The law set God’s people free because Jesus took the place of the old covenant first born on the cross. They were set free by law by the death of the old husband man. The widowed nation was set free to re-engage with the new covenant first born.

To be truly free one is able to act as one’s will dictates, at least not spiritually die before growing up. Even Paul was distressed over his inability to always choose to do right. What he had willed to do in the flesh, under law, was to persecute God’s spiritual people. He listed that as a flesh mode accomplishment, for those who would trust in the flesh. Obviously nobody should put confidence in the strength of the flesh if Paul even went that wrong in the old covenant. After the resurrection of Jesus, Paul in the flesh consented to the death of his own born again people. After being born again himself, Paul still struggled between the wills of the two different covenant modes: his old man (Adamic, Mosaic flesh mode) people and his new man (Christian spiritual mode) people.

Romans 7:24-25

ECB ²⁴ Miserable human – I! Who rescues me from the body of this death? ²⁵ I eucharistize Elohim through Yah Shua Messiah our Adonay. So indeed with the mind I serve the torah of Elohim; and with the flesh, the torah of sin.

Colossians 1:18

YLT ¹⁸ And himself is the head of the body—the assembly—who is a beginning, a first-born out of the dead [the dead-ones plural], that he might become in all things —himself—first,

The old and new testaments were both holy and were both authored by God. Due to inability to act right, the old covenant consisted of all dead ones. God’s people could only escape the death of the firstborn body by way of the new covenant rebirth. The old and new overlapped for a whole generation. To join the living body meant resurrection out from the dead and dying body: re-generation out from the most evil generation.

To act rightly in the body was the freedom Paul sought for himself and his people. The will to act right can only come from God. He opens our eyes and we grow up. God Himself was transitioning between His own two covenants. One covenant promised the death of Adam for firstborn disobedience and the better one promised the life of Christ for His firstborn obedience. God would ensoul His new covenant humanity by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

People can never do worse than what that generation in transition did. They rejected God’s righteous gift of the transition. They rejected His gift of righteousness through a new firstborn and the breath He sent. There can never be a worse generation than that generation who tried to keep the law in the flesh. Even if another generation is evil enough to try to wipe out the church of Christ again, they can never choose to stay in God’s old covenant and reject His new covenant offer again. And most evil of all, they can never murder Christ again.

The unbelieving Pharisees remained in the old covenant during the overlap time of the re-generation. They didn’t want the old man testament to die the second death and go away. Before Paul’s eyes were opened by the Holy Spirt, he was under the law interpretation of the Pharisees. He bragged about his self righteousness under torah. His list of accomplishments in the flesh included his participation with the untrue to their Word Jews who persecuted the church who were being kept by the Word. The unfaithful Jews wanted the true to their Word Jews to die because they were being freed from their old man desires, by the death and the resurrection of their messiah. They were engaged to the law of His resurrected humanity by the Holy Spirit He sent from heaven, but they were not grown up and married to the new humanity yet. The Bible story of redemption was completed during this transition of covenants. The immortal family of God is the never-ending story.

Philippians 3:5-6

YLT ⁵ circumcision on the eighth day! of the race of Israel! of the tribe of Benjamin! a Hebrew of Hebrews! according to law a Pharisee! ⁶ according to zeal persecuting the assembly! according to righteousness that is in law becoming blameless!

The true Jews were no longer essentially in the flesh covenant of the torah. They were set free by eschatos Adam on the cross. They were re-engaged on Pentecost. The old firstborn nation married to the first born man wasn’t gone yet but it was going away. The temple was still standing but it no longer had standing in God’s new economy. The unbelieving Hebrews no longer had a sacrifice for their sins. They were moving into the spiritual covenant of Christ as the new ‘land’ man with a secure inheritance written in His new living will.

