SUMMARY OF
PREVIOUS GROUND COVERED IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
1. The Beatitudes (5:1-12)
reveal the essential characteristics of the Christian.
2. The Salt and Light metaphors of 5:13 -
16 exhibit the nature of Christian influence
in the world, acting as it were as preservatives to a decaying society and as illuminators
to a world in darkness and thus
with no sense of direction.
5: 17-20: Christ and
the Law; The Christian and the Law
This is an important topic. Many Christians are confused about the function of the OT law.
Views on this topic generally range between
two extremes:
(i) The law is nothing. It no longer applies to
the Christian. Therefore the law has no
place in the life of a believer. Such people say that the law is no longer
relevant since Christ has died to redeem us from the curse of the law. This is
of course true, but it ignores the true function of the law.
(ii) The law is everything. The keeping of the law is necessary for
salvation. This is essentially the
view of the Pharisees. But what does
Jesus say?
5:17-18 CHRIST AND THE
LAW
Here Jesus firmly asserts in 5:17, “Do not think that I
have come to abolish the law and the prophets” – by which He means the
whole O.T. This may be a response to His
perpetual critics, the Pharisees, who were thinking that this popular teacher, Jesus
had come to abolish the law, the Torah. This is the impression they perceive in
the incident of the plucking of corn on the Sabbath (Matt. 12:1), and the healing of a man's shrivelled hand on that
same Sabbath (Matt. 12:10). Let’s consider this for a moment. The OT Scriptures nowhere forbid either
activity explicitly. So where then did they get this idea from? The Pharisees
got this from their ‘commentaries’ on the OT – the Mishnah and Talmud[1]. Jewish scholars looked at the Torah - the
law of Moses, and determined that it contained 613 commandments: 248 positive
and 365 negative. The next step they took was to create a hedge around these
commandments, so that nobody could possibly break these holy laws intentionally
or accidentally. And so for instance, concerning the breaking of the Sabbath[2],
they had created 39 prohibited acts in relation to the Sabbath alone.
We find that Jesus does not overrule the Torah – and in
particular the heart of the Torah - the
moral law, the 10 commandments. But
Jesus does overrule the additional
applications and interpretations of the Pharisees. That is why you will find Jesus questioning a
good number of their interpretations with these words, “You have heard it said … But I say to you…” (e.g. Matt.
5:22,28,32,34,39,44). To the common people this seemed like a new teaching,
because they were so used to hear what the Pharisees had taught them. "What is this? A new teaching with
authority!” (Mk 1:27). In truth
it was the plain, old, purest form of the teachings of Moses.
All this raised big questions concerning the relationship between Jesus’ authority and the authority of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, who claimed to stand upon the traditions of the elders. As such they thought of themselves as the custodians of the law, interpreting the law for the people. And now here was a man who spoke with His own authority, "Truly (Amen) I say to you..." (5:18,22,26,28,32,34,39,44 etc.).
Was He setting Himself up as an authority against the holy Law of Moses, the Word of
God?
Jesus immediately lays these thoughts to rest in 5:17. He is not abolishing the law. Quite
the opposite will be true. In fact, He will give the law an even profounder status
- far higher than the Pharisees! We shall see this in the coming “you have heard it said… but I say”
passages to come in Matthew 5. Here is an example. The law teaches, “You shall not commit adultery” (Matt. 5:27 cf. Ex 20:14) - the 7th
commandment. The Pharisees limited this
to actual acts of adultery. Jesus
raises the standard in 5:28, “But I say to you that everyone
who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in
his heart!” Here Jesus enters into the area of motives – the starting point
of all sin – the heart, making the matter of sin much deeper and darker. The law is profounder
than we would care to believe.
Now notice what He says about the law: “I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill[3]
(literally to fill) them.” Jesus
did not come to set the law aside but to fill it up, to give it proper
application and perspective. Do you see?
There is no implication here that the OT moral law is in any way obsolete.
How can it be obsolete? The law is holy because it is first given by a holy God. It is perfect (Psalm 19:3). Psalm 119 teaches us to have a high regard for the law
of God.
The problem then is not with the law, but what fallen sinners do with the law. This has been the problem ever since. In our hands the law of God is easily manipulated, misinterpreted and misapplied. In the hands of Jesus it is fully clarified. That is why the New Testament is really the key to a proper understanding of the law. Without the New Testament - without Jesus’ clarifying words on the use of the law, the plain Old Testament is easily abused.
Let’s settle a few things about the importance of the Old Testament:
The OT is the source of
all doctrinal teaching. The OT was the sourcebook of Jesus’ and the apostle’s teaching. The OT
instructs us about the doctrine of God, man, sin and salvation. All the great
biblical doctrines are there. And yet in our sinful condition we cannot
understand the significance of these until Jesus comes and ties all the knots
together in His person and work. The
person and work of the Lord Jesus are the interpretational key to
the OT. Bishop J.C. Rile summed it up like this: "The O.T. is the gospel in the bud; the N.T. is the gospel in full
flower." Martin Luther put it like this: “The
gospel (Christ) is in the O.T. concealed and in the N.T. revealed.".
