“The law” according to Paul is not the “misuse” or the “deeds” of the law. That’s a grossly inadequate way of describing what was happening in the first century.

“The law” according to Paul is the whole of the Mosaic covenant and law. And Paul came to know and understand that the law was fulfilled, laid aside, done away with, nullified, cancelled, legally abrogated, and ended on the cross in the biological sacrifice of Jesus.

The law is the law, and it’s not broken up in parts and pieces. If the law continued in any respect after the cross, then the whole of the law was demanded and continued for the Jews. And if it was demanded after the cross, it was demanded upon ALL JEWS no matter what. There was no picking and choosing which precepts can stay and which can go. And it’s heresy and blasphemy to say “Some Jews could get out from being under the law if they got saved after the cross.”

The Jews absolutely did not have two means to get redeemed and saved between the cross and AD 70. Paul did NOT teach “the sacrifice of Jesus PLUS an alleged 40 year process of continuation of the law” in order to get redeemed and saved in Jesus. Salvation for Paul was NOT based on “40 more years of the law for Israel after the cross”.

It’s a lie and blatant blasphemy to say “a corporate people in Adam and Israel as the resurrected in AD 70 Church” saw Salvation and Atonement in AD 70 after “40 years of the Mosaic covenant and law being effectual after the cross” – as is taught in the Covenant Eschatology Full Preterism cult. This insane teaching radically blasphemes the biological sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that PAID THE PRICE IN FULL for the Church right there on the cross in AD 31! A foolish “40 year covenant change process” was NOT added to what Jesus accomplished on the cross in order to allegedly “save Israel as the Church in AD 70”.

To say “The Mosaic covenant and law continued past the cross” is just one of many reasons why the Covenant Eschatology Full Preterism cult teachers are teaching blasphemy!

This heresy blasphemes the one and only well-pleasing and totally sufficient sacrifice of Jesus on the cross – which was NOT an insane “spiritual alienation death as the substitutionary death of Christ before a physical death” as Don Preston erroneously teaches. Even more heresy!

It took Paul coming along, learning about, and writing about the law being fulfilled and done away with on the cross – for the Jews still thought that animal sacrifices should continue after the cross. Even Paul thought he was doing service to God by killing Christians before he was born again by God. He was zealous for the law before he got saved. The same Jewish religious leaders who crucified Jesus rebelliously demanded that animal sacrifices continue. If God would have marked these Jewish religious leaders for salvation a few years after the cross, they would have quit the animal sacrifices in light of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice, and they would disbanded their priesthood while submitting to the Apostle’s teachings.

Animal sacrifices were according to the law for Israel. If the law remained in effect after the cross, then Israel’s Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) would be effectual for atonement in Israel after the cross. News flash! The biological blood and body sacrifice of Jesus on the cross paid the price in full! The Bride of Jesus as the Body of Christ (the Church) was purchased in full on the cross. The purchase price is not the death sacrifice of Jesus PLUS any insane “40 year process” after the cross – like is taught in the Covenant Eschatology Full Preterism cult! NOTHING gets added to the price that Jesus paid on the cross for the Church with his biological death. NOTHING! “It is finished” actually meant something when Jesus said it!

To be under the LEAST of the precepts in the law is to then be obligated to go about trying to obey ALL of the law. It’s all or nothing. Paul is clear on this. And when Paul said things like, “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law…”, he already knew the law was done away with and finished on the cross, and he was doing this for argument’s sake in a rhetorical way. The very same thing can be said to somebody today who wants to add even a single precept of the law in their life (remember, all or nothing). You can say, “Oh, so you desire to be under the law, do ya? Well then! Let’s examine the law and see what this really means!” And oops! Since you want it in your life (even though it was done away with on the cross), you find out you can’t keep it, you’re now a lawbreaker, and you’re worthy of the penalty of breaking the law! Hence why Paul called the Ten Commandments “the ministry of death”!

2 Corinthians 3:7-8, “7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?”

Yes, of course the law was just, holy, and good. And yes, it was the flesh (sinful nature) in a Jew that made it impossible to perfectly obey the law. But this is the very nature of why God introduced the law to one specific nation, Israel. It was to show in God’s overall redemption plan that sin is utterly sinful, even for a set apart people who had this special relationship with God. Paul argues this in the behinning of Romans.

Of course, only Jesus could fulfill and establish what no other Israelite could accomplish. In Jesus fulfilling and establishing the law, he laid it aside and nailed it to the cross in himself being nailed to cross, thereby abolishing it and establishing a new and living way to God. Because of the blood and body sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, this new and living way to God for the Israelites was established on the cross. It was no longer by the blood of bulls and goats, but the by the blood of Jesus.

This obviously took time in the first century to learn, and Paul helped the learning process tremendously, though not many got it (sadly even today too). The Jewish leadership that crucified Jesus demanded that all the Jews remain under their rebellious leadership – as they looked past the veil to their Holy of Holies bring torn in two when Jesus died – and as they rebelliously continued animal sacrifices and not heeding the teachings of Paul.

Again, the law was only ever for Israel. Nobody else ever had the law. Imagine being a Jew in the first century and trying to tell Egyptians, Asians, and Syrians that they needed the law in their life. They’d rightfully laugh at you. Nobody else besides Israel had the law. The problems in Israel that the law addressed with all the commands and rituals, addressed only Israelites. Since the Syrians or Egyptians were never put under the law by God like Israel was, they had no need for the commands and rituals that Israel had. The Egyptians and Syrians were not given the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai in ca. 1500 BC, nor is anybody today given the Ten Commandments. Only Israel was given the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Mosaic law.

