Jesus, Law, and Discipleship * Matthew 5:17-20

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1 Jesus, Law, and Discipleship * Matthew 5:17-20 I visited an IKEA store for the first time earlier this year. I didn t realize how difficult the instructions were to understand at the time. Basically, you just have pictures and tools. I was pretty intimidated just trying to put a bed together. I think some of us look at the Law in the Bible like I looked at those IKEA instructions. We re know they re important. We re pretty sure we need to do something with them, but we re a little bit confused about what. Today, we re going to look at how Jesus said He relates to the Old Testament Law and how it can have a great impact in the life of modern disciples. Mt. 5:17a Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; It s striking that at this point in his sermon Jesus had yet to mention the Law. A Jewish teacher is describing what the Kingdom of God is like, both a present and future reality and he has yet to mention the Law. Jesus had already said his followers would recognize that they are spiritually bankrupt, mourners of their own sin who were meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, and merciful. He charged them to be single-minded peacemakers who would be persecuted, but told them to go be salt and light in a dark and dying world anyway. Last week we saw Jesus laying out what a Disciple will do, in our passage today and the several weeks that follow we are going to see Jesus practical instruction for how to be salt and light. He tells us today that you do it through obedience to the Word of God. Jesus description of life in the Kingdom of God was already revolutionary for his Jewish audience, but that was perhaps as much due to what he hadn t said as much as what he had said. In talking about Kingdom life to this point, Jesus hadn t mentioned the Law. His audience would surely be asking about this in their heads, and Jesus spends considerable time addressing it from this point forward. Albert Barnes comments that... Our Saviour was just entering on his work. It was important for him to state what he came to do. By his setting up to be a teacher in opposition to the Scribes and Pharisees, some might charge him with an intention to destroy their law, and abolish the customs of the nation. By Law or the Prophets, Jesus is referring to what we know as the Old Testament, in Jesus day it would have been their Bible. Using the word Law in this context actually requires some explanation. People used the word Law to mean just the 10

2 commandments, or the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of our Bible), sometimes they even speak of the whole Old Testament. Often, though, when people talked of the Law, they were talking about the oral and scribal traditions that they received from various Rabbis over time and that were upheld by the Pharisees. At this point, let s talk a little bit about the Law. I feel like the Law and the Old Testament as a whole sometimes are the victims of bad press in the modern church. We know the Pharisees as Jews who fiercely upheld the Law and butted heads with the likes of Jesus, Paul, Stephen, and others. So many of us tend to view the Law in negative terms. We ll see from Jesus today that the Law is not negative at all, but in fact it is part of His mission both during his time on earth and today. While there was certainly no problem with the Law itself in Jesus day, there was most definitely a problem with the practice of the Law, right? Let s talk a little bit about how we got to that point. God rescues His people from slavery in Egypt, delivers them safely across the Red Sea and as He prepares them to become the nation He promised hundreds of years earlier to Abraham, He gives them a set of rules that serve as a picture for something else. Leviticus 18:3-5 says, 3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. 4 You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. 5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. God gives the 10 Commandments and the rest of the OT Law to show them what a Disciple looks like. He s saying, You re my people, and as such you will live this way. These people had spent their entire lives as slaves in another nation, and God had called his people both out of slavery and out of the Egyptian way of life. So the Law is a good thing, and started out on the right foot. However, somewhere along the way things took a turn for the worse. I really think that ancient Hebrews had good intentions when this happened, but it went horribly wrong. They started building fences. Let s say that you come to believe the only way to do what God wants you to do in life is to not break this set of Laws. That s where Israel fell, and so to ensure that they wouldn t break those Laws, they added new laws on top of God s Law so that they wouldn t break the original ones. They came along and pulled out every one of God s Laws, not just the 10 Commandments, but they came up with 613 of them. They classified some of them as great and some of them as not-so-great. Many Rabbis believed Deuteronomy 22:6 was the least great of the commandments, by the way. It says If you come across a bird's nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the

