I. Jesus Loves the OT (Matthew 5:17 20) "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 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 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. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Intro: Many Christians struggle to reconcile the OT and NT. It seems that the OT is about law, wrath, Judgment, obscure dietary laws, and strange rituals about cleanness. On the other hand the NT seems to be about grace, forgiveness, freedom from law, and love. Above all the NT seems to fit with the modern world. The liberals solved this OT/NT dilemma with the two God concept. The God of the OT evolved into the God of the NT. I knew this was not true for two reasons. First, I knew that both testaments were God s word. Second, I knew that God never changes. Today s text solves this problem. Jesus tells us that he loves, values, and esteems the Old Testament. He does not look down on it as a secondary revelation. Just the opposite. Jesus came to honor, uphold, and fulfill The Old Testament. Let s start with the context of Jesus words. Jesus has been speaking about God s kingdom. The beatitudes gave us a verbal snapshot of kingdom life in an individual Christian. Then through the image of salt and light Jesus, painted a verbal picture of these same fruits corporately, in the church. Now Jesus begins a new section in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus turns to an extensive discussion of the relationship between OT and himself. Today s sermon only has three points.
A. JESUS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT "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 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. In these two verses Jesus makes the point that he has a higher view of the Old Testament than the Scribes and Pharisees. The Law and the Prophets is an expression that means the entire OT. This includes the books of history, the prophets, and the wisdom literature. Therefore, this passage is not just about the law. It is about the entire OT. "17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; Jesus said this because the Jews accused him of taking the law too lightly. By contrast, Jesus wanted his disciples to know that he had not come to abolish the law and the prophets. In fact, Jesus main point was clear. You Pharisees do not take the Old Testament seriously enough. Only I take it as seriously as it should be taken. 17b I have come not to abolish them, (i.e. the law and prophets), but to fulfill them. Today s passage all hinges on what Jesus meant by the word, Fulfill? There are many interpretations. Our best understanding is that fulfill didn t just mean one thing. It meant several things. 1. Fulfill meant that Jesus life and teaching brought the law to completion. Remember, Jesus is the Word of God. That means that all of the Old Testament are his words. They all came from him. Therefore, Jesus obedience to the OT shows us it s full and true intention. 2. Fulfill meant that Jesus life, death, and resurrection fulfilled all the prophecies and types about the Messiah. (Types: Joshua, King David, Moses, etc.) (Predictions: Isa 53, Palm 2, Psalm 110, etc.) 3. Fulfill meant that Jesus person and work fulfilled the OT ceremonial law the OT laws concerning worship through sacrifice. He is the great high priest. He is the sacrifice. On our behalf he offers his blood in the heavenly tabernacle, and on the basis of his shed blood we have a New Covenant. Page 2 of 8
4. Fulfill means that Jesus active obedience fulfilled the righteousness demanded by the law for all that put their faith in him. 5. Fulfill means that Jesus death fulfilled the demands of God s holy justice for those that break his law. 6. Fulfill means that Jesus obeyed God from the heart. He was not guilty of externalism. He obeyed all of God s laws and commands from the heart with great joy. Verse 18 tells us WHY Jesus did this. The OT is immutable. It cannot be ignored or shelved. It must be fulfilled.. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. An iota was the smallest stroke in the Greek alphabet, and a dot was the tiniest stroke in the Hebrew alphabet. In other words, everything written in the OT, even the seemingly insignificant, is important. From the dietary laws and the regulations about cleansing a wall mold, nothing will change or pass away until, and here is the key statement, all is accomplished. In other words, God does not give commandments, promise rewards and punishments based on our obedience to those commands, and then withdraw them later. All is accomplished is the key phrase. The OT will not be put aside until it is first accomplished or fulfilled. More on this in a moment. B. THE PHARISEES AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 19 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. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." The Pharisees took great pride in the law. It was what set them apart. The OT contained 248 commandments and 365 prohibitions, and the Pharisees gave their entire lives to scrupulous observance of each. Page 3 of 8
However, in these two verses Jesus criticizes their approach to the OT. He accuses them of relaxing the OT with its commands, prohibitions, and ceremonies. To the Pharisees this was a great insult. It is important for us to think critically lest we do the same. How did the Pharisees relax the law? They relaxed the law at least four ways. First, they relaxed the OT by minimizing some of God commands. For example, the fifth commandment reads, honor your father and mother. Part of honoring them meant caring for them in their old age. The Pharisees created a convenient excuse for not obeying this command. It was called Corban. Any money given to the temple could be subtracted from funds used to care for one s parents. But you say, If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban (that is, given to God) then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do (Mark 7:11 13). Making void the word of God? Is Cessationism an example of this today? Second, they relaxed the OT by adding to God s law. What they were saying is that God s law is not enough. The Pharisees produced an entire body of codes and regulations for interpreting the law. For example, tithing dill, mint, and cumin. Sabbath journey. Not healing on the Sabbath. Not picking grain on the Sabbath, etc. Do laws about the place of a child s education fall into this same category? Third, they relaxed the OT by thinking that God only cared about the outward observance of the law. This was the great sin of externalism. The prophets constantly criticized Israel for doing the right thing even though their hearts were far away. Externalism is a way to relax the law. Tithing anecdote. Fourth, they relaxed the law by reducing its demands perfection. They thought so little of God s law that they thought God would accept less than perfect obedience. They thought they could work their way into God s favor. You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48). Because they relaxed the OT in these ways, Jesus said that the Pharisees were the least in God s Kingdom. That is why Jesus ended, with verse 20 Page 4 of 8