Romans 7:1-6

ECB ¹
ANALOGY OF MARRIAGE
Or know you not, brothers, for I speak to them who know the torah, how that the torah overlords a human as long time as he lives? ² For the woman under man is bound to her man by the torah; but whenever the man dies, she is inactivated from the torah of her man. ³ So whenever, while her man lives she becomes to another man, she is oracled as an adulteress: and whenever her man dies, she is liberated from that torah; so that she is no adulteress, though she becomes to another man. ⁴ So my brothers, you also are deathified to the torah through the body of the Messiah; to become to another – to him who rose from the dead, so that we bear fruit to Elohim. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the sufferings of sins, through the torah, energized in our members to bear fruit to death. ⁶ But now we are inactivated from the torah, being dead wherein we were held; to serve in newness of spirit and not in the antiquity of the scribing.

Romans 8:2

YLT ² for the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus did set me free from the law of the sin and of the death;

The one law of the garden enacted the first death. If God’s will in the garden was unable to enact the death, then the law of the garden meant nothing while Adam lived. The law that required death for disobedience was enforced on the disobedient testator in God’s land. The law of death was enforced after Adam disobeyed. He and all his descendants inherited the first death and were all headed for their second death. The second death was the coming millennial destruction. Adam himself was graciously put on hold in Hades at 930 years.

Paul actually says that the old testament law revealed or revived the sin that was in him. But the law of Christ actually produced for Paul the life that is in Him. We still struggle in a very real sense with our first born body as we realize the transition to a heavenly body only. Everyone’s first born body of flesh will inevitably go away. After being born again, the Jews could not serve God in the flesh covenant, even if they wanted to. And now that covenant body is long gone. The true Jewish testator died in His old covenant obedient body in order to pass on His sure inheritance to His reborn people. It was God’s new will and testament that took effect on His people after Jesus died as the old testator. Jesus reversed the curse of the will. It was always God’s will for His people to live to the age through His first born Son of humanity rather than die to the age through first born Adam. Those who covenantally died again at the age of 1000 were not His people.

Because of Jesus’ old covenant righteousness, His old covenant death could not legally keep Him in Hades. He voluntarily went there. He rose out of His first covenant death to bring in the age, along with His people. Even when God asked Jesus to take on the death of Adam, that everyone else naturally inherited under law, Jesus was free to obey. He did struggle more than anyone ever, to give up His old covenant life. He took everyone else’s death inheritance under torah. God’s will was enforced by Jesus’ death. Jesus’ death occurred as their deliverance from God’s will and testament under law. It removed the force of the old covenant death that could not personally hold Him in Hades. He did forfeit His old covenant life for their wrongdoing. He wasn’t given His old covenant life back. He was given new covenant life when resurrected from the death. since He was the first born in the new will and testament, He could grant a never ending inheritance.

Hebrews 9:15-18

ECB ¹⁵ And because of this he is the mediator of the new covenant: whereas, under the first covenant, death being the redemption of the transgressions, the called take the pre-evangelism [a promise or announcement] of eternal (to the age) inheritance. ¹⁶ For where the covenant is, it is necessary to bring/bear the death of the covenantor. ¹⁷ For a covenant is steadfast upon death: otherwise it is not mighty enough at all while the covenantor lives. ¹⁸ And so, the first was not hanukkahed apart from blood.

testator

noun

tes·​ta·​tor ˈte-ˌstā-tər  

: a person who dies leaving a will or testament in force

Everyone else who died left the old covenant law in force. Even Jesus’ death was an enforcement of O.C. Law. Jesus put the old covenant man to death. Under old testament law the death penalty had to be paid. Jesus would not live in the old testament any longer. He paid the death penalty to free His people from that will. He gave up His old covenant inheritance. He would have lived to the age.

