Christ Fulfills the Law

Good morning/evening, it’s good to be here with you all during this weather event. Special welcome to those who are joining us online for this also- thankful to God that we can still connect this Sunday. We continue to pray that we would all be safe during this time, but also asking God to place us in opportunities to be the salt and light to this world.

Today, we are approaching the topic of God’s Law and how Jesus interacts with it. It’s a topic that would probably be a focus for many subjects if you were to study formally and, classic preaching roster, I’ve got 4 verses and 30 minutes to open this to you today. I am wondering though, less intellectually, what your experience of God’s Law has been.

Perhaps you grew up in a church were God’s Law often felt oppressive, it was a series of finger wagging and if you failed or fell short of someone’s expectations you or your parents copped it. Perhaps your experience was one where it was neglected. The Gospel wasn’t effectively preached and it was more social club than a God-fearing gathering of belivers. As you got older, you watched as almost all of your childhood friends slowly walked away and turned their back on God.

You see, we love pendulums, we love our extremes and when we swing we ignore the middle. The middle is hard, it involves humility, contemplating you might be wrong, it’s holding tensions between what seem like two opposite truths- how can that be? Is God’s Law still relevant? Is it good for me? What about liberty? Aren’t we under grace? Isn’t God love? Yes. Come with me on this journey.

Jesus is engaging with an audience that holds both of these perspectives. Some were part of the religious elite, pharisees and scribes; others had felt oppressed and mistreated by them and had leaned the other way- rejecting the law and wanting to establish something new. Both of these audiences had found something exciting in Jesus. Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience yet also taught a new, radical teaching on the Law.

And so, Jesus gives us these words “I have not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it”.

Matthew 5:17-20 is anecdote to how we should approach God’s Law and His Word as a whole. It also gives us a key to unlocking and understanding the rest of the sermon on the mount and some of Jesus’ most radical teaching. Ultimately, it serves to remind the audience of the purpose of God’s Law- to make his people distinct and a demonstration of His love.

1. The Law makes God’s people Distinct

Pastor Brad spoke a lot to this last week, about Jesus’ teaching regarding the idea of His people being salt and light. One of the over arching themes of the redemptive narrative is the distinctiveness of God’s people. God’s introduction of the Law into that story proves this point too.

If you remember, the OT Exodus story, God has called His people out of slavery in Egypt, they journey through the desert before He leads them to Mount Sinai. Upon this mount, the centerpiece of His Law, the 10 commandments, are given to Moses to teach and lead His people with. Yet, just before, God answers an important question- why? Why the Law, why give it to us?

Exodus 19:5–6 ESV

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

His treasured possession. His Kingdom of priests. His Holy nation- His people. These are the words spoken by God about His hope, His intention for you. That you would find your place in Him. Do you hold them true to yourself? Do you recognise you are considered His treasured possession, that you have been set apart to be considered Holy in His eyes? It is true! They are His words. This doesn’t just answer the question of ‘why?’ but also reveals to us His own nature.

I would love to preach through the 10 commandments one day, but in short, our experience, especially if you grew up in church is possibly hearing the 10 C’s as a list of finger wagging do’s and don’t’s. However, read in the context and studied closely, they are actually a revelation of God’s love, kindness and mercy. They paint a picture of a society of honour, kindness, security, justice and peace. God does away with the horrific sacrifice of human sacrifice and self-flagulation many neighbouring nations observed. Yet, more importantly- it highlights His desire to have a relationship with you- ‘I will be your God and you shall be my people’.

It is for this reason, that God so loved you and as a response of His own character, that He gave to us the Law. We asked a similar question a few weeks ago, about what it meant to live in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus began His ministry proclaiming the imminence of the Kingdom, now that it had arrived what would that look like? What does it mean to be a citizen of that Kingdom? Now that God had called Israel out of Egypt and was bestowing upon them this promise of being His people, what would that look like? God gives to Moses the 10 commandments and later details modes of worship, living, eating, governance, etc in the books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus and numbers. These Laws and rules outlined for us how to live as God’s people, more notably, how to be His Holy people. This is the Covenant, a sacred agreement, between God and His people.

However, if we were to skip ahead of the story. Jesus came to live a life of obedience to this Law but also died for us because we couldn’t. So what gives? Why give us a law that we couldn’t be obedient to? Why make a covenant, an agreement with us when He knew we would break it? This is the question asked by generation after generation of God-fearing people, namely His prophets. Confronted with Israel’s inability to keep the commands, which is sin, they cry out to God and begin to envision a coming Messiah who would fulfill Israel’s end of the sacred agreement.

They Looked toward Jesus, who would fulfill the Law.

2. Christ Fulfills the Law

And so, we begin with Matthew 5:17 Jesus comes to fulfill that vision.

Matthew 5:17 ESV

“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.

The phrase, ‘the Law or the Prophets’ here refers to the entirety of the OT text. The Law and its requirements for obedience, but also the cry of the Prophets for hope and for the Kingdom, the call for a saviour- all of this is fulfilled in Jesus. As we catch a glimpse from what I spoke of earlier, all of the Old Testament is purposeful and designed by God to draw our attention to a need for a Saviour. Ergo Jesus words, “I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”. To abolish the law and the prophets, would do away with our ability to recognise a need for a Saviour. The Law lays down the requirements to be God’s Holy people but in doing so reveals to us the size of our sin. The Law is a torchlight shining on our waywardness, our fickle hearts and our desire to be self-ruling.

When Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment, he refers to a passage from the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 30:6 ESV

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

The concept of God circumcising our hearts is probably a strange one. What circumcision represents here is a removing of a layer, a barrier, revealing and making vulnerable. I know, we’re all squirming right now at that concept. But, what makes me more uncomfortable is the idea of the hidden, secret places of my heart being made open and vulnerable for all to see. We are all, life-long sinners. We get pretty good at it. We can also get pretty good at coming to church or church events, wearing our Sunday best- most notably a happy facade, a smiling face, hiding beneath our deepest secrets, the sins we are yet to confess, the true state of our heart. A few quick christanese comments or deflecting statements seems to be enough to fight of any potential deep revelation of our true state.

Not so with God, he wants to peel that back and shine the light of His Son Jesus into the depravity and brokenness of our lives. The intention of the Law wasn’t simply to reveal our sin-soaked inability to fulfill the Law but also to provide a means to be cured of that same disease. Jesus speaks these words in verse 20

Matthew 5:20 ESV

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus makes it clear, the Pharisees and scribes were righteous! At least, they had mastered the art of external righteousness. They were awesome at obeying the Law, so much so, they had 1000’s of extra Laws and kept them too! However, Jesus would also later call them “white-washed tombs”. Oof. Righteous and obedient on the outside, spiritually dead on the inside. Though they had found ways to become externally righteous, obedient, they had never experienced an inner-transformation. Internally, they were unrighteous. Obedience to the Law couldn’t save them, they were externally righteous but the problem they faced is not an external one.

Ezekiel 36:26 ESV

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

In other words, the spiritually dead, renewed and brought to life.

This passage brings us to face the question of the Law and its place amongst citizens of Heaven. Jesus hasn’t come to remove it, or do away with it to allow sinners into His Father’s house. Rather, He comes to accomplish what it was set to do. The Law stands to reveal to us the size of our sin. Jesus’ obedience, to the point of death on a cross, reveals the size of His grace.

Let me introduce to you a new idea to this: throughout scripture we see this idea woven through of God’s Law, His commands, being His word. Words are spoken from one’s mouth where we also breathe. The idea of God speaking or breathing carries symbolic significance as we aren’t sure of God’s literal form or what he looks like. Consider Genesis 2, God forms Adam in the dust and breathes literal life into him and he comes to life. Then you have the first chapter of John’s Gospel. He introduces the idea of the Word becoming flesh. Through this Word, all things were made, He was there from the beginning, John 1:5

John 1:4 ESV

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The Word is Jesus. THE manifestation and physcial embodiment of God, God made flesh. This living Word, the Word of God brings life. See the thread? It would be Jesus who would speak to the dead and they would rise and leave their graves behind- a picture of what is to come. It would be Jesus, this Word, whose life, death and resurrection would bring life to all who believe.

God’s Law, His Word, is life giving. The writer of Hebrews says it cuts to the heart. His Word is the vehicle that delivers the knockout blow to our spiritual deadness and brings us to life in Him.

We’ve looked at the bookends of this passage, let us turn to the middle passages.

Matthew 5:18–19 ESV

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 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.

It could be easy to read this passage and see a call to legalism, that is, an emphasis on obedience to the law. However, that’s not the case. If Jesus was trying to tell us to that obedience to the Law was all that was required, then in verse 20 he wouldn’t tell us to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees- He’d say, ‘check out those pharisee fellas, they’re doing alright, keep up with them and you’ll do great, kid!’

However, it’s also not the other way. Perhaps someone had heard His teaching on the Sabbath or uncleanliness, and had drawn the conclusion that the Law was being done away with. No longer applicable or relevant.

Jesus is teaching us this: the Word of God is unchanging, everlasting, immutable. For any person to add to or try to loosen/relax what God has already spoken is to sit with an attitude of “I know better”. “LORD, you had a good crack at but here some improvements I’ve listed”.

3. Immutable

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

I could turn to a few passages here, however I think this’ll be enough. God’s word is a life jacket for those who feel like they are drowning in this broken world. It’s not a word that is written to make you feel warm and fuzzy rather it’s uncomfortable- it reveals our sin, our brokenness, our rebellion. Our insufficiency and inclination to stuff it up. However, it reveals our need to a saviour. Those who are unaware of such a fact are not likely to call for help.

The Word of God reveals to us the size of our sin. It’s great, insurmountable for us to repay and our perform with good deeds. We are desperate. The Bible tells us that our sin puts us at odds with our creator. Our sin is our rejection of Him, our rebellion against His rightful rule and in doing so we have purchased the warped world we live in. However, Christ came and lived a life of perfect obedience on our behalf, thus fulfilling that sacred agreement. He fulfilled the Law.

We love our pendulums. Perhaps today, you feel like your consistent church attendance, prayers, tithing and service are enough to cover the secrets of your heart. It can outdo and out perform the sin, the red in your ledger. Or maybe, you’ve just found a way to convince yourself it doesn’t really matter. You’re talked down the seriousness of your rebellion and are banking on wishful thinking to ignore the issue.

Friends, either of those misses the truth and frankly, seems anxiety inducing! The truth is, you’re a great sinner, but we have a great Saviour. The size of your sin may be likened to a rock falling through a spider’s web, but the depths of His grace are like an ocean in which such rocks sink.

Romans 5:6–10 ESV

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.