S.O.T.M. The Letter and the Spirit [Matthew 5:21]

We begin a new section in the sermon on the mount today, but we must understand that what is said beginning in verse 21 connects directly to what has previously been said by our Lord. The danger with dealing with a part of scripture, which we’ve been doing in this sermon on the mount…going slowly through the great sections, the danger is when we deal with a section we become so immersed in the details of that section that we sometimes miss the essential teaching and great principles in which our Lord is communicating. This is why I’ve constantly gone back and reminded us of the general outline of our Lord’s sermon and connected each new part with the section that has gone before…and we’ll do the same thing this morning.

This morning we won’t get into the topic of murder, which is the next section, but we’ll take a look from 10,000 feet so to speak. Because in these next several sections there are principles that are consistent throughout, so before we get into the details we’ll look at the general principals that will guide us through the next several weeks and months of this sermon.

Stand for the reading of the word of God. [Matthew 5:21-22a]

Thus far in the sermon, Our Lord is concerned to describe the citizens of the kingdom, the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. First and foremost, He gives us in the Beatitudes a general description of the essential nature of the Christian man. Then He goes on to tell us about the function and the purpose of the Christian in this life and world [salt and light]. Then we have seen that that brings Him immediately to this whole question of the relationship of such a person to the law. It was essential that He should do that because the people to whom He was preaching were Jews who had been taught the law, and obviously they would evaluate any new teaching in terms of the law. So He had to show them the relationship of Himself and His teaching to the law, and He does that in verses 17–20, summing it up in the vital statement which we have just been studying.

Now here, at verse 21, He proceeds to expand that statement. He expounds the relationship of the Christian to the law in two respects. He gives us His own positive exposition of the law, and He also contrasts it with the false teaching of the scribes and Pharisees. Indeed, there is a sense in which it can be said that the whole of the remainder of this Sermon, from verse 21 right through to the end of chapter 7, is nothing but an elaboration of that fundamental proposition, that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees if we are indeed to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

This is something which our Lord does in a most interesting manner. Looking at it broadly we can say that in the remainder of chapter 5 He is concerned to do this in terms of a true exposition of the law over against the false exposition of the Pharisees and the scribes. His main concern in chapter 6 is to show the true nature of fellowship with God, again in contra-distinction to the Pharisaical teaching and practice. Then in chapter 7 He is concerned to show true righteousness as it views itself and others, once more contrasted with what was taught and practiced by the Pharisees and the scribes. That is the essential analysis of the teaching which we must try to hold in our minds.

In 5:21–48, then, our Lord is concerned mainly to give a true account of the law. He does this by putting forward a series of six particular statements and we should look at these very carefully. The first is in verse 21: ‘You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill.’ The next comes in verse 27 where He says again: ‘You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ Then in verse 31 we read: ‘It has been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.’ The next is in verse 33: ‘Again, you have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not swear falsely, but shalt perform unto the Lord your oaths.’ Then in verse 38 we read: ‘You have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ And the last is in verse 43: ‘Ye have heard that it hath been said, you shall love thy neighbour, and hate your enemy.’ You’ll notice the similar formulas in each.

It is most important, before we come to deal with each of these statements separately and in particular, that we should consider them together as a whole, because, if you look at them, you will see at once that there are certain principles which are common to all six. Indeed, I do not hesitate to suggest that our Lord was really more concerned about these common principles than He was about the particulars. In other words, He lays down certain principles and then illustrates them. Obviously, therefore, we must make certain that we really grasp the principles first. The main idea is the attitude behind the act matters as much as the act itself…that’s our MI and it will be while we’re in these six statements.

The first thing we need to do is consider the formula our Lord uses...

You have heard it said by them of old

There are slight variations of the form throughout but it’s essentially the same in all six statements. We need to to be clear about this, what exactly is Jesus referring to when he says by them of old. If we were to look only at the linguistics of the section we might come to the conclusion our Lord is referring to the law of God, but when we look at the context as a whole we see He’s referring to the false teaching of the scribes and Pharisees. Rabbi’s of the past were called men of antiquity or men of old time. So our Lord is referring to the Rabbi’s of the past…not the law of God.