3 mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. After they classified all 613, they then looked at some of the major laws and did things like this: The Law says remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy. We re supposed to rest on the Sabbath, so we know we can t work. So they had to determine what work is. Writing was considered work on the Sabbath. But writing had to be defined, so they decided that, "He who writes two letters of the alphabet with his right or left hand, whether of one kind or of two kinds, if they are written with different inks or in different languages, is guilty. Even if he should write two letters from forgetfulness, he is guilty, whether he has written them with ink or with paint, red chalk, vitriol, or anything that makes a permanent mark. Also, he that writes on two walls that form an angle, or two tablets of his account book so they can be read together, is guilty. But if anyone writes with dark fluid, fruit juice, or the dust of the road, or in sand or anything which doesn't make a permanent mark, he is not guilty. If he writes one letter on the ground and one on the wall, or two on the pages of a book so they cannot be read together, he is not guilty," as long as they were separated. That is a passage from the scribal law, believe it or not. The scribes were the ones in charge of coming up with and writing out all this stuff. The Pharisees were the ones who tried to lead the nation to keep these rules. The was the law that Jesus fought against during His ministry, not the Law He came to fulfill. We know that because he said Law and the Prophets. That is a reference to the whole OT. It is used that way 12 times in the NT. Matthew 5:17b I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. We can divide the law of God into three parts: the moral law, the judicial law, and the ceremonial law. The moral law was for all men, the judicial law was just for Israel, and the ceremonial law was for Israel's worship of God. So the moral law encompasses all men, it is narrowed down to Israel in the judicial law, and to the worship of Israel toward God in the ceremonial law. 1 The moral law grows out of the 10 Commandments, and it has to do with your relationship to God and to man. The first four pertain to your relationship to God: No other gods besides me, no idols, do not misuse the name of the Lord, observe the Sabbath. The next six govern your relationship with other people: honor mom and dad, no murder, no adultery, no stealing, no false witness, no coveting. The first four are vertical, the last six are horizontal. The Moral law was made up of those 10 Commandments and the rest of the 613 that concern these moral relations. 1 John MacArthur, Christ and the Law, part 1.

4 The judicial law was given to serve as a system of governance for Israel. God had to set Israel apart so that they would be preserved as a nation from which He could bring the Messiah. For example, Leviticus 20:9 says 9 For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him. That s a law that applied in Israel for a certain time, and we ll talk a little bit more about that later, but that is an example of judicial law. Thirdly, ceremonial law dealt with how Israel would worship God in the temple. These can get really difficult for us to understand, like how in Leviticus 4 God gives specific instructions for how the priests were to carve up the sin offering. Many of us have read Leviticus and been confused by it. Warren Wiersbe offers us great help in understanding the ceremonial law in his book Be Holy. Note that while the fat of the sacrifice was burned on the altar, the body of the sacrifice was burned in a clean place outside the camp (vv. 8 12, 21). Why? For one thing, it made a distinction between the sin offering and the burnt offering so that the worshipers wouldn t be confused as they watched. But even more, it reminded the people that the sins of the high priest and the whole congregation would pollute the whole camp; and the sin offering was too holy to remain in an unholy camp. Finally, according to Hebrews 13:10 13, this was a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ who died outside the city gate outside the camp as our sin offering (vv , NIV). 2 So we see that God had a plan in all the law (moral, judicial, and ceremonial)! The Law was authored by God, affirmed by the prophets, and we will see that it is fulfilled in Christ. The law both was and is a very important part of understanding God s purpose. In fact, it should have been clear to the law-obsessed Pharisees that Jesus had come as the Law s fulfillment because you see it all through the Old Testament: As John MacArthur pointed out: In Genesis, He is the seed of the woman. In Exodus, He is the passover lamb. In Leviticus, He is the high priest. In Numbers, He is the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. In Deuteronomy, He is the prophet like unto Moses. In Joshua, He is the captain of our salvation. In Judges, He is the judge and lawgiver. In Ruth, He is the kinsman redeemer. In I & II Samuel, He is the trusted prophet. In Kings and Chronicles, He is the reigning king. In Ezra, He is the faithful scribe. In Nehemiah, He is the rebuilder of the broken wall. In Esther, He is the Mordecai. In Job, He is the ever-living redeemer. In Psalms, He is the Lord our shepherd. In Proverbs & Ecclesiastes, He is true wisdom. In Song of Solomon, He is the true lover and bridegroom. In Isaiah, He is the prince of peace. In Jeremiah and Lamentations, He is the weeping prophet. In Ezekiel, He is the wonderful fourfaced man. In Daniel, He is the fourth man in the fiery furnace. In Hosea, He is the 2 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be Holy. Be Commentary Series (27). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