Eternal inheritance = age-long tenancy; neither Adam nor the Jews remained alive in the land for 1000 years. They both disobediently died in the land and were legally destined for their second death at their millennium. The promise of living to the age and receiving eternal life in the land was given to the Jews on Pentecost. They were sealed with the Holy Spirit until their millennium marriage to the new man arrived. Jesus accomplished the final and everlasting Jubilee for His people. The law of their Messiah in his new ‘land’ freed them from the torah of sin and death in their typical land. Jesus as firstborn can’t die in the new will and testament. The law of death is only in force if the firstborn dies. He is now the ever-living testator/ covenantor. He never did or will break God’s covenant law.

1 Corinthians 15:20-22

ECB ²⁰
THE SEQUENCE OF THE RESURRECTION
And now, Messiah rose from the dead and became the firstlings of them who slept. ²¹ For since through humanity, death, also through humanity, the resurrection of the dead. ²² For exactly as in Adam all die, even thus in the Messiah all enliven:

If the church married the new man while the old man still lived she would be called an adulteress. That carries the typical death penalty. Jesus set His people free by law to remarry the new man and then He sent them the Holy Spirit on the day they celebrated the receiving of that law. The law of the Messiah written on the heart did not produce death. It granted His covenant life to the age.

messiah |məˈsīə| noun

1 (the Messiah) the promised deliverer of the Jewish nation prophesied in the Hebrew Bible.

• Jesus regarded by Christians [true Jews] as the Messiah of the Hebrew prophecies and the savior of humankind.

2 Thessalonians 2:3

CLV ³ No one should be deluding you by any method, for, should not the apostasy be coming first and the man [humanity] of lawlessness be unveiled, the son of destruction,

The delusion first appeared to Eve in the garden through a fallen son of God we know today as Satan (the adversary). The climax of that delusion arrived through the apostate sons of God called the untrue Jews. They believed in the first century imminent arrival of their messiah up until He actually arrived. Then many of them became anti-Christ.

Those Jews who received the Law of the new man on Pentecost had their eyes opened in obedience. They spread out and started churches. The churches of the true Jews were being persecuted by the synagogue of the untrue Jews. Circumcised unbelievers were no longer even considered Jews at that time in the transition. They became know as the collective adversary, seeking to assimilate or destroy their brethren in the flesh. They hypocritically claimed to be the the true sons of God, but the true sons were about to be revealed. AD 70 was proof that God had indeed made a Holy Spirit covenant with His true Jewish sons.

The letter we call Revelation was unveiled to a true Jew named John. He specifically mentions the collective adversary to two of the seven churches he addresses. The circumcised-in-flesh-only were no longer Jews at this point. The true Jews moved into the new covenant body, circumcised in heart and united by the Holy Spirit of their Messiah.

Romans 2:28-29

LITV ²⁸ For he is not a Jew that is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that outwardly in flesh; ²⁹ but he is a Jew that is one inwardly, and circumcision is of heart, in spirit, not in letter; of whom the praise is not from men, but from God.

Revelation 2:8-9

YLT ⁸ `And to the messenger of the assembly of the Smyrneans write: These things saith the First and the Last, who did become dead and did live; ⁹ I have known thy works, and tribulation, and poverty—yet thou art rich—and the evil-speaking of those saying themselves to be Jews, and are not, but are a synagogue of the Adversary.

Revelation 3:7-9

YLT ⁷ `And to the messenger of the assembly in Philadelphia write: These things saith he who is holy, he who is true, he who is having the key of David, he who is opening and no one doth shut, and he shutteth and no one doth open! ⁸ I have known thy works; lo, I have set before thee a door—opened, and no one is able to shut it, because thou hast a little power, and didst keep my word, and didst not deny my name; ⁹ lo, I make of the synagogue of the Adversary those saying themselves to be Jews, and are not, but do lie; lo, I will make them that they may come and bow before thy feet, and may know that I loved thee.

The millennial revelation of the true sons of God was imminent in the first century. Nobody has to live a thousand years of righteousness in the flesh in order to live forever. God’s will has been officially ratified by His true firstborn. Jesus consummated the age of Adam and Israel in His new covenant no longer in the flesh. Today we join the everlasting family of God by being born into it by the Holy Spirit.