Bobzammel

In Galatians 3, Paul tries to make the case that the law is a "curse". He uses an interesting qoute from one of the OT books of Moses: "Cursed is everyone who does not do the Law" This is certainly strange; Paul is saying that everybody who follows the law is cursed; but then directly qoutes a passage in which it states the consequences of disobeying the law is a curse!
Some Christians have attempted to justify this by saying that it isn't what Paul really meant. However, this seems to be a slip on Paul's part. Any thoughts?

Amos

The law is needed for the convition of sin. This is good as a means for redemption but must be left behind when we are set free from the law.

Christians, born again people, who are set free from the law should not take upon themself the yoke of slavery a second time because that would mean that they are not really free but have added their faith in Jesus to their sin nature in which case they will never be free from the conviction of sin. They will just be adding new wine to old skins.

idiom

Try this:

He who does not do the law is cursed.

Nobody does the law. (Or can do the law)

Therefore the law is a curse.

Vorkosigan

Have you joined the JM group? There is currently a discussion on Jesus Mysteries about this very issue.

Bobzammel

You know, when bringing up the "New Covenant" in the OT, it's made quite clear that the Law is still part of it, but on a larger scale.

Jer 31:27-36
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD.
In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.
But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.

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As for all the qoutes about God not liking sacrifices etc. in the OT, I believe it is clear from the context that God was not satisfied with how the sacrifice was carried out. You know, like somebody doing something simply because they *had* to, or for personal gain, not out of love.
Interestingly Jesus seems to have supported the law, although he applied tighter restrictions to it and found one or two loopholes.
Paul on the other hand, does away with the law altogether, possibly selling out to the Gentiles. Interestingly Christianity itself has a law of sorts...The basic Ten Commandments remain, prohibitions against certain angry feelings, no Idolatry, and no fornication(Which didn't seem like a big deal in the OT).(The list of sins for Christians is fully stated in another chapter of Galatians).