Matthew 5:17 KJV 1900
Jesus could not be more clear about the fact that he did not come to abolish the Law. Certainly, we can debate what exactly it means that he came to “fulfill” it. But there is no question that Jesus did not come to abolish it (Matt 5:17). Heaven and earth will pass away before the tiniest stroke of the Law passes away (Matt 5:18). And Jesus has no goodwill toward anyone who would relax “one of the least of these commandments” or teach others to relax them. The great ones in his kingdom are those who do the Law, and who teach others to do it (Matt 5:19). And to even enter Jesus’ kingdom, we must have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt 5:20).
Interesting. Note all the contrasts lined up in a row:
- Jesus came not to abolish the Law :: Jesus came to fulfill the Law
- Heaven and earth will not pass away :: The Law will be accomplished
- Anyone who relaxes even a single command, and teaches others to do so, is least :: Anyone who does the commands, and teaches others to do them, is great
- Scribes and Pharisees [presumably, by the sentence’s logic] will not enter the kingdom :: Those more righteous than scribes and Pharisees will enter the kingdom
So Jesus contrasts his purpose (fulfill) with what is not his purpose (abolish). And he contrasts right use of the law (do) with wrong use of the law (relax). And he contrasts those who get into the kingdom (more righteous than scribes) with those who don’t (scribes).
And then… He works through 6 more contrasts, 6 case studies, having to do with the Law. “You have heard that it was said…. But I say to you….” The context therefore suggests that the 6 contrasts of verses 21-48 are following on the theme of verses 17-20. In other words, they are contrasting those who abolish or relax the commands with those who do them and teach them.
The Quotations (OT Context)
But that doesn’t make sense of the fact that Jesus actually quotes the Old Testament laws! The thing he is negating is the Old Testament text. The OT Law. “You shall not murder,” “You shall not commit adultery,” and so on.
But there is more here than meets the eye.
- For the first two (murder and adultery – Matt 5:21, 27), Jesus quotes Exodus, and then he goes on to talk about heart-intentions. But I’ve written before (e.g. here and here) about how the law in Exodus was always about heart-intentions. This is nothing new.
- The third quote (on divorce – Matt 5:31) is from Deut 24, which permits divorce only on the ground of “indecency” (i.e., sexual immorality). Jesus is not disagreeing with Moses but simply reiterating what Moses said.
- The fourth quote (on swearing – Matt 5:33) is drawn from Lev 19:12, Num 30:2, and Deut 23:21. But none of those passages say anything about swearing “by heaven” or “by the earth” or “by Jerusalem”or “by your head” (Matt 5:34-36).
- The fifth quote can be found all throughout the books of Moses (Matt 5:38), but never in support of vengeance. In fact, this stipulation exists to prevent personal vengeance and to limit what sanctions civil courts may impose.
- The sixth quote…is no OT quote at all (Matt 5:43). It has a ring of truth (“You shall love your neighbor”). But you can spend all day looking up “and you shall hate your enemy” and you will not find it.
This sixth “quote” is the linchpin that alerts us to something significant. Jesus is not quoting the Old Testament laws to correct them in some way. He is quoting what these people have heard their teachers say about the Old Testament laws.
He is quoting those who have, in fact, relaxed the commands. Those who teach others to do the same. Those who abolish what God has required of them. Those whose righteousness is like the scribes and Pharisees…. Actually, we have much reason to believe he is quoting the scribes and Pharisees themselves.
Matthew’s Broader Context
Chapter 5 is not the first place in Matthew where Jesus quotes the Old Testament. Look at how Jesus chooses to refer to the Old Testament itself:
Later in the book, he will incredulously ask the scribes and Pharisees “Have you not/never read…?” (Matt 12:3, 5; 19:4; 21:16, 42; 22:31). He will command them to go and learn what the Scripture says (Matt 9:13, 12:7). He will accuse them of setting aside (relaxing) the word of God for the sake of their oral tradition (Matt 15:3, 6). He will curse them for not entering the kingdom (Matt 23:13) and for missing the point of the law (Matt 23:23-24).
My point: When Jesus refers to the Old Testament, it is the written word. When he mentions what “you have heard that it was said,” he is talking about the Pharisees’ oral traditions.
Conclusion
In Matthew 5, Jesus is not setting aside the Old Testament law in favor of a new teaching. He is upholding the full standards of the law, as intended by God. He identifies those who obey the law and adhere carefully to the written word according to its original intention, and he contrasts them with those who relax the commands, who abolish them, to hold to their own accumulated teachings about the law.
Jesus summarized his relationship to the Old Testament with this surprising statement in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17). If we understand what Jesus means here, it will shine clarifying light on other important questions: What do the Old Testament commands have to do with New Testament Christians? Should Christians seek to obey the Old Testament just like the Israelites? Can we “unhitch” ourselves from it altogether?
We can rule out one interpretation right away: Jesus is not abolishing the Law and the Prophets—he says as much explicitly. But, on the other hand, he apparently didn’t come to simply keep, restate, or reestablish them either. The word he used signals something more radical and profound: He came to “fulfill” them.
Here’s one of the key questions we can ask of Jesus’s statement: What, specifically, did he come to fulfill? We may at first assume he’s only referring to ethical commands. But he actually refers to something much broader—he has in view the entire Old Testament, which he summarized here and elsewhere with the phrase “the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 5:17; see Matt. 7:12; Matt. 11:13; Matt. 22:40). This includes the whole Old Testament, with all of its commands and covenants and poems and prophecies.
But what does it mean that he came to “fulfill” the scriptures? It’s not just that he fulfills various scattered predictions. It means he is bringing the entirety of the scriptures to their appointed goal. The Old Testament prophetically anticipated Jesus, and he came to fulfill these expectations.
This fits with how Matthew often used the word “fulfill.” He used this word several times before this (Matt. 1:22; Matt. 2:15, 17, 23; Matt. 3:15; Matt. 4:14). They together show that the Old Testament told a story awaiting an ending, and Jesus came to complete it. The Old Testament story is the shaft of an arrow, and its tip comes to rest on Christ. Everything finds its intended destination in him.
And how does Jesus bring this fulfillment? By inaugurating the long-awaited age which would fulfill all the ancient promises—promises like a true King who would create a new humanity and promises of a new covenant that brings new hearts for true obedience. With the arrival of Jesus, this new age of fulfillment has dawned. Or as Jesus announced just before the Sermon on the Mount: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). We no longer live in the old covenant era of anticipation, but the new covenant era of fulfillment.
The whole of the Old Testament is a unity that prophetically anticipated Jesus and his kingdom.
Christians and the Old Testament
How then do New Testament Christians relate to the Old Testament scriptures? We seek to keep the scriptures in two ways: as they are fulfilled in Jesus and with heart-rooted and holistic obedience.
Consider the Old Testament stories and instructions related to the temple. God gave Israel the temple as the place to meet with him. Priests represented the people, drew near to God, and offered sacrifices. The whole temple system was designed to echo the Edenic blessing of dwelling with God while also pointing forward to a new age when God would purify his people to dwell with him forever. When Jesus came, he announced “something greater than the temple is here” (Matt. 12:6). All the commands associated with the temple find their fulfillment in him. He is the true temple, high priest, and final sacrifice. Now those united to him become part of this temple, draw near to God through Jesus as a new priesthood, and offer their whole selves in sacrificial worship.
What about other commands that seemed more directly ethical—like “do not murder” and “do not commit adultery”? Jesus addressed a sampling of these in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. He showed that they prophetically anticipated this new covenant era where we would give a deeper and holistic obedience. Unlike the scribes and Pharisees who reduced God’s expectations to something they could externally manage, Jesus enables us to obey from the heart (Matt. 5:20). In light of this, the command to not murder is fulfilled in God’s people as they renounce hatred (Matt. 5:21–25). The command against adultery is fulfilled as his people renounce even lustful thoughts (Matt. 5:26–30). Every command is caught up in this bigger story that finds its fulfillment in Jesus’s kingdom and the heart-level transformation he brings.
This all leads us to avoid two extremes in relation to the Old Testament. We neither ditch the Old Testament altogether, nor do we seek to follow it apart from its fulfillment in Jesus. He did not come to start something brand new, nor did he come to maintain status quo. He is the king of God’s long-anticipated kingdom. He didn’t come to abolish the scriptures, but to fulfill them.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Jesus said something almost identical in Matthew 11. In making his appeal for people to follow him, he gave this reason: “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:30).
The reason why these two statements are so important for us to understand is that we can easily be overwhelmed by the many commands and exhortations and ethical imperatives in the Bible. Do this, don’t do that; go here, but stay away from there; say this, but don’t say that; avoid these, but pursue those; etc., etc., etc. In fact, these many commands in the Bible are often cited as one of the primary reasons why people who don’t know Christ stay away from him. When you ask them about Christianity, their conception is that it’s just a collection of rules, a long list of prohibitions and taboos and “thou-shalt-not’s” all of which serve only to rob us of happiness and to make life miserable.
But what do you think would happen if we explained the Christian life to people in the terms of 1 John 5:3 and Matthew 11:30. Do you think it would make a significant difference if people were told that the commandments God gives us in the Bible are “not burdensome” and that the “yoke” or “burden” of obedience for which Jesus calls is “easy” and “light”? Yes, I think it would make a huge difference!
And what difference would it make to you who are already Christians to know that when you read a string of exhortations and imperatives like those here in Hebrews 12 that God wants you first to understand that these are “not burdensome,” but in fact are “easy” and “light”? Would that infuse a bit more excitement into your relationship with Christ? Would it increase your joy in reading the Bible and your confidence that perhaps following Christ is not the dry, lifeless drudgery that so many think it is? The obvious and only answer is, Yes!
So what is it about being exhorted or commanded or encouraged to do something that we find so unappealing? Why do we tend to bristle at being told what to do or what not to do? I think there are three reasons for this.
The first is that often times we simply don’t want to do it. Or we want very much to do something that we are told is off limits or out of bounds. So, for example, when our author here in v. 16 exhorts us not to be “sexually immoral” some people recoil. They say, “But I want to be sexually immoral. I enjoy it. It feels good.” In other words, when you want to engage in sexual immorality and God says, “Don’t do it,” suddenly his command feels burdensome, hard, and heavy.
The second reason why we so often react this way is that we lack the power or strength to do what we are told to do, or we are told not to do something and find ourselves overwhelmed by the urge to do it anyway. So, in the first case, the problem is that there is something in our nature as men and women that causes us to desire things that God forbids. In the second case, the problem is that we lack the power or strength of will to do what we know we ought to do, or we lack the power to resist doing what we know we shouldn’t do.
The third reason why we might find God’s commandments burdensome, hard, and heavy, is when we doubt the motivation of God himself. In other words, we are skeptical of God’s intentions. We begin to think that he doesn’t genuinely care for us and our welfare, that he’s out to rob us of what little happiness we might find in life, that he is a stern and mean-spirited ogre who loves nothing more than to make his people miserable by declaring off-limits all the things that otherwise might make life worth living.
Now, there’s a reason why I took time to identify these three factors that often seem to make God’s commandments hard, heavy, and burdensome. The reason is that for those who’ve been born again by the Spirit of God and have put their faith in Christ as Lord and Savior, none of those three factors need ever again play a role in our lives. Let me explain.
Let’s start with the first reason why some people find God’s commandments, hard, heavy, and burdensome: the fact that our nature is such that we don’t want to obey; we enjoy the things God forbids. But for the person who is born again, the Holy Spirit has re-created you! You are not the same person you used to be. You do not have the same desires you used to have. Your heart and mind and spirit and soul have been renewed and you are gradually being changed internally so that what you like and dislike, what you enjoy or despise, is becoming more and more like what Jesus himself experienced.
So, when God forbids some activity, like sexual immorality, you find yourself increasingly saying: “You’re right, God. The appeal of sexual immorality is losing its grip on my heart. I know it offers me an immediate physical sensation, but I have come to discover that the pleasures of obedience and fellowship with you are far, far greater and more satisfying.”
The second reason was our lack of strength or power. When God commands or prohibits something, feeling weak and inadequate to respond makes those commandments feel hard, heavy, and burdensome. Bu for the born-again believer in Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives within us to supply us with whatever energy or power or incentive is needed to do what God has called us to do. This is what the Apostle Paul was talking about in Philippians 2:12-13 when he said,
“work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13).
If all he had said was, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” I suspect that most of us would say, “Good-bye, God; that sounds horribly burdensome and impossibly difficult.” But with the command to obey comes the promise of all the power we need. God is already at work in and through us to supply us with the will and energy to do what he has said. We’ll see this same truth again when we get to Hebrews 13:20-21. There our author prays this remarkable prayer:
“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Heb. 13:20-21).
Could anything be clearer than that? Whatever God requires from us, he provides to us. We will never lack for the power or strength to obey any of God’s commands because God himself has promised to work and to will and to equip us so that we will have the spiritual energy to do what he requires.
Finally, the third reason God’s commands sometimes seem burdensome and overwhelming is that we question God’s character. We doubt whether he has our best interests at heart. We think of him as unloving and overly strict and as something of a cosmic killjoy. And how do we know this isn’t true? We know it, among countless other reasons, from what we’ve just seen in the immediately preceding paragraph here in Hebrews 12.
Let’s not overlook why our author wrote what he did in vv. 3-11. He knows that Christian men and women are confused by adversity and sickness and persecution and trials of all sorts. He knows that people are asking, “Why doesn’t God do something? How can he let this go on in the lives of his children?” He knows that this kind of confusion can easily lead to discouragement and perhaps despair. In v. 3 he expressed concern lest some “grow weary or fainthearted.” In v. 12 he said it again, this time using the imagery of a runner whose hands have dropped to his side and whose knees are beginning to weaken.
And his answer to that ever-pressing problem is to remind them and us that struggles like this, whether physical pain or relational frustrations or financial strain or opposition from non-believers are not due to God’s anger or to his neglect of us. They are the tools he uses to chisel away anything in our lives that doesn’t look like Jesus. Such adversity, which he calls discipline, is the expression of God’s fatherly love and care and concern.
In other words, in Hebrews 12:3-11 the point was that whatever struggles we encounter, whatever pain we endure, whatever discipline may come our way, we can rest assured that it is motivated by God’s passionate love for us as his children. It’s not because he’s disappointed and irritated but because he’s overwhelmingly in love with and devoted to the welfare of his children. As v. 6 said, he “loves” those whom he disciplines. That is to say, if God commands you to do something or forbids you from participating, it’s his way of showing his love. He’s training you. He’s disciplining you. He’s educating you to live in such a way that your joy and happiness and satisfaction will grow and expand and intensify. He “receives” (12:6) those whom he chastises. He’s treating you as his beloved sons and daughters.
So, don’t ever think that the sort of commandments and prohibitions that we find, for example, here in Hebrews 12:12-17 are motivated by God’s disapproval of you or his lack of love for you. It’s precisely the opposite!
I hope it’s obvious why I took so much time this morning to clear the air, so to speak, when it comes to the commands and moral imperatives that come to us from God. Everything he says to you and me in this passage and other biblical texts like it is not burdensome. Such imperatives and moral exhortations are not heavy, but light. They are not hard, but easy. And the reason I can say that with confidence is because God has re-created you through the new birth and given you a new nature, new dispositions, and new desires. And together with making you his child, he has supplied you with the indwelling Holy Spirit to give you whatever power and incentive you need. And all this is because he loves you with a love everlasting, a love that will never let you go, a love that wouldn’t dream of asking you to do anything that would diminish one iota the joy and satisfaction that he has created you to experience.
