However Jesus is clearly much more significant an individual than Paul.

I think I have an idea of where you are going with this but please show me how you feel Jesus said we must still keep the law and we will go from there.

However before you go there, would you accept that Paul teaches that new testament Christians are no longer under the law?

From what I see in the bible the reason you would keep the law is to be righteous before God, as through keeping the law you could say “look I have done it, I am clean because of what I have done.” However due to all being in sin and the sacrifices being made by the priests not being sufficient along with the Jews turning their hearts away from God. Jesus came and died for all so that the whole world could follow God.

This brought with it a new covenant of grace so that by putting your trust in Christ the law is fulfilled for you and by grace you are righteous not by works. And a new heart is put in to those who have this and that is called being born again.

Romans 7:6
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

The law is the old way, those that are dead in sin are under the law as in their sin it shows them to be separate from God. Those that are in Christ are under grace.

Romans 5:1-2
1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

I hope that helps, I would really recommend you just read the book of Romans and just allow it to speak for itself. The whole book is mostly just Paul’s explanation of how we are no longer under the law but under grace by faith and this brings our righteousness.

If I understand that, it means they where keeping the whole law, otherwise how could they be blameless? Do you believe Grace was avalible to them?

Obviously you haven’t stated your faith background so I will simply answer this as though anyone asked me it, so this is not some LDS debunking argument, just what I see in the bible.

Firstly we have all sinned.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

As well as this the punishment for sin, which os for all who have sinned and have not been made righteous.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death;……….

And if you want to be saved by keeping the law, you have to keep all of it

James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

As this says if you stumble on one point then you are guilty of all.

So if you want be saved by keeping the law you must have never sinned otherwise you already have that impending punishment, and you must never, ever sin. So that has to be impossible.

However also you said with the help of God, I think you would only get the help of God if you are actually doing it His way. Its like if you agreed with me that salvation (or exaltation in LDS terms) is only by faith but you just wanted to do it by works anyway and you prayed. “God I know salvation is a gift but I want to earn it, please help me”.

I think the sad reality is God would be saying. “No do it My way, I sent my Son so that you didn’t have to struggle and work to be saved so that you could be free to produce good fruit that was not to earn anything but just out of love.”

And that’s the issue that gets missed here. God offers salvation on the basis of no works whatsoever so that we produce good fruits, or works. Because He knows that when we become born again, serving Him is just a joy and not a work as such.

Is what I am saying biblical?

Romans 3:21-22
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

A righteousness without the law now exists.

And here is how it all works together.

Titus 3:5-8
5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

8This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men

You will see here we are saved not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy, because of His love for us. this is all about love.
However in v8 we see be careful to maintain good works.

as I said this is all about love, if God freely saves us by nothing other than His mercy people who truly accept this and are truly saved by this will just love Him, and will want to serve Him out of love. Jesus said if you love me obey my commandments. And this really works. As James said faith without works is dead, however the other side of that is alive saving faith produces much works.

However if you are working towards being saved, in a works orientated religion where salvation comes from earning Gods favour then your love for God is going to be very different and your obedience will not just be out of love, it will be out of the fact that you have to, to get to where you want to be,

As the second half of Romans 6:23 says but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So all things considered I would say it’s impossible to be acceptable to God by following the law, but instead your faith must be in Christ and nothing else. What I mean is if you say well my
faith is in Christ but I must obey the law too for salvation (or exaltation) then you have missed it.

Again I know you haven’t said your LDS, though I am assuming you are because your here but many LDS object to this by saying “so I can just sit back in my chair do nothing and be saved because I am saved by nothing I can do?”.

I would say yes but you will not be able to sit still for long. I always love it in the new testament when Jesus heals people but says “Don’t tell anyone” that is honestly like telling a born again Christian “Just stay in your chair” its just not gonna happen.

Please let me know what you think, thanks again for posting. And I am very sorry for how long this is :)
……

Romans 3:23 says All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So we see that no one has not sinned.

In the old testament we see occassions of people being righteous in the sight of God another example being Noah.

Genesis 7:1 – “Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household; for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.”

As you rightly say with Job it actually uses the word perfect I believe this is simply the word the King James uses on this occasion.

The NASB (New american standard bible) puts it like this:

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.

The NIV (New internation version) puts it like this

In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

Being blameless before God is a spiritual state that I believe anyone who is born again in New Testament times can achieve by faith in Christ, these people
were living out the gospel of their time and thus were upright before God.