Binding precepts for Kingdom Citizens

Open: West Wing episode that dealt with OT law keeping. The president verbally hammers a conservative talk show host for her moral opposition to homosexual behavior. After she gives the Biblical reference for her stance, he mentions several other OT laws and asks her to defend them. Can the Washington Redskins play football without wearing gloves? Can I burn my wife in a private ceremony for wearing garments made from two separate materials?

Transition: It should not come as a great surprise that the world is confused about the connection between the Law and Gospel. Their confusion, however, does not prevent them from trying to use the Bible against us either. In that episode, the talk show host is left speechless. The implication is that conservative Christians are simply wrong and there is no answer.

The question for us: how would you have responded in that situation? Have you thought about the connection between the Law and the Gospel? Are NT believers sill bound by the Law?

These are important issues for KC’s to consider, and today’s text deals with Jesus’ understanding of the Law and the Gospel. READ the Text: Matthew 5:17-20.

Jesus has great respect for the Law and He is the fulfillment of it (vv. 17-18)

Explanation: Jesus introduces a new topic as He begins to teach on the relationship between the Law and the Gospel. Jesus has described the character of those who inhabit His kingdom and He has discussed His expectations for their influence. He now begins a section dealing with how KC’s are navigate life in the Kingdom inside the guardrails of the Law of God.

He begins this section by giving a negative condition. He does so by declaring his purpose as King is NOT to abolish or do away with the OT law. It is interesting that he frames this important subject in this manner. As Sinclair Ferguson puts it, “By this point in his sermon, Jesus had made it very clear what belonging to the kingdom of God means. What he has said is startling enough. But in some ways, what he has not said is even more startling. He has said nothing about the law and the importance of keeping it. He has said nothing about the traditional interpretations of the law and the importance of observing them.” (The Sermon on the Mount, Sinclair Ferguson, p. 68)

Some who were listening were probably wondering about the connection between law-keeping and life in the Kingdom, so Jesus deals with issue in a very clear manner. He declares that He has not come to destroy the Law, but rather to fulfill it or bring it to completion.

Jesus declares that as long as the heavens and the earth remain, the Law of God will remain in effect in its entirety. The key that helps NT believers navigate life in the Kingdom is when Jesus adds “till all be fulfilled” (v. 18)

Argument: Jesus has already fulfilled certain aspects of God’s law. Many, many OT prophecies were fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the Promises of the Messiah so completely that Paul was able to declare that “Christ IS the end of the Law (Rom 10:4). The author of Hebrews states that Christ’s substitionary sacrifice was so fulfilling that it completed and ended the entire OT sacrificial system (Heb 10:14-18)

Application: Because of who Jesus is and what He accomplished, many aspects of the OT law no longer apply to Kingdom Citizens on this side of the Cross. As a result, only the moral law remains in effect for believers - the Sacrificial and Civil Law have been accomplished and no longer have purpose.

Kingdom Citizens are to have great respect for the Moral Law of God because they are bound by it precepts (v. 19)

Explanation: Jesus clearly has the expectation for His followers to live according to the Moral Law as contained in the OT and reiterated in the NT. He declares that the person who breaks even a minor commandment will lose his or her reward. The Greek word for breaks also has the idea of loosing or releasing.

Example: Andy Stanley and his unbiblical teaching of “unhitching” from the OT

Argument: Far from being people who throw off moral restraint and live according to the whims of the moment, believers are to respect and follow God’s moral commands. The Ten Commandments are still morally binding for KC’s, as are the other moral imperatives given in Scripture.

Application: We can and should recognize the different categories of the Law. Most believers understand that we are not required to offer blood sacrifice for sin, but many of us are fuzzy as to which of the OT laws are no longer binding. [This is the confusion that left the good doctor speechless in the video]. Christians do not just get to pick and choose the laws that are to be binding - but those that have had their purpose accomplished in Christ are off the table.

Our response to the Law reveals our heart condition as Kingdom Citizens (v. 20)

Explanation: Jesus introduces the important topic of the Law and the Gospel in these 4 short verses and then expounds on the correct interpretation of the law through a series of specifics in which He deals with murder, anger, forgiveness, lust, and vengeance, just to name some of them.

In His last statement in His introduction, however, Jesus drops the equivalent of a bomb on His listeners. He looks at His listeners and says, “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20). This statement was a shocker - some of the young people would call it a “mic drop.”

This way of thinking was unheard of and went beyond the imagination of the common people. The average Jew looked at the scribes and Pharisees as being far beyond themselves in terms of personal righteousness. They were shocked to hear Jesus tell them that they needed to exceed that level of righteousness if they hoped to gain entrance into heaven. They must have thought, “well, there went my shot. If the scribes and Pharisees aren’t going to make it, I don’t even have a prayer!”

Argument: Jesus is going to unpack this statement as He deals with specific examples of the moral law, but suffice to say that Jesus is calling out this group for their legalism. The scribes and Pharisees knew that God’s law was impossible to keep, so they developed the “hedge about the law” - a series of specific actions they created in order to be able to show they were keeping the external aspects of their own traditions.

Jesus is telling His listeners that keeping the externals was insufficient for salvation. The traditional approach to the Law developed by the scribes and Pharisees that focused on externals, but missed the spirit of the Law, would cause the follower to miss out on the Kingdom. Paul emphasizes this understanding when he declares, “by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight” (Romans 3:20)

Application: No one can earn salvation through keeping the law - it is impossible! Jesus is telling them that faith in Him as the Messiah - the One who fulfills the law is what brings salvation.

He is also telling them that the person who has been regenerated through trusting Christ as Lord and Savior will have a desire to live by God’s moral law. Not in order to get saved, but out of love and respect for the One who saved them. We who are Kingdom Citizens will have the desire to live by the Law of the King so as to live lives that are pleasing to Him!