Responses to my "When should the church worship corporately?"

Most of the responses to my original post has been along the line of the following:

we exited the age of the law, now we can still keep the law if we choose to, but that is not what saves a person, in fact if you keep the law as it is written you would never get to heaven. the only way to heaven is by being a christian.

Here is my response:

Your theology is not quite right. If we are able to keep all the laws (given or otherwise) if we do not sin, we would be able to get to heaven. The rub is that we are NOT able to keep the law (given or otherwise) NOT avoid sinning. That's why we need grace.

You would have been correct if you had said, "Trying to keep the law would not save a person." because it is impossible to keep the Law.

The second problem is your statement "we can still keep the law if we choose to". It would imply that we can choose ignore the law. If so, then we can choose not to honor our parents or not to abstain from bearing false witness, or from theft, or adultery, or from committing murder, etc.

Just because we are forgiven for our sin does not mean that we should not longer attempt to avoid sin.

Romans 6:1-2
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

The caveat is that there are two types of law. One is universal (apply to everyone at all time). The other type is given only to the Jews to be apply in the period before Christ.

e.g., honoring our parents and abstain from bearing false witness, and from theft, and adultery, and from committing murder are part of the universal part of the law.

e.g., the dietary laws the ceremonial laws are given only to the Jews to be apply in the period before Christ.

So which type is the keeping of the Sabbath? Since God gave the example of resting on the seventh day before there were Jewish people much less the giving of the law to the Jewish people, we can argue that it is universal.


p.s., It really bother me that there are Christians out there who flat out write off "The Law" as if it no longer matters because they are now saved. I've seen it not only in responses to the Sabbath discussion but also to a plethora of Christian issues. Sure, we are not able to be sinless. Sure, we are saved from the punishment due to violators. However, "the Law" (the universally applicable part) is still the standard by which we determine if we are on the right track. We've got to heed to Paul's urging in Romans 6:1-2.