Then there’s the issue of sin in the world before the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law was given to Israel in ca. 1500 BC. From Adam to Moses, death and sin was obviously a problem, but it could never be a law problem, because the law didn’t begin until Mount Sinai with Moses in ca. 1500 BC. And it was only for Israel anyway. So the sin and the death that was taking place prior to the law being given to Israel in ca. 1500 BC had to be another problem besides the law problem.

Adam didn’t have the law that only Israel was given at Mount Sinai. Neither did Noah or Abraham have the law that Israel was given at Mount Sinai.

It takes a lot for some people to come to grips with fully realizing and accepting that the whole of the Mosaic law (it’s not broken up in parts) was fulfilled, laid aside, done away with, nullified, cancelled, abrogated, and ended on the cross in the biological sacrifice of Jesus.

Jesus did what no other Israelite could do for Israel in fulfilling, establishing, and then laying aside the Mosaic covenant and law on the cross.

When we learn about Israel getting their new covenant in Jeremiah 31 and we read God say “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts”, it’s important to know and understand the Law of the Spirit of Life in Jesus.

When Paul says this law of the Spirit set him free from the law of sin and death, Paul knew the ONLY way that he could be set free from the law of sin and death – which is the Mosaic law in Paul’s context here – was if the Mosaic law was fulfilled, laid aside, and done away with on the cross. Otherwise, if Paul was not set free from the Mosaic law, he would be absolutely obligated to go about every single precept in the law, which would then mean that animal sacrifice on Israel’s Yom Kippur were effectual for atonement in Israel after the cross, and so much more. Try telling Paul the blood of Jesus needed some more animal blood for atonement in Israel after the cross. Paul said the Atonement was already received when he wrote Romans!

Romans 5:11, “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”

Nobody today whatsoever has the Mosaic law in any way, shape, or form. Only Israel had it, and it was done away with on the cross for Israel. If you want to go about the least of the law, you’re obligated to go about the whole of the law. And what does the law say if it were still effectual (it is not) and you wanted to get under it?

Galatians 3:10, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”

Galatians 3:12, “And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.”

And therefore, the law would only ever condemn anybody under it, because there is no “living” in it. Again, this is why Paul called the Ten Commandments “the ministry of death and condemnation” in 2 Corinthians 3.

Paul knew there was a better way than being under the law, and the answer is the cross.

Paul knew the Mosaic law was the yoke of slavery. And he knew that if somebody was turning to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, yet turned back towards the law, they would be falling from grace and going back to a yoke of slavery that ended on the cross.

Paul could never say the following if he knew the law continued past the cross in any way, shape, or form.

Galatians 5:1-4, “1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. 3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”

People who believe the law continued after the cross have a certain pair of goggles on, and no matter what I say, they’re going to filter my words (and Paul’s) through their lens. They don’t realize it, but to bring the Mosaic law in any way into the salvation story Jesus provided on the cross is a false gospel. This is how dead serious Paul was about what transpired on the cross. Grace is no longer grace if the Mosaic law is brought into the Gospel story. And it was only Israel anyway that had the Mosaic law that began at Mount Sinai with Moses.

There’s the whole sin problem that went on from Adam to Moses, and this sin problem obviously existed before the law began for Israel in ca. 1500 BC with Moses. This is a lot for some people to take in.

It’s especially difficult for the Covenant Eschatology Full Preterism cult teachers – who have an “old covenant corporate body of Adam” used in “the nature of the Resurrection in AD 70” – because they adopted “Covenant Creation” that says the Genesis Creation account in Genesis chapter 1 is an account of “the creation of covenant and covenant people in Adam under the law”. They confuse and conflate Adam’s fall and Israel getting their old covenant and law in ca. 1500 BC with Moses at Mount Sinai. Since they say an alleged “Old Covenant Age” ended in AD 70 as the “Old Heaven and Earth” ending in AD 70, the erroneously equate “The Old Covenant and Law” with “The Old Heaven and Earth” that began in Genesis 1:1, now heretically interpretting the first verse in the Bible as “In the beginning God create the Old Covenant and Law”.

I get the stubbornness. People are entrenched in certain beliefs and frameworks. Keep in mind, you can’t mix law and grace. And the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus is radically different than the Mosaic law that Paul called the law of sin and death that he said he was set free from. Not mixing law and grace is a central theme for Paul for those who can see it!

The personal flesh (the personal sinful nature) in people LOVES the dos and don’ts of the law. It’s a measuring stick. “How am I doing today? Well, I kinda screwed up that commandment. I’ll do better tomorrow.” To put somebody under law in any respect, believer or unbeliever, is to burden them with a grievous load. The nation of Old Testament Israel felt this heavy load. Unfortunately, their pride consumed them and their hearts were hardened. Paul is very clear on this, because he was once extremely proud of his Jewishness before getting saved by Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Being deceived to believe the law continued past the cross is something entirely different than living out a walk in the Holy Spirit with intimacy of relationship with Jesus after somebody gets genuinely baptized with the Holy Spirit by God. Paul knew his freedom well. He tried teaching it to other Jews, even as he warned non-Jews to stay away from listening to the legalistic Judaizers. Sadly, tons and tons of people today are performing in systems that rival Judaism with the Mosaic law. Rules, codes, formulas, precepts, programs, law, do this, don’t do that, and more. And these systems and frameworks will always come along with cults and false teachers in cults.