Who was under the law of God if not the old covenant people of God? Only their lawgiver was able to save or destroy them. And His decision wasn’t based on the law for those who accepted the covenant of more grace. The law already judged everyone to death.

James 4:5-12 (Jacob writes to the 12 tribes about a greater grace needed to rule their spirits)

CLV ⁵ Or are you supposing that the scripture is saying this for naught? Is the spirit which dwells in us longing to envy? ⁶ Yet greater is the grace He is giving. Wherefore He is saying, God “the proud (spirit)is resisting, yet to the humble (spirit) He is giving grace.” ⁷ You may be subject, then, to God, yet withstand the Adversary, and he will be fleeing from you.” ⁸ Draw near to God, and He will be drawing near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, double-souled!” ⁹ Be wretched and mourn and lament. Let your laughter be converted into mourning, and joy into dejection.” ¹⁰ Be humbled, then, in the Lord’s sight, and He shall be exalting you.” ¹¹ Do not be speaking against one another, brethren. He who is speaking against a brother, or judging his brother, is speaking against law and is judging law. Now if you are judging law, you are not a doer of law, but a judge.” ¹² One is Lawgiver and Judge, Who is able to save and to destroy. Now who are you who are judging an associate?

James 1:1 (Jacob writes to the 12 tribes about to be judged by their lawgiver; based on law or based on a greater grace. Those sitting in judgement of their brethren were the haughty spirits, not accepting the greater grace.)

James 1:1 ECB ¹
SALUTATION 
Yaaqovos, a servant of Elohim and of Adonay Yah Shua Messiah: To the twelve scions of the diaspora: Cheers.

Verse 5 identifies the spirit as the problem. It longs to envy. Able was accepted by God yet Cain let his spirit become envious and over-rule his human soul. Envious Cain stood in judgement over Able. God had already accepted Able’s sacrifice. The only thing that saves us from our envious spirits is the “greater grace” of verse 6. Those who thought they didn’t need more grace from God were obviously not the more humble ones.

At first Cain had the right response to God’s rejection.

James 4:9

ECB ⁹ be miserable and mourn and weep; overturn your laughter to mourning and your cheer to sadness;

But rather than accept God’s grace to rule his own spirit, Cain proudly rose up and murdered Able. Everyone deserves to die under law, so the 12 tribes were right to judge each other. They were in fact in diaspora. The problem is that more grace was being applied to the more humble ones who admitted their need for grace. God was accepting them. The proud ones who were claiming to serve the law were standing in the place of the lawgiver himself. There is only one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and destroy. Those who rejected the grace of the new covenant creator tried to become the judge and destroyer of His new creation, which was made up of God’s chosen and accepted people. The old creation hold-outs bowed down to the adversary in an attempt to save themselves. They sold their human soul to the devil and became the murderers of the chosen ones.

Matthew 5:22 (It was the Jewish tongue that turned on their own Jewish brethren and made them liable to AD 70 destruction: according to the following verse spoken to the Jews about the Jews.)

CLV ²²1 Yet I am saying to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to the judging. Yet whoever may be saying to his brother, ‘Raka!’ shall be liable to the Sanhedrin. Yet whoever may be saying, ‘Stupid!’ shall be liable to the Gehenna of fire.

Jacob 4:8 calls the adversarial ones among the 12 tribes, “double-souled“.

Exodus 34:14

¹⁴ for ye do not bow yourselves to another god—for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Psalms 42:1

LITV ¹ To the chief musician. A Contemplation for the sons of Korah. As the deer pants after the channels of water, so my soul pants after You, O God.

If it is the human soul that is supposed to master the envious spirit in a man, then bowing to the adversary (or to the old covenant that was being replaced or to the spirit in man that envies) would make one a double-souled and unstable person. They needed to listen to Jacob their psychologist and get their soul right. They became dysfunctional members of God’s family. Their psychosis detached them from reality. The old covenant really was about to end.

The creator of the soul of humanity is the lawgiver and the judge. Only those humble enough to accept the grace afforded by the new covenant were being saved out from under the law. The proud ones were both envious of others and projecting their faults onto others. The so called keepers of the law were standing in the place of God, like the adversary. They tried to destroy the covenant based on grace, out of their spirit of envy and denial. They did not master their own spirit. They did not draw near and receive the God of grace. They became the adversary to God’s family. Unbelieving Jews used their poisonous tongues to stir up the crowd in order to bring false judgement upon believing Jews. True judgement was coming though. God accepted the sacrifices of the believing Jews but not the sacrifices of the unbelieving Jews. The dejected ‘Cains’ were murdering the ‘Ables’, albeit in a more sophisticated way. They became deranged in their envy.

Acts 17:5 (Again the untamable Jewish tongue turned on their own brethren)

YLT ⁵ And the unbelieving Jews, having been moved with envy, and having taken to them of the loungers certain evil men, and having made a crowd, were setting the city in an uproar; having assailed also the house of Jason, they were seeking them to bring them to the populace,

Hebrews 11:4 (written to the Hebrews in their covenant transition. Believing Hebrews were offering the better sacrifice by faith in their God.)

LITV ⁴ By faith Abel offered a greater sacrifice to God than Cain, by which he obtained witness to be righteous, God testifying over his gifts; and through it, having died, he yet speaks.

