I Gotta Do What?
Notes
Transcript
What do you think of when you hear the word testament? You are in church, so you are undoubtedly thinking about the Old and New Testaments. The word testament refers to covenant. Everything in the Old Testament refers to an old covenant between God and Israel, while everything in the New Testament refers to a new covenant established by Christ. Understanding the difference between the two is critical for all Christians to walk authentically with God.
Those who don’t believe the Bible, particularly those who are antagonistic toward Christianity, accuse Christians of cherry picking verses, only following the commands we like instead of the whole Bible. Is that true? Is that what we do? If you are going to engage the culture of today, a day is coming where this will come up. How would you answer them? How do we understand our relationship to the Law of God? This is what we are exploring today.
We are arriving at the end of Jesus’ opening remarks in his sermon on the mount. In these verses, we hit the crux of Jesus’ message. If we do not understand these four verses, we are not going to understand what follows. Remember everything up to this point centers around being more than doing. We are about to take a turn into doing, but as I said last week, doing stems from being. Attitude determines action. Character determines conduct. If we are going to make a difference in this world, we are going to have to be different.
Jesus has some scary news here:
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
“For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
“Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
How important is the Old Testament in the life of the Christian? There are many who say, “Oh, that’s the Old Testament. That’s been done away with. We don’t need it anymore.” Well, hold on a minute. Jesus said he did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. To what was he referring? The Law and the Prophets are the entirety of the Hebrew scriptures which we call the Old Testament. Whoever annuls one and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Before we throw out the Old Testament, we need to understand our relationship to it. Can we simply ignore Old Testament Law? not so fast. The Old Testament Law is the perfect Law of God. And Jesus did not come to do away with any of it.
At the same time, it is clear there are certain laws that we are not obligated to follow any longer. Why does the Christian not observe Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Day of Atonement? Are we allowed to wear clothing with mixed fabrics or not? Are we allowed to eat pork or not? How do we know which laws to follow and which ones we are not required to follow? We need to understand what it means for Jesus to be the fulfillment of the Law.
To be the fulfillment of the Law means Jesus brought the Law to its intended goal. The purpose the Law had was brought to completion. We are going to try and gain better understanding on that today.
A commentator by the name of Craig Blomberg wrote:
It is inadequate to say either that none of the Old Testament applies unless it is explicitly reaffirmed in the New or that all of the Old Testament applies unless it is explicitly revoked in the New. Rather, all of the Old Testament remains normative and relevant for Jesus’ followers (2 Tim 3:16), but none of it can rightly be interpreted until one understands how it has been fulfilled in Christ. Every Old Testament text must be viewed in light of Jesus’ person and ministry and the changes introduced by the new covenant he inaugurated.
What we are saying is that all Old Testament scriptures must be interpreted through the lens of Christ, his ministry, and how the New Testament may shed light on the Old. We cannot fully understand Jesus if we do not have a grasp on the Old Testament. But we also cannot fully understand the Old Testament if we do not understand Christ. There is a kind of symbiotic relationship here. There is a level of dependency on one and another. We need to understand the Old Testament in light of what Christ has done. So what has Christ done?
Jesus fulfilled the Law through his perfect obedience to it.
Jesus fulfilled the Law through his perfect obedience to it.
The Law of God is perfect because it came from a perfect God. Many scholars subdivide the Law of God into three categories. There is the moral law, which usually includes like things like the prohibition against murder, theft, dishonoring parents, and lying. There is the civil law, which governs relationships between people. This might include laws like what to do when somebody digs a pit on their property and their neighbor’s animal falls into it. How do you make that situation right? There was a law on the books about harvesting your field. If you are harvesting your field, and grain falls to the ground, you were supposed to leave it there to let the poor, the widows, and orphans come and harvest that grain. Then there was the ceremonial law. This was the set of laws governing what made someone clean or unclean. All of it was centered around temple worship. If you ate unclean animals, you were unclean. If you came into contact with a dead body or a leper, you were unclean. There was a process you had to go through to be declared clean, and this is the set of laws that governed it. All the sacrificial laws could be placed into this category.
There were 613 laws in the Old Testament. Jesus kept every one of them. What the law required, he performed. He never missed a festival. He never missed a sacrifice. He never mistreated anyone. He was the model human being. But is this what is meant by fulfilling the Law?
The word fulfill means to bring about to the proper conclusion. It is that the Law has accomplished its intended purpose. The Law of God demonstrated the perfect character of God. In Old Testament days, if you were going to be right in God’s eyes, the 613 laws were the way to do it. The problem is nobody has done so perfectly from the time they were born to the time they die. So what the law shows us is not only the character of a holy God, but our insufficiency to possess that character on our own.
The Law was our teacher:
But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.
Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.
Paul says in Romans:
Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;
because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
Jesus, then, is the embodiment of the Law of God. John says,
No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
The fullness of revelation of god is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Because he has completed the work we cannot do, he has brought the purpose or intent of the Law to its conclusion.
Because Jesus has fulfilled the Law, we have a new relationship to it.
Because Jesus has fulfilled the Law, we have a new relationship to it.
The reason we no longer adhere to certain laws as written in the Old Testament is because we have entered into a new covenant. Therefore our relationship to the law has changed while the law itself has not changed. What our critics fail to understand is the context of covenant relationship with God. The Old Testament laws were given to a specific people at a specific time for a specific purpose. Let me be clear. We are still required to follow God’s law. How we follow God’s law has changed.
We no longer observe the feasts and festivals of the Old Testament because they all pointed to Christ. He has fulfilled their purpose. But let me show you one of the favorite laws people like to bring up when accusing Christians of cherry-picking verses.
‘You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.
See? You are prohibited from wearing clothing of mixed fabrics. I hope you are not wearing nylon or polyester. So are we supposed to follow that or not? How did Jesus fulfill that law?
Was there anything inherently evil about wearing clothes made of mixed materials? The answer is no. How do I know this? There was one article of clothing in Israel made of two types of material. That was the High Priest’s ephod.
“They shall take the gold and the blue and the purple and the scarlet material and the fine linen.
The gold, blue, purple, and scarlet strands were woven from wool and attached to pieces of linen. Why was it acceptable for the High Priest and not everyone else? The key is in its function.
The High Priest served a special function in the worship of God. This set him apart from everyone else. So this prohibition was for the purpose of worship. Christ is our great high priest as Hebrews tells us, and our all sufficient sacrifice. Therefore, there is no prohibition for wearing mixed fabrics because Jesus has torn the veil of our access to God. We are freed from following that law as written.
But what was the message of the prohibition? There are some things that are set apart for the worship of God. Do not profane it by making it common. That law still stands. If we set aside something for the worship of God, we should not profane it. If we have an event in our Fellowship Hall and we run out of tables, we dare not roll the Lord’s Supper table in there and let people eat their lunch on it. Do not take what has been set aside for the worship of God and profane it by using it for some common purpose.
Every Old Testament law must be interpreted through the lens of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, but that righteousness comes not from us, but from the transformation that Christ works in us by the Holy Spirit.
Do you have the Holy Spirit? Are you a child of God? Remember to look at the intent of what God requires and act accordingly.