The way of Holiness

I have it in my head that the Pharisees were sticklers for the law. Don't you? This is what most people think of when they think of the Pharisees...legalism! However, what the Pharisees had in mind, what they were so legalistic about, was not so much the law of God as it was their interpretation of God's law, and even more specifically, their own man-made traditions. Man-made laws.

Mark 7:8 "For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do."
Mark 7:9 "And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition."

In this light, one can view the behavior of much of Churchianity today as being rather legalistic, much like the Pharisees, in that they cling tenaciously to their own laws, customs and rituals, (legalism!) and deny that God's law (moral, ethical, civil) is still binding for us today. Not even the Pharisees dared attempt to completely do away with God's law.

"Ye shall be holy; for I am holy", said God. Leviticus 11:44 But how in the world do we do that? Through God's law, the way of holiness.

Grace & Peace,
Joshuah

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RJ Rushdoony, Vol. 1, The Institutes of Biblical Law, p. 6-7

"In analyzing now the nature of biblical law, it is important to note first that, for the Bible, law is revelation. The Hebrew word for law is torah, which means instruction, authoritative instruction."

"The law is the revelation of God and His righteousness. There is no ground in scripture for despising the law. Neither can the law be relegated to the Old Testament, and grace to the new."

"There is no contradiction between law and grace. The question in James' Epistle is faith and works, not faith and law. Judaism had made law the mediator between God and man, and between God and the world. It was this view of law, not the law itself, which Jesus attacked.. As Himself the Mediator, Jesus rejected the law as mediator in order to re-establish the law in its God-appointed role as law, the way of holiness. He established the law by dispensing forgiveness as the law-giver in full support of the law as the convicting word which makes men sinners. The law was rejected only as mediator and as the source of justification. Jesus fully recognized the law, and obeyed the law. It was only the absurd interpretations of the law he rejected."