Following the Law

Are you a Christian anarchist? Some people view Jesus as an anarchist. An anarchist is someone who does not believe in law and government. And there is a generation of people in this country who are anarchist. They want to abolish law and order. They want to defund the police, and get rid of laws in this country. There is also a generation of Christians who are a spiritual anarchist, as they want to get rid of God’s law.

Jesus is heading into a section right here that will raise the standard of what it means to be a Christ follower, rather than just obeying the letter of the law but also the spirit of it. The Pharisees obeyed the letter, but not the spirit of the law. But before He does, He tells the disciples what the law means. There is a false idea that that since you cannot have perfect obedience, it does not matter if you follow the law, because Jesus fulfilled it, and just celebrate that. There is also a false idea called antinomianism which is think that you do not need to follow the law. This idea is where this anything goes Christianity comes from, where it does not matter what you do, where nothing is sin. Jesus stops that idea in its track here. Many people nowadays say that since we’re under grace, we do not have to follow the moral law of God. You must follow God’s moral law.

Why should you follow God’s moral law?

Fulfillment of the law

people were accusing Jesus of not following the law

Jesus came not to abolish but to fulfill,

Colossians 2:16–17 “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”

Luke 24:27 “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”

He said that not one jot or tittle shall pass,

jot is the smallest letter, tittle is a small mark

Jesus came to fulfill the law not to dismantle it, even to the smallest point

The entire Bible points to Christ, and even in the law, Hebrews shows us that the sacrifices and offerings point to Him,

Psalm 119:89–90“LAMED. For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.”

People try to say that certain things in the Bible is only the culture for that time, but no. The commands we see still are intact today.

Jesus also fulfilled the righteousness that we need in v. 20

Romans 8:3–4 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Imagine if you got in trouble, and owed the court a fine, or even worse jail time. Someone said they will pay it for you, how much do you owe? zero

Following the laws

Since Jesus came to fulfill the law that does not mean the law is abolished but rather than that we follow the law.

We do not need to follow the OT ceremonial law, since that was fulfilled in Christ, however we need to follow the moral law’s

1 John 3:4 “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”

Jesus says that anyone who is great will be one who follows the law and teaches others. Jesus says that whosoever teaches them to break the law is least in the kingdom.

Watch the example you set!

Jesus does not want us to relax His commandments, and that’s what some people do with their anything goes Christianity

So we are to follow the moral law

Ezekiel 36:27 “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

The reason why we should fulfill the law is because it all becomes love.

Romans 13:8–9 “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

Galatians 5:14 “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

So if you do not follow the law, you are unloving.

I have 3 licenses here. I have a drivers, carry license and a small game hunting license. These give me the right to drive and to carry and to hunt. I can do those things because I have the license. There are other licenses for different things. A license is defined by Merriam Webster as a permission granted by competent authority to engage in a business or occupation or in an activity otherwise unlawful or permission to act. Now many people act like grace is a license for their sin. Which it is not!

Are you someone who wants to live for license?

Do you follow God’s law.