Christ and the Law

Introduction: I grew up in the shadow the end of an era for Baltimore Orioles baseball. From 1963 to 1983, the Orioles had gone to the WS 6 times and won 3. I was 1 year old in 1983. And we had this new young all star named Cal Ripken, Jr. Baltimore Baseball had an identity of winning.

Now throughout the 60-70s there was something called the Oriole Way. Everything they did was done a certain way. The way you took a ground ball. The way you caught a fly ball. The way you take batting practice. The way you take the field.

The oriole way defined you as an oriole. And one of the defining characteristics of the Oriole Way is that it was all about team first. A lot of great players came and went because they didn’t measure up to the Oriole Way.

Now many in Baltimore will tell you that the reason the orioles have not been consistently competitive is beause they have gotten away from their core identity.

It was an identity.

You might have something similar in your own family.

Something that identifies you as a part of the family.

Family traditions.

Rules.

Expectations.

Commitments.

God has His own way that He wants His people to act. It’s called the Law and the purpose of hte law has always been to set His people a part as different and holy from the world around them. They were to take it seriously.

But some didn’t want to. And ti brought judgement and condemnation on the whole nation.

Many thought it was irrelevant and legalistic. So they were hope that the Messiah would rescue them from the demands of the law. Because it felt like slavery.

But when Jesus came on the scene, that’s not at all what He did. He affirmed that the law is good and holy and righteous. What He condemned was the scribes and the pharisees trying to add to the law their own traditions and interpretation.

The truth, the identity of the people was and is always rooted in the Law of God in the word of God. It’s a family identity that sets us apart as holy in an unholy world.

Now as we’ll see, some of the law no longer applies to us. But much of it still does.

But Jesus has to change our perspective on the Word of God.d

As we continue our study of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus establishes our family idenity is rooted in the Word of God.

At a minimium we are a people of the Book. Our identity is rooted in the Bible.

So Jesus calls us to have a high view of Scrpture because He had a high view of Scripture.

Transition to the text: Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 5:17-20.

Jesus is continuing to give us new perspectives on different things.

Last week, we gained a new perspective on our purpose in this life as we follow Jesus.

This week we turn our attention to the Word of God.

Now for many of us we think of the Bible as a single book that we purchase from Amazon.

There are 66 books. 39 in the OT and 27 in the NT.

In the time of Jesus, the OT was largely accepted. Though the there was some disagreement between the Pharissees and the Sadducees about what was more or less authoritative.

The Sadducees only accepted the Torah (or Law) as authoritative, while the Pharisees accepted the Law and the Prophets which is what makes up our OT today.

Now we know that Jesus love God’s Word. He quoted it more than anyone else! He cherished HIs Father’s Word. He quoted from all parts of the OT. The Law, the Prophets, the Psalms and even the historical books.

Yet some people continue to claim that Jesus had a low view of the Scriptures.

He didn’t. He had a high view of Scripture. But He had to correct faulty understandings of Scripture, but think how often He appealed to scripture to justify His teaching.

Much of His teaching was explaining and expounding upon the Word of God.

And what we learn from Jesus’ teachings about the Word is…

Introduce:

Big Idea: Jesus came to FULFILL the WORD of GOD because His people COULDN’T.

Read: Matthew 5:17-20

Matthew 5:17–20 ESV

17 “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. 18 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. 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. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Big Idea: Jesus came to FULFILL the WORD of GOD because His people COULDN’T.

Now to start, Jesus tells us that….

1. The Old Testament POINTS to JESUS. (Matthew 5:17-18)

Explanation: There are 2 parts to verse 17. On the one hand, Jesus tells people that He did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. And secondly Jesus states that He has come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.

First, in establishing a new kingdom, Jesus isn’t nullifying the Word of God. He’s not even changing anything.

He’s not saying, don’t worry about what came before, we’re starting something new.

He’s not saying that in around 60 years, there will be a new set of books that make what you currently have obsolete.

He’s not saying that you don’t need to read and obey them anymore.

In a sense, He’s not saying I’m starting something new. He’s saying we are continuing the work of God in a new way.

But if you had really understood the scriptures you had, you’d already know that.

The OT is the foundation on which the NT is build on. God tells us everything that is coming.

So no, the OT is not going away. The Law is not going away. The Prophets are certainly not going away….because all of this points to Jesus.

And Jesus fulfills them all.

And all over the Gospels, they tells us how.

Luke 4:18–21 ESV

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Perhaps the more famous passage came after the resurrection on the Road to Emmaus.

Luke 24:25–27 ESV

25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Because they all point to Him and they missed it.

He rebuked the Pharisees for this very reason:

John 5:39–40 ESV

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

Beyond that, there are over 300 Messianic prophecies in the OT that point to Jesus.

It’s with these ideas in mind that Jesus says,

Matthew 5:17 ESV

17 “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.

Which means that they are important.

Jesus fulfilles them in His identity as the Messiah and the Son of God.

He fullfills them in His birth, His life, and His death, burial and resurrection.