Let me tell you when you can know you are making good progress in the Christian life. Let me tell you when you can know that you are growing in your understanding and appreciation of the love of God. It’s when you read a passage like Hebrews 12:12-17 and your immediate response is: “Yes! I love it! This is really good news! More God! Give me more! These exhortations aren’t burdensome. These commands aren’t heavy, but light. They aren’t hard, but easy. Wow! I never realized how much God really loves me until I read this passage.”
“Therefore”
But before we look at these we need to take note of the word “therefore” with which this paragraph begins. This word clearly directs our attention back to what has just been said in vv. 3-11. It is because we know God to be a loving father who always disciplines us for our good that we should respond to these commands with excitement and gratitude. We should never approach moral imperatives like these and think that if we do them well God will be induced to embrace and adopt us as his children. No! It is because we already are his children and because he already loves us that we should do the things he asks of us.
If I may return for a moment to what we saw in Hebrews 12:1-2, God is reminding us of his love for us and exhorting us to certain kinds of behavior because he’s trying to help us run! In 12:1 our author spoke of certain kinds of “weight” that slow us down and certain “sins” that cling so closely (12:1) and impede our running the race set before us. Here in Hebrews 12:12-17 he mentions no fewer than seven of them.
(1) “Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather healed” (v. 12).
He’s speaking here of spiritual discouragement and emotional weariness and mental fatigue. But the language he employs is obviously figurative. The athletic metaphor of 12:1 is still with us. There he exhorted us to run the race set before us all the while keeping our eyes on Jesus. His fear is that because of the length of the race (remember: it is a marathon) and because of the strain that it can put on the human heart, some might allow their hands to fall to their sides (that’s a disaster for a runner). Perhaps others are beginning to experience a debilitating weakness in their knees; or it may even be that some, from sheer exhaustion, are starting to veer off course. His concern is that some are looking less like Olympic athletes and more like half-hearted participants in the exercise class at an old-folks home!
In other words, the language of v. 12 points to the same thing he had in mind back in v. 3 where he said that many were becoming “weary” and “fainthearted”. Is that you today? Are you spiritually exhausted, emotionally frazzled, and as a result perhaps somewhat tempted to drop out of the race? If so, you need to hear what he says here in vv. 12-17.
This isn’t just a call to us as individuals to be careful about how we run. It’s also an appeal to everyone in the local church to help out our fellow runners, to aid them, to encourage them, to pray for them, to instruct them, to remind them of God’s love and of Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf. If I may be allowed to make this application, what he’s calling for here in v. 12 is precisely what we aim to accomplish every time we ask our ministry team to come to the front and pray for people. This is what we want to see you pursue in your community groups. Ask people if they are suffering from “drooping hands” and “weak knees”. Help them find strength from the Spirit. Pray for them! Love them! Get them back in the race.
(2) “Strive for peace with everyone” or more accurately, “Pursue peace” (v. 14a).
It isn’t enough merely to “keep” the peace; we must strive to create it, to make it, to sustain it, and to preserve it. It’s not enough simply to avoid getting into stupid arguments with each other; it’s not enough merely to steer clear of divisive circumstances. We must strive to make peace where it doesn’t exist. Restore relations that have been damaged. Become the instrument of reconciliation.
Of course, we have to be realistic and honest about it: sometimes peace isn’t possible. In Romans 12:18, Paul said: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Sometimes, says Paul, peace isn’t possible. But be sure it isn’t your fault! As far as it depends on you, put aside the cause of division and hatred. If others refuse to do so, that’s their problem. Just make sure it isn’t yours!
(3) “Strive for” or “pursue the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (v. 14b).
That sounds scary. It almost sounds as if he’s saying that if we don’t pursue holiness we won’t end up in heaven. That’s right. That’s precisely what he’s saying! It is similar to what Jesus said in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).
“But Sam, doesn’t that make salvation dependent on works? If we must pursue holiness to see God it sounds like you’re advocating salvation by works rather than by grace and through faith alone.”
Make no mistake: the “holiness” about which he’s talking here is practical, daily conformity to the will of God. OK. So how do we reconcile this statement with passages such as Ephesians 2:8 that says we are saved by “grace . . . through faith” and “not [as] a result of works” (Eph. 2:8b-9a).
To understand what he’s saying, you must get straight in your thinking two critically important truths. This isn’t a mere quibbling about words. Eternal life hangs suspended upon it!
First, there is an eternity of difference between saying that salvation is basedon works and saying that works are the evidence of salvation. Listen again: I’m talking about the difference between “basis” and “evidence”. When I say that works are not the “basis” of salvation I’m saying that you must never think that by doing good works now you will one day, on the basis of those good works, be saved. He’s not saying that your pursuit of holiness is the cause or ground of your salvation. He’s saying that the pursuit of good works, the pursuit of practical holiness, is the “evidence” or “fruit” of your salvation. You have already been saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and the evidence of it is that you pursue holiness.
This is what Paul said in the verse immediately following his declaration that we are saved by grace through faith and not as a result of works (Eph. 2:8-9). In Ephesians 2:10 he goes on to say: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
Second, we must never forget that although we are saved by faith alone, we are not saved by the sort of faith which is alone. Or again, faith alone saves, but not the faith that is alone. Saving faith is a working faith. Saving faith is of such a nature and energy that it will, invariably, lead us to pursue and practice holiness. If there is no fruit of holiness in one’s life, it doesn’t mean that a person was once saved but is now lost. It most likely means they were never saved in the first place. The “faith” that is the product of the new birth, the faith that embraces Jesus as Lord and Savior, is active and fruitful and energizes a life of love and obedience and worship.
Thus, to say that good works are the expression or evidence of faith does not mean that good works are the essence of faith. Saving faith, like a living seed that is planted in the ground, will sprout and bear fruit. Our author doesn’t say that seeing God hangs suspended on the “perfection” of holiness but on its “pursuit”. Nowhere does the NT teach that Christians can’t sin. But it does teach that they can’t live peacefully in it. Christian are not people who are sinless. They are people who, by God’s grace, sin less.
So, yes, Christians still sin; sometimes seriously. But they suffer for it. God will discipline them. Part of what it means for God to love his children is that he will never allow them to remain complacent or content with their sin. The Christian will sin, but it will make him miserable!
The Devil asserted that by taking of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, human eyes would be opened—implying wisdom and enlightenment—to allow a person to know good and evil as God does. Immediately, Satan places the emphasis on knowing, but it is contrasted with living eternally. Satan proposes that mankind should be like God in taking to himself the knowledge—the definition—of what is right and wrong, asserting that this is a good thing! In contrast, the Tree of Life represents a way of living in which the meaning of good and evil already exists, and eternal life involves submitting through the Holy Spirit to that definition and the Sovereign who is its source.
Likewise, the Gnostics are those who know—who pursue mystical knowledge that they believe holds the key to eternal life through advancing beyond the physical and into the spiritual realm. Gnostics believed the key to eternal life was contained in right interpretation—knowledge—of those esoteric sayings.
The book of Revelation expounds on the Tree of Life in two places:
· To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7)
· Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into [New Jerusalem]. (Revelation 22:14)
The Tree of Life, then, is associated with a way of life—one that requires overcoming (growth against a standard of righteousness) and keeping (doing) God's commandments. The only ones who are allowed to partake of the Tree of Life are those who have changed themselves (with God's help, by His Spirit) to begin living in the same manner as He does. To those who submit to His standard of righteousness, then, He grants life that is both endless and of the same quality that He enjoys.
Satan, though, in addition to casting doubt on what God plainly says, and implying that God is unfair by withholding good things, offers a shortcut. He says, "You do not need to follow God's way, for it is obviously unfair and far too stringent. You can follow your own way. You can take knowledge to yourself of what is good and what is evil. You can be just like God in determining what is right and wrong." Adam and Eve took the bait, and ever since, man has rejected God's standard of righteousness in favor of his own.
This heresy is easily seen in the antinomianism (literally, "against law") of the Gnostics, who may not have been against every law, but were certainly against any law that impinged upon their standard of conduct. Thus the ascetic Gnostics who grieved the Christians in Colossae held to manmade regulations of "do not touch, do not taste, do not handle" (Colossians 2:20-21), while rejecting the command to "rejoice" with food and drink during the God-ordained festivals. Similarly, mainstream Christianity will (rightly) use portions of Leviticus and Deuteronomy to point out God's abhorrence of abortion and homosexuality, but will claim that the same law is "done away" when it comes to the Sabbath and holy days. They have taken to themselves the knowledge of what is good and what is evil, establishing their own standard of righteousness.
A core issue of the Bible is whether we submit to God's governance or try to form a government based on our own perception of what is good or what works. God's way results in eternal life, but it comes with the obligation to submit ourselves to God. It requires keeping all of His commandments and overcoming our human weaknesses that do not rise to that standard. Satan, conversely, seeks to persuade us to do our own thing and to usurp God's prerogative in defining right living. He encourages us to be enlightened, to have our eyes opened, by doubting God and rejecting His way.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place. So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:17-20 (NET)
How should believers view Scripture?
Many believers have different views about Scripture. Some believe it is just good suggestions that we should consider for our lives. Some believe that Scripture is trustworthy when it comes to the gospel, but that its ethics no longer directly apply to our rapidly changing culture. Some believe it is fully God’s Word; while others believe it’s only partially God’s Word. Some believe it is full of errors and lacks authority; while others believe it is fully accurate and thus authoritative. What did Christ believe about Scripture?
When Christ said that he did not come to abolish “the law or the prophets,” this was a common way to refer to the whole Old Testament. Luke 16:16 uses the phrase “law and prophets” this way: “The law and the prophets were in force until John; since then, the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is urged to enter it.” As Christ taught about those who are truly part of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 5:3-16, some would have questioned if he was contradicting Scripture. Jewish teachers taught that people entered heaven by following the Mosaic law. Was Christ teaching a new way to be right with God and enter heaven? Was he getting rid of the Mosaic law and what the prophets taught? Christ discerns their questions and answers them; that is why he begins with, “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets.” Christ corrects their thinking about his views on the Old Testament. In studying his view of the OT, we can discern a proper view of Scripture in general.
In addition, as we study these verses, it must be said these are considered some of the most difficult verses in Scripture to interpret.1 What does Christ mean by proclaiming that he did not come to abolish the law and prophets but fulfill them? What is the believer’s relationship to the law? In addition, is there rank in heaven? In what ways are some called greatest and least in God’s kingdom? Finally, in what way must our righteousness surpass that of the Pharisees and experts in the law to enter the kingdom of heaven? This passage is filled with difficult questions.
In fact, godly believers have taken different sides on some of the topics that arise from this passage. However, as we study them, we must remember that God wants us to understand Scripture. It is our guide to obeying and following him. In addition, God has given us not only his Word but his Holy Spirit to help us in the process of interpretation. He has also given us other godly believers who have wrestled with the text before us.
As we study this text, we will consider Christ’s view of Scripture, so it can inform ours.
Big Question: What was Christ’s view of the Old Testament? How should this affect the believers’ view of Scripture in general?
Believers Should Recognize Christ as the Fulfillment of Scripture
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them.
Matthew 5:17
Interpretation Question: In what ways did Christ fulfill the law or the prophets?
First, it is helpful to define some terms. For Jews, the term “Law” commonly referred to the 613 commands given to Israel in Exodus 20-31, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.2 They detailed the ceremonial, civil, and moral laws of Israel. However, “Law” was sometimes used of only the Pentateuch—the first five books of the OT. At times, it was even used of the whole Old Testament (cf. John 10:34, 12:34). Also, the phrase “the Law or the Prophets,” as mentioned, was another way of referring to the entire Old Testament (cf. Matt 22:40, Lk 16:16). In addition, sometimes Jews would call the whole OT the “law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms” (cf. Lk 24:44).3
Christ said he did not come to abolish the law or prophets but to fulfill them. This is difficult because there is, obviously, some way in which he did abolish them. Believers are no longer under food laws, ceremonies, sabbath days, etc. (cf. Mk 7:19, Col 2:16-17). What did he mean by this controversial saying? It helps to understand that the word “fulfill” has the idea of completion, filling up, or accomplishing.4 Someone compared Christ’s relationship to the law to the destruction of an acorn. One can destroy an acorn in one of two ways: He can destroy the acorn by smashing it with a hammer, or by planting it in the ground so that it grows into an oak tree.5 Christ destroyed the law by the second way. He removed the acorn of the law by totally fulfilling it. In fact, he did this in such a way that believers are no longer under the Old Testament law. Romans 10:4 says, “For Christ is the end of the law, with the result that there is righteousness for everyone who believes.” Romans 6:14 says we are no longer under law but under grace.
In what ways did Christ fulfill the law and the prophets—the entire OT? There are many ways:
1. Christ fulfilled the OT by fulfilling its messianic predictions.
Beginning in Genesis 3:15, Scripture prophesies about the coming messiah. There was going to be a seed from the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. Many have seen this as the first prophecy of the virgin birth—there has only been one seed of a woman, everyone else has come from the seed of the man. A man born of a virgin would be bitten by Satan on the heel—a veiled prediction of Christ’s death on the cross—and the man would crush Satan’s head—which ultimately refers to Christ’s victory through his death and resurrection. From there prophecies continue: He would come through Abraham, through Jacob, through Judah, through David, and through Solomon. He would be born in Bethlehem, etc. The Gospels detail how Christ fulfilled these messianic predictions. There are around sixty major prophecies—twenty-nine of them fulfilled on the day of his death.
2. Christ fulfilled the OT by fulfilling its types and shadows.
Colossians 2:16-17 says: “Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days—these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ!” The food laws, religious festivals, and sabbath days were all shadows fulfilled in Christ. As shadows, aspects of Christ could be discerned from them which helped prepare people for the coming messiah. The Sabbath represented how Christ would be our rest. The Day of Atonement demonstrated how a perfect lamb would be a substitute for the people. When John saw Christ, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). The atonement lamb never removed people’s sins, that is why every year it had to be offered again. But after Christ, there is no longer a need to practice the Day of Atonement. Christ completed it. He perfectly fulfilled it (Matt 5:17).
In addition, Christ fulfilled many other types in the Old Testament, as seen in numerous narratives. In the same way God sent manna from heaven for Israel to eat, Christ said he was manna from heaven (John 6:32-35). When the Israelites were dying from snake bites, Moses called for them to look at a raised bronze snake and live. That was a picture of Christ on the cross and how those who believed in him would be saved (John 3:14-15). Christ is the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45). The first Adam willfully followed his wife into sin, but the last Adam died for his wife—the people of God—so that she might be saved. Christ fulfills not only the law, but the prophecies and the stories of the Old Testament. He is seen everywhere. In John 5:39, Jesus said, “You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them you possess eternal life, and it is these same scriptures that testify about me.”
3. Christ fulfilled the OT by perfectly obeying God’s law.
Galatians 4:4 says that Christ was born under the law. In Matthew 3:15, at Christ’s baptism, he declared how he must fulfill all righteousness. Christ obeyed the 613 commands in the Mosaic law perfectly. Since he was perfect, he can offer us his righteousness and take our sins (2 Cor 5:21). When going through the Gospels, it is important to understand that it was the misinterpretations of the law by the scribes and Pharisees that he didn’t obey—not the law itself.
