What does it mean to be “under the law?” [b]Romans 3:9 – 19 “What then? Are we protecting ourselves? Are we making excuses? By all means, No! For we accuse ourselves beforehand, all both Jewish and Greek were under sin, jus as it has been written: Everyone has gone astray, together they have become depraved; there is no doer of good, no not even one. From the Heavens Hashem gazed down upon mankind, to see if there exists a reflective person who seeks out G-d. For there is no man so wholly righteous on the earth that he always does good and never sins. For there is no sincerity in the mouth of any of them, their inner thought is treacherous; their throat an open grave. Their tongue is glib. They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent; a spider’s venom is under their lips. His mouth is filled with false oaths, with deception and malice; under his tongue is mischief and iniquity. Their feet run to evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thought of wickedness; plunder and calamity are in their roads. They know no way of peace. Transgression’s word to the wicked is in my heart, that there should be no dread of G-d before his eyes. But we know that what Torah speaks it says to those in the Torah, so that every mouth should be closed and the entire world would become liable to judgment by G-d.” [/b] We have heard many times these verses used to show the condition of Israel, as they are under the law, and the church is under grace. But these show the condition of all mankind, and that when the law speaks it speaks to every mouth and that all the world was guilty before the Father. The law tells us we are guilty and we are all doomed unless the Father provides us a way to be redeemed. When we are placed under grace by faith, the law still teaches us what is right and wrong. That is its designed function and its lawful use (1 Timothy 1:8). To be under the law is to be without grace and therefore subject to the law, and therefore guilty. There is no teaching here that law was for “old Testament” Jews or that they were redeemed by it. Remember that when Paul taught, the Bereans checked out everything he spoke by searching the ”old testament” that these things were so. There was no “new testament” to verify his words. [b]Romans 6:14-16 “For sin will not rule you: for you are not under legalism but grace. What then? Shall we transgress Torah, because we are not under legalism but under grace? May it not be! Do you not know that you are slaves to whom you submit? You are in submission to whom you present yourselves as servants, either to sin, which leads to death, or to righteousness.” [/b] Verse 14 is probably quoted more often than not to explain the doctrine that Yeshua died to free the church from the “old testament” laws. This is a crazy way to teach Scripture! Paul begins the 6th chapter of Romans by telling both Jew and Gentile that they are now dead to sin. Remember that sin is transgression of Torah, so now Jew and Gentile alike are dead to the transgression of Torah. This was accomplished by identification with the baptism of Yeshua, which was the death of the sinful nature, the body of sin, also called the old man. Our nature now will uphold Torah. When Yeshua died, the body of sin was crucified, not the law. If you are not under grace, then you only have law which produces sin when disobeyed. You then become a servant to sin and under its dominion. Not because you obey it, but because you do not obey it. It becomes your only master. This old man is the old nature, the Adamic nature. In Hebrew thinking, it is called the “yetzer hara” or the evil inclination. The “old man” must serve the law because he has no other master and hence is under the dominion of sin when he breaks the law. In other words, he is using the law for what it was not intended to be used. It is said that the English phrase "my old man", referring to a woman's husband, comes from this term. In other words, she is referring to a husband that she can never please. So the context here is the crucifying of the old man or the body of sin, and therefore being "dead to sin.” When Messiah died, he reversed the nature of his people from being prone to transgress Torah, to being prone to uphold Torah. In verses 11 through 13 Paul teaches us not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies anymore. Again let us remember that sin is transgression of Torah. [b]1 John 3:4 “Everyone who commits a sin then is doing a lawless deed, for sin is without Torah. And you know that He was revealed, so that He would take our sins, and sin is not in Him. Everyone who remains in Him does not transgress Torah and everyone who is without Torah has neither seen Him or knows Him.”[/b] We see that being “under the law” is synonymous with being under the dominion of sin, not Torah. Again, Torah teaches us what sin is, i.e. Torah is NOT sin. To be under grace is to be a servant of that which is righteous and that you are now freed from SIN (Romans 6:18). We have now been given the power to serve the Most High now rather than serve sin. In Romans chapter 7 Paul begins by telling us that he is now addressing those who know Torah. He says: [b]“Are you ignorant brothers, for I am speaking for those who know torah, that the Torah rules the man for as long a time as he would live?”[/b] He is relating this teaching to those who know and understand Jewish culture. He begins by relating a very common story in Jewish parables. [b]“For the married woman is bound to the living husband by the Torah. Consequently then while the husband is living will she not be called an adulteress if she would become a wife to another husband; but if her husband would die, she is set free by the Torah.”[/b] Torah teaches that a marriage contract is forever or until her husband dies. The law states that when she chooses to marry a man that she must stay married to whom she chose. The law also states that when he dies she is freed from him. Now who is the man? The law? NO! Paul just explained to us in chapter 6 that the man is the body of sin. So, let's interpret the parable as understood by the ones who knew the law. The husband is the body of sin, under the law, which can never be pleased. According to the law, she must stay married to him. If she tries to marry another, i.e. grace, while still married to her first husband, the body of sin, she is an adulteress, for she cannot serve two masters. If she, according to the law, dies to sin, i.e. the old man dies, then she is free to marry another. The law, when disobeyed, is a curse and produces the body of sin, an old man which can never be pleased. To be under the law is to be without grace and under the constant dominion of sin, the old man. In the entire context of Romans 6 we see that there is no teaching here that the Jews were under law and now the church is under grace. Clearly we are all under the dominion of sin until we accept His wonderful grace. I see only two ways to go. If one rejects grace then he is under the law and bound by it. If, however, law was designed to save anyone, then there would be no need for grace. So now catch this. When you died to sin, you were free to marry another. By means of this death, you have chosen to be married to the Son, You are the Bride of Messiah. So as long as He lives you are bound to Torah. [b]“So then, my brothers, you also died to legalism through the body of Messiah, now you belong to another, to the one who has been raised from the dead, so that we would bear fruit from G-d.” [/b] The good seed planted in the children of G-d is Torah. A seed always produces fruit after its own kind. The fruit produced in the child of G-d is Torah. Torah is the fruit of G-d! As stated, there are ten occurrences of this phrase “under the law” in the “new testament”. We have covered three. We are all under the law until we are under grace, and to be under the law is to be under the dominion of sin.