CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES

Matt 5:17-20

 

Two very important truths that we are never to neglect, minimize, or ignore, no matter what time in history we are living in. Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and the Scriptures are the foundation of that truth; but one does not cancel out the other. Both are true and both are still important today! What do I mean? We live in a culture that speaks of grace, but denies the biblical truth that the Law is still important. R C Sproul said in his commentary, “This portion of Jesus’ sermon is ‘the most in-depth exposition of the Law of God of any in the New Testament.’” Why Would R C Sproul say that? He goes on to say, “Here Jesus begins to set forth His understanding of the Law over against the understanding of the scribes and the Pharisees….we will see the best Jewish scholars were profoundly wrong in how they understood the Law and the prophets.”

 

The Word of God is clear any deviation of the Scriptures is human error, 

or a gross distortion and a misunderstanding on our part, not the Scriptures.

 

Understand! We come to the Bible clouded with sin, so we must resist the temptation to read into the Bible. As Martin Luther said “As a wax nose that we can twist to support our own biases and prejudices.” What I’m trying to say is….Matthew 5:17-20 serves as the revelatory key to the rest of the Sermon on the Mount….. I will come back to this later! Unfortunately! This portion of Jesus’ sermon has birthed a group of people who believe this teaching abolishes the Law, which would put the Scriptures as a whole into question as well.

We call this “Antinomianism” “Antinomianism” means literally ‘anti-law-ism’. It’s a belief that the Old Testament Law has no claim on the New Testament Christian, because it has been supplanted by the greatness of the gospel. Those in this camp would say, “We are free from the Law now.”

 Is this true?

 

As God’s adopted children many people struggle with Law and Grace. And I’m here to tell you that these two doctrines are beautiful when you look at them together, as you would a two sided coin. The Law exposes our sin and shows our desperate need of forgiveness and restoration to a holy God. Grace is what we receive because we know that none of us can fulfill the Law that God demands in His perfections. The Law exposes but grace invites us in despite our sinful condition through the gospel of His mercy and grace to extend to a sinner like you and me. Many think that when we receive this forgiveness through repentance and faith; we are no longer subject to the Law; so it has no bearing on our lives anymore. This is where the danger comes… because we are grossly handling and misunderstanding the Scriptures correctly.

 

What do the Scriptures say? What does Jesus say here? 

Does He denounce the Law and abolish it like slavery? 

Does He rebel against His own Words 

and His holy standards?

Does Jesus say “I broke the Law for love”; as one false teacher did in one of sermons to his church? No! Jesus says, “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. 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. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matt 5:17-20

  

Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Old Testament, but to fulfill it. So, Jesus begins by reaffirming and denouncing what we would call “Antinomianism” “Do not think or better “suppose” that I came to abolish the law. It’s like Jesus is saying, or something I would say, “Don’t even think about taking that last piece of pizza.”

 It’s letting everyone know I mean business.

 

I know this isn’t the greatest example! But Jesus is conveying “Don’t think for a moment, or ever let that enter your mind; that I came to abolish God’s perfect Law.” We are never to think or presume that the Ten Commandments have been set aside because of the gospel. Christ never came to alter, or minimize, the beautiful standards of God’s Law. He came to fulfill what we couldn’t do because of our fallen natural disposition, in light of God and holy standard. The verb “There” means “to loose. To loosen, to destroy” It was the word used in Greek culture when a building was demolished. What Jesus says here is conveying the same meaning! “Do not think for a minute I have come to demolish the Law.” Certainly Jesus fulfills the function of the Law by obeying it at every point.

 

And He does this without destroying

it by His perfect obedience. 

To do the opposite would be….disobedience and that would be completely contrary to the Godheads holy standard and perfections; which is written in the Word of God. The Ten Commandments are God’s eternal measure of right and wrong. Paul said, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.” Rom 3:20-31

 

It’s the standard the Spirit uses to reveal to our sinful hearts, our desperate need of Christ, and His forgiveness for our cosmic treason against a holy God. See the true Christian delights in the Law of God as something that compliments His grace in our lives as Jesus did. This act of love is not some transformation that abolishes or denies the standards of God and His holy Word. Paul said, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” Romans 7:18-25. The true Christian delights in the Law of God, we don’t despair or abolish it as having no impact on our lives in the new birth, now that grace has been brought in.