4. Christ fulfilled the OT by paying the righteous demands of the law.
The penalty for disobeying God’s laws was death. Christ, though perfect, died for the sins of the world. Romans 6:23says, “For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because of Christ’s death, we can accept his sacrifice for sins, follow him as Lord and Savior, and be saved eternally (cf. John 3:16, Romans 10:9-13).
5. Christ fulfilled the OT by giving believers power to keep the righteous requirements of the law through the Spirit.
Romans 8:4 says, “so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” This was prophesied in the Old Testament; God would write his laws on our hearts and give us power through his Spirit to fulfill them. Ezekiel 36:27 says, “I will put my Spirit within you; I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations.”
Interpretation Question: If believers are not under the law anymore, in what way do we fulfill the righteous requirements of the law through the Spirit?
Romans 13:8-10 says,
Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet,” (and if there is any other commandment) are summed up in this, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Similarly, Galatians 5:14 and 18 say, “For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment, namely, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself’… But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
Though not called to practice food laws, sabbath days, etc., the Spirit, which Christ sent us, produces righteousness in our lives. The Spirit helps us put to death the misdeeds of the body (Rom 8:13) and helps us love God and others more (Gal 5:22-23). Christ fulfills the law by his Spirit working in us.
Finally, it should be added that Christ not only fulfills the OT but also the NT. He is the emphasis of the Gospels, as they reveal his life and teaching. The book of Acts describes his works through his apostles. The Epistles share his teaching through his apostles, and the book of Revelation describes his wrath, second coming, and ultimate rule on the earth. Christ is the fulfillment and focus of the entire Scripture. We should recognize him as we study God’s Word and help reveal him as we teach Scripture to others. We must have an entirely Christocentric view of Scripture.
Application Question: Why is it important to have a Christocentric view in studying and teaching Scripture—especially the OT? What symbol or shadow of Christ stands out most to you in the OT?
Believers Should Recognize the Perseverance and Authority of Scripture
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place.
Matthew 5:18
Interpretation Question: What does the smallest letter or stroke of a letter refer to?
When Christ referred to the smallest letter or stroke of a letter, he was referring to specific aspects of the Hebrew letter system. The smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the “jot” or “yod.” The stroke of a letter refers to a “tittle,” which is a small mark that serves to distinguish one letter from another. It is similar to the way the bottom stroke of a capital E distinguishes it from a capital F.6 Jesus said the law would not pass away until heaven and earth pass away and everything is accomplished that was taught in the OT.
Interpretation Question: What does Christ’s comments about law in Matthew 5:18 teach about Christ’s view of Scripture?
1. Christ believed in the endurance of Scripture.
Sometimes people make arguments that Scripture has been tampered with, specific books lost, and that the copies that we have are not correct. However, Christ taught that God would preserve Scripture even down to the tiniest letter and the least stroke of a pen. Peter said that “the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Peter 1:25).
This is made clear by all the attempts throughout history to stomp out God’s Word. It has endured constant criticism from both the science and history communities. It has endured manipulation from cults and false prophets. It has been burned and banned by nations. And yet, it still endures today. It is the most copied, printed, translated, and sold book every year. In addition, from a historical reliability standpoint (i.e. the number of copies and the time interval from the originals), it is the most accurate ancient manuscript. In fact, it has more historical evidence than any ten ancient manuscripts combined. There is no book like it. God has preserved his Word. Christ prophesied this, the evidence supports it, and believers trust it.
2. Christ believed in the authority of Scripture.
In addition, Christ’s comments demonstrate that he believed in the literal inspiration of Scripture—that the exact words of Scripture, and even the letters, were chosen by God and not just the ideas. This is important since some liberal theologians would argue against this today. They would say that you can’t trust what the Bible says about science or history—it’s the ideas that matter, not the details. However, Christ did not take that view. Every word of Scripture, even down to letter and least stroke of a pen, was important.
In fact, we see this in Christ’s discussion with the Sadducees in Matthew 22:30–32. The Sadducees were the liberal believers in Christ’s day. They did not believe in miracles, the resurrection, or even an afterlife. One day, they tested Christ on his belief of the resurrection. They concocted a scenario where a woman’s husband dies and then she marries his brother. The brother dies, and she marries another brother. He dies, she marries another, and so on, until the seventh died. Then she eventually died. The Sadducees asked Christ, “At the resurrection whose wife will she be?” On this, commentator William MacDonald says, “Basically, they argued that the idea of resurrection posed insuperable difficulties, hence it was not reasonable, therefore it was not true.”7 Look at how Christ responded in Matthew 22:30–32:
For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. Now as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living!
Here, Christ’s argument rests on the tense of the word “am.” Essentially, Christ says, “Didn’t you notice that ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ was written in the present tense?” Christ was saying that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are all still alive, and therefore, would one day be resurrected. This confronted their lack of belief in the afterlife and the resurrection. It also challenged their liberal view of Scripture. Every word of Scripture has been chosen by God, even down to the tense.
We can trust Scripture. It is authoritative even down to the tense and letters of words. Therefore, we can trust what Scripture says about science, history, life, death, and everything else. Scripture teaches its own inerrancy. Psalm 19:7-8 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect and preserves one’s life. The rules set down by the Lord are reliable and impart wisdom to the inexperienced. The Lord’s precepts are fair and make one joyful.” Scripture is perfect, reliable, and fair. Christ believed in the perseverance and authority of Scripture, and so must we.
Do you believe in everything Scripture teaches? It is trustworthy in what it teaches about God, creation, marriage, parenting, male and female roles, sin, righteousness, eternity, and itself.
Application Question: Why is the endurance and authority of Scripture so important to the Christian faith? In what ways have many forsaken belief in the endurance and authority of Scripture?
Believers Should Recognize that Eternal Reward Is Based on Our Response to Scripture
So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:19
Observation Question: According to Matthew 5:19, what is the basis for reward and greatness in the kingdom of heaven?
In Matthew 5:19, Christ teaches something that is often very confusing to believers. He says that those who break one of the least of these commands and teach others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. And, those who practice God’s Word and teach others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
What is Christ referring to? It should be made clear—that this is not a salvation issue. Believers are not saved by teaching and obeying Scripture. It’s also not a loss of salvation issue (if that were possible); even the “least in the kingdom” are still part of the kingdom.
One of the things that Christ constantly teaches in the Sermon on the Mount is the reality of rewards in heaven. In Matthew 6, he teaches the disciples to not be like the Pharisees and scribes who did their righteous deeds to be seen by people. Their reward was being seen by others, but they would not be rewarded by the Father. Furthermore, in Matthew 6:19, he challenges the disciples to store up riches in heaven and not on earth. Reward seems to refer to both rulership and opportunities to serve in heaven. In the Parable of the Minas, the faithful servants are rewarded with cities to rule over (Lk 19:16-19). Those who are great in heaven will have more opportunities to rule with Christ and serve others.
Though salvation is not based on works, reward or loss of reward is. Second John 8 says, “Watch out, so that you do not lose the things we have worked for, but receive a full reward.” These works specifically have to do with our teaching and obeying of God’s Word. This is important to hear because often Christians think that only pastors are called to teach God’s Word. This is not true. In the Great Commission, God calls all believers to make disciples of all nations—teaching them everything that Christ commanded (Matt 28:19-20). All believers are called to teach God’s Word to others. We should share the gospel with the lost. We should teach other believers how to grow in Christ. Parents should teach their children (Eph 6:4); older women should teach younger women (Titus 2:3-4); husbands are called to teach their wives (Eph 5:25-26). We are all called to study and teach God’s Word.
Since it is possible for us to teach others to disobey God’s Word, interpretation is very important. If we misinterpret Scripture, we can lead others astray. Second Timothy 2:15says, “Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately.” Who will God approve? Those who work hard at studying Scripture in order to correctly teach truth. Laziness and bad interpretation will lead to lack of approval and lack of reward. There will be many in heaven with good intentions but harmful hermeneutics—the study of interpreting Scripture—who led others astray.
But it is not just our teaching that matters; our obedience matters as well. Paul said this to Timothy, “Be conscientious about how you live and what you teach. Persevere in this, because by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you” (1 Tim 4:16). If we have correct doctrine, but don’t practice it, we will harm not only ourselves but those who watch and listen to us. Reward in heaven will be based on what we do with God’s Word. John MacArthur’s comments are helpful:
Greatness is not determined by gifts, success, popularity, reputation, or size of ministry but by a believer’s view of Scripture as revealed in his life and teaching.
Jesus’ promise is not simply to great teachers such as Paul or Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Wesley, or Spurgeon. His promise applies to every believer who teaches others to obey God’s Word by faithfully, carefully, and lovingly living by and speaking of that Word. Every believer does not have the gift of teaching the deep doctrines of Scripture, but every believer is called and is able to teach the right attitude toward it.8
Are you faithfully studying and teaching God’s Word to others? Sadly, many believers simply don’t care what it says. They think as long as they know the gospel and love God and others, that’s all that matters. Some might even declare that doctrine is dangerous because it divides. However, God has called us to study his Word and teach it to all, as we make disciples. Unfaithful Christians neglect studying God’s Word, and that reality will be displayed in their lack of reward from God in heaven. First Corinthians 3:15 talks about some Christians getting into heaven as escaping the fire—there will be no rewards for them.
Are you teaching and obeying God’s Word? Those who are faithful, God will reward. Those who aren’t will experience loss of reward.
Application Question: What makes the doctrine of reward in heaven so controversial, as some really struggle with this doctrine? Why is it important? Are you motivated by reward? Why or why not?
Believers Should Recognize that to Enter Heaven, Our Righteousness Must Conform to Scripture
For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:20
Interpretation Question: In what way must a believer’s righteousness surpass that of the Pharisees and the experts of the law to get into heaven?
This comment would have been startling to the Jews listening. Pharisees and teachers of the law (or scribes) were considered the most righteous people in Israel. “The Jews had a saying, ‘If only two people go to heaven, one will be a scribe and the other a Pharisee.’”9 The Jews would have thought, “If they can’t get into heaven, how can we?”
What did Christ mean by needing a greater righteousness to enter heaven?
1. Christ meant to show that man’s righteousness can never earn salvation and that imputed righteousness is needed.
The Jews believed that studying the law and practicing its righteousness led to being accepted by God and entering heaven. However, the law was never meant to save. It was meant to show how people were sinful and in need of the Savior. Romans 3:20 says, “For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” According to the law, the consequence of one sin is death—separation from God eternally (Rom 6:23). Even the Pharisees and scribes were not righteous enough to get into heaven—they had fallen short of God’s glory and were under God’s judgment just like everybody else. Therefore, how can people secure a greater righteousness and be saved?
Romans 3:21-22 (ESV) says, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe…” Christ lived the perfect life that people could never live. Though he never sinned, he died on the cross for our sins. When he died on the cross, he took our sin and gave us perfect righteousness (2 Cor 5:21). This was the righteousness that Christ was calling the Jews to accept. It is only applied to those who believe in and follow Christ—they believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died for our sins, was buried, and resurrected.
Have you believed in Christ and therefore been made right for heaven?
2. Christ meant to show that only those who practice true righteousness, as fostered by the Spirit, are really saved.
The Pharisees and scribes loosened the demands of God’s law by only teaching the need to practice outward righteousness. They taught if one had not murdered or committed adultery, he had kept the law. These were called the traditions of the elders. But Christ corrects this laxing of the law. He said that anyone who has been angry or lusted had broken the laws of murder and adultery in his or her heart. The Pharisees had never been given God’s Spirit, so they could not practice true righteousness which was both internal and external. Christ called them whitewashed tombs—pretty on the outside but full of dead bones on the inside (Matt 23:27).
In addition, the Pharisees and scribes also changed many of God’s commands. In Matthew 5:43, Christ said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘hate your enemy.’” Love your neighbor came from Leviticus, but hate your enemy was an addition—something that Scripture never taught. The Pharisees and scribes again loosened the demands of God’s law by saying that people did not need to love their enemy. However, Christ taught what the law truly demanded—to even love one’s enemies and to in fact bless them.
When Christ taught that those who belong to the kingdom of heaven are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers (Matt 5:3-9), he was outlining the supernatural changes in the life of true believers. In the New Covenant, God gives believers new hearts. He writes his laws on them and gives them the Holy Spirit in order to obey these laws (cf. Jer 31:33, Ez 36:27). This is what the Pharisees did not have, which proved that they were not truly born again. True believers have a greater righteousness because it is both internal and external.
This is important to emphasize. Though we are saved by faith alone (cf. Eph 2:8-9), true faith is never alone. It always produces righteousness (cf. James 2, Eph 2:10). It will be a greater righteousness than that of Pharisees and scribes because it comes from a right heart that obeys God’s Word.
This will be a predominant theme throughout the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. Christ will continue to describe the character and righteousness of those in his kingdom. Are you part of his kingdom? We must have Christ’s imputed righteousness which comes through faith. But we also must have righteousness that conforms to God’s Word—proving our faith.
Application Question: What is the difference, theologically speaking, between works being the root of salvation and works being the fruit of it? Why is righteousness so important as a proof of true salvation (cf. James 2)? In what ways have you experienced the fruit of salvation—a changing life?
Conclusion
How should believers view Scripture? This is important because our view of Scripture has eternal consequences—affecting salvation and reward in heaven.
- Believers Should Recognize Christ as the Fulfillment of Scripture
- Believers Should Recognize the Perseverance and Authority of Scripture
- Believers Should Recognize that Eternal Reward Is Based on Our Faithfulness to Scripture
- Believers Should Recognize that to Enter Heaven, Our Righteousness Must Conform to Scripture
From the time that John the Baptist was imprisoned Jesus began to preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 4:12-17). This famous Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) is the most complete sample of a single sermon on this theme in the gospels. It was evident to those who listened that there was a sharp contrast between our Lord's teaching and that of the scribes (Matt. 7:28-29). Along with this there was an obvious distinction between what Jesus taught and what the Pharisees practised.
When the Son of God walked in Palestine it was widely presumed that the teachings of the scribes and the lifestyle of the Pharisees faithfully represented the Old Testament Scriptures. It was therefore generally suspected that Jesus of Nazareth's teachings were new and radically different from those revealed by Moses and the Prophets. This suspicion was expressly stated by Messiah's enemies who laboured to catch him in some evident contradiction of the written Word of God.
What Jesus Forbids⤒🔗
In answer to such surmisings and charges our holy Lord makes this magnificent statement concerning his gospel's relationship to the Old Testament Scriptures in Matthew 5:17-20. The Master said, 'Do not think...', precisely because people were thinking what he was about to deny. His imperative forbids such thought. Yet sadly, many of Jesus' followers today continue to think the exact ideas which he forbids in the strongest language. They do this when they teach that if a man were to obey Old Testament commands he would act as do the Pharisees and that therefore we must turn from Old Testament precepts to follow new teachings from Christ. You must not think in this way, Jesus teaches us.
Verse 17 speaks of the Old Testament Scriptures in their entirety in the phrase 'the Law or the Prophets'. Verse 18 may also refer to the totality of the Old Testament in the words 'the law'. Yet the conclusion drawn from these two verses focuses on commandments in verse 19 and righteousness in verse 20. From this progressions in the text and from the issues selected for discussion in the Sermon through to Matthew 7:6 it becomes undeniably clear that our Saviour intends his primary focus to be on the moral law or the ethical teachings of the Old Testament. He does not discuss in any detail predictive prophecy, history, the civil arrangements, or other features of the Law and the Prophets. He gives instead a penetrating analysis of ethical standards.
