Larry,
Thanks for such a lengthy and well-thought-out reply.

I am STILL uncertain, however, if what Jesus was preaching was Law OR commands to His followers as believers. Certainly the two cannot be the same thing because if one could fulfill the latter he could fulfill the former.

If His sayings were commands to His followers, then it seems His yoke was not all that "easy and light", and it causes me anquish of soul to see how far short I fall (shouldn't I be filled with peace and joy instead).

If His sayings were Law, then it strikes me as odd that the very embodiment of the Gospel would be preaching Law and not following it up immediately with a Gospel of hope. (Again, the rich young ruler was not told to place his faith in Jesus, but to FOLLOW Jesus, and even then not until he adequately repents of worshiping his possessions).

I can't articulate the exact point of unclarity in my thinking on this issue (as it is so unclear in my mind that I can't formulate it precisely enough), but hopefully someone will be able to decipher exactly what I'm trying to get at.

__________________
Christopher Hinton
Northland, A Church Distributed;
Altamonte Springs, FL