He goes on to say, Matthew 5:18

Matthew 5:18 ESV

18 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.

the iota is the smallest letter of the hebrew alphabet. it’s small and often missed. But until all is accomplished.

Some of the law is fulfilled at the cross. The ceremonial law. But still some awaits Jesus’ return. Buty all of this God told us beforehand so His people would know.

Illustration: Have you ever had a conversation with someone and you were telling them something important only to come back a few days later or a few weeks or even a few minutes and they are like, “you never said that to me.”

It could be at work, but let’s be honest, this happens more often in our marriages.

We forget or probably weren’t listening in the first place.

Application: While many would seek to do away with the law entirely because what more do we need a list of rules? Jesus reminds us that the law is good because it points us to Him, explains His ministry and still gives us an objective standard of God’s expectations.

The prophets remind us of the Law and its consequences but also what God is going to do about it.

The give us our understanding of who Jesus is, who we are and why we need Him.

And they help us to understanding our own salvation today.

When we think about the law, we acknowledge that we aren’t saved by following the Law, which is what the religious leaders thought. But the law still sets us apart.

2. The Old Testament provides an OBJECTIVE standard of God’s EXPECTATIONS. (Matthew 5:19)

Explanation: Many people will quote Paul on numerous occasions.

Romans 6:14 ESV

14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Romans 7:6 ESV

6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Galatians 5:18 ESV

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

And then we read Jesus’ words.

Matthew 5:19 ESV

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.

Is this a contradiction?

In fact that is the reason that many Christians don’t think that the sermon on the mount applies to Christians because Jesus still affirms the Law…so he must only be talking about them.

They’ll say that Jesus fullfilled the righteous requirements of the law and therefore we are no longer bound to it any longer.

But just from a common sense standpoint we know that’s not true.

Because if we take just the 10 commandments, which of those are you going to argue we aren’t to continue to follow?

You would never tell someone that we are no longer under law so worship whatever gods you want. You can murder, cheat, and steal all you want. Be covetous.

Of course not, we know those are still valid. We call that the moral law and it’s written on our hearts.

And this is exactly what Jesus meant when he said, Matthew 22:37-39

Matthew 22:37–39 ESV

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

This is a summary of the 10 commandments. So yes, follow them.

On the other hand you have another part of the law: the civic law.

We do remember that the Law of Moses was a national constitution that talked about what it meant be a citizen of the nation of Israel.

And Jesus’ kingdom does not replace that. Jesus’ kingdom is actually the fulfillment of national israel. Since Jesus is the rightful heir to the throne of David.

You didn’t renounce your Israeli citizenship to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, you just accept your king which someday the people of Israel will do.

But for Paul’s gentile audience they didn’t have to immediately become citizens of Israel to become citizens of heaven. And certainly not citizens of a Christless Israel.

That was the big discussion about ciricumcism. Circumcision set the people of Israel apart as citizens of Israel. It was part of their national covenant. So that was a part of the national law that was not passed to the the church.

Illustration: I’ve always found it interesting traveling in other parts of the world. The laws are typically very similar…because again….written on our hearts. But there are certain laws that make you a peculiar people.

But even with the common laws, the difference is often in the consequences of the laws. Or how harshly the nation punishes them.

In 1994, an American teenager was caned in Singapore for vandalism, which strained relations between the two countries. He was initially sentenced to six strokes but the penalty was reduced to four after intervention, and the incident drew significant international attention and media coverage. 

But it showed us that when you are in another country that is not your own, you better follow the laws.

If you were to go to Israel today, much of their laws are still based on the OT law. But many would rightly argue that it’s missing the heart of the law.

The civic law governed things like Crime and punishment. Which is why Christians don’t stone people in our churches for capital crimes.

The laws for the kings and governors.

Things dealing with private property and inheritance.

Social and economic regulattions.

These don’t apply to us today.

Application: We have to be very careful not to import the national law into the church or even to our country in the US. Our goal is not to make our churches mini-Israels nor the US a christian nation, even though I believe it was founded with the intention that the rule of law is rooted in objective truth.

But you still need to know it.

Which led to His 3rd concern here…

Matthew 5:20 ESV

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

3. Knowing and following the LAW is not enough for SALVATION. (Matthew 5:20)

Explanation: Every year I read through the Bible and whenever I get to Leviticus, I have a profound gratitude that there are parts of the law that have been fulfilled and nullifed.

I can’t imagine having to bring a bull and a goat every time I needed to atone for my sin. And as you read it, even if you accidentally break the law you are guilty.

I would throw myself on the mercy of God. Which was the point. The law was never meant to be followed exactly, but to show you just how much you need God to have mercy and save you.

But God hates the arrogant who thinks they got this.

This was the problem with the pharisees.

The pharisees were very good at looking the part of a righteous person. Even keeping the letter of the law wasn’t usually a problem for them.

But Jesus often criticized them for hypocrisy:

Matthew 15:8–9 ESV

8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

On the outside, they looked like they were following the law, but their hearts weren’t in it. Now here is the interesting thing about this. Jesus is upping the ante so to speak to show that there is more going on with the law than meets the eye.