As the Sermon on the Mount instructs on the moral principles of Jesus' kingdom, the Saviour develops two conclusions which he states at the outset.
- He denies in the most vehement manner that the ethical teaching or behaviour of his kingdom is at variance with the moral system of Old Testament Scriptures. His kingdom is in entire agreement with the commandments of the Law and the Prophets.
- He insists that the position of the scribes and Pharisees was so defective that anyone who failed to rise above their ethical understanding and practice could not so much as enter the kingdom of heaven.
These two categorical declarations placed in tandem, as they are in verses 17-20, necessarily imply that the scribes and Pharisees neither fathomed nor followed Old Testament revelation. This claim continues today, as in the ancient world, to shock men. Modern writers have failed to absorb the plain import of Jesus' words and continue to insist that anyone following Old Testament ethics will act as did the Pharisees. It is this which the Sermon on the Mount sets out to disprove.
What we are not to think is that Jesus came 'to abolish the Law and the Prophets', especially in their definition of righteousness. He did not come to annul, abrogate, destroy, or make irrelevant and void the righteousness of Old Testament Scriptures.1 How, then, can people to this day think, 'The Old Testament was for the Jews, but the New Testament is for Christians. If a thing is not commanded or repeated in the New Testament it can have no application in Christian ethics'? Our Lord did not come to subvert Old Testament ethics and to establish new rules of conduct on the ash heap of the Law and the Prophets. He does not drive a wedge between Old and New Testaments as do dispensationalists.
The Meaning of 'Fulfil'←⤒🔗
Positively, Jesus said that he came to 'fulfil' the Law and the Prophets. Because many cannot accept Jesus' assertion of the utter compatibility of his mission, teachings and kingdom with Old Testament Scripture, they use the word fulfil to begin to modify or deny the phrase, 'Do not think that I have come to abolish.' When they finish their explanation we have something like, 'Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to make them irrelevant so far as commandments are concerned.' Such treatment of the text is nonsense.
If we allow Jesus to speak for himself, the meaning of fulfil is plain. In verse 18 everything (nothing excepted) will be accomplished. All will happen or be done. And when in particular this fulfilment is in the realm of commandment and morality (verse 19) it means the actual practice, teaching and not breaking of the ethical requirements. The Law and the prophets will be substantiated in Christ's kingdom by being done!2
Verse 18 gives further emphasis to Jesus' claim of full agreement between his kingdom's principles and the Law. Not the least part of the Law will pass away until all has come to be done. Here is the most demanding statement imaginable of verbal inspiration or of infallibility down to a small component of a letter of the Hebrew alphabet used in the Law.
Yet the sophistry of the human mind never desists from twisting the Scriptures, so that men take Jesus' most forceful comments to mean the very opposite of what he said. Eager to be rid of the moral commands of Old Testament passages, many explain verse 18 in this way: 'Well, of course Jesus kept the Old Testament commandments. And since he accomplished them, they are done away with, and we may ignore them.' But Jesus is not implying that a day will come when some parts of the Law will disappear.
He is emphatically saying the opposite. Since in his kingdom all will be accomplished, the commandments will endure forever. Heaven and earth can pass away sooner than can the smallest part of the Law (Luke 16:7). It is this that Paul insists upon in Romans 3:31. Faith in Christ does not nullify the Law. God forbid! By faith we establish the Law! Christ does not make the Law irrelevant. The law being fulfilled establishes forever the divinity of the standard. And in the kingdom of God anyone who annuls the least command of the Law and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of God (Matt. 5:19).
The Focus on Moral Law←⤒🔗
Because of Jesus' speaking as he does in such sweeping and absolute terms, practical and detailed questions will swim in the minds of most of us. Are there not Old Testament commands that Christians no longer need to obey? Answers to those questions can only be given in the following ways:
- By carefully observing the commands addressed by the Lord in his sermon.
- By the wider context of Scripture which does distinguish between moral, ceremonial and civil law.
Anyone who has failed to admit these distinctions has fallen into serious error in handling the Scriptures. Ceremonial law is that set of institutions and commandments whose purpose was to point attention and faith to the Person and work of the coming Saviour, Jesus Christ. Civil law is that set of institutions and commandments whose purpose was to preserve the national society in which Messiah would appear. Neither of these last two categories holds the attention of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. Our blessed Teacher's own development of verses 17-20 is entirely in the realm of commandments of moral righteousness.
After verses 17-20 Jesus at once proceeds to discuss in sequence the sixth, seventh, ninth, first, second, third, and tenth of the Ten Commandments. Elsewhere in the gospels he teaches extensively on the fourth and eighth. Certainly the apostle Paul quotes and applies the fifth to Gentile children (Eph. 6:1-3), just as he quotes five of the other commands in Romans chapters 2 and 13. Jesus' subject (and Paul's in Romans) is righteousness in verse 20. It is clear what commandments of the Old Testament Scriptures shaped his concept of righteousness.
Still we have not called attention to the most striking feature of verses 17-20. We must notice the great prominence of the subject of moral law in Jesus' preaching of the gospel! This undeniable emphasis in his sermon has led extreme dispensationalists to deny that the Sermon on the Mount is the gospel! Because there is no escaping the dominant discussion of the Law and because they are predisposed to think that any mention of law with such ubiquity must necessarily imply a religion of salvation by works, they contend that Jesus is talking only to Jews and that he has left the Christian gospel out of the sermon. Many others, although not so brash as the ultra-dispensationalists, feel very uncomfortable with so much ethical content in a discussion of the gospel of the kingdom.
Law and Gospel Together←⤒🔗
If this sermon is a fair example of Jesus' preaching of the gospel, then it is necessary to conclude that the Law (moral law, the standard of righteousness) is an indispensable component of the gospel! To misconstrue the Law will inevitably result in delusion or false conclusions about the gospel. Such error will not merely distort one's theology but also will so lead him astray in experience as to result in everlasting ruin when he is excluded from the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus is not speaking in this sermon of a subordinate question such as, 'Have the Christians fine-tuned their ethics so as to address the great and complex social questions of their day?' He is not seeking to direct us to avoid lesser mistakes which may for a time make us sad, but which errors we can survive at last. If we misunderstand the Law as the scribes did and follow the Law as the Pharisees did, 'you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven' (verse 20). 'In no case' (KJv) will a person enter the kingdom of heaven unless he has a righteousness surpassing that of the Pharisees.
The Sermon on the Mount is an evangelistic sermon designed to awaken the conscience. The entire message is moving toward one point. It is a polished shaft pointed and driven with force to one conclusion: in the last day men will be judged by their works (by the standard of God's Law of righteousness). Those who do not do the will of the Father will be rejected with the words, 'Away from me, you evildoers!' Matt. 7:21-23). Those who hear Jesus' words about the Law and put them into practice (verse 24) will withstand the judgment, but those who hear and do not put them into practice will meet with catastrophic ruin (verses 26-27). This subject of the Law and law-keeping relates to the ultimate destinies of men. This is the powerful conclusion of Jesus' sermon. All that goes before builds to this awesome ending.
From beginning to end the Sermon gives us a majestic display of righteousness. That is what Jesus' kingdom is about! It is the very same righteousness revealed in the Law and the Prophets (5:17-19). Righteousness was revealed in the Law, but it was neither the practice of the Pharisees nor the doctrine of the scribes (5:20). The righteousness of which Jesus speaks is none other than the very righteousness of God! 'Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness' (6:33).
If we were to take all the requirements of the moral law and roll them into one commandment it would be this; 'Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect' (5:48). The moral law is only a reflection of God's perfection or of his righteous glory. This is precisely what Paul meant when he defined sin as 'falling short of the glory of God' (Rom. 3:23). This is nothing but what the Law and the Prophets required, 'Be holy because I am holy' (Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2, 20:7, 1 Pet. 1:16). The Sermon on the Mount is about righteousness. The gospel is about righteousness. This is a fact that many modern evangelicals seem to have missed.
How indispensable is the Law to the gospel! The Law displays God's own righteousness. It does so because so pure and holy is the Maker of heaven and earth that he will only commune with and bless a man if he possesses righteousness like God's very own. Therefore the same law that makes known to us God's attribute of righteousness also makes clear to us what God requires of us. We must have a righteousness that measures up to his own glory, or we shall be cursed and ruined. On the Day of Judgment this standard – the Law, or God's own righteousness which radiates his glory – will be the yardstick by which we are judged. Nothing less than God's righteousness will do. We perish if we come short of it. Without this concept of the Law there is no gospel. The Law cannot be abolished or there is no point to the gospel!
Righteousness Within←⤒🔗
If the true Christian has grasped anything in his heart, it is foundational truth related to the moral law. The truly blessed man is 'poor in spirit' (5:3) and 'mourns' (5:4), because in the law he has seen the perfection of God's glorious righteousness and the stringent demands made of himself for the Day of Judgment. He is brokenhearted at the great gulf between God's expectation and his own performance, and he realizes that God's wrath abides on him because of his great moral deficiencies. He is 'meek' (5:5), being unable to promote himself in this self-conscious state of wickedness. He 'hungers and thirsts after righteousness' (5:6). To the convicted conscience this is an inward passion unparalleled by any other desire. It has become his foremost goal. He 'seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness' (6:33).
This is the paramount subject of the gospel. 'Therein is the righteousness of God revealed'(Rom. 1:16-17). It is the thing about the gospel that attracted the Apostle Paul to it and to Christ. 'I have lost all things ... that I may gain Christ and be found in him ... having ... the righteousness of God by faith' (Phil. 3:7-9). A heart awakened to moral deficiency goes to Christ for the righteousness of God. As Abraham and David had righteousness imputed by faith so do all who trust Jesus Christ (Rom. 4). Their righteousness, given as a free gift of grace, is provided for them by the crucified Lamb of God. 'God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God' (2 Cor. 5:22). The moral law superintended the occurrences at the bloody tree. The Law executed its just sentence for law-breaking. Jesus Christ met the full demands of the law against God's elect. This gracious act supremely honoured and upheld the Law (Rom. 3:31).
When a sinner comes to Christ for the righteousness of God he is made 'pure in heart' (5:8). The Holy Spirit writes the Law on the desires of his heart (Heb. 8:10). Having experienced a conscious awareness of lacking the one thing necessary for eternal life – God's righteousness – and having sought the righteousness of God in Christ with all his heart, moral issues can never be trivialized. He is willing to be persecuted for the practice of righteousness (5:10). He is determined that at any cost his good deeds will be seen by men (5:14-16). God will get the glory for his moral actions, for his righteousness reflects God's glory. Only by God's Holy Spirit are 'the requirements of the law fully met in us all'(Rom. 8:4). If his search for justification has been genuine (seeking the righteousness of God in Christ as an object), then psychologically and necessarily sanctification must follow – a pursuit of holiness of life – defined by the same moral law.
An experience of grace forms in a converted heart an interest in the righteousness of God and an impulse to pursue the righteousness of God that for evermore absorbs him in the pursuit of bearing the very image of God's righteous Being. Therefore righteousness is done within God's kingdom by every member of that kingdom (not perfectly but decidedly). Doing the works of the Law is an evidence of having received the saving grace of God. Certainly this is the point of James 2:12-26. And it is the potent conclusion of the Sermon we are presently considering (Matt. 7:21-23).
Since sanctification follows faith, men will be judged by their conformity to commandments. Even before that final judgment those who fail to have in their lives a significant pursuit of the moral standards of God's Law have reason to question whether they are as yet citizens of Christ's glorious kingdom.
Moral law, then, teaches us what God's holiness is, what our sin is, what standard will judge us in the last day, what sense we are to make of the cross, what Christ provides for sinners, and how to glorify God in holy living when given his righteousness by faith. If, as many who are nervous about the Law and think little of it, we were to play down or cease to speak of the righteousness of God, then we would eviscerate the gospel itself and its central message. This would produce, as it is doing in modern antinomian 'gospels' a new breed of Christians who come to Jesus for many things but who have never hungered or thirsted for righteousness in him. It would fill churches with those who expect to get to heaven some day, but who see no point to working at being holy now, and who have no concept of what good deeds might be.
The centrepiece of the gospel must be a righteousness (Matt. 5:10) that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. It must be a righteousness which fully accords with the moral commands of the Law and the Prophets. It is this which Jesus declares to be available in himself by faith, and which by his Holy Spirit he will bring to real practice in those who trust him. In his Person and work first, and then in the redeemed, all will be fulfilled, to the praise of his glorious grace.
Part of our confusion is caused by the simple fact that the word "law" in the New Testament has at least three different meanings when used in different contexts. It can refer to the whole Old Testament, as in Romans 3:19 (where the preceding quotations come from the psalms and prophets). It can refer to part of the OT, as when Jesus says, "I have not come to abolish the law and the prophets" (Matthew 5:17). Specifically, it can refer to that part of the OT written by Moses, the first five books, called the Torah. For example, Jesus said in Luke 24:44, "These are my words which I spoke to you . . . that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." The third meaning of the term law is not a different part of the OT, but the OT understood in a different way. We will see in a few moments how many in Israel twisted the Mosaic law into legalism. That is, they severed it from its foundation of faith, failed to stress dependence on the Spirit, and thus turned the commandments into a job description for how to earn the wages of salvation.
That is legalism. But there is no Greek word for legalism, so when Paul wanted to refer to this distortion of the Mosaic law, he often used the phrase, "works of law" (e.g., Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16, 3:2, 5). But sometimes he simply used the word "law," as when he said, "You are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14). We will see that this does not mean: you don't have to keep the law. It means you are not burdened by it as a job description of how to earn the wages of salvation. So whenever you read the word "law" in the New Testament, ask yourself: is this the OT, or the writings of Moses, or the legalistic distortion of Moses' teaching? This will keep us from giving such bad press to the Mosaic law when really it is the legalistic distortion of law that should get the bad press.
What I would like to do this morning is vindicate Moses from the widespread accusation that he taught a different way of salvation and sanctification than the New Testament does, namely, "by grace through faith . . . not of works lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8, 9). Now I know that hardly anyone says that God saved people differently in the OT than he does today. But many Bible teachers say (or imply) that the law of Moses offers a way of salvation different than the way offered in the gospel. That is, virtually everyone agrees that anybody that was justified in the OT was justified by grace through faith; it was a gift of God. But many will still say that the law did not call men to be justified this way, it called them to earn God's blessings through works, and in doing this it showed men their total inability and drove them to the Savior.
Or to put it another way, many Bible teachers will argue that the Mosaic covenant (made with Israel at Mount Sinai) is fundamentally different from the covenant with Abraham (made earlier) and the New Covenant (established at Calvary) under which we live. The difference, they say, is this: in the Abrahamic covenant and New Covenant salvation is promised freely to be received by faith apart from works of law. But under the Mosaic covenant salvation (or God's blessing) is not offered freely to faith, but instead is offered as a reward for the works of the law. Since only perfect works could merit salvation from a perfectly holy God and nobody can achieve that, the law simply makes us aware of our sin and misery and pronounces our condemnation. This is probably the most popular view of the Mosaic law in the church today, and it is wrong. It makes a legalistic Pharisee out of Moses, turns the Torah into the very heresy Paul condemned at Galatia, and (worst of all) it makes God into his own enemy, commanding that people try to merit his blessing (and thus exalt themselves) instead of resting in his all sufficient mercy (and thus exalt him).
