Ephesians Lesson 17 of 39 part 7

Remember that we've said that Christ came as the second Adam to set all of humanity from Adam on to the last person born of woman free from the curse and thereby restore them to God. In the redemption as their redeemer back to where the first Adam was in Genesis 1 and 2. Just as 3:15 promised, vowed and covenanted to man through Adam and woman after death and sin entered them.

Looking at Romans 13 and verses 8-9:


Romans 13:8-9
"Owe (or defraud) no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." (that is the Law of God now written on our hearts and instilled in our minds![Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 11:19] And Paul goes on to list them.) For this, (since love is now the key) Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shall not kill, Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
Who in the world can do that, but a believing receiver. The unsaved and unbelievers (often those who call themselves “Christians”) of the world can't. They can try, but they will fall flat on their face before too long, but the believer who is a receiver is empowered to do that. We are empowered to love our neighbor. We have the capability now to love the neighbor because that is the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments.

Always remember the law as Israel practiced it was always under the terrific threat of punishment if they broke them. We don't have to worry about death if we break the law for stealing. Does that mean we go ahead and steal? No way. We are still under those moral laws that the Holy Spirit empowers us to keep, but the basis for it is love. After all what put Christ on the cross? His love for the human race! He loved us so much that He died for us, and that love is supposed to be promulgated through you and I as receiving believers in the everyday world. So as we enter into this complete freedom of Grace, that doesn't mean that we can be lawless, but it's that the Ten Commandments are not hanging over us like a noose or like a heavy yoke as a burden to heavy to bear, which the Scriptures themselves say was too heavy to bear.
  
Ephesians 2:15
"Having abolished in his flesh (the death of the cross) the enmity, (that was between Jews and Gentiles, the veil of separation) even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;"
Paul speaks of the new man often as a believer. When we become a true believer, we are a receiver, a new person in Christ. We have become a doer of the Word, for the Word is Christ. That's what he's talking about here. Here Paul is talking about the new person, the receiver, as the One Body of Christ. A whole new concept made of Hebrews and Gentiles. One Body with Christ at the Head not as we have now, with a great gulf between, even wider than the veil of separation. So that He could make by virtue of the work of the cross, twain one new man, and consequently making peace. This can be heard and known in John chapter 17 and the LORD's Prayer there revealed. Alright turn to Colossians chapter 2. We like the way this says it. And remember the Colossians were what kind of people? Gentiles. But more than just Gentiles they were considered by Paul more spiritual than those of say Romans or 1&2 Corinthians, just as these Ephesians were. So the language is the same as it is to the Ephesians as he writes to these Gentile believers.

Colossians 2:14
"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, (what did He do with it?) and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross:"
Can you imagine what it would be like for a Gentile to live under the rules and regulations of Judaism? There is no way we or they could cope with that, in the literal since. Because you see that was one of the problems that Paul had with his new believers. They were used to the immoral activity of the pagan idolatrous community. They had no compunction about the dietary laws of Israel and so forth. And so for a Gentile to come under that, man that was something they couldn't even think about. So what does Paul say? "All of that was nailed to His cross." And like we've said, "What did the cross do? It killed. Just as the letter kills. So His cross killed all of those demands of the law. It and they were put to death, they all were ended there." 
The flesh of man in which the Lord was housed for a short time died and in that death the commands, the Law of Moses, the prophets and Psalms were also crucified in Jesus because He was a righteous (a spiritual) man, a man without sin. He was not conceived in sin as natural man is. The seed of woman which was of promise back in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 put on flesh when Mary received the Word spoken by the angle of God. This same seed is hidden within the heart or soul of all mankind, as the spirit at rest or asleep.