It is about Israel and Gentiles.
Right, but Paul is talking to Gentiles about Israel being cut off and the gentiles being grafted in.
Jews first then Gentiles.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
Romans 2:9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
. . .
Acts 13:46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.
Acts 18:6 But when they opposed and insulted him, he shook out his garments and told them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."
Yes, everywhere Paul went where there were Jews, he went to them first, and then preached to the Gentiles. That's what he's doing in those passages in Acts. It's simply describing the order in which Paul visited those he preached to.
Or do you not realize that Paul visited several locations early in his ministry where he focused on the Jews first, and then went to the gentiles? And did you not notice how he stops going to the Jews after a certain point?
Acts 3:26 When God raised up His servant, He sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."
You shouldn't cherry pick verses.
Context is important.
Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days.You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.” - Acts 3:19-26
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts3:19-26&version=NKJV
Also, there's no word "first" in the text.
You shouldn't insert words into the text just so it will support your false beliefs. And if the word was in the Bible you use, you should stop using it, as it changes what is being said beyond what was originally written.
We are dead to the old law and dead to sin.
We are under Christ's law.
These two sentences are contradictory.
Only one of them can be true at a time.
You: We are under the law
Paul: We who are dead in Christ are no longer under the law.
I'm gonna go with Paul on this one.
Or have you forgotten (or perhaps never read) what Paul said in Romans 7?
Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. - Romans 7:1-6
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans7:1-6&version=NKJV
We ARE NOT under any law.
There is a new law; it is the old law with some changes.
Hebrews 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
You're quoting a verse about the law in a book written to the people of the law, Israel.
Tell me how that doesn't support my position.
To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
You really need to pay attention to the context, instead of cherry picking verses, GT.
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more;and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law;to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law;to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you. - 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1Corinthians9:19-23&version=NKJV
If you keep sinning and not repenting, then sin reigns in you.
False.
Did you not read the last verse there?
Here it is again:
For
sin shall not have dominion over you, for
you are not under law but under grace. - Romans 6:14
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans6:14&version=NKJV
Do you not know what "dominion" means?
We have to train ourselves and work out our salvation.
Saying it doesn't make it so.
We are to live up to what we have received. I can give you scripture references to all of that.
False.
And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. - Romans 6:13
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans6:13&version=NKJV
It was the minister of death because death was the punishment.
The verse says "ministry," not minister. Why are you trying to put us back under the ministry of death? Please pay attention.
Right, and Jesus gave us the new law.
False.
There is no "new law."
Grace is not law, GT.
Stop trying to make Grace into Law.
Where is the old law called the good news?
No such thing as "the old law."
You missed it:
But if
the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, - 2 Corinthians 3:7
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2Corinthians3:7&version=NKJV
The Law of Moses is what is being referred to and is what we are talking about here.
Or do you not know that Moses brought the 10 commandments (which represent the whole law God later gave to Israel) down from the mountain, written on two tablets of stone?
Of course there are people who kept the old law; and, the saved in Christ keep the old law.
Wrong.
Those saved in Christ are NOT UNDER ANY LAW, as per Paul.
Those who had a hard time keeping the old law are the Jews who didn't have faith.
Which has nothing to do with this.
You haven't proved the twelve taught differently than Paul.
I just did!
Here's more evidence:
The twelve taught "KEEP THE LAW."
Paul said, "Don't keep the law, because it's a curse!"
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” ),that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. - Galatians 3:10-14
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians3:10-14&version=NKJV
Not only that, you don't realize that people obeyed the old law.
And where ANY of them failed, they failed at keeping the whole law. Which is why, prior to Christ's sacrifice, they needed the sacrificial laws.
I can give you scriptures if you want.
:yawn:
True believers uphold the law. See Romans 3:31.
"Upholding the law" and "being under the law" are two completely different things.
What? Give the scriptures for that. Circumcision of the flesh was a sign that one was in a covenant with God, and was a special person to Him.
http://www.messianicjudaism.me/musings/2011/04/29/karet-or-being-cut-off-in-torah/
Jesus didn't teach the old law, he taught the new law, and he said it was an easy yoke.
He reinforced the Mosaic law.
You say hard to bear because you don't understand what that is pertaining to; because Jesus says not hard.
I'm not the one who said it, GT. Peter did.
I was paraphrasing Peter when I wrote that for you.
Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? - Acts 15:10
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts15:10&version=NKJV
Honestly, GT, it's like you don't know the Bible at all!
Paul is explaining that we are not saved by the PURIFICATION WORKS of the law.
FALSE.
Paul calls the law written and engraved on stone the ministry of death.
That's the 10 commandments.
The 10 commandments are used as a synecdoche for the whole law, from the laws prohibiting certain foods, to the laws explaining when to sacrifice, to the laws against murder, theft, adultery, bearing false witness, and coveteousness.
THE WHOLE LAW!
That is what the works of the law are.
Again, since you missed it:
But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. - 2 Corinthians 3:7-11
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2Corinthians3:7-11&version=NKJV