Monday, March 27, 2023

MATTHEW 5:17 – 20 CHRIST AND THE LAW; The Christian and the Law

 


 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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