When I asked who said anything about having to keep the law to the fullest extent, I meant in this thread.
We must be righteous to enter Heaven.
Well…I’d say innocent or righteous. If Adam & Eve had remained innocent, they wouldn’t have had to become righteous. Now that we are no longer innocent, the righteousness that is fit for heaven is much more than obeying a bunch of good, godly laws. The righteousness fit for God’s kingdom is purity from the inside out, which isn’t a direct result of obeying laws; it’s the result of refinement through godly love. That's something only God can do.
Yes, you said the equivalent to, “Because we can’t keep the law to the fullest extent we should not attempt to keep the law” when you wrote, “God knows we are incapable [of keeping the law to the fullest extent], and thus does not expect us to keep the law.” Why should we attempt to keep something God doesn’t expect us to keep?
You need to keep reading before you comment.
I know you go on to say we should act in accordance with our new life in Christ, but you did say that God does not expect us to keep the law since we are incapable of keeping it to the fullest extent. Your statements seem contradictory to me. Why would Paul ask you to act in accordance with your new life in Christ if God doesn’t expect you to? God DOES expect you to act in accordance with your new life in Christ which is the equivalent to keeping the law (i.e. loving your neighbor as yourself).
Yet God wants us to be perfect.
God wants us to obey Him. Evidence that He doesn’t expect us to obey His laws perfectly are seen in the sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood. Why would God provide allowances if He really thought we could obey Him perfectly? The righteousness fit for God’s kingdom is not something we can create by “doing” (i.e. obeying laws), even if we do them perfectly without fail. Noah was considered a righteous man, blameless in his time, and Paul was considered blameless and a righteous man according to the law. Both needed more than their own righteousness to be fit for God’s kingdom. Otherwise, why the need of a Savior?
And yet Paul is also the one to tell us we are not under the law.
If Paul tells us that we should obey God’s law and then says we’re not under it, it’s our responsibility to reconcile what we perceive as an inconsistency. We can’t just throw a Scripture out or ignore it because it doesn’t reconcile with our current doctrine. So, whatever Paul means by us not being under the law, it doesn’t mean we are not to obey it.