Envy is when you want to take something that rightfully belongs to another. Jealousy is when you want to protect something that rightfully belongs to you. Cain should have been jealous for his own relationship with God rather than envious over Able’s relationship with God. The unbelieving first century Jews should have been jealous for their own salvation rather than envious over their brethren who had the humility and faith to be saved from the law, rather than destroyed by their lawgiver and judge. The law itself saved nobody. The law killed everybody under it. Only more grace from the lawgiver and judge saved anybody. The stubborn ones were told to draw near to their gracious God. They were also told that they were not keeping the old covenant law like they thought they were. They would be judged by the law they couldn’t keep rather than the lawgiver who wanted to keep them.

Hebrews 12:24

ECB ²⁴ and to Yah Shua the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling speaking better than Abel.

The only sacrifice able to make the Hebrews acceptable to Yahweh was the sacrifice offered by their messiah. By faith the more humble Hebrews of the first century accepted their release from the law while the proud stubborn ones didn’t. More grace than ever was revealed to the Hebrews in the last days of their old covenant in order to save them from it. There is only one lawgiver and judge able to either save or destroy His old covenant people. Nobody is under old covenant law today, nor will they ever be under it again. Nobody is being saved out from under the new covenant either. Everybody in the new covenant has eternal life already.

Hebrews 1:1-3 (In the last days of the old covenant Law He spoke to “us” Hebrews through His Son)

LITV ¹ In many parts and in many ways of old, God spoke to the fathers in the prophets; ² in these last days He spoke to us in the Son, whom He appointed heir of all; through whom He indeed made the ages; ³ who being the shining splendor of His glory, and the express image of His essence, and upholding all things by the word of His power, having made purification of our sins through Himself, He sat down on the right of the Majesty on high, Psa. 110:1

The better sacrifices takes us all the way to heaven. By faith in their messiah, the Hebrews sacrificed their old covenant lives and joined the martyrs under the alter in heaven. The ‘Ables’ were accepted. The ‘Cains’ were not. Destruction came to the ‘Cains’. Even the salvation or the destruction of Cain himself was graciously put on hold until the new covenant arrived.

Hebrews 9:22-23

LITV ²² And almost all things are cleansed by blood according to the Law; and apart from shedding of blood no remission occurs. ²³ Then it was needful for the figures of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves by better sacrifices than these.

Revelation 6:10 (The prayer from heaven from the first century Hebrew martyrs who had the faith of Christ)

YLT ¹⁰ and they were crying with a great voice, saying, `Till when, O Master, the Holy and the True, dost Thou not judge and take vengeance of our blood from those dwelling upon the land?’

John 1:17 (John warned the Jews to accept their salvation from Christ rather than their destruction under law)

YLT ¹⁷ for the law through Moses was given, the grace and the truth through Jesus Christ did come;

John 3:15 (Spoken by a Jew to the Jews in the land)

YLT ¹⁵ that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during,

Matthew 18:21-22 (How long till judgement came to the old covenant stubborn ones? Answer: till 490 times.)

CLV ²¹ Then, approaching, Peter said to Him, “Lord, how many times shall my brother be sinning against me and I shall be pardoning him? Till seven times? ²² Jesus is saying to him, “I am not saying to you ‘Till seven times,’ but ‘Till seventy times and seven,'”

Daniel 9:25-30 (In the AD 70 judgement, the new covenant desolators were desolated. The new covenant family of God is forever: salvation by more grace or destruction under law were the only two judgements.)

LITV ²⁵ Know, then, and understand that from the going out of a word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and sixty two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in times of affliction. ²⁶ And after sixty two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself. And the people of a coming prince shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end shall be with the flood, and ruins are determined, and war shall be until the end. ²⁷ And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week. And in the middle of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. And on a wing of the altar will be abominations that desolate, even until the end. And that which was decreed shall pour out on the desolator.

The first century judgement followed the paradigm of a type. Jerusalem in the flesh realm persecuted Jerusalem in the Spirit realm, until the AD 70 judgement, resulting in the second typical death of flesh and blood Jerusalem. The children of promise received the promises of their new covenant. The Jerusalem from above is our mother. You must be born from above to enter the kingdom. Flesh and blood Jerusalem chose to remain in slavery to the law that foretold their destruction.

Galatians 4:19-31

LITV ¹⁹ My children, for whom I again travail until Christ should be formed to you, ²⁰ even now I desired to be present with you and to change my voice, for I am in doubt as to you. ²¹ Tell me, those desiring to be under Law, do you not hear the Law? ²² For it has been written, Abraham had two sons, one out of the slave woman and one out of the free woman. ²³ But, indeed, he of the slave woman has been born according to flesh, and he out of the free woman through the promise,²⁴ which things are being allegorized, for these are two covenants, one, indeed, from Mount Sinai bringing forth to slavery (which is Hagar, ²⁵for Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, and she slaves with her children), ²⁶ but the Jerusalem from above is free, who is the mother of us all; ²⁷ for it has been written, “Be glad, barren one not bearing; break forth and shout, the one not travailing; for more are the children of the desolate rather than she having the husband.” Isa. 54:1 ²⁸ But, brothers, we are children of promise according to Isaac. ²⁹ But then, even as he born according to flesh persecuted the one according to Spirit, so also now. ³⁰ But what says the Scripture? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for in no way shall the son of the slave woman inherit with the son of the free woman .” Gen. 21:10 ³¹ Then, brothers, we are not children of a slave woman but of the free woman.

Romans 7:24

YLT ²⁴ A wretched man I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?

Paul recognized that he could not deliver himself from sin but needed the greater grace that came from god through His Son. The commandments even stirred up more sin in Paul’s attempt to be right under the body of the law.