Jesus is showing the true teaching of the law of God against the false representation of it made by the religious leaders. The religious leaders of Jesus day placed great significance upon their rabbinical traditions, these had become higher place than the actual word of God itself. The Rabbi’s were always quoting the father’s or the Rabbi’s that had come before. That’s what made the scribe a scribe, he was an authority on the pronouncements which had been made of the father’s of antiquity. These traditions had taken the place of the true meaning of the law of God and thus the religious leaders pressed upon the people of that day the traditions of man as opposed to the true law of God.

This is why the Jesus used the formula the way he did, ‘you have heard it said by the old Rabbis...’ whenever the Lord referred to the word of God He always says, ‘you have read in the law of Moses’ or ‘it is written’. Here He does not do that He says… in effect… tradition has said… but I declare to you the truth of God’s word.

A great illustration of this is...The condition of the Jews in our Lord’s day was remarkably like that of people before the Protestant Reformation. In those days the Scriptures were not translated into English, but were read Sunday by Sunday in Latin to people who did not understand Latin. The result was that the people were entirely dependent for their knowledge of the Scriptures upon the priests who read the Bible to them and who claimed to be expounding it. They were unable to read the Scriptures for themselves and to verify and confirm that which they were hearing from the various pulpits on Sundays and weekdays. What the Protestant Reformation did, in a sense, was to give the Bible to the people. It enabled them to read the Scriptures for themselves, and to see the false teaching and the false representations of the gospel which had been given to them.

Now the position when our Lord was speaking here was very similar to that. The children of Israel during their captivity in Babylon had ceased to know the Hebrew language. Their language when they came back, and at this time, was Aramaic. They were not familiar with Hebrew so they could not read the law of Moses as they had it in their own Hebrew Scriptures. The result was that they were dependent for any knowledge of the law upon the teaching of the Pharisees and the scribes. Our Lord, therefore, very rightly said, ‘You have heard’, or ‘That is what you have been hearing; that is what has been said to you; that is the preaching that has been given to you as you have gone to your synagogues and listened to the instruction.’ The result was that what these people thought of as the law was in reality not the law itself, but a representation of it given by the scribes and Pharisees.

These teachings consisted of the various interpretations and traditions which had been added to the law during the centuries, and thus it was essential that these people should be given a true account of what the law really did say and taught. The Pharisees and scribes had added their own interpretations to it, and it was almost impossible at this time to tell which was law and which was interpretation. Again the analogy of what happened before the Reformation will help us to see the exact position.

The Roman Catholic teaching before the Protestant Reformation was a false representation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It said you had to believe in the sacraments to be saved, and that apart from the Church and priesthood there was no salvation. That was how salvation was being taught. Tradition and various additions had clouded the simple gospel. And once the word got into the hands of the people they were able to see the false teachings that had been established. Our Lord’s object, as I think we shall see as we work through these examples, was to show exactly what had been happening to the law of Moses as the result of the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees. So He is concerned to make clear to them exactly what the law has to say. That is the first principle which we must hold in mind.

The next statement we must consider is...

I say to you

This is critical because…this is the doctrine of our Lord Jesus. Our Lord doesn’t hesitate to establish Himself as the authority here. The religious leaders always quoted another Rabbi…or those of old time…but Jesus says… “I say to you” by my own authority. He is saying, rather, ‘I am interpreting to you the law of Moses, and it is My interpretation that is true and not that of the Pharisees and scribes.’ Indeed there is even more than that in it. There is a suggestion that He is saying something like this: ‘I who am speaking to you am the very One who was responsible for the law of Moses; it was I who gave it to Moses, and it is I alone, therefore, who can truly interpret it.’ You see, He does not hesitate here to claim for Himself a unique authority; He claims to speak as God. Regarding the law of Moses, as He does, as something which shall not pass away until every jot and tittle has been fulfilled, He does not hesitate, nevertheless, to say, ‘But I say unto you.’ He claims the authority of God; and that, of course, is the claim which is made for Him everywhere in the four Gospels and in the entire New Testament.

It is vitally important that we should realize the authority with which these words come to us. He was not a mere teacher, He was not a mere man; He was not a mere expounder of the law or just another scribe or Pharisee, or prophet. He was/is infinitely more than that, He is God the Son in the flesh presenting the truth of God. We might very well spend much time considering this great phrase, but I trust that we are all clear and all agreed about that. Everything we have in this Sermon on the Mount must be accepted as coming from the Son of God Himself. So we are confronted with this amazing fact that here in this world of time the very Son of God has been among us; and though He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, He still speaks with this divine authority and His every word is of crucial importance to us.