Their law observance was all a big show.

From their fasting practices to their tithing of mint, dil, cumin.

In doing this they missed the spirit of the law.

The law was less about action and more about the heart.

The Law should teach you that you are sinful and that you need a savior. Not that through hard work and determination you can earn God’s favor.

And we know this, God desires humility and mercy.

This is why a correct understanding of the ceremonial law is so important to our faith.

The sacrificial system. Bringing gifts and sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin.

We have such a lazy view of sin these days that we think we have a license to sin because Jesus paid it all. I can do whatever I want I’ll just make up for it later.

The same idea is prevalent in our culture. Sin on saturday night get right with God on sunday morning. rinse and repeat.

But the Jewish boy and girl knew what their sin cost. They saw it regularly as their family would sacrifice an animal because of their sin.

The pharisees were just as sinful as everyone else they were just really good at faking it.

We have something greater in that Jesus became the last sacrifice we’ll ever need. And if we truly understand that it would remind us daily of what our sin costs and lead us to pursue holiness. But if we put it out of minds.

And when we quote Paul out of context saying, we’re no longer under law, we’re under grace, we think sin really isn’t all that bad anymore because Jesus dealt with it. But we need to understand and know what our sin cost and why the cross was necessary.

But that doesn’t take anything away from the grace of God. In fact it magnifies it. It makes grace all the more sweet, knowing the alternative.

Christ is the final sacrifice for sin and no more is required. But if you don’t understand why God commanded OT believers to make sacrifices, you will also miss the meaning and purpose of Jesus’ death on the cross.

Jesus died for our sins. We hear that a lot, and people ask me what it means.

Very simply, the wages of sin is death. God promised adam and that when he ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would die. When he sinned, he earned a debt that needed to be paid.

God then sacrificed an animal to make skins of clothing to cover their sin.

Abel followed God’s example in bringing a sacrifice from the best of His flocks and was accepted. Cain by comparison did not bring a blood sacrifice but brought vegetables, which might seem all fine and good, but it wasn’t sufficient to take away his sin.

Hebrews 9:22 ESV

22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

And throughout Genesis long before the Law, godly people brought blood sacrifices to appease the wrath of God.

History tells us that this passed through other pagan religions as well.

But even for us today, we still follow the ceremonial law in a sense. When the sinner brings their sacrifice to be killed for their sin. They would lay their hands on the animals identifying this animals as taken not only the punishment for their sin but their sin.

This is called penal substitutionary atonement. He takes our sins and our penalty.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

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.

Application: So yes, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees you won’t enter the kingdom of heaven. And the only way to get that level of righteousness is to get it from Jesus. By faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus as the sacrifices for our sins is our way of keeping the OT ceremonial law.

Paul talks about what Jesus did in Romans 8:3-4

Romans 8:3–4 ESV

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

All this to say that the OT is still incredibly important to us even today. It may not seem like it, but we are living in the fulfillment of the OT even today.

The OT promised that the Messiah was coming. It tells us who He is, what’s He’s like and what He will do!

And it tells us who we are and that we need a savior.

And we can join with David as he says:

Psalm 119:97 ESV

97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

As we got to our time of response:

Response: What role God’s LAW play in your everyday LIFE?

Closing Illustration: A few weeks ago, we remembered the protestant reformation which began People often ask, how did the protestant reformation took place? The first reformers were all catholic priests. And the catholics biggest issue is they still have a works based salvaiton that we partner with Jesus in our salvation by keeping the law.

So how did a group of priests go from be Roman Catholic to in a sense rebelling against what they had been taught and believed?

Well they told us….they read the Bible.

Martin Luther was converted while reading Romans 1:17

Romans 1:17 ESV

17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

He realized he wasn’t saved by following the law but by grace. He knew the key to freeing people was giving them the word of God.

And then endeavored to put the bible in the common tongue of the people. Up until the 1500s the Bible was primarily in Latin.

The 3 langauges of the reformation were german, french and english.

GERMAN: He translated the Bible into German in 1534.

FRENCH: The first printed translation of the Bible into French was the work of the French theologian Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples in 1530 in Antwerp

ENGLISH: William Tyndale was one of the first reformers to be martyred for the reformation. He was executed on October 6, 1536, in the Duchy of Brabant (near Brussels) after being arrested, convicted of heresy, strangled, and then burned at the stake. His crime was translating the Bible into English. 

The Word of God was never meant to be a book reserved for the priesthood or learned elite. It was meant for everyone.

We are committed to the Bible as the which we build our lives.

This is the heart of the Gospel. That we understand that:

1. The Old Testament POINTS to JESUS. (Matthew 5:17-18)

2. The Old Testament provides an OBJECTIVE standard of God’s EXPECTATIONS. (Matthew 5:19)

3. Knowing and following the LAW is not enough for SALVATION. (Matthew 5:20)

If today you find yourself trying to be good enough. May you see the Law of God as showing you that you need a savior. Let it point you to Jesus where you will find peace for your soul.

Let’s pray.