Fulfillment of the Law - Part I

“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. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stoke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks 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 practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-21 NIV

This is one of the passages of Scripture that we tend to gloss over because it seems so convoluted with concepts of obedience and grace, righteousness and sin and punishment and reward. I would like to spend the next week going through this passage and spotlighting some of the Truths contained within it. These Truths will help us understand who Christ is in our lives and His expectations for us.

Let’s first focus on the context in which Jesus is teaching. He’s just finished the Beatitudes and is teaching His disciples the remaining message of the Sermon on the Mount. He’s speaking to Jews primarily who are all too well familiar with the religious leaders of the day: Pharisees and Sadducees. The religious leaders were well known for their external righteousness. Their mission in life was to follow the Law – every letter of it. Jesus notices, along with others, that the religious leaders lived one way externally, but their hearts did not necessarily follow. That’s why Jesus said, “but whoever practices and teaches these commands…”. Practicing and teaching are two separate things. How often we do one without the other!

On another occasion, Jesus demonstrates His frustration at these so-called religious leaders by saying, “You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (Matthew 23:27-28 NIV)

In Matthew 5, Jesus simply tells us to be authentic – be authentic in our following of God’s commands. The apostle John reiterates a similar message over and over again (John 14:15, John 15:14, 1 John 2:5, 1 John 5:3) in that the fulfillment of God’s commands – our obedience – is the demonstration of our love for Christ. The two cannot be separated or divided.