Therefore, what Jesus said matters immensely! Our Lord comes in a tells the people of His day, as us as well, I didn’t come to get rid of the old law and give a new law made up of new codes of ethics. Not at all, they had taken God’s law, which is perfect, and had lowered it to a corrupt standard…Jesus came to raise it backup to where it belonged. There are those who don’t believe in Jesus that will use the sermon on the mount as a great form of moral ethics and teaching…but they’ve missed the whole point. Jesus came and taught in this sermon something like this… “I have come to found a new kingdom. I am the first of a new race of people, the first-born among many brethren; and the people of whom I am Head will be of a certain type and character, people who, because they conform to that description, are going to behave in a certain manner. Now I want to give you some illustrations of how they are going to behave.”

That is what our Lord is saying, and that is why He is concerned about the principles rather than the detailed examples. So if we take the illustrations and turn them into a law we are denying the very thing He was setting out to do. Now it is characteristic of human nature that we always prefer to have things cut and dried rather than have them in the form of principles. That is why certain forms of religion are always popular. The natural man likes to be given a definite list; then he feels that, as long as he conforms to the things stated in the list, all will be well. But that is not possible with the gospel; that is not possible at all in the kingdom of God.

However, we still tend to like this sort of thing. It is very much easier, is it not, to think of holiness in terms of observing certain things during the year, like going to church 2 or 3 times a month or attending bible study rather than to be living with a principle which demands and insists upon application of God’s word day by day. We always like to have a set of routine rules and regulations. That is why I am pressing this point. If you take the Sermon on the Mount with these six detailed statements and say, ‘As long as I do not commit adultery—and so on—I am all right’, you have entirely missed our Lord’s point. It is not a code of ethics. He is out to delineate a certain order and quality of life, and He says in effect: ‘Look, I am illustrating this kind of life. It means this type of behaviour.’ So we must hold on to the principle without turning the particular illustration into a law.

People will always ask me about certain things, is it okay for a Christian to drink, can a Christian gamble, etc. most of these questions are not really concerned with my Christian walk but more concerned with…what sin can I get away with? As parents we restrict certain things from our children because we know it will harm them while they do not know the harm that lies ahead. People are constantly wanting a list of does and don’ts for the Christian life, much like the list of do’s and don’ts we give to our children…but the gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t treat us like that. It doesn’t treat us like children. It’s not another list, but it’s that which gives us life. It lays down certain principles and asks us to apply them. Its essential teaching is that we are given a new outlook and understanding which we must apply with respect to every detail of our lives. That is why the Christian, in a sense, is a man who is always walking on a kind of knife edge. He has no set regulations; instead he applies this central principle to every situation that may arise.

Our Lord, the great teacher, knew the importance of illustrating principles, so he gives us six illustrations of one truth. So He picks out six important teachings, murder, lust, marriage, honesty, mercy, and love and gives us...

The common principles found in all six illustrations.

Our Lord’s chief desire was to show the true meaning and intent of the law, and we’ll use these same principles as we walk through the next six sections of the sermon.

First, The spirit of the law matters primarily, not the letter only. The law was not meant to be mechanical, but living. The whole trouble with the Pharisees and the scribes was that they concentrated only on the letter, and they did so to the exclusion of the spirit. It is a great subject—this relationship between form and content. Spirit is always something that must be embodied in form, and that is where the difficulty arises. Man will ever concentrate on the form rather than on the content; upon the letter rather than upon the spirit.

Take, for example, this question of murder. As long as the Pharisees and scribes did not actually murder a man they thought they had kept the law perfectly. But they were missing the whole point and spirit of the law, which is not merely that I should literally not commit murder, but that my attitude towards my fellow men should be a right and loving one. Likewise with all these other illustrations. The mere fact that you do not commit adultery in an actual physical sense does not mean that you have kept the law. What is your spirit? What is your desire as you look, and lust, and so on? It is the spirit, not the letter, that counts. That doesn’t mean the letter doesn’t matter…remember the main idea…the attitude behind the act matters as much as the act itself.

