JESUS AND THE LAW (Matthew 5:17-20)

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1 JESUS AND THE LAW (Matthew 5:17-20) INTRODUCTION: What comes to your mind or what emotions surface when I mention the law of God? How do you feel about the law of God? Are you afraid of it? Are you humbled by it? Do you feel condemned by it? Do you feel inadequate to keep it? Are you excited over it? What is your attitude towards God s Law? Here is the Psalmist s attitude towards the law: (Psalms 119:97 NKJV) Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Psalms 119:103 NKJV How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth! Do you love the law? This seems to be what our attitude towards God s law should be. What was Jesus attitude towards the law? This is what we have in our Scripture reading today. In Matthew 5:17-20 we hear Jesus explain his relationship to the law, how he sees the law, and what he feels towards the law. This part of the Sermon on the Mount is very important for us to grasp hold of. One Bible scholar (Wilder) has said that Jesus words in Matt. 5:17-20 represents the thesis statement for the entire Sermon on the Mount. Another person has said, The main point of the Sermon on the Mount is found in Matthew 5: So what is that main point? Let s consider it carefully. JESUS FULFILLS THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS Before Jesus gave the Sermon on the mount there may have been rumors flying around that he was trying to do away with the Old Testament law. He certainly seemed opposed to the Pharisees legalistic interpretation of the law. He would say, You have heard it said, but I say unto you So, many may have been wondering if he had come to replace the Law with his teachings. Jesus answers these assumed rumors when he said, Matthew 5:17 HCSB "Don't assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. January 20, 2019 Corntassel CP Church Page 1

2 Jesus didn t come to destroy the Law. He didn t come to replace the Law. He didn t come to abrogate or set the Law aside. He came to fulfill it! Jesus saw Himself and his teaching as being in continuity with and the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law and Prophets. How did Jesus fulfill the Law and Prophets? First, concerning the Prophets, He fulfilled many of the prophecies of the Old Testament. Someone has counted over 300 prophesies concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament. Jesus fulfilled most of these prophesies in his first advent and he will fulfill the rest of them in his 2 nd advent. Some of the major prophesies concerning Christ are: His birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) His birth to a virgin (Isa. 7:14) His betrayal for 30 pieces of silver (Zech. 11:13) His death by crucifixion (Psalm 22:17) His burial in a rich man's tomb (Isa. 53:9) His resurrection (Psalm 16:10) Jesus came to fulfill prophesies about the Messiah. He came to fulfill the ethical teaching of the law. Jesus fulfilled the ethical teaching of the law by keeping all the commandments perfectly. Not one could accuse him of any sin because of any law he broke. He kept the law. He fulfilled the ethical teaching of the law. Jesus also fulfilled the law by fulfilling the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law is that part of the law dealing with the priesthood, the tabernacle, the temple, the offerings, the sacrifices, etc. As the book of Hebrews tells us these were shadows of the reality to come. Jesus fulfilled them by being the reality of which they were a picture. Jesus is the Passover Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus is the great high priest who intercedes for us. Jesus is the way into the holy of holies, the very presence of God, which the tabernacle and temple structure portrayed. Jesus is the fulfillment of the ceremonial law. Jesus fulfilled the law in another way. He filled full the intended internal application of the law. We will see this in the next few sections of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus will say, You have heard it said but I say unto you. Jesus is not correcting the law, but he is applying the internal intention of the law, which is to govern the heart and spirit of each person. The Pharisees only talked about the outward stipulations of the law. Jesus talked about the heart application of the law. In this sense Jesus fills up the law with its true meaning and significance. Another view of God s law that Jesus had is that it is enduring and relevant for all times. In verse 18 he says: January 20, 2019 Corntassel CP Church Page 2

3 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. A jot is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. We called it a "yod". It is about the size of a comma. A tittle is the small extensions on a letter that distinguished it from another letter. It is like the little cross mark that separate our letter "t" from the letter "l". It is the difference in a serif and san serif typeface in printing. Jesus knew that God s law is eternal and relevant for all ages. We should have this view also. We are to have the same attitude towards the law as Jesus had. If we do, then we will say with the Psalmist, Oh, how I love your law. THE LAW OF GOD, THE KINGDOM OF GOD, AND RIGHTEOUSNESS Next Jesus connects the law of God to the kingdom of God and to righteousness. He does this in verse 19-20: Matthew 5:19-20 HCSB Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches people to do so 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, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The law of God goes with the Kingdom of God. How can we call God our King, if we are not willing to obey His law? How can we be a citizen of the kingdom of God if we reject the laws of the kingdom? It is impossible. Every command of the King is important. We can t just pick and choose which command we will keep and which we will reject and think that we will be in good standing in the Kingdom of God? Can we? Jesus goes even further and says that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Isn t this too high of a standard? The Pharisees were meticulous about keeping the law. They had counted out 613 different laws in the OT and they tried to be scrupulous about observing each one of them. They even expanded ways to violate of them as a safe-guard of breaking them. January 20, 2019 Corntassel CP Church Page 3