I want to try to vindicate Moses from this misunderstanding by giving you a biblical theology of the law in a nutshell. It's a huge topic, but sometimes if we press things together into a nut-size outline, we can plant it in the corner of our mind until it grows into a big tree of insight. Here's what I will do: I'll mention the five points I want to make, then go back and give their biblical basis, and then sum them up again. We will close by singing the beauty of God's law with Psalm 19.
First, the law is fulfilled when we love our neighbor. Second, love is the out-working of authentic, saving faith. Third, therefore the law did not call for meritorious works, but for the obedience which flows from faith. Fourth, therefore we must obey the OT commandments the same way we obey the NT commandments—not in order to win God's favor, but because we already depend on his free grace and trust that his commands will lead to full and lasting joy. Fifth, we should delight in God's law, meditate on it day and night, and sing of its value unto all generations.
Love Fulfills the Law
First of all then, love is a fulfilling of the law. The crucial text here is Romans 13:8–10.
Owe no one anything except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. (See also Galatians 5:14.)
Paul was not taking a big risk when he boiled the whole law down into one command. He had the authority of Jesus for doing so. Jesus said in Matthew 7:12, "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." James said it a bit differently (2:8), "If you really fulfill the royal law according to scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well." So we have three testimonies in the New Testament that what God is trying to do through the law is make loving people out of us. Every single commandment, says Romans 13:9, has love as its aim. So the first point in our nutshell theology of the law is that the law is fulfilled in us when we love our neighbor.
Love Is the Fruit of Faith
The second point is this: love is not a work that we do on our own to show ourselves meritorious to God; it is the fruit of faith in the promises of God. To be sure, genuine love will lead to great labor. But it is not synonymous with labor. It is deeper than labor and prior to labor and enables labor. There are many people laboring for God and neighbor who are not doing it out of love. Love is more than religious practices and humanitarian services. That's why Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 13:3, "If I give away all I have and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Someone may ask, "Well, if you can die for someone and not have love, what in the world is love?" The answer is that love is not in the world. "Love is from God" (1 John 4:7). Where there is no faith uniting the heart to God, there is no true love. Love is the out-working of genuine, saving faith. Here are the key passages: Galatians 5:6, "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love." The origin of love is the heart of faith. Further down in Galatians 5:22, love is called the fruit of the Spirit. In other words, it is something we cannot produce without God's enablement. So how do we become loving people? Galatians 3:5 answers, "The one who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you does so not by works of the law but by the hearing of faith." The path on which the Spirit comes to us is faith in God's promises; and when he comes, the fruit he produces is love. Therefore, love is the fruit of the Spirit and the outworking of faith. In 1 Timothy 1:5 Paul puts it like this, "The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith." Only genuine faith is going to issue into love.
I think we can illustrate the way this works by our present situation here at Bethlehem. There are three significant decisions we will probably make by the end of January: whether to buy the house next door for future expansion or parking, whether to amend the church covenant, and whether to call an assistant pastor for educational and young adult ministries and a children's worker in September 1982. I am eager for all three of these things to happen. But I also know there are some who are opposed to one, some opposed to two, and some opposed to all three of these proposals. What will love look like between those of us who disagree over the next three months, and where will it come from?
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not seek to avoid a brother who differs, it does not wear a scowl, it does not spread rumors or speak evil of a neighbor, it does not close its ears to the evidences. Instead, love rejoices in the truth and is peaceable, gentle, open to reason. Love looks people in the eye and communicates goodwill. Love does not pout, is not self-pitying, does not use ultimatums to get its own way. That's what love will look like in the next three months. And what a terrific opportunity we have to prove to ourselves and to the world that our peace is not based merely on sameness. It takes no Christian grace whatever to live in peace where everyone thinks and feels the same. And so the time of controversy in which we find ourselves is not bad; it is a good occasion to test whether there is really grace within us or not.
When I list before myself the demand of love, I know what I must do. I must buttress my faith with some promises. Promises like:
I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)
I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10, 11)
When I still my heart with these things and catch a glimpse of God's bright and sovereign future, then I can love again. I don't feel threatened anymore. I don't feel angry or depressed or anxious. I feel like the future is taken care of. And if I am all taken care of, then it feels very natural to want to take care of you, to look you in the eye and smile and want only your good. The point is this: to whatever degree we achieve this divine love for each other, it will be owing to faith in the liberating promises of God.
The Law, in Calling for Love, Calls for Faith
So the first point in our theology of the law was that love fulfills the law. The second point was that love only comes out of faith in God's promises. The third point, therefore, is that the law did not call for meritorious works, but for the obedience which flows from faith. If love is what the law aimed at, and only faith can love, then the law must teach faith. This is what has been overlooked so often. But it can be shown from Paul's teaching and from the law itself. The key passage is Romans 9:30–32. Here Paul explains why Israel has not fulfilled the law even though she pursued it for centuries. He says:
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, the righteousness through faith; but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on law (or: who pursued the law of righteousness) did not succeed in fulfilling that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it (i.e., the law) through faith, but as if it were based on works.
That little phrase "as if" or "as though" is tremendously important. It shows clearly that Paul did not believe that God ever intended the law to be obeyed by "works." That is, if you try to use the law as a job description of how to earn God's favor you are doing something that the law itself opposes. The law itself is against "the works of the law." The law never commanded anyone to try to merit his salvation. The law is based on faith in God's promises, not on legalistic strivings. The mistake of Israel was not in pursuing the law, but in pursuing it by works instead of by faith. (See Romans 3:31; Matthew 23:23.)
Now let's look at the law itself. The ten commandments are the heart of the Mosaic covenant and are found in Exodus 20. Israel has arrived in the wilderness of Sinai three months after the exodus from Egypt. The agony of slavery and the spectacular deliverance through the Red Sea are vivid in their memories. (Think how vivid the concentration camp would still be three months after the allied liberation!) One of God's purposes in the exodus was to cause his people to trust him, that he would take care of them and bring them to the promised land. So Exodus 14:31 says, "And Israel saw the great work which the Lord did against the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord; and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses."
Therefore, when the ten commandments begin, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:2, 3), God meant: "Remember how I demonstrated my love for you and my incomparable power on your behalf! Trust in me now, and look to no other source for help." The ten commandments are based on a call for faith in the God of the exodus, just like the moral teachings of the NT are based on a call for faith in the Lord of Good Friday and Easter.
The exodus was a sign for Israel, just like the death and resurrection of Jesus are a sign for the church. The meaning of the sign is that God is for you and will work for you and take care of you if you will only trust him. The past event of the exodus is a sign of God's willingness to help Israel in the future. Therefore, the faith God aims to produce through the exodus is a confidence that God will do for us in the future what he has done in the past. This is made clear in Deuteronomy 1:29–32 where Moses recounts why Israel refused to enter the promised land and was forced to wander 40 years in the desert. Moses had said to them when they first approached the promised land, "Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes . . . Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God." (See also Numbers 14:11, 20:12; Deuteronomy 9:22–24.)
The exodus was a sign that God would take care of Israel in the future. Therefore, the exodus was the foundation of Israel's faith. And this faith is the basis of the law. The law of Moses simply spells out the way Israelites will live if they genuinely feel their future is secure in God. You don't steal if your future is secure in God. You can't abuse others for self-gain by killing or lying or seducing another's spouse or dishonoring your parents, if you really believe the God of the exodus and the God of Easter is at work to give you the future that is best for you. All these sins come from not believing God. The law is a description of the obedience of faith; it is not a job description for how to earn the wages of God's blessings.
The Law Is Fulfilled by the Obedience of Faith
So the first point in our theology of the law was that love fulfills the law. The second point was that love is the outworking of faith. And the third point was that, therefore, the law itself does not demand meritorious works, but only the obedience which comes from faith. The fourth point follows naturally, namely: we must therefore obey (or fulfill) the OT commandments the same way we must obey the NT commandments—not to win God's favor, but because we already depend on his free grace and trust that his commands will lead to full and lasting joy. Of course since Christ has come and fulfilled the sacrificial side of the OT (1 Corinthians 5:7), and has declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19), and has founded a new people of God which is not a national or ethnic group, many of the OT commandments do not apply to us (e.g., dietary laws, laws about sacrifices, laws pertaining to political organizations and national action). But vast portions of the OT describe dimensions of obedience which are true for God's people in any age.
Romans 8:3, 4 teaches that the law itself is powerless to produce this kind of obedience. The letter kills; it is the Spirit that gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). Therefore, God sent Christ to atone for sin (Romans 8:3), that he might pour the Holy Spirit into our hearts, "in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:4). Thus Paul teaches that we should not leave the law behind, not reject the law for something else, but fulfill the law in the power of the Holy Spirit through faith which works itself out in love.
We Should Delight in God's Law and Sing of Its Value
In conclusion, then, the points are these: first, the law is fulfilled in us when we love our neighbor as ourselves. Second, love is the outworking of genuine, saving faith. Third, therefore, the law did not teach us to try to produce meritorious works, but only taught us to trust the gracious God of the exodus and to live out the obedience of faith. Fourth, therefore, the Mosaic covenant is not fundamentally different from the Abrahamic and New Covenants, for we should obey the commandments of all three from the very same motive—not to win God's favor, but because we already depend on his free grace and trust that his commands will lead to full and lasting joy. The final point, then, is that we should delight in God's law, meditate on it day and night (Psalm 119:97), and sing of his value to all generations (Psalm 19:7–14).
an all the Ten Commandments, given in Exodus 20 and other places, also be found in the New Testament?
God gave the gift of his righteous Ten Commandments to the children of Israel after their Egyptian bondage. Each of these laws are restated, either in word or meaning, in the Gospels or the rest of the New Testament. In fact, we do not have to go far before we encounter the words of Jesus regarding the laws and commandments of God.
Near the very beginning of Jesus' well-known Sermon on the Mount he states something that is often twisted, or simply forgotten, by those who wish to do away with the commandments. He states, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill . . . until the heaven and the earth shall pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the Law (God's commandments, judgments, statutes, and so on) . . . (Matthew 5:17 - 18).
The 'jot' mentioned in the above verse was the tinest Hebrew or Greek letter of the alphabet. The 'tittle' is a very small stroke or mark added to some letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order to distinguish one from another. From Jesus' statement we can only conclude that since heaven and earth are still here, God's commandments have not been "done away with" but are still in effect!
The apostle John, in the last book of the Bible, makes a crystal clear statement regarding the importance of God's law. Writing about truly converted Christians who live in the time just before Jesus returns to earth he states they 'keep the commandments of God' AND they also have faith in Jesus Christ (Revelation 14:12)! John is stating that both obedience and faith can coexist!
Listed below are God's commandments as found in the book of Exodus, chapter 20. Along with each one is where they are repeated, either exactly or in principle, in the New Testament.
#1
You shall have no other gods before Me (Exodus 20:3).
You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve (Matthew 4:10, see also 1Corinthians 8:4 - 6).
#2
You shall not make for yourself a carved image - any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them . . . (Exodus 20:4 - 5).
Little children, keep yourselves from idols (1John 5:21, see also Acts 17:29).
But the cowardly, and unbelieving . . . and idolaters . . . shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone . . . (Revelation 21:8).
#3
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain (Exodus 20:7).
Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name . . . (Matthew 6:9, see also 1Timothy 6:1).
#4
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy . . . (Exodus 20:8 - 11).
The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; Therefore, the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27 - 28, Hebrews 4:4, 10, Acts 17:2).
#5
Honor your father and your mother . . . (Exodus 20:12).
Honor your father and your mother (Matthew 19:19, see also Ephesians 6:1).
#6
You shall not murder (Exodus 20:13).
You shall not murder (Matthew 19:18, see also Romans 13:9, Revelation 21:8).
#7
You shall not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14).
You shall not commit adultery (Matthew 19:18, see also Romans 13:9, Revelation 21:8).
#8
You shall not steal (Exodus 20:15).
'You shall not steal' (Matthew 19:18, see also Romans 13:9).
#9
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor (Exodus 20:16).
'You shall not bear false witness' (Matthew 19:18, see also Romans 13:9, Revelation 21:8).
#10
You shall not covet your neighbor's house . . . your neighbor's wife . . . nor anything that is your neighbor's (Exodus 20:17).
You shall not covet (Romans 13:9, see also Romans 7:7).
17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (5:17-20)
How does the New Testament relate to the Old? How do Spirit-filled Christians relate to the Old Testament saints?
Old versus New, Law versus Grace
Many Christians are quick to throw out the Old Testament. "The God of the Old Testament," they say, "is an angry, vengeful God. So different from Jesus." Most Christians today are unfamiliar with the Old Testament. If anything, they bring only a New Testament to church, and act like the Old Testament no longer has any authority.
Others define it in terms of Law versus Grace, following St. Paul's lead. "I am not under the Old Testament law," they say. "I'm now under the grace of God." True, but just what does that mean?
What did Jesus intend to accomplish? Did Jesus come to do away with the Old Testament?
This very question is at the heart of Jesus' controversy with the Pharisees.
(See Excursus 2, "Introduction to the Religion of the Pharisees," above). Jesus doesn't seem concerned to follow the meticulous legal observance of the Pharisees. He heals on the Sabbath. His disciples nibble at grain plucked on the Sabbath. They don't even wash their hands in the prescribed manner! What kind of religion is Jesus propagating? Doesn't he care about the Law?
Not to Abolish but to Fulfill (5:17)
Jesus states his position very clearly:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (5:17)
What did he mean? First we need to define some of the phrases he uses.
"The Law" refers especially the Torah or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. "The Prophets" include both the writings of the Prophets (what we call the major and minor prophets) as well as Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles (what we call the historical books). Jesus' phrase "The Law and the Prophets" refers to the whole of the Old Testament Scripture.
He contrasts two words: "abolish" and "fulfill."
The word translated "abolish" (NIV) or "destroy" (KJV) is Greek kataluō, which means, "destroy, demolish, dismantle," here, ""to end the effect of something" so that it is no longer in force, "do away with, abolish, annul, make invalid, repeal."1 This is a strong word, used, for example, of the destruction of the temple in Matthew 24:2; 26:61; 27:40. So with it Jesus emphatically denies coming to destroy the law.
Rather he has a very positive view of the law. He speaks in verse 17 like he is on a mission: "I have come ...." He has a very deliberate task before him, to fulfill the law and the prophets. The word translated "fulfill" is Greek plēroō, which has the basic meaning of "to make full, fill (full)." It can also mean "bring something to completion, finish something already begun." Or "to bring to a designed end, fulfill" a prophecy, an obligation, a promise, a law, a request, a desire, a hope, a duty, a fate, a destiny, etc. Or "to bring to completion an activity in which one has been involved from its beginning, complete, finish."2 The precise meaning of this common word must be determined by its context.
Certainly Jesus came to make the law itself full. The Pharisees, in their attempt to obey legalistic minutiae had prescribed and limited the application of the law. Jesus wants his followers to see what the law really implies -- which is far beyond the Pharisees' safe interpretations. For example, when the law said, "Thou shalt not kill," explains Jesus, it means more than the act of murder, but the anger and lack of respect for a person that motivate the act (5:21-26). Jesus gives the same sort of reinterpretation to popular concepts of adultery (5:27-30), divorce (5:31-32), oath-taking (5:33-37), retaliation (5:38-42), and love for enemies (5:43-48). Helping people to understand the full depth and spirit of the law is certainly part of his mission. But, as we'll see in a moment, there was more to his mission of fulfilling the law.
