.

Luke 23:56

Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

1 John 5 1-3

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.

Luke 11:28

Blessed are they who hear the word of God and obey.

Remember again. At the time of Jesus saying this, there was no new testament in existence. So what word of God was he referring to? The Old Testament. If Jesus where to walk into your church today, would he teach any different?