4 But Jesus had a different view of keeping the law from that of the Pharisees. Jesus had a different view of righteousness from that of the Pharisees. Jesus righteousness surpasses the pharisaic righteousness in kind rather than degree. He is not talking about if you keep 575 of commands whereas the Pharisee only keeps 550, your righteousness then will surpass the Pharisees. No, that is not the point. Jesus is talking about a type of righteousness that is of the heart, not one that only satisfies the letter of the law. He is talking about an internal righteousness, not an external one. He is talking about a righteousness that issues from keeping the two great summary statements of the law to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. The Pharisees were thinking about a righteousness that was only a mechanical work, rather than an expression of the heart. To put it another way Jesus is talking about the kind of law keeping that Jeremiah and Ezekiel talked about. In Jeremiah 31, God promises to put his law into our hearts. It is called the New Covenant. Jeremiah 31: 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. God says that He will put His law in their minds and write it on their hearts. In Ezekiel, God promises to put something else in us. His Spirit. Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (27) I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Not only will God put his law in our minds and hearts, He puts in us the Holy Spirit to remind us of His laws and to enable us to keep them from the heart. In fact God gives us a new heart. This is called the new birth or being born of the Spirit. As John R. W. Stott put it, This deep obedience which is a righteousness of the heart and is possible only in those whom the Holy Spirit has regenerated and indwells. It is only this type of person who can enter the Kingdom of God. Didn t Jesus say, John 3:3 NKJV Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." January 20, 2019 Corntassel CP Church Page 4

5 Jesus came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. He expects us to keep the law as fulfilled by Him and as practiced by Him. We are to understand that the law of God is summarized by the two great commandments, You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. This is the law that Jesus came to enable us to keep. This is the righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisee. Jesus came to give us a new heart through His Spirit. He came to give us a heart to love God and our neighbor, thus fulfilling the law of Christ and of God. We are to give deep heart rendered obedience to the law of God, not to save us, but because we are saved and want to be like Jesus. We are not only to talk about keeping God s commands we are to actually keep them. One day a young Christian came into a mission station in Korea to see the pastor who had been instrumental in his conversion. After the customary greetings, the missionary asked the reason for his coming, "I have been memorizing some verses in the Bible," he said, "and I want to quote them to you." He had walked many miles just to recite some Scripture verses to his father in the faith. The pastor listened as he repeated without error the entire Sermon on the Mount. He commended the young man for his remarkable feat of memory, then cautioned that he must not only "say" the Scriptures but also practice them. With glowing face, the man responded, "Oh that is the way I learned them. I tried to memorize them, but they wouldn't stick. So I hit on this plan: First, I would learn a verse. Then I'd talk to a neighbor who was not a Christian and practice it on him. After doing this, I found I could remember it." Our righteousness is to surpass the righteous of the Pharisees by practicing the law from a regenerated heart. CONCLUSION: Let s review. What was Jesus attitude towards the law of God? He didn t come to destroy it or set it aside, but to fulfill it. He came to keep it, to teach it, to be the reality to which it pointed, and to provide the way by which his followers could see the righteous fruit of the law produced in them. He expects God s law to be for all mankind, for all times, for all of life, because it is eternal and will not pass away. It represents the character of God. January 20, 2019 Corntassel CP Church Page 5

6 You can love and embrace the whole law of God by embracing Jesus by faith as the One who fulfilled all the ceremonial law as your Sacrifice, your Redeemer, and your Great High Priest. You can embrace all the moral law as your trust Jesus as your Righteousness, who kept all the moral law perfectly for you. When you put your faith in Jesus God gives you a new heart and His Holy Spirit so that you can live by God s lw from the heart. This is why we can love the law and be like Jesus. Amen? Amen! January 20, 2019 Corntassel CP Church Page 6