Second, Conformity to the law must not be thought of in terms of actions only. This is kind of a continuation of the first. Thoughts, motives and desires are equally important. The law of God is concerned as much with what leads to the action as it is with the action itself. Again it does not mean that the action does not matter; but it does mean very definitely that it is not the action only that is important. This should be an obvious principle. The scribes and Pharisees were concerned only about the act of adultery or the act of murder. But our Lord was at pains to emphasize to them that it is the desire in man’s heart and mind to do these things that is really and ultimately reprehensible in the sight of God.

Third, The law must be thought of not only in a negative manner, but also positively. The ultimate purpose of the law is not merely to prevent our doing certain things that are wrong; its real object is to lead us positively, not only to do that which is right, but also to love it. Here again is something which comes out clearly in these six illustrations. The whole Jewish conception of the law was a negative one. I must not commit adultery, I must not commit murder, and so on. But our Lord emphasizes all along that what God is really concerned about is that we should be lovers of righteousness. We should be hungering and thirsting after righteousness, not merely negatively avoiding that which is evil.

There are still people who seem to think of holiness and sanctification in this purely mechanical manner. They think that, as long as they are not guilty of drinking, gambling or doing this or that, all is well. Their attitude is purely negative. It does not seem to matter if you are jealous, envious and spiteful. The fact that you are full of the pride of life seems to be of no account as long as you do not do certain things. That was the whole trouble with the scribes and Pharisees who perverted the law of God by regarding it purely in a negative manner.

Fourth, the purpose of the law as expounded by Christ is not to keep us in a state of obedience to oppressive rules, but to promote the free development of our spiritual character. We must not think of the holy life, the way of sanctification, as something hard and grievous which puts us into a state of servitude. Not at all. The glorious possibility that is offered us by the gospel of Christ is development as children of God and growing ‘unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ’. ‘His commandments’, says John in his first Epistle, ‘are not grievous.’ So if you and I regard the ethical teaching of the New Testament as something that cramps us, if we think of it as something narrow and restrictive, it means we have never understood it. The whole purpose of the gospel is to bring us into ‘the glorious liberty of the children of God’, and these special injunctions are simply particular illustrations of how we may arrive at that and enjoy it.

Fifth, the law of God must never be regarded as an end in themselves. We must never think of them as something to which we just have to try to conform. The ultimate objective of all this teaching is that you and I might come to know God. While the religious leaders attempted to negatively restrict man, the law was never meant to be an end in itself but take us to God. Upon true examination of the law we see, we can’t truly conform to it, so we need something greater than ourselves…we need a savior.

I do believe many Christians today fool themselves by thinking as long as I don’t use foul language and don’t drink and don’t…God is happy with me…but the real test is, what is my relationship to God? Do I really know Him? Is my life lived to bring Him honor and glory or myself praise? We must be careful lest we turn our Christian life into a code of conduct like that of the religious leaders of Jesus day. It is the spirit not the letter that matters; it is the intent, object and purpose that are important. The one thing we have to avoid above everything else in our Christian lives is this fatal tendency to live the Christian life apart from a direct, living, and true relationship to God.

Sixth, Discipline in the Christian life is a good and essential thing. While discipline is good in the Christian life and practicing Christian disciplines such as prayer and fasting are good, if our main object is to conform to the discipline then we’ve missed it as well. Fasting and prayer are good, but if we fast twice a week or pray a a certain hour merely in a mechanical sense or out of duty then we’ve missed the point of fasting and praying.

I may stop drinking, or quit smoking, or give us using foul language, but if I do these things and my sense of a need for God doesn’t grow deeper out of that, and it turns into a point of boasting over look what I gave up, well you’ve missed the whole point. The danger is making these things and ends in themselves…but our relationship with God matters, our knowing Him more and growing in Him more, and sharing Him with others, that’s what really matters.

Even our public worship can become an end in itself, if our mindset is I get enough of God each Sunday to last the week or if my whole purpose each Sunday is to just preach a sermon and not try to explain the blessed hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that you and I can know Him more and this blessed hope more by trusting in Him, then my preaching is in vain. These things are meant to assist us in growing more in our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God forbid that we should ever turn them into a mechanical form of religion as opposed to a true living and breathing faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

My prayer for you this morning is that you would come to know Him through repentance and faith if you are not a Christian

If you are a Christian that you would come to know Him more and grow in Him deeper and not have a mechanical form of religion but a faith that lives and moves.