Jots and Tittles (5:18)
First, we need to see how emphatically Jesus spoke these words. He wanted everyone to see how deeply he honored and believed the words of the Law and the Prophets.
He begins with the phrase, "Verily I say unto you ...." It is used as a preface or solemn formula of affirmation to some of Jesus' most definitive statements, and means "truly," and is literally the word "amen." Next he said,
"Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (5:18, KJV)
The NIV translates it:
"... Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." (5:18)
Just what is a jot or a tittle?
The English word "jot" is Greek iota, a letter of the Greek alphabet that corresponds to our letter "i". Evidently it was also the equivalent of the Aramaic and Hebrew letter yod, which is written like our apostrophe ('), just a small stroke of the pen.
A "tittle" (rhythms with "little") is Greek keraia, and means "literally 'horn,' 'projection, hook' as part of a letter, a 'serif'."3 You can see how a tiny part of a letter is important when you compare the lower case letter "l" with the number "1". The difference is in merely a "tittle."
The emphasis in these two words is on tiny, small, minute. The NIV captures the sense well: "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." In other words, Jesus didn't just come to round out the big themes of the Bible, but to fulfill or accomplish even the tiny prophecies and verses. The sentence is an emphatic one.
Practicing and Teaching (5:19)
But it is followed by an even stronger sentence:
"Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (5:19)
This should set us on our heels. If we think that we can ignore the teachings of the Old Testament, we'd better think again. Jesus holds us responsible to both practice and teach to our children the commandments of the Lord. We hear a lot of talk about grace, but Jesus speaks pretty clearly here and elsewhere of commandments and obedience. (See, for example, John 14:15; 15:10; 1 John 2:3; 3:22, 24; 5:3.) A disciple's life is one of learning and following his master.
We see this kind of comparison of least and greatest two other times in Matthew:
"I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." (11:11)
"Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (18:4)
It doesn't seem that salvation, or entrance into the kingdom, is the issue, but one's standing among the other citizens of the kingdom.
Surpassing the Pharisees' Righteousness (5:20)
Jesus also makes it clear that he isn't talking about a new legalism. The Pharisees were devotees of rigorous law-keeping of the minutiae of the law as it had been passed down to them in an oral tradition called "the tradition of the elders." Tithing herbs from the garden and dribbling water on the tips of one's fingers and allowing it to run down to the wrist were part of this scrupulous observance.
Among the common people, the Pharisees were considered in some ways as the holiest of people. If theyweren't keeping the law adequately, how could anyone keep it? So Jesus' next statement must have shocked his hearers and angered the Pharisees:
"For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (5:20)
How could anyone's righteousness surpass that of the most righteous people in the land? In the remainder of the chapter, Jesus begins to explain how a right observance of the law is not a superficial fulfillment of the exterior, but a living out of the very spirit of the law. And he explains what he means by contrasting with the true spirit of the law what was the popular view of certain commands -- murder, adultery, divorce, oath-taking, retaliation, and hating enemies.
How Did Jesus Fulfill the Law?
While our text doesn't spell out the ways that Jesus fulfilled the law, it might be helpful to review them briefly. One way to view the Law is as:
- The civil law that governed the nation Israel,
- The religious law that detailed the sacrifices and temple ceremonies required for the forgiveness of sin, and
- The moral law, such as that found in the Ten Commandments.
Civil Law
Jesus fulfilled the civil law that described property rights, civil liability, and inheritance. These were designed to govern Israel as a theocracy, that is, a nation with God as their king. The theocracy of Israel finally passed away when the last king of Judah was deposed and the nation was taken into exile. Never again was Israel an independent nation. When the people returned, they did so as vassals of the Persians, later the Greeks, and still later the Romans. Only for brief periods did Israel exist as an independently governed nation. The Kingdom of God had seemingly come to an end.
But that Kingdom was fulfilled in Jesus himself. (See Excursus 1 above, "What Is the Kingdom of Heaven?") When the Jewish leaders rejected King Jesus, the kingdom was removed from Israel. Jesus said,
"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit." (Matthew 21:43)
The Gentiles now had an opportunity to be subjects of the King as the gospel went global.
Religious or Ceremonial Law
Exodus and Leviticus describe in great detail the construction of a tabernacle (later, the temple) and the sacrifices required to atone for sin. "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins," we are reminded in Hebrews 9:22b. But the New Testament describes how Jesus, as "the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), poured out his blood for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28), once for all and for all time (Hebrews 10:10). The Letter to the Hebrews explains how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law. So in himself, Jesus fulfilled the religious or ceremonial law.
Moral Law
The final kind of law is what we might call the moral law, those moral principles that endure from one age to another. We find them, for example, in the Ten Commandments. "Thou shalt not kill ... thou shalt not commit adultery ... thou shalt not steal ... thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor ...." In the Shema we read,
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).
"Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18).
Jesus came to fulfill the Kingdom his Father had established, to fulfill the Law his Father had instituted, and to live out in his life the quality of life to which the Law aspired. "I didn't come to abolish the Law and the Prophets," Jesus said, "but to fulfill them."
| Q1. (Matthew 5:17-20) Can you see any tendencies in the church today to effectively "abolish" the Old Testament from our Christian faith? What does a "Christian" legalism look like in a church? What does it look like in a church where there are no moral standards and no obedience expected of Christians? https://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=739 |
The Spirit of Reconciliation (5:21-26)
21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
23 Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
25 Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.
26 I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny." (5:21-26)
Jesus is perturbed that the Pharisees have so defined the Law in their own terms that they have missed the point. And so he begins to expound the Law as it pertains to six subjects: murder, adultery, divorce, oath-taking, retaliation, and love for one's enemy. Instead of a litany of commandments, Jesus looks to the spirit of the Law.
You have heard that it was said ... but I tell you ...
Each of these subjects begins with an interesting phrase, "You have heard that it was said ... but I tell you ..." (5:21-22, 27-28, 33-34, 38-39, 43-44). Each of these formulas contain the Greek word errethē (Aorist Passive of legō). This is not the word Jesus uses to quote the Old Testament. It becomes obvious by the time you come to the quotation in 5:43, that he is quoting the oral tradition, the "tradition of the elders," not the scripture directly. (5:43 reads, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor' and hate your enemy' ..."). Yes, the Pharisees quoted the Pentateuch, but they went beyond it with their own interpretation, limiting and circumscribing its meaning. Jesus is explaining the actual spirit of the Law, as only God Himself can expound it.
Do Not Murder (5:21)
"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.'" (5:21)
The Sixth Commandment is "Thou shalt not kill" (KJV, Exodus 20:13). Certainly those who murder will be subject to judgment. The "tradition of the elders" would agree.
Anger and Insult (5:22)
But Jesus goes to the heart of the Law as he expounds the motivation behind murder -- anger.
"But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." (5:22)
Let's examine the Greek words used in verses 21-22:
- phoneuō - "murder, kill." 4
- orgizō - "be angry." 5
- rhaka - "a term of abuse / put-down relating to lack of intelligence, numskull, fool (in effect verbal bullying)," derived from the Aramaic word meaning "empty one," found in the Talmud, "empty-head." 6
- mōros - "foolish, stupid," from which we get our word "moron."7
- sunedrion - "a governing board, council," then "the high council in Jerusalem, Sanhedrin." 8
- geenna - Gehenna, "'Valley of the Sons of Hinnom,' a ravine south of Jerusalem. There, according to later Jewish popular belief, God's final judgment was to take place. In the gospels it is the place of punishment in the next life, 'hell.'"9
A.B. Bruce distinguishes between the word "Raca" and "fool" in this way: "Raca expresses contempt for a man's head -- you stupid! [The Greek word] mōre expresses contempt for his heart and character -- you scoundrel!"10
This ought to scare us. Who hasn't been angry and insulted someone? Of course, we can get legalistic and say that we haven't used the exact word "Raca" or "fool." But that is the same kind of word gymnastics for which Jesus condemned the Pharisees. Jesus is saying that we are guilty before God for a heart that lashes out in anger and venom. Whether or not a person's life is terminated as a result is not the point.
When I was a boy, we would parrot this saying to someone who called us a name:
"Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words can never hurt me."
Unfortunately, this children's chant is false. Words do hurt. Names injure us -- sometimes for life. How many of you or your friends have spent years struggling with what your father or mother said to you -- plagued by it, your self-confidence destroyed. Anger, and the vile venom it inspires, kill the spirit. And those who spew this acid on those about them are not free from judgment. The God who condemns murder also condemns angry insult, for they both come from the same root.
| Q2. (Matthew 5:21-22) Why does Jesus treat calling someone a fool in the same classification as murder? Does this mean that murder is no worse than an angry insult in God's eyes? How would we act differently if we actually believed that angry attitudes towards others are viewed by God as murder? https://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=740 |
Woe to You Hypocrites!
Man looks on the exterior, the action, but God examines the heart. And in the heart is the root of murder. Legalism is an exterior thing, but the life of a follower of Jesus begins in the heart.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." (Matthew 23:25-28)
No, Jesus didn't come to abolish the law, but to bring out its fullness, to fulfill it.
The Fire of Hell (22c)
So what of the upstanding moral people who never kill, who drive the speed limit, who never break the law? What of them? Are they to be consigned to the fires of hell for hatred in their hearts? (See Excursus 3 below,"Did Jesus Believe in Hell?") The answer we must come to is: Yes!
Sometimes we labor under the ancient myth that we can earn heaven by our good deeds. No, Jesus would say, we must repent! Jesus taught,
"But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean'" (Matthew 15:18-20).
The argument in the passage just quoted was part of Jesus' running discussion with the Pharisees about externals versus internals. And with us, too, Jesus carries on this continuing discussion. Cleanse the heart, and then the exterior actions will follow.
The Cleansing Process
So often when someone from a rough lifestyle becomes a Christian, we church people are quick to get him to conform to our standards of speech, dress, and morals. But you don't learn how to "walk the walk" from learning to "talk the talk." That's backwards. It is the Holy Spirit of God that cleanses us, and he works from the inside out, in an ever-broadening cycle -- conviction, repentance, and change; conviction, repentance, and change. Don't feel you have to do God's cleansing work for him when someone becomes a Christian. Love them. Support them. Pray for them. You expect to change a few diapers with a newborn. "God catches his fish before he cleans them."
Can we live so circumspectly that we do not break the law of the pure heart? Can we live in such a way that we need no forgiveness? No. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?" (RSV, Jeremiah 17:9). Why did Jesus die on the cross? Because there was no other way to atone for our sins. "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins," said Jesus (Matthew 26:28). The Law, the Apostle Paul observes, is not intended to bring salvation but "that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful" (Romans 7:13).
So if we are frightened by Jesus' stern condemnation of anger and insult and we see the flickering flames of hell licking at us for our heart wickedness, then we've gotten the point that Jesus intended. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near," was Jesus' message (Matthew 4:17) and that of his cousin John the Baptist (Matthew 3:2). People flocked to them and were baptized, washing away their sins, because they became aware of their heart wickedness and need for cleansing.
"All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus' words, acknowledged that God's way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John" (Luke 7:29-30).
Which is your heart most like? A repentant tax collector or a self-justifying Pharisee?
First, go be reconciled to your brother (5:23-24)
23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." (5:23-24)
So if anger, murder, and insult are condemned by the Law as expounded by Jesus, what is approved by the law? What is the positive command we are to fulfill? "Be reconciled to your brother" (5:24).
How do we fulfill this law? If we are worshipping and remember that our brother has something against us, we are to leave our gift behind and first be reconciled to our brother. After we have done that, we can come back and resume our worship.
Does this sound a bit radical to your ears? It sounded radical to First Century ears, as well. Jesus sometimes rammed home his points through hyperbole, over-statement, so they would be unforgettable. Is this hyperbole? Perhaps.
But Jesus' clear point is that worship -- seeking to honor God by bringing an offering -- is a mockery if we don't first repent of our sins and carry out that repentance to its logical conclusion. That point isn't radical. It is taught throughout the Scripture in such passages as:
"Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22).
"Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God..." (Joel 2:13).
"You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:16-17).
Is Reconciliation Always Possible?
We need to say, however, that Jesus' words, "First, go and be reconciled to your brother," imply that you have offended your brother and need to make amends. There may well be estrangement that we have little to do with and cannot change. The willingness to reconcile must be shared by the other party. Don't beat yourself up over this. But make sure that you have made right what you need to, and that your anger and insult and self-righteousness about it have been replaced by humility and a willingness to reconcile.
Sometimes we have hurt someone deeply and it is fully our fault, but when we go to humble ourselves and seek forgiveness we are snubbed. We may be snubbed, but we must still go and seek reconciliation.
Lest we think we are in the clear about this, be aware that elsewhere Jesus spoke about another aspect of reconciliation -- our willingness to forgive those who have offended us.
"And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." (Mark 11:25)
Reconciliation may be possible if we will humble ourselves. And even if it is not possible, we must make a sincere attempt if we would seek to fulfill the spirit of the Law. After all, the Law is not really about murder and stealing. It is about love and reconciliation. That is the spirit of the Law.
| Q3. (Matthew 5:23-24) What's wrong with worshipping while a brother has something against us (or us against a brother, Mark 11:25)? What is the appropriate action for us to take? How far should we go to bring about reconciliation with someone whom we have offended? Are there any situations that we shouldn't try to resolve? Or that we can't resolve? https://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=741 |
Settle matters quickly with your accuser (5:25-26)
Jesus concludes this teaching on reconciliation with an example from a mini-parable.
"Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny" (5:25-26)
The parable assumes that you owe your accuser a debt of some kind, and to collect on it he is taking you to small claims court. Jesus is saying: Don't wait until you get to court to work out some kind of deal; settle out of court. Because if the court has to decide the matter, you will be thrown into debtor's prison and won't get out until every last cent is paid.
We don't have debtor's prisons today, but they were common in Western jurisprudence until recently. On the surface they seem stupid: If a person is in prison he can't work to repay his debt. But what happened when you are thrown into debtor's prison, was that your family and friends would come up with the money in order to get you out. Then you have to live the rest of your life with your family glowering at you, and never letting you forget the hardship you have caused them.
So in this mini-parable, Jesus is saying, settle quickly, before you get to court. Settle quickly or you'll be stuck for every last cent that is due.
What is the point of the parable in this context? Jesus is teaching his hearers to reconcile quickly with those they have wronged and not to put it off. The implication is that if they wait for God to settle the matter at his bar of justice, that judgment will exacting and harsh punishment.
You remember that this teaching on murder began with the concepts of accountability and justice: "... subject to judgment ... answerable to the Council ... in danger of the fire of hell." Jesus' mini-parable is only a thinly-veiled picture of us having to stand before God for every one of our sins unless we repent now.
| Q4. (Matthew 5:25-26) What is the point of Jesus' parable of settling out of court? Who are we supposed to settle with, according to this parable? What does "settling" entail? What are the reasons that we should settle? https://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=742 |
The Golden Center
In a sense, the Law "Thou shalt not kill" is an outpost to regulate the limits of our behavior, but the Golden Center is something else. Is God seeking non-murderers? No. He is seeking those who do not let anger and hatred live in their hearts at all. He is seeking those who will show mercy, those who will forgive, those who will, in a word, love.
Jesus came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, not to abolish them. One day an expert in the Law asked Jesus this question:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:36-40).