5 eternal husband, forever married to the backslider. In Joel, He is the baptizer with the Holy Spirit. In Amos, He is the burden-bearer. In Obadiah, He is the Savior. In Jonah, He is the great foreign missionary. In Micah, He is the messenger with beautiful feet. In Nahum, He is the avenger. In Habakkuk, He is God's evangelist pleading for revival. In Zephaniah, He is the Lord mighty to save. In Haggai, He is the restorer of the lost heritage. In Zechariah, He is the fountain opened in the house of David for sin and for cleansing. In Malachi, He is the sun of righteousness arising with healing in His wings. He is the theme of the Old Testament; every bit of it is His story. The pinnacle of His story is reached when He died on a cross and was resurrected three days later, which we will celebrate in just a few short weeks. All the Law, moral, judicial, and ceremonial was fulfilled. I guess the question now, is how? We ve learned a lot about the Law, now let s see how Jesus fulfills it: First, this word fulfill in Matthew 5:17 needs to be addressed. Jesus didn t say He was adding to the law, he said he was fulfilling it. He was coming to complete something that was already in place. Remember, the original purpose of the Law was good. It had been perverted in the hands of men. Jesus fulfilled all three facets of the Law: He fulfilled the moral law by being the only man who has ever lived up to its standard. One of the purposes of the moral law was to show us where the target is. It says a disciple will look like this. And this is a bull s-eye that no one except the God-man ever hit. This is what Paul mean when he says in Galatians 3:24: So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. The word he used for guardian is pedagogue. Simply put, the pedagogue was a household slave who accompanied a free-born boy wherever he went from early life to around the age of sixteen. It was the responsibility of the pedagogue to take the child to school, carry his effects, test him in the memory of his lessons, and instruct him in the social graces of that time. It was the job of the pedagogue to protect, teach, punish, and aid in the moral development of the minor. 3 That exactly how the moral law functioned. It was there to show us that no matter how righteous we became, we would still not be able to keep the intent of God s perfect moral law (Isaiah 64:6). The only way the moral law could be fulfilled was by a perfect life, and Jesus lived it. 3 This summary of the role of the pedagogue can be found in F. F. Bruce, Commentary on Galatians. (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids; 1982) 182-3, and in F. Thielman s article on Law in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters. (Inter Varsity: Downers Grove; 1994)

6 He fulfilled the judicial law when His resurrection made it possible for all to come to God regardless of nationality. Leviticus 26:46 and Psalm 147:19 among other verses show us how God dealt judicially with Israel as a nation. When the Jews rejected Messiah by crucifying Jesus on the cross, the judicial law passed away. We don t follow the judicial law anymore, because God no longer deals with His people as a single nation. We see in Acts that God has specifically opened up salvation to all nations, and we know based on God s promise to Israel that one day He will redeem that nation. But, Jesus fulfilled the judicial law when His resurrection opened up the path to God for those of us outside the family of Israel. He fulfilled the ceremonial law by dying on the cross. That leaves only one other, the ceremonial law. How did He fulfill that? This is fantastic. He did it by dying on a cross. This is the last point, but I want to make it, and make it good. He died on a cross, and when He died, the whole ceremonial system came to an end. In fact, when He died, the veil of the temple was wrent in two from the top to the bottom, and the Holy of Holies was revealed. God was saying, "The whole Levitical, priestly, judicial system is over." 4 Hebrews 10:19-20 says Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, By holy places the writer of Hebrews is reference the Holy of Holies, or the place in the temple where the high priest entered once a year to make a sacrifice for the sins of Israel on the day of atonement. The Israelites believed that was where the presence of God rested. After Jesus crucifixion the Bible tells us the veil that separated the presence of God from the people was torn in two from top to bottom. We can see that Jesus fulfilled every part of the Law. Of course he was the fulfillment of the Law, He is the destination to which all the arrows in the Old Testament are pointing us. So what does it mean for us? What does this all mean for disciples today? Matthew 5:19-20 Therefore whoever relaxes 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 does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 John MacArthur, Christ and the Law, part 1.

7 Because Jesus fulfilled the Law, a disciple has the power to fulfill the Law through the Holy Spirit. Listen to Romans 8:3-4 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. The Law can absolutely be fulfilled in you and I. These last two verses show us how. You want to fulfill the law? Do what it says, teach someone else. Jesus talks a little more specifically about it later when asked by the Pharisees which of the laws was the greatest. He responded in Matthew 22:37: And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And ha second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. Love the Lord you God, Love your neighbor. Remember how the 10 Commandments break down? First four vertical, last four horizontal. You fulfill the Law first when you love God above all else, then when that love flows out of you and into the lives of someone else. That s what Jesus means when He said do the commandments and teach other to do them as well. Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers by Chris Baker. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Harmony Bible Church s website address ( on the copied resource.