Good afternoon and welcome to the Panhandle. School is out and summer vacation has started, at least for the kids. For our church and many other churches the busy summer is about to begin. But every busy day means a chance to reach a child or a youth with the saving message of Christ Jesus. And now come on in, the Bible is open and His Word is great so let's do some surfing. Today Matthew 5:17-20 is where we will be hanging out.
The story has been told about several famous preachers, but it actually happened to Joseph Parker, minister of the City Temple in London. An old lady waited on Parker in his vestry after a service to thank him for the help she received from his sermons. "You do throw such wonderful light on the Bible, doctor," she said. "Do you know that until this morning, I had always thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were man and wife?" - Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, Moody, 1984, p. 213.
What we believe about the Bible is key to our faith. It is key to understanding the gospel that the Bible reveals to us. How authoritative is it? What does it say about God and about us? Do we trust it? These are all questions each of us must answers. Today, I want to ask you another question, one that may seem strange at first. What did Christ Jesus think about the Bible? What did He believe about it? Not what we assume about Him or what we assume because of what we think about the Bible but what did Christ Jesus Himself believe and teach about the Scriptures?
Russ Bush, a seminary professor said, “The issue of biblical authority is ultimately a question of Christological identity. What you think about Jesus will ultimately influence what you think about the Bible. Your theology of the living Word (Jesus) and the written Word (the Bible) go hand in hand.”1
Obviously I can't answer the question, “What did Christ Jesus believe about the Scriptures.” However here in Matthew 5:17 – 20 we can see Christ Jesus' teaching regarding the Law.
With regards to the Law, Christ Jesus taught about those who seek to destroy it.
1. We Can Seek To Destroy The Law (v. 17)
The Law of the Prophets was one way of referring to the entire Hebrew Scripture (our Old Testament). And that is what Christ Jesus was talking about in these verses.
In addressing the Law, Christ Jesus was about to say something that would blow the minds of the religious leaders.1 He was going to sound anti-law to these men who lived, breathed the Law. Their very lives were dedicated to the Law. For Christ Jesus to teach that the Law does not save a person, that it only points to sin in our lives was blasphemy to the religious leaders.
It was because of Christ Jesus' radical teaching about the “Law” that the Pharisees thought He was trying to destroy the law. His teachings were new and striking in their contrast to what the religious leaders of the day taught and did. To begin with, His authority did not come from any of the recognized leaders or schools. Instead of teaching “from authorities” as did the scribes and Pharisees, Christ Jesus taught with heavenly authority ~ And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath; and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority. (Luke 4:31-32). As God/man Christ Jesus preached under His own authority.
Not only did Christ Jesus seem to defy the Law with His authority, but also in His activities. Christ Jesus seemed to snub His nose at the Law. He healed people on the Sabbath Day and He paid no attention to the hand-washing law and so on. Christ Jesus' associations also seemed contrary to the Law, He was the friend of publicans and sinners. He touched the unclean and offered redemption to Samaritans.
Yet, it was the Pharisees who were destroying the Law! By their traditions, they robbed the people of the Word of God; and by their hypocritical lives, they disobeyed the very Law that they claimed to protect. The Pharisees thought they were conserving God’s Word, when in reality they were conserving God’s Word with legalism: embalming it so that it no longer had life! Their rejection of Christ Jesus proved that the inner truth of the Law had not penetrated their hearts.
Christ Jesus made it clear that He had come to honor the Law and help God’s people love it, learn it, and live it. He would not accept the artificial righteousness of the religious leaders. Their righteousness was only an external masquerade. Their religion was a dead ritual, not a living relationship. It was artificial; it did not reproduce itself in others in a living way. It made them proud, not humble; it led to bondage, not liberty. Have you let go of the legalism and taken hold of the Living Word? Have you been set free by Christ Jesus?
You can try and destroy the Law or you can be a fulfiller of the Law.
2. We Can Seek To Fulfill The Law (v. 17)
The Greek word used that we translate “to fulfill” refers to carrying something out. It does not mean to bring to an end. Christ Jesus wasn't taking anything away from the law and He wasn't adding to it. Christ Jesus performed or upheld, carried out all that was required by the law thereby clarifying its original meaning.