 

The Law of God is pleasing to God! The Psalmist wrote, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.” Psalm 119:97-98

 

In John 14:15 we read “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

 

True love is discovered in a firm observance of the commandments of God. It’s a love for God through the Gospel that He redeemed my wretched soul based on the facts that I broke His holy standard. And His holy standard is the plumb line of my life not to achieve for merit or salvation, but because it guides me in truth and His righteousness.

 

John MacArthur said “It is impossible to take Jesus seriously and not take Scripture seriously. It is impossible to believe Jesus spoke absolute truth and not consider Scripture to be that absolute truth, because that is what Jesus taught it to be. If Jesus was mistaken or deluded on this point, there would be no reason to accept anything else that He said. At the outset of His ministry He makes clear that His authority and Scripture’s authority are the same; His truth and Scripture’s truth are identical and inseparable.”

So when Jesus says "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.” (v17) His authority and Scripture’s authority are the same; His truth and Scripture’s truth are identical and inseparable. God has laid down His absolute, eternal, abiding law and He has made it known to us, through His unchanging infallible Word. Jesus didn’t come to teach or practice anything contrary to Scripture in the slightest way; He came to fulfill and uphold with high regard to His holy standard. To disregard the Law is to lower the standard of holiness and to declare you hold to the false teaching of “Antinomianism”.

 

Again! Antinomianism says, “That there are no moral laws God expects Christians to obey. Antinomianism takes a biblical teaching to an unbiblical conclusion. The biblical teaching is that Christians are not required to observe the Old Testament Law as a means of salvation. We constantly hear people today say, “Times have changed and the Bible doesn’t fit into our present world.”

 

The truth of course is the opposite.

 

The Bible is the foundation for every generation or time period; and will endure long past our lives, if the Lord tarries. The Bible has never changed! We have changed, and our sin clouds our reasoning and understanding to His truth. Many people  think that the thing written in the Bible are not to be taken as literal or for today This is where we need to be careful because now we are removing and saying things that Jesus never said. See! When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He fulfilled the Old Testament Law. He fulfilled and completed all judicial and ceremonial law and certain parts of the moral law, such as Sabbath observance. But God’s basic moral law, centered in the Ten Commandments which are every bit valid today as it was when Moses delivered them to the Israelites. The unbiblical conclusion is that there is no moral law God expects Christians to obey. But what did Paul say to this type of thinking? What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Rom 6:1-2

 

It’s the person who says “If I am saved by grace and all my sins are forgiven, why not sin all I want?” What that does is it minimizes or removes the importance of the Law and the Scriptures. It’s lowering God’s holy standards and giving us freedom to do as we chose; all under the blanket of grace.

 

But what did Jesus say? Jesus says in (v18a) “truly, I say to you,…” “Truly” The translation comes from the Hebrew word for “truth” which in Aramaic is rendered by the term “amen”. When you hear the Word of God proclaimed faithfully, the occasional time you may here someone say quietly “Amen”. This is an affirmation to what is being said because it’s true. What they’re saying is “That is true” even though they’re using the word “Amen” So in essence Jesus begins (v18) with “Amen”; “This is truth that I am about to say to you is absolutely certain.” You can see this throughout Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of Matthew…let’s take a short journey! (Matt 5:26, 6:2, 6:16, 8:10…)

 

Can you see why it very important to

understand certain words?

 

What is absolutely truthfully Jesus? (v18b)

 

Not one iota or dot is to be disregarded but keep for our good and His glory. The Scriptures are foundational, they are concrete for us to explore and to hold for all eternity because everything is fading away. Isaiah wrote this beautiful reminder of truth, “The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Isaiah 40:7-8. What Jesus did, didn’t in any way abolish what the Old Testament saints longer for and hoped for. Jesus came to fulfill what they knew they couldn’t do in their cursed state. Jesus didn’t teach verbal inspiration; He taught “iota and dot inspiration”

 

“Iota”, meaning from the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

 

“Dot”, meaning one of those little strokes by which alone some of the Hebrew letters are distinguished from others like them.

Not even the tiniest seemingly most insignificant part of God’s word

will be removed or modified until all is accomplished.

