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One more text that shows the relation of grace and works. Fruits/works of righteousness produced by receiving the law of faith, the law of Christ.
Phillipians 3. See how Paul himself actually describe the works of the law and the works of the flesh as the same. And then he also give some examples as to what this constitutes.
Then he goes on to say that we are not saved by the law, but by faith. So notice what he clearly speak of here, what he means by "law" here.
Fruit (works) of the Law of works. Same as the law of the letter/of the flesh/ the law of this world. Those who are under the old, immature law and covenant. They walk by "sight" (the literal, shallower, the apparant)
VS.
Fruit (works) of the Law of Faith.
Same as the law of the spirit. The law of Christ. Those who are under the new, everlasting law and covenant. They walk by faith.
See ongoing discussion in my previous post on my wall.
2. Cor 3. Romans 8. John 7:24.
Works of the law, of the flesh (self righteousness,) is the typical, lesser, the local, the physical/apparant, the more superficial/external/outer, the immature, the temporal, what is limited to outer factors like race, nation, genes, gender, status and so on.
See Romans 2:28-29. For one good example. Also Galatians 3:26-29.
Not your own doing, does not mean it does not require all our effort, it means it is not deeds done by the law and spirit of self, of the flesh, of the world. But our works must come as a result of faith in Christ and His narrow path.
It is by grace, yet still a cooperation with the 3 holy dignitaries.
It is NOT a path that is automatic, it is not the plain and easy road, and we must choose it.
Free to choose, but the most costly of all paths. Impossible in and of ourselves. Hence why we need the atonement and righteousness of Christ.
Works of the law is the same as the law of the flesh, which is also referred to as self righteousness, In Romans 8 we also have another expression associated with it: the law of sin and the law of death.
Romans 8:1-4
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."
So, yes, it is the works committed under the old, immature law, covenant and order, which is the unsanctified immature nature of humanity. Hence why we must be sanctified, and advance forward on the path of the cross, crucifying the flesh = the sinful human character, and be born again under the new, everlasting law, covenant and order of Jesus Christ. Which is how He set us free from the law of bondage the law of sin. the law of works, the law of the flesh, the law that leads to death.
See also Galatians 4.
Every single one has to be born by the spirit and learn to walk by faith. Every believer, but also the church as a whole, go from immaturity to maturity. From the law of the letter, of the flesh (unsanctified human) where we walk by sight, to the law of the spirit, where we walk by faith (sanctified human). Every human has to go through this process, as nobody start of fully sanctified. It is a process. But as for the church of God as a whole, literal Israel still lived in what we call the typical age, or the old testament age. They could not understand or receive all the same light as those who lived from the time of Christ and also in the generations after. There was a shift from the time of the death of Christ that marked the onset of the New covenant age for the church. This was marked by an earthquake that tore the curtain seperating the holy from the most holy place in the sanctuary.
The pharisees had much more of an excuse to not comprehend the danger of having such an overfocus on external regulations and the physical, typical, compared to our generation. Because they had received much less light than those who take pride in the external and the flesh in Spiritual Israel today. However, Christ said that if He had not come to the world and given them a higher light for the time, they would not have sinned, but as they then rejected Him and His teachings, he said they had now demonstrated that they hated both Him and the Father. They loved the immature truth more than the mature truth, and hence they loved the lie, failing the test.
John 15:24:
"If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father."
However the requirements are also higher today, the more light which is available. Matthew 5: 17 to 20
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 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. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
See Ephesians 3. 2. Cor 3.
I am not speaking of an abolishment of the law. Do you understand that there are two different laws in question here? See the bible verses on the white image.
The law of works, of the flesh, which is self righteousness.
This is as Romans 8 describe, the law of sin and death. 2. Cor. 3 also refer to it as the law of the letter, the law that kills.
Vs.
The law of faith, which is the law of Christ. This is the spirit and the fullness of the law.
If we are alive we will always have some kind of fruit, works of sort, even if we are just thinking and making decisions. Hence we must produce righteous fruit, which can only come by faith, by being born by the spirit, crucifying the law of the flesh, advancing forward on the path of the cross, which is the sanctification process of God.
Hence we walk from judging by sight (by the letter) to judging by faith (by the spirit).
We are saved by grace through faith, but faith without fruit or works is dead.
From outer circumcision to inner. Where the external functions more as types for the antitypical.
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