And so we find that O.T.’s predictive prophecy looks forward to the
days of the Messiah (e.g. Isaiah 53) or
by foreshadowing Him in type (e.g. the Passover lamb
Exod.12 or Abraham’s substitutionary ram in Isaac’s place Gen. 12). All these were the
anticipation of the true fulfilment, which Jesus fulfilled it in His first coming,
death and resurrection. The OT also contains our ethical precepts - the moral
law - the 10 commandments, all affirmed by Jesus, without which civilization
can just not exist.
So we see that Jesus does not abolish the law, but He comes
to reveal the depths of the meaning of the law, disposing of all superficial
ideas, and instituting the radical demands of the righteousness of a holy and
just God. He came not to abolish, but to fulfill in the fullest sense. That is
why He says in 5:18, not an iota (the “yod” in Hebrew) - the smallest letter of the Greek and the Hebrew alphabet; not a dot “keraia”, which
distinguishes some Hebrew letters from
others, will fall away – not until heaven
and earth pass away. Jesus says that the law is as enduring as the Universe.
Jesus could not have stated His own view of the Old Testament
more clearly than this. And therefore this should end all our arguments about
the law. Now that Jesus has shown us in 5:17 & 18 that He is the fulfilment
of the law, He now helps us as Christians to “live with the law”.
2. 5: 19 & 20 THE CHRISTIAN AND THE LAW
The original Greek text in
5:19 begins with a “therefore“ [correctly translated by the ESV but not the NIV] “Therefore, if anyone shall relax (lit. loosen) one of the least of these
commandments…”. By means of this conjunction Jesus connects His own high
regard for the law to what He would
expect of His disciples to do with the
law: “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of the least of these
commandments and teaches others to do
the same will be called least in the
kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them
and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven .”
Whatever we do with the law, we teach others - some through
poor example, and others by good example. Please take note that greatness in the kingdom
of God will be measured by our obedience and conformity to the law. Jesus says that even the least of the
commandments should be obeyed – precisely because it is a commandment of God
our King. To break or relax the least of
the commandments is to loosen its hold on our conscience and authority in our
life. That is when we sin against God. That is when we lose spiritual power.
That is when we teach others wrongly. So the consequence is that if we downplay
God’s laws and commandments we may find ourselves at the bottom of the ladder
in the kingdom. Please note that the
keeping of the law does not earn us our salvation. Our salvation is rooted in
the finished work of Jesus. His Name is
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins (1:21). He is the One who baptises us with the Holy Spirit. But our
disregard or regard of the law will
earn us ‘ least ‘or ‘great’ in the kingdom of heaven.
In 5:20 Jesus now turns our attention to the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. Jesus says that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” What does he mean? Well, clearly the Pharisees had a very high outward regard for the law. Sadly though, it was a defective understanding of the law, precisely because it was merely focussed on outward behaviour. Once you peeled the outward away this is what you saw : In Matthew 23 Jesus had a number of charges against the Pharisees. Here are some...
They preach but do not practise. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, whilst being unwilling to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others… (23:3-5).They shut the kingdom in people’s faces (23:13). They neglect the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faithfulness (23:23). They are concerned with externalities, but inside are full of greed and self -indulgence (23:25), full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (23:27).
The ultimate goal of the Pharisee was to not to obey God from the heart, but to impress Him with outward displays that looked impressive (and unattainable to the ordinary man and woman). We now understand that the Pharisees had outwardly high standards, which anyone would find hard to keep. But we also understand now that the Pharisees did not keep the standards of God either , because Jesus standard, which is God’s law, is even higher than theirs! How then shall we be saved? Certainly not by works of the law!
Here’s the answer and conclusion: Get your centre right!
Jesus says, “You need a righteousness
not based on the law or derived from the law, although the law is
holy and righteousness in itself. But you can’t keep it, and all your attempts
will fail (and the Pharisees tried harder than all not to fail). So,
look to me, receive my righteousness. The imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ is that RIGHTEOUSNESS ALONE WHICH
BY FAR EXCEEDS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SCRIBES AND THE PHARISEES.
It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ the Righteous One in
whom we must be clothed if we were to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is that
righteousness of Christ, which in the closing words of Jude 24, "...keeps us from falling and which
presents us before His glorious presence with exceeding joy..." AMEN.
[1] The
Talmud is a collection of writings that covers the full gamut of Jewish law and
tradition, compiled and edited between the third and sixth centuries BC. Written in a mixture of Hebrew and
Aramaic, it records the teachings and discussions of the great academies of the
Holy Land and Babylonia.
[3] Greek : plerosai - to fill
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