And so what seemed complex to the legalists becomes much simpler to grasp. "Love your neighbor as yourself." That is the aim of the whole law, straight from the mouth of God himself in the Person of Jesus Christ.
| Q5. (Matthew 5:21-26) Verses 21-22 are about murder, anger, and insult. Verses 23-24 discuss some fault against one's brother. Verses 25-26 discuss settling a civil suit before going to court. What is the overarching theme of Jesus' teaching in our entire passage, verses 21-26? https://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=743 |
Prayer
Father, when you examine our hearts and our attitudes, we are sinners. No, we aren't literal murderers, but you couldn't tell that from our hearts. Forgive us. Cleanse us. And infuse us with the kind of love you have that can love and redeem us in all our conflicted rebellion. Transform us by your Spirit, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.
References
- Kataluō, BDAG 521-522, 3.a.
- Plēroō, BDAG 827-828.
- Keraia, BDAG 540.
- Phoneuō, BDAG 1063.
- Orgizō, BDAG 721.
- Rhaka, BDAG 903.
- Mōros, BDAG 663.
- Sunedrion, BDAG 967.
- Gehenna, BDAG 190-191.
- A.B. Bruce, Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels in The Expositor's Greek Testament(1897), p. 107
Christ came to fulfill the law (17-20)
II. God sees the anger in our hearts (21-26)
I. Christ came to fulfill the law (17-20)
Discussion Questions
What does it mean to a abolish the Law/Prophets?
What does the Prophets refer to here?
Why might someone think that Jesus came to abolish them?
In what way or ways did Jesus fulfill the Law and the Prophets?
Can you describe the process of how the Bible was passed down to us? Old Testament? New Testament? How would you answer someone who says that the “Bible has changed many times. We cannot trust the current version.”
What can we see here about Jesus’ attitude toward the Old Testament?
What does verse 19 mean?
What kind of commandments do people tend to “relax” these days? What is the opposite of “relaxing” commandments? How can we find the right balance?
How can someone have righteousness that exceeds the scribes/Pharisees?
Cross-References
Matthew 24:35 – Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will endure forever.
1 Corinthians 2:12-13 – We impart spiritual truths in spiritual words.
2 Peter 1:21 – The men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1:3-4 – God’s promises are magnificent and as such will all come true.
2 Peter 3:16 – Peter refers to Paul’s writings as Scritpure.
Verse by Verse Commentary
- Verse 17 – Jesus had a completely different kind of ministry than the Pharisees. His teaching was different. And His lifestyle was different. He didn’t observe many of traditions and rules which they did, since many of them were man-made. The result was that some people were accusing him (either out loud or in their hearts) of abolishing the Law and the Prophets. The Law refers to the first five books of the Bible written by Moses. The Prophets refers to the major and minor prophetical books at the end of the New Testament. The Law is the beginning of the Old Testament and the Prophets is the end. So it is reasonable to conclude that Jesus is telling them He is not doing away with the Old Testament Scriptures. He is not replacing them. And He is not pronouncing them useless. Instead He was coming to fulfill the Law. From John 1 we learn that Jesus is the very Word of God. He embodies what it means to perfectly obey God’s law. There could be debate on what exactly it meant not to work on the Sabbath. There could be debate on how to balance honoring parents with honoring God. There could be misunderstanding or disagreement on the right view of anger. Jesus’ showed us a perfect example of exactly what it will look like if someone follows God’s law. He showed us that Sabbath is a day for serving God and not blind rules keeping. He showed us what it means to put God first when He died on the cross and yet without forsaking His responsibility to His mother when He asked John to take care of her. He showed us that righteous anger toward those who dishonor God is acceptable. Only someone who perfectly fulfilled all the requirements of the law could be an acceptable sacrifice for sin just as a sheep offered as a sacrifice had to be without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:19).
- Verse 18 – In this verse we see Jesus’ great respect for God’s Word. The Bible is and has been under attack for centuries. There are many views and explanations for the Bible. In the academic world they teach that the Bible was the natural work of natural men. They are said to have gathered material from what others wrote previously and edited those materials, which were then edited further by future generations. These people say that there is nothing supernatural about the Bible and therefore it is not inerrant. Others believe that the moral ideas in the Bible are inspired by God, but the history or the science or the details are flawed. Since we are Christians and believe in Jesus, it is natural to ask the question, “What did Jesus believe about the Old Testament?” The answer in this verse is clear. He believed it was true and accurate down to the smallest letter and stroke. The word He used in Greek is “iota,” which refers to the ninth Greek letter, which is also the smallest. See for example: “ᾼ ᾳ ῌ ῃ ῼ ῳ.” The iota is the small dot under each of the other letters. Jesus therefore affirms the inspiration and accuracy of the Old Testament Scriptures down the very smallest detail and indeed even including the letters in the words. In addition, He affirms that the Scriptures will remain relevant and in effect until the end of this world. In so doing, He makes it clear that truth doesn’t change. And God’s promises will not fail. A changing culture with declining moral standards does not negate God’s Word. A different modern day perspective toward social issues like divorce or homosexuality or fornication does not alter in any way God’s standards or teachings on these issues. Jesus had a very high view of Scripture, recognizing that it is truth and does not change. His high view of Scripture meant that He studied it faithfully and memorized large parts of it as seen by the fact that He often quotes even obscure sections of it. We see this same love for Scripture even when Jesus was 12 years old by the fact that He was in the temple teaching others. What would a person today do if he had a high view of Scripture?
- Defending Scripture from attack – If you seek to share the good news and disciple others you will inevitably face questions from people who do not believe in the inspiration of Scripture. They will attack the fact that it is inspired of God. Or they will seek to point out what they believe are contradictions. Or they will say that the Bible has changed over the years. Or they will say how can we believe it when there are so many versions? So consider and answer the following questions:
- Why do you believe the Bible is inspired by God? Do you have any evidences of this?
- How can you explain the fact that there are so many versions? If it is God’s Word, shouldn’t there only be one version?
- Can you describe the process of how the Bible was passed down to us? Old Testament? New Testament?
- How would you answer someone who says that the “Bible has changed many times. We cannot trust the current version.”
- Why did God replace the Old Bible with the New Bible (a question I sometimes get when people misunderstand what Old and New Testaments are).
- Verse 19 – Here we see again Jesus’ affirmation of the truth of God’s Word. He gives a powerful warning to those who would disregard the commands in the Bible. Every command and teaching in the Bible should be respected and obeyed. Knowing that the Bible is truth should motivate us to have the same attitude toward it that Ezra did in Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.” Are you devoting yourself to studying it? How can you devote yourself to studying it more? Are you devoting yourself to obeying it? How could you devote yourself to obeying it more? Are you devoting yourself to teaching it? How could you devote yourself to teaching it more?
- God sees the anger in our hearts (21-26)
Discussion Questions
What contrast is Jesus making? Is His way easier or harder than than what they were used to?
What does this passage show us about God’s standards? What does he look at in addition to our behavior?
Is there ever a time when we should be angry? If so, what kind of situations?
How is “righteous anger” different than what Jesus is referencing here?
Can you think of a recent time when you were wrongly angry with someone? Would anyone like to share? What did you do about it? Who can stand before God in light of this very high standard?
What principle do we learn from verses 23-24? What does this passage tell us about the importance of relationships and unity? How does disunity/broken relationships/anger hurt our relationship with and worship of God? How can you apply this principle?
How does verse 25 relate to the previous verses (reconciliation)? What might an accused person tend to do on the eve of his trial (justify himself and make his best case?) If you are accused by a spouse or co-worker, what is your natural response? Instead, in light of this verse, what should you do?
Cross-References
On Anger:
Ephesians 4:26-27 – Be angry and do not sin.
James 1:19-20 – Man’s anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God.
Proverbs 29:11 – A fool gives full vent his spirit, but a wise person holds it back.
Proverbs 19:11 – It is one’s glory to overlook an offense.
Ecclesiastes 7:9 – Be not quick in your spirit to become angry.
Proverbs 15:18 – A hot tempered man stirs up strife.
On Reconciliation:
Matthew 18:15 – If a brother sins against you go…you have gained a brother.
Hebrews 12:14 – Strive for peace with everyone.
1 Peter 4:8 – Above all, keep loving one another earnestly. Love covers a multitude of sins.
Verse by Verse Commentary
- Verse 20 – To us this does not come as a surprise because we have read a lot in the Bible about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. But put yourself into the shoes of Jesus’ listeners. They were raised up to believe that the Pharisees were the most spiritual, the most religious, and the most holy people. They were proper and well groomed and their clothing was proper and clean. The Pharisees were dignified and well educated. At any time they could recite a wonderful greeting and blessing to share with neighbors or passers by on the road. Experts in knowledge of the Scriptures, they could recite long sections of the Old Testament. Ask them virtually any question about those Scriptures and they would be sure to give a complete and very convincing sounding answer. You would never hear them answer, “I don’t know,” to a question. Virtually everyone in society recognized that they were indeed the most righteous and most religious people. But now Jesus says that their righteousness is not enough. He says that you would have to be more righteous than them to enter heaven. How would the crowds have felt? They would have been shocked. Beyond that, they would have felt hopeless. If even the Pharisees couldn’t make it, what hope did they have? And in the coming verses Jesus goes even further to show that no one can possibly meet God’s standards. In fact, I believe that is Jesus’ point. I believe He wanted them to come to the realization that they were completely hopeless to achieve this standard on their own and for that knowledge to motivate them to turn to God and beg for help.
- In verses 21-24 we learn many important lessons:
- God looks at and judges our thoughts, not only our actions and behavior.
- The type of anger mentioned in this passage is anger toward a brother. It is the type of anger that causes a person to throw out insults toward that person. Therefore it is clear that this is not righteous anger toward sin, but a self-centered anger.
- Getting angry with others in our hearts (even if you don’t say anything out loud) already condemns you before God. How can you prevent yourself from getting angry? Did any of you get angry with others recently? When and why? What did you do about it?
- Serving God goes far deeper than simply following the rules such as making sacrifices (for the Jews at that time) or going to church (for us now.) God desires obedience not sacrifice. God desires for us to serve Him through our words and actions toward others. We don’t serve God in a vacu
- Relationships are very important and we should place a high priority on maintaining healthy and unified relationships with brothers/sisters in Christ. This even takes priority over doing spiritual/religious activities. Is there any brother or sister in Christ that has an issue with you or vice-versa? If you can think of any disunity between you and others, you must solve it and reconcile. How?
- Sin breaks our relationships with others. But when these are broken it also affects our relationship with God. How can a husband and wife stand side by side with each other at church and pray and worship if they have problems with each other? The answer is that they can stand there and do it, but if their hearts aren’t right it will negatively impact everything else from their worship time to their prayer time to even what they can get out of the sermon. See 1 Peter 3:7, which tells us that a husband’s prayers are hindered when he doesn’t love his wife.
- Verse 25 – Solve things as soon as possible when you have a conflict with others. Reconcile with that person. Small disputes can escalate until the two parties are so upset with each other that one sues the other. When we are accused our immediate, fleshly reaction is to defend ourselves and attack the person who accused us. In the case of a lawsuit, our reaction would be to defend ourselves in court and make the best case that we can. Jesus says it is far better not to let that case ever make it to court. In other words it is far better to reconcile and make peace by solving the problem before it escalates to the point where a judge needs to intervene. Simply put, be a peacemaker and reconcile instead of defending yourselves.
Some try to deny His plain, simple statement by interpreting the verse to mean the law was not abolished until Jesus came and fulfilled it. They then interpret "fulfill" as "bringing to an end," "superseding" or some other synonym for "abolishing." In essence they have Jesus saying, "I did not come to abolish the law, but to abolish it."
Jesus, on the other hand, said heaven and earth would disappear before the smallest part of the law would do so (Matthew 5:18). He said the law would continue until everything is accomplished. Because the fulfillment of many biblical prophecies of Christ's second coming is yet to occur (the prophecies have not yet been accomplished), we know the law has not ceased to exist.
The truth of the matter is that Jesus was speaking to people who believed in keeping all of the Ten Commandments. He reaffirmed the necessity for all who come to Him to do likewise. In Matthew chapters 5-7 Jesus explained how God intended for the Ten Commandments to be kept. By giving this explanation and exemplifying it in His life, He was fulfilling a prophecy about Himself from Isaiah 42:21: "The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law and make it honorable" (King James Version).
The word fulfill in Matthew 5:17 means "fill up," "make full," "fill to the full" or "complete." Jesus came to magnify, or fill completely full, the meaning of God's law. Jesus' teaching that a man who lusts after a woman has already committed adultery in his mind represented Jesus' magnification of all of the Ten Commandments. He explained the full meaning—the spiritual intent—of the commandments. He showed that He expects more than just a legalistic, letter-of-the-law approach; He also expects a submissive, yielded mind focused on love for God and love for our fellow man.
Jesus further clarifies: "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:19).
Clearly, fulfill does not mean "abolish"!
Another common misunderstanding is that the New Testament Church came to believe that it is not necessary to follow Christ's example of obeying the law. But His apostles, who were personally taught by Him, certainly did not agree with this idea.
The apostle John said: "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked" (1 John 2:3-6).
Even the apostle Paul, who is most often cited by those attempting to do away with God's law, himself refuted this erroneous idea, saying, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). Far from condemning the law, Paul said, "The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good" (Romans 7:12) and, "I delight in the law of God" (Romans 7:22). Indeed, he said that "keeping the commandments of God is what matters" (1 Corinthians 7:19).
We must avoid reading our own ideas into the Bible. Quoting from the prophet Isaiah, our Savior warned against trusting our own ideas instead of the laws of God: "'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men ... All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition" (Mark 7:6-9).
We, too, must be sure we follow Christ's example instead of our own ideas!
When Christ said, I did not come to abolish the law and prophets, this was a common way to refer to whole Old Testament. Luke 16:16 uses it this way; it says, “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it.” As Christ taught about those who are truly part of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 5:3-16, some would have questioned if he was contradicting Scripture. Jewish teachers taught that people entered heaven by following the Mosaic law. Was Christ teaching a new way to be right with God and enter heaven? Was he getting rid of the Mosaic law and what the prophets taught? Christ discerns their questions and answers them; that is why he begins with, “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets”. Christ corrects their thinking about his relationship to the Old Testament. In studying his view of the OT, we can discern a proper view of Scripture in general.Christ said he did not come to abolish the law and prophets but to fulfill them. This is difficult because there is, obviously, some way in which he did abolish them. Believers are no longer under food laws, ceremonies, sabbath days, etc. (cf. Mk 7:19, Col 2:16-17). What did he mean by this controversial saying? It helps to understand that the word “fulfill” has the idea of completion, filling up, or accomplishing. Someone compared Christ’s relationship to the law to the destruction of an acorn. One can destroy an acorn in one of two ways: He can destroy the acorn by smashing it with a hammer, or by planting it in the ground so that it grows into an oak tree. Christ destroyed the law by the second way. He removed the acorn of the law by totally fulfilling it. In fact, he did this in such away where believers are no longer under the Old Testament law. Romans 10:4 says, “Christ is the culmination [or end] of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Romans 6:14 says we are no longer under law but under grace.
What if fulfillment is adding creative interpretations onto the Law to keep them alive and relevant in our day?
This seems to be what Jesus does. As soon as he gives us the preface, he starts into his famous “You Have Heard It Said, But I Say To You” sections.
He starts with a pretty obvious Law, one of the 10 Commandments.
21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.