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." C. GCF AND THE OLD TESTAMENT Let s go back to verse 18. It reads For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Once accomplished the OT will pass away. So, the big question is this, when was (or will) the OT be accomplished? Answer: For those who have put their faith in the gospel, big portions of the Old Testament were accomplished through Christ s life, death, and resurrection. Jesus upheld the OT by accomplishing it. When Jesus accomplished the Law he did not relax it. He intensified it. He honored it. Here are three ways that Jesus accomplished the OT for us today. 1. Jesus life, death, and resurrection Accomplished the Moral Law Christ loved the law, (i.e. the Ten Commandments, the dietary laws, the Civil laws, the laws about Feast Days, etc.). He loved them so much that he obeyed them perfectly. He obeyed them from the heart with great joy. He summed up the importance of obedience by obeying his Father even unto death on a cross. His perfect obedience fulfilled God s laws. In other words, in terms of the law all was accomplished through Christ s active obedience. When you put your faith in Christ, his perfect law-keeping becomes yours. The Father considers you and me to have fulfilled the demands of the law. That is why we don t have to follow the OT dietary laws. What accomplished means is that the OT law is no longer the means of justification. Now the Laws main purpose is to act as a guide to God s will in sanctification. That is why the NT repeats nine of the Ten Commandments. Christ also satisfied the justice that the law demands from sinners. For Believers this means that the wrath of God will never visit you. Note: the Law still applies to everyone. On the Day of Judgment everyone will be judged by God s law. For the Christian Christ is our law keeper. But the Page 5 of 8
unbeliever must keep the demands of the law in his or her own strength, and that is impossible. In other words, ultimately, Christ will judge everyone on the basis of his law. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it... And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done (Revelation 20:11 12). Had Jesus forgiven us without the satisfaction of the law he would have relaxed the OT. He would have compromised God s justice. And Jesus would have become, in his own words, least in the Kingdom of heaven. Here is the bottom line. God so loved the OT that he was willing to send his Son to a horrible, bloody death on a Roman cross rather than relax one iota or dot of it. 2. Jesus life, death, and resurrection accomplished the ceremonial law. How did Christ accomplish the ceremonial law? The ceremonial law was the OT system of worship through animal sacrifice. It was all about substitution. The animal took the place of the worshipper (Lev 1-6). It involved a priest, a sacrifice, an earthly tabernacle, and the need for constant repetition. Jesus death and resurrection ended all this. Why? Christ came as a great High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. Christ, the priest, offered his own body as the final sacrifice. Christ our great High Priest rose from the dead and sprinkled his own blood on the mercy seat in heaven. With Christ s one sacrifice of himself all sin, past, present, and future in the believer is forgiven. This means that animal sacrifices are no longer need. It also means the earthly temple is no longer needed. Last it means that, on the basis of Christ s shed blood, we have a New Covenant. God gives covenants on the basis of the Priesthood. Page 6 of 8
3. Jesus life, death and resurrection harmonized God s attributes. The OT and NT present us with one, unchanging God. The cross of Christ makes that very clear. Both God s love and God s wrath are ratcheted up in the move, from the Old Testament to the New. These themes barrel along through redemptive history, unresolved, until they come to a resounding climax the cross. Do you wish to see God s love? Look at the cross. D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine, pg 70 The cross amplifies our knowledge of God s love. The cross also amplifies our knowledge of God s wrath. The cross amplifies our knowledge of God s holiness. The cross amplifies our conviction that no part of the OT will pass away until all is accomplished. D. APPLICATION 1. Read the Old Testament All Scripture [OT] is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:15 16). The Old Testament can only be understood through the lens of Christ s life, death, and resurrection. St. Augustine reconciled Old and New Testaments this way. The NT in the OT is concealed. The OT in the NT is revealed. 2. Take the OT seriously We honor the Moral Law by believing the gospel We honor the Wisdom literature by believing the gospel. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:2). We honor the Ceremonial Law, the OT sacrificial system, by believing the gospel (Hebrews). We honor the OT when we read it to know God. We do not have two Gods one of the OT and one of the NT. God never changes. For example, the Page 7 of 8
command to not glean the corners of one s field speaks to us about God s care for the poor. The destruction of Jericho and Noah s flood speaks to us about God s justice. The birth of Isaac speaks to us about God s faithfulness. BILLBOARD Page 8 of 8