 

The Psalmist wrote, “Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast.” Psalm 119:89-90

 

Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Matt 24:34-35

 

Luke penned, “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.” Luke 16:17

 

Jesus says that the “Whole of creation may be removed, but not one iota, or dot of the Law shall be removed till everything is fulfilled.” One of the greatest examples of this is found in Luke 4:16-21. “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, "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, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 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. And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Luke 4;16-21

 

What Jesus does here is exalt the

Law of God and the Scriptures.

 

Isaiah wrote, “The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious.” Isaiah 42:21. What Jesus came to do was to glorify the perfect standard of God’s Law, because we couldn’t do to the fall of man. The law of God is great and honorable in itself, and it becomes more so by Christ, the Son of God, being made under it.

 

By His perfect obedience to it,

and by His bearing the penalty of it.

 

We were the rebels and we are the ones who broke God’s perfect standards. And in His incarnation we see God glorified though His obedience and death.  As Paul wrote, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” Gal 3:13-14. The curse which the Law threatens, and which the execution of the Law would inflict; the punishment due to sin. 

The Law isn’t the curse

the sinner is, we are the Law breakers.

 

This is what Jesus came to do…fulfill it not abolish it. He came to please the Father in His wrath and to display the beauty of His holiness. He fulfilled everything the Old Testament saints desired to see and enjoy has been fully satisfied and revealed in Christ alone. Knowing the cost and the sacrifice that was given by Christ only reveals how important God’s Law truly is and why we have the Scriptures. Jesus came to fulfill the Prophets message of eternal hope of a Savior would come and deliver us from our sin and rebellion. So everything Jesus says here throws out any idea or false teaching that He came to remove or denounce His perfection Law.

To do so, would be to go against the holy character of God and His transcendence.

 

We know this is true by what he says in (v19-v20) What kind of righteousness is Jesus talking about? Is Jesus talking of works righteousness? What kind of righteousness did the Pharisee’s have? Perhaps this is the clearest illustration Jesus gives of the Pharisees. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Matt 23:25-28. Their righteousness was purely external and that is not enough to enter the kingdom of Heaven. I know many today think that but that is furthest from the truth of Holy Scriptures. Your works and outward conformity does not equate eternal or salvation. 

We need to understand that what Jesus demands is not more righteous deed by human effort, but more righteous hearts by divine grace. 

The religious elites lived and taught this way for centuries leading up to Jesus’ coming. Their outward conduct appeared well, but their hearts were full of hypocrisy, envy, pride, lust, and malice. And Jesus confronted them in self-righteous by saying they were lost. “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.” John 5:19-42

 

The righteousness that Jesus speaks of here is a righteous of a different kind. 

“And inner righteousness that given throughthe gospel of His grace in the new birth.”

The elites didn’t understand it because they thought it was something that they had to do externally. “Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'… Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" John 3:3-9

  

See! Matthew 5:17-20 serves as the revelatory key to the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. See if we remove the Law and the prophets from our lives we can have the mindset that says….I can maintain hatred toward my wife, bitterness towards my children and jealousy towards my neighbor all the while technically never killing them or harming them and taking from them. But I can display self-justification and good appearances while doing that and that is not what Jesus came to do for us.

 

“That doesn’t save anyone from sin.”

 

He came to give us a righteousness that works its way into the heart, because the Scriptures reveal His truth for all eternity. Antinomianism is contrary to everything the Bible teaches. God expects us to live a life of morality, integrity, and love, grounded in Holy Scriptures through the new birth. Jesus Christ freed us from the burdensome commands of the Old Testament Law, but that is not a license to sin. Rather, it is a covenant of grace. We are to strive to overcome sin and cultivate righteousness, depending on the Holy Spirit to help us. The fact that we are graciously freed from the demands of the Old Testament Law should result in our living our lives in obedience to the law of Christ. These are the new attitudes that Jesus is producing in His people by His Spirit

 

“Through His absolute verbal, inerrant, totally without

error in the original form in which God gave it.”

 

John said “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” 1 John 2:1-6

  

The Law is the standard and

the grace is what we received.

  

The Old Testament is the gospel in the promised; the New Testament is the gospel is fulfilled. They both compliment and work together, for the child of God to grow and understand, and ultimately for His glory.