Christ Jesus fulfilled all that was predicted about Him as the Messiah in the Prophets. In this way Christ Jesus is the fullest expression of the Law and the Prophets. Christ Jesus also fulfilled all of God’s Law in every area of His earthly life. He fulfilled it in His birth ~ But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,(Galatians 4:4). Every prescribed ritual for a Jewish boy was performed as prescribed for Him by His parents. Christ Jesus certainly fulfilled the Law in His life, to the point that nobody was able to accuse Him of committing a sin.
While He did not submit to the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees, He always did what God commanded in the Law. And Father God was “well pleased” with His Son ~ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" (Matthew 17:5).
Christ Jesus also fulfilled the Law in His teaching. It was this that brought Him into conflict with the religious leaders. When He began His ministry, Christ Jesus found the Living Word of God encrusted with man-made traditions and interpretations and impossible regulations. He chipped away this thick crust of “religion,” and cut away at the binding holding people captive to the Law. He opened the Word in a new and living way, a modern example of this would be the opening of the Word to the common folks during the Reformation. Up until then the Israelites were accustomed to the “letter” of the Law and not the inner “kernel” of life.
But it was in Christ Jesus' death and resurrection that completed the fulfillment of the Law. With His death on the cross Christ Jesus:
Bore the curse of the Law ~ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us -- for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE" -- (Galatians 3:13).
Christ Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament rituals and ceremonies so that they no longer are required of the people of God ~ But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11-12).
How can you fulfill the Law? By yielding to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to work in your life ~ Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, (Romans 8:1–3).
The Holy Spirit enables you to experience the “righteousness of the law” in your daily life. This does not mean you live a sinless, perfect life, but it does mean that Christ Jesus lives out His life through you by the power of His Spirit (Galatians 2:20).
When you read the Beatitudes, you see the perfect character of Christ Jesus. While Christ Jesus never had to mourn over His sins, since He was sinless, He was still a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37).
He never had to hunger and thirst after righteousness since He was the holy Son of God, but He did delight in the Father’s will and find His satisfaction in doing it (John 4:34). The only way we can experience the righteousness of the Beatitudes and be a fulfiller of the Law is through the power of Christ Jesus. Do you have a personal relationship with Christ Jesus? Are you experiencing the power that only Christ Jesus can give you?
The best way to know the Law and to receive the power of Christ Jesus is through God's Word, the Bible.
3. We Need To Seek The Word of God (vs. 18-20)
Whenever Christ Jesus began a statement with “I tell you the truth” or “For truly I say to you” it's time to sit up and take notice. The word used in the Greek is amen (am-ane') which comes from the same Hebrew word and is an expression of affirmation. So that verse 18 can be translated as “This is a trustworthy saying,” or “This is a firm saying.” Christ Jesus always used this formula to precedes an important statement in order to prepare the hearer to listen.
What was so important? Christ Jesus was saying that there is a definite continuation between the past and the present. He was saying that the present (New Covenant) grows out of the past (the Old Covenant). There had to be the Law. Mankind had to learn the difference between right and wrong; and to see our inability to cope with the demands of the Law.
Christ Jesus taught the authority of the Bible applies to even the smallest details. To break even a single command has serious consequences. To teach others to do the same has terrible consequences as well. Teaching that any commands of God is no big deal in fact a very big deal.
Our righteousness must be more than simply skin deep, it must be an internal righteousness. The Bible shows us that our sin, unworthiness, and inadequacy separate us from God. And even when we try as hard as we can, we can't fully live up to the commands of God, we will always fall short. That is why Christ Jesus came, He went beyond showing us our sin, He became the cure for sin.
He did not point us to the sacrificial laws, He became our sacrifice.
He did not point us to the need for yearly atonement, He became our once and for all atonement.
Christ Jesus came not to bind us with external rules and regulations, but to set us free by placing His Word in our hearts.
The righteousness spoke of here in verse 20 can only find it's completion in Christ Jesus and that only comes when you have a personal relationship with Him. When you have grieved over your sin, repented and called out to Christ Jesus as your only hope of salvation, then will you be saved and be found righteous.
Thanks for dropping by, I pray our Lord's blessings on you and yours.
Biblesurfer
1 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 22–23). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
1 Stuart K. Weber; Holman New Testament Commentary
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