Jesus, Fulfillment of the Law
Chasing Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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· 4 viewsThe Pharisees had great distain for Jesus because His teachings contradicted the system that they had built from the Law of Moses. They had elevated their own sense of understanding and they had lost sight of the very law that they were called to protect. Jesus reveals to them the error of their ways as they confront Him with seemingly an impossible situation. Jesus points them to the law and their inability to keep the law that they were seeking to uphold. Jesus points them to the grace of God which saves the least and greatest.
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How We View Ourselves
How We View Ourselves
John 7:
Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
“You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
The chief priests and the Pharisees hear the approval of the crowd build for Jesus and in response, they call the temple guards to seize Him. The guards though are amazed at Jesus’ teachings. He speaks as One who has authority instead of speaking from the authority of others.
The Pharisees and rulers of the day viewed the people as ignorant, unclean and less than. They could not hope to uphold the law as well as they could. Only the Pharisees and chief priests could ever hope to be seen as righteous. They had command over the law and there was no hope and no compassion for the crowds.
When we view ourselves as more deserving or greater than others, we begin to build a foundation to stand on that consists of who we are and not who Christ is. We put ourselves in danger of missing the simple truth of the Gospel, that the only One who is righteous in Jesus.
We all have the same stature standing on our own before the Lord. We are all found as unrighteous. There is not one among us who is righteous as a result of our deeds, attitudes, thoughts or actions.
When we view ourselves as more deserving or greater than others, we begin to build a foundation to stand on that consists of who we are and not who Christ is. We put ourselves in danger of missing the simple truth of the Gospel, that the only One who is righteous in Jesus.
How Jesus Views Us
How Jesus Views Us
Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
This passage is controversial in the fact that it is not included in the earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of John. The story though is consistent with the teachings of the rest of Scripture and even more significantly, the teachings of the previous passage.
While the Pharisees and the teachers of the law brought the woman to Jesus in order to trap him, Jesus pointed them to the purpose of the law. The law was not given by Moses for us to make us righteous as we already spoke about and it was not given to us for the sake of condemning others. The law was given to point us to God.
Jesus showed himself as the fulfillment of the law as he fulfills what John spoke about him earlier,
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
God gave the law to man to point him into relationship with Him. Jesus came to complete the law as he removed the barrier of sin and death. Jesus points the crowd to the truth that we all are broken, no one worse than the next, but God loves each one of us enough for Christ to come and restore us to the Father.
Our purpose now as redeemed people is not to take the place of the Pharisees and condemn the world around us, but rather we are to share the grace that has been afforded us with a world full of people needing Jesus just as we do.