It seems like Jesus isn’t just “not murdering people” to fulfill this Law but is actually changing some of the parameters of the Law.
Of course, these are just some initial thinking but what got me on this track was remembering another time Matthew uses this word, “fulfillment,” in his Gospel.
If we look just a few chapters back, in Matthew 2, we can see how Matthew uses “fulfillment.” If you remember, Herod is out killing babies when Jesus is born because he heard that a “New King” was to be born. To protect their son, Mary and Joseph relocate to Egypt and then return when the coast is clear. Matthew ends this episode with this: “this was to fulfill what was written . . .”
Now, if we take a minute and look at Hosea 11, it’s explicitly not about Jesus. Hosea 11 is clearly about Israel. So in what way does Jesus “fulfill” the prophet’s words?
I really don’t know. What Matthew does might be called “midrash,” an ancient way of interpreting sacred writings in a way that made them contemporary. It seems, whatever Matthew is doing, that fulfillment is a way to update the words of the prophet to better fit the current context.
In what way will the law be “fulfilled” or “accomplished”? I might suggest that Jesus is continuing the rabbinic tradition of his day by offering his own interpretation of the Law and that we too should consider how we update the Bible and offer our own creative interpretations of the Scripture.
Or, to let John Caputo summarize,
“What are we to do about the fact that there are different interpretations of what [Jesus] would do? Is this not a very different time? How can we be sure the “good news” is delivered to or, or arrives at, its destination? Nothing is guaranteed by a literal reproduction of what Jesus did, which would make no sense; we need instead a creative reproduction, a creative repetition, a repetition with a difference.”
In other words, maybe we need to follow Jesus’ example and interpret our Bible the way Jesus did: “You have heard it said, but I say to you.” Not to dismiss or abolish what has come before, but to build on it so that all may be accomplished.
The Biblical definition of the Love of God is found in:
1 John 5:3 - "This is the love of God, that we keep His Commandments, and His Commandments are not burdensome."
People wrongly assume that keeping God's Law applied only to the Old Testament believers and today, in the New Testament and under the Covenant of mercy and grace, we are not required to obey the Commandments of God.
The deception that today we don't need to do anything to be saved, except accepting Christ, and that God will save us even though we don't deserve it is common among church going Christians, but it is a destructive lie!
In church Christians are told that God's Grace means "the unmerited favor that God grants people even though they don't deserve it". But this contrary to the Word of God itself, which states all the way to Revelation (see the warnings to the 7 churches) that people need to repent and turn away from sin in order to receive God's forgiveness and be granted the gift of eternal life with Christ.
The word Grace means: the knowledge that gives us the power to change (see our teaching on Grace), and change, of course, means, to conform to Jesus in righteousness.
God never said that we don't need to keep His Commandments and that those who do are being too "legalistic"!
Jesus Himself said in John 14:15 - "If you love Me, keep My Commandments."
Furthermore, Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 - "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."
What is done away with under the New Covenant are the old requirements, as stated in Colossians 2:14 - "Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He (= Jesus) has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
In other words: the rituals (such as circumcision, animal sacrifices for atonement of sin, etc.), the keeping of the feast days (Sabbath, Passover, Tabernacles, etc.) and the dietary laws of the Old Testament.
Keeping God's Law is still for today!
And if we love God, we do keep His Commandments! And we are happy about it, because keeping His Commandments means to live in righteousness and respect towards ourselves, others and God. Sin is not Love, sin creates a breach in relationships and separates us from ourselves, others and God, because sin always hurts someone, as plainly stated in:
Romans 13:8-9 - "Owe no one anything except to love one another, because he who loves another has fulfilled the Law. The Commandments: 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet'."
Romans 13:9-10 - "Whatever other Commandment there may be, are summed up in this statement: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law."
God, by teaching us a righteous way of living through His Commandments, which are the Principles of His Kingdom, helps us avoid all the troubles and torment that come from sin and iniquity.
The consequences of sin and iniquity are always heavy and God wants a life filled with blessings for His children, He does not want them under a curse.
When we keep God's Law, God loves us back and grants us His blessings; and when we make this a way of life and walk according to God's Commandments daily, we live in peace and joy, and rest in Him.
Jesus confirms this in John 15:9-11 - "As the Father loved Me (= Jesus), I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."
These are the benefits of the Love of God towards His Children: Blessings of Full Joy for those who keep His Commandments and conform to Christ!
Meaning of Keeping God's Law:
- Sin is not Love, because it always hurts someone
- Keeping God's Commandments means to live according to God's righteousness
- Keeping God's Commandments means to Love
This does not happen in one day; it is a learning process that lasts a lifetime:
1. We learn the Principles of God's Kingdom (= God's Commandments/God's Law) by studying His Word (correctly translated and carefully interpreted in its context);
2. We apply those Principles to our life in sincerity of heart;
3. We conform to the sinless nature of God little by little, day by day;
4. We reap the reward of God's blessings by seeing ourselves changed and receiving eternal life with Christ.
Having said this, we will also say that God's Commandments are not burdensome or heavy, as the Scripture says, but if you have a Broken Heart you will find them hard to keep until your heart is healed. So, it is important that you allow God to heal your heart and remove the oppression that keeps you from your full Joy.
As we walk in God's Law, go through a soul refining process and conform to Christ, love is perfected in us, and in the Day of Judgment we are confident that we are saved, because as God is, so are we in our lifetime.
1 John 4:17 - "Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have fearless confidence in the Day of Judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world."
In conclusion, if you keep the Commandments as a way of life, God will love you and you will be able to get to know the Joy of dwelling in His Love in this life and receive the gift of eternal life with Christ afterwards.
The Bible identifies Jesus Christ as the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh Elohim. Therefore, when Jesus speaks, He is both the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New. Consider this fundamental characteristic of both:
» For I, Jehovah [Yahweh], change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. (Malachi 3:6, American Standard Version)
» Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)
Considering this unchanging nature, why would many in Christianity paint such different pictures, in many cases literally, of Jesus Christ and the Old Testament God? Knowing that Yahweh Elohim is also Jesus Christ requires rethinking a core issue—the law. Because Yahweh Elohim and Jesus Christ are one and the same, a Being who does not change and is the same yesterday, today, and forever, it is inconceivable to believe that He came to do away with the very laws that He created to be obeyed by His people.
He said as much in Mathew 5:17: “Don't suppose that I came to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I did not come to do away with them, but to give them their full meaning” (Contemporary English Version).
Contrary to Christ's warning, but true to human nature (Romans 8:7), many do suppose He did away with His laws. He proves how wrong that is by the verses that follow. As examples, in verses 21-22, about murder, and verses 27-28, about adultery, He explains that a full understanding covers not just the physical acts but also the thoughts and motivations that lead to those actions.
In each of these instances, rather than abolishing the law, He expands it, making it more sweeping than it ever was in the Old Testament. No longer is physical obedience sufficient. Our Savior adds the higher standard of spiritual compliance.
Because Israel was a physical nation without access to the Holy Spirit, only physical obedience was possible. Since the first Christian Pentecost in Acts 2, we have access to God's Spirit and a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26-27). With that Spirit, Yahweh Elohim, Jesus Christ, now charges us to accomplish His full intent by walking in His statutes, keeping His judgments, and doing all this from a new spiritual heart.
Because Christ made plain the spiritual intent of the law He created as Yahweh Elohim in the Old Testament, Paul could later write that the law is spiritual (Romans 7:14) and that “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12).
For those who think and teach otherwise, Christ says to them:
» Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19)
» Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:22-23)
Contrary to Christ's explicit warning, many do suppose and conjure up various reasons and explanations as to why the law is no longer in force. The unchanging Christ says to them what He said to the Jews of His day: “. . . making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do” (Mark 7:13).
Yeshua said He came to "fulfill" the law - not destroy it. What, then, does it mean to 'fulfill' something? The Greek word translated "fulfill" in Matthew 5:17 above is pleroo (pronounced ple-rue-o) and means to render full, i.e. to complete, to fill to the top: so that nothing shall be wanting unto full measure, fill to the brim. If you have a container and fill it with liquid to the very brim - it means you can't put anything else in it. It is full. It is complete. It does not mean that, because it is full, you throw the container away for then there would be nothing to hold the liquid from which to take a drink. IF (big little word) we are consistently giving 100% of who we are and what we have to the Father, we are fulfilling the first commandment in the original Book because we are bringing it to it's fullest measure - there is nothing wanting for more, we are making it complete. It is the law of 100% and that law did not originate in the New Testament - it is contained in the original Book, the Torah. (Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18, Mark 12:29-31).
An excellent illustration of this principle of fulfillment is found in the verse in Matthew 23:23-24 above. We are taught from almost every "Christian" pulpit (which is not found in scripture, by the way!) that because we are 'not under the law' we no longer have to abide by what is written in the original Book since it no longer applies to us today. And yet, from those same pulpits we are admonished to "pay our tithes" - but, the very place where tithing was instituted is in "the law" (only today it is presented under the cloak of 'financial seeding', also not scriptural, but the language still comes right out of the law of tithing). How is this so? There are only three places in the Gospels where Yeshua even mentioned tithes and all three are in castigation of the hypocrisy of the spiritual leadership in the manner by which they handled it (Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42, Luke 18:9-14). Yeshua never said "do not give." He said to give 100%.
Most people have been taught they are to give 10% of their earnings to the 'church' since in the Old Testament it says that the people would bring 10% of their harvest to the Lord. So, according to present day custom, when paid, tithes are given to the some institution, organization or charismatic person presenting themselves as a worthy vessel to "invest in". We simply accept the tradition of men as the commandment of YHVH, not having been taught of the Father about how or where to give. This is why we should not be "taught" of anyone other than the Holy Spirit (1John 2:27). Ruach haKodesh will only speak of Yeshua and His Life (John 14:26) and will guide us into all Truth (John 14:17). The Father gave us the scripture to validate what we are hearing is truly from Him and He is worthy of our trust in this area.
Let us find out what the Father was trying to teach us about the "tithe" in the Torah. Leviticus 27:30-32 says that the tithe is 10% of everything in a saint's life (yes, the word saint originates in the Tenach) - land, trees, crops, flocks, herds, houses, first-born, along with money. Everything is Elohim's and 10% is to be given back to Him, made holy (or set apart) to Him for His use. Not to man - to haShem. Later, in Numbers 18:20-24. He says to allow the Levis, the sons of Aharon, who are set aside as priests, to partake of the tithes set apart for Him because they have no inheritance in the Land they are to occupy. As far back as Exodus 19:6, God's plan was to have a 'Kingdom of priests and a holy nation'. The only reason for a King was because of the grumbling of the people (1Samuel 8). Fast forward to Hebrews 7:5-9 and we find Paul using tithes as a talking point in regards to who it is that occupies the priesthood. 1Peter 2:5-9and Revelation 1:6 bring it all full circle back to we, the Body of Believers, are the fulfillment of that royal priesthood God intended to have from the beginning - Priests set apart to minister to YHVH without having any inheritance in this world. So, now, the Body of Believers constitutes both the "storehouse" and the "priesthood".
Under the law of 100%, as the Father lays up His Provision upon us to care for, we come to understand that, as His Storehouse, ALL that we have is His (not just 10%) and become ready to offer it up to the brethren (the priests) we come in contact with that present us with an immediate need - not the world. In like manner, as a priest in our own right and as we have need, it is perfectly acceptable to look to YHVH to fill that need through the Body of Believers (the storehouse). Now, this requires of us to do some work in praying and seeking the Lord as to where we should be giving, who to give to and how much to give instead of taking the easy way out by just turning it over to a hireling. This is what it meant in Acts 2:44 and Acts 4:32where it says the early believers had "all things common". It did not mean they lived in a "commune" - just that they understood everything they were given stewardship over belonged to the Father for Him to distribute and use as HE willed.
Should we give? Absolutely - and we should give abundantly, especially to those in the Body who are in need (and this is important) as Ruach haKodesh directs, when He directs and how much He directs with a cheerful heart because He first gave to us (2Corinthians 9:7). But, it should never be out of a sense of "duty" or obligation or because someone behind a pulpit says you should give to them. The Father's law of giving is to give 100% AND, when we do, we fulfill the law contained within the first because WITHIN the 100% IS the 10% - you can not reach the 100% without the 10%. If you take away the 10%, you no longer have 100% - you are left with only 90%. It remains incomplete. The container is not rejected; it is filled - full to the brim and exceeding what is required. This is the manner in which we should approach all that is written within the Book for He is the One True God and the Essence, the Nature of Who He is does not change from one book of scripture to another. The Testimony of His Life is the same from Exodus 16:33-34 to Revelation 19:10b.
All right - that exercise was simple enough. Going on, then, how do we fulfill the part of the law that says if your son or daughter curses their mother or father they are to be stoned to death? (Leviticus 20:9). It is with rare exception in this day and age that a child has not cursed their parents at some point in their lives. We fulfill this part of the law the same way we approach all scripture - from the standpoint of the law of 100%. Everybody can quote John 3:16 which says, "God so loved the world that He gave�" But, there are few I find who can quote 1John 3:16 with the same eloquence. If we lay our lives down for our children by not allowing our own desires for success and the other cares the world would use to captivate our focus, thereby crowding out the attention they need paid to them, if we do not allow the world to raise them due to our neglect - we will have respectful children who honor their parents. This does not mean they won't make mistakes, it does not mean they will be flawless - it simply means they will love and honor you, they will not curse you. Every child is born with an innate sense of love toward their parents, the Father put it in their hearts. It is in the cultivation of that love by exampling to them our Love in the same manner Yeshua first exampled His Love to us that they are saved in this area (1Peter 4:1). We reap the consequences of unfulfillment because we haven't allowed the Father to fill up our lives with His Essence. We have not allowed the law of 100% pre-eminence in our lives (John 17:23, 1John 2:5). Instead of exercising the law and pressing in to understand what it means to fill the container - it just becomes easier to discard it entirely. We don't appreciate that, because the law was given to show us and to teach us about the Essence of the Father, when we throw it away - we are discarding Him. Remember - according to Yeshua, justice, mercy and faith are of the law. Which part of the law do we keep and which part do we discard - and who decides which is which?
There are those who point to Ephesians 2:15 to try to mitigate (render of none effect) what Yeshua said about the law. However, by looking at what the words actually mean, we find them in harmony with what He said.
The word translated as abolish is the Greek word katargeo and means
1) to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative
a) to cause a person or thing to have no further efficiency
There is only one place in the Gospels where Yeshua said He gave to us a New Commandment (John 13:34-35). He said this New Commandment was now to love each other, the brethren, "�just as I have loved you". This New Commandment was not for the world - it was for us, His disciples. This is how the world will see that He is Who He said He is - when we exhibit the Life He laid down for us individually in the same manner toward one another. 1John 4:16-17 tells us what that Love looks like and that we in like manner should do the same toward the brethren. When Yeshua gave us this New Commandment, He was not saying to do away with the first, to do to our neighbor as we would want them to do to us - He was saying we are to exceedit, by loving them regardless of what they do to us. This is the way He Loves us and if we Love each other the Way He Loves us, we are moving in His Presence. As we move in His Presence, we are eclipsing the first commandment, absorbing it in excellence and rendering it ineffective. When the moon eclipses the sun, it does not do away with the sun it merely takes pre-eminence over the sun. By embracing the law of 100% as recorded in Torah over every aspect of our lives, we fulfill the law by exceeding it - not doing away with it.
| "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:31 |
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