For a relationship with God, the author insists, is not through the observance of the Law, but through “faith”, “hope” and “love” (,23,24)
As regards the central contents of the Law (the Decalogue and that which is in accordance with its spirit), Ga 5:18-23 affirms first of all: “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the Law” (5:18). Having no need of the Law, a person will spontaneously abstain from “works of the flesh” (5:19-21) and will produce “the fruit of the Spirit” (5:22). Paul adds that the Law is not contrary to this (5:23), because believers will fulfil all that the Law demands, and will also avoid what the Law prohibits. According to Rm 8:1-4, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” has freed believers from the powerlessness of the Mosaic Law in such a way that “the just precepts of the Law may be fulfilled”. One of the reasons for redemption was precisely to obtain this fulfilment of the Law!
In the Letter to the Hebrews, the Law appears as an institution that was useful in its time and place. 160 But true mediation between the sinful people and God is not in its power (7:19; 10:1). Only the mediation of Christ is efficacious (9:11-14). Christ is a High Priest of a new kind (7:11,15). Because of the connection between Law and priesthood, ”the change of priesthood involves a change of law” (7:12). In saying this, the author echoes Paul’s teaching according to which Christians are no longer under the Law’s regime, but under that of faith www.hookupdate.net/escort-index/college-station/ in Christ and of grace.
For James, as for the Christian community at large, the moral demands of the Law continue to serve as a guide (2:11), but as interpreted by the Lord. 161 This is “the perfect law of liberty” (1:25; 2:12-13), which is concerned with working through a faith that is active (2:14-26).
This last example shows the variety of positions in relation to the Law expressed in the New Testament, and their fundamental agreement. James does not announce, like Paul and the Letter to the Hebrews, the end of the Law’s reign, but he agrees with Matthew, Mark, Luke and Paul in underlining the priority not only of the Decalogue but also the precept of love of neighbour (Lv ) which leads to the perfect observance of the ent then depends on the Old. It is read in the light of Christ, who has confirmed the precept of love and has given it a new dimension: “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn ; ), that is, to the sacrifice of one’s life. The Law is thereby more than fulfilled.
In the Old Testament, prayer and cult occupy an important place because these activities are privileged moments of the personal and communal relationship of the Israelites with God who has chosen and called them to live within his Covenant
Prayer and cult in the Pentateuch. The narratives show typical situations of prayer, especially in Gn 12-50. Cries of distress (-13), requests for favour (-14), acts of thanksgiving (), as well as vows (-22) and consultations of the Lord about the future (-23) are to be found. During the Exodus, Moses intercedes 162 and the people are saved from extermination (,14).
As a primary source for the knowledge of the institutions, the Pentateuch assembles aetiologies that explain the origin of places, times and sacred institutions. Places like Shechem, Bethel, Mamre, Beersheeba. 163 Sacred times like the sabbath, sabbatical year, jubilee year, feast days are fixed, including the Day of Atonement. 164