Christ Fulfilled The Law For Us

What place should the law of God have in a Christians life?

The law, as in the commands of Scripture given particularly in the Old Testament.

If you’ve ever thought things like… “That’s in the Old Testament. I don’t have to do that anymore.” or “We’re under grace now, so the law doesn’t apply to us.” Then you know how important this conversation is.

Well, this is exactly what Jesus is addressing as he continues with His sermon.

The question was clearly going around in the minds of these Jewish disciples, “What happens to the law and the prophets?”

His answer to this question is crucial to our understanding of the Gospel.

Notice what he says:

“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.” Matthew 5:17

Kind of difficult to be any clearer than this isn’t it?

Is the law done away with because Christ came?

Do not even think it!

so that we’re all clear on terms...

The law is the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible, and the prophets are the rest of it, those who heard from God and spoke of what was to come - ultimately speaking of the Messiah and the future Kingdom.

So what happens to these monumental collections of God’s heart and will not that the Son of God is here?

Not only is Jesus not doing away with them, but he came to fulfill them.

What can we learn from this?

1. Jesus does not oppose the Old Testament Scriptures, but stands in favor of them.

2. Jesus ‘s commands do not contradict the law of God

In fact as this teaching unfolds, we’re going to see the opposite is true. Jesus takes what was common knowledge to Jew in the commands of Scripture, and makes it even harder to fulfill them.

Look at v18.

Couple things to note here:

Heaven and earth are going to pass away. At least how we know them today. But until then, there’s a plan and a purpose.

The law, God’s commands and will as revealed in His Word, will be fulfilled.

Jesus said “truly” I say to you.

Which is like starting a sentence with an Amen.

So be it. This will be so. There is no doubt.

This well placed, TRULY, is to give us strong assurance in the fact that God’s Word will accomplish all that it was intended to accomplish, namely, as it concerns Jesus Christ and God’s redemptive plan.

Look at the specificity here...

Not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

These are referring to a small Hebrew letter, and a Hebrew mark called the tittle.

The slightest of marks being the only difference between one letter and the next. The care, the love, the precision of God’s law is incredible. God’s Word is perfect.

God’s law is perfect to accomplish what God intended.

Don’t misunderstand. We are Christians, and the mark of a Christian according to Jesus is ““If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15

There are two extremes that form on either side of this issue.

One side is legalism, and the other is antinomianism.

Legalism is essentially the attempt to secure righteousness through adherence to the law of God.

Antinomianism is the believe that under God’s saving grace we are released of any obligation to the moral law of Moses.

Both of these are extremes.

How do we settle this?

With God’s word.

Legalism, and the sense that keeping any law or doing any work can secure righteousness goes against the clear Gospel presented in Scripture.

Galatians 2:16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

This could not be clearer.

On the other hand, antinomianism has its own way of ruining the clarity of the Gospel.

If we are not obligated to obey the law of Moses in any way, because Christ has come and died for us…then

1. What do we do with Matthew 5? Jesus clearly did not come to destroy the law.

2. A Christian who is salved by grace alone through faith alone (so under grace) has not been freed from obligation to obey, but from the ultimate penalty of disobedience and sin.

Paul makes this case in many places, but let’s look at Romans 6.

Romans 6:15-23 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?

Recognize what is being asked rhetorically here...

Should we now break the law of God just because grace has arrived to set us free?

By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Not only does grace not permit us to go on sinning. Grace frees us to see that obedience to God is right, and leads to more freedom.

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

See where the true freedom lies? Free from sin, not from the law. Free from the weight of guilt we had in our breaking of God’s law, and free to live lives pleasing to God as slaves of righteousness.

I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And that’s the ultimate point…It’s through Jesus. Through faith in Christ we receive a gift that pays the penalty of sin we owed, frees us from bondage to that sin, and frees us to live rightly before God.

Scripture condemns legalism and antinomianism. Righteousness before God cannot be earned. And the law of God is still good for the Christian. This only makes sense when one understands the Gospel.

Back to Matthew 5:18

How important is the law to Jesus?

He is pro-OT law right down to the smallest stroke of a pen.

How is the law fulfilled and accomplished in Jesus?

The law is fulfilled in Christ because he is the substance of what law and the prophets foreshadowed.

He literally filled up what was lacking. He made clear all that was a mystery in the sacrifices, the temple, the veil, the feasts.

Hebrews 10:1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

2. The law is fulfilled in Christ because he perfectly obeyed its legal and moral demands.

Jesus was not only without moral failure, but he was also the embodiment of truth and righteousness. John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me.”

3. The law and prophets were fulfilled in Christ in that he is the one the prophets looked forward to.

He was the promised one.

Luke 24:44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

4. Christ fulfilled the penalty of the law by becoming a sacrifice for sinners.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And because Christ fulfilled the law, we can come to him by faith and find in Him all that the law was unable to do.

The law could not save. Christ can

Th law condemns. Christ frees the who who’s faith is in Him.

The law leads to death. Christ is eternal life.

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

But none of this says anything about the law not being good, or purposeful, or necessary, or a blessing.

We know God’s law to be more than just rules and regulations that once bound us under sin. God’s law tells us His heart, his holiness, his standard of perfection. God’s law teaches us order, and boundary, truth, and love.

God’s law was given in order to accomplish something in this world, and in humanity. Only in Christ does this make sense.

The heathen says “How could God give these ridiculous rules that stifle my freedom?”

The Christian says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. Psalm 19:7-11

What needs to be understood by everyone listening this morning is that the law is good, and right, and true, but it must be understood in relation to what Christ has done for us.

In Matthew 5, he begins to teach his interpretation of the moral law.

Remember, Jesus is the one who wrote the law. He’s not abolishing it, or changing it…He’s interpreting it for us to understand as those who will exist under the new covenant of grace.

There is no part of us that should say “I’m a Christian, so I don’t have to keep the law.”

That would contradict what Jesus says in v.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

By relaxing the least command, he’s saying, whichever law you might consider least significant, and because of that you break it, and by your example you lead others to do the same, you are considered least in the Kingdom.

Rather, Christians are to do and teach what Jesus has said, and how he has interpreted the law for us.

And remember, what we’re about to discover in Christ’s rendering of several Old Testament commands, is not that legalism is the way, but that Christ is the way. Jesus is not saying that every command of the Old Testament is equally as applicable to us today as it was to the Jews then. That’s not the case. But when we look at Christ, what we in fact see is an even higher standard. PERFECTION. TRUTH. LOVE. OBEDIENCE.

The message for us isn’t primarily DO. but Primarily BELIEVE. And that’s how Christ changes everything. He gives us the sweetness of the law without the condemnation. But he also lets us experience gracious conviction of sin by His Spirit who operates in this word, and within every believer.

Finally, look at these last words in v20. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

This could sound a little concerning. But even more so to the crowd standing around Him at the time.

That’s the standard for heaven!

Righteousness that exceeds the rigorous law keeping of the most religious scribes or pharisees. How are you doing with that? What chance is there of Heaven?

Notice one things he does in this statement. Even their righteousness was not enough.

What’s he saying to them, and to us?

There’s a new kind of righteousness that cannot be attained by keeping the law.

There’s an inward righteousness now that cleanses the heart and makes us new.

It’s Christ’s righteousness. That’s the only kind that exceeds.

Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.