Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
January 20, 1985
The Place of the Law
Matthew 5:17-20, KJV
One of the biggest issues facing our society is the question of standards. In the past, things seemed much simpler. The Bible gave God's principles and morals, and human governments were supposed to take these principles and make laws. The Bible says you shouldn't steal, so society made laws against stealing. Most of the time people didn't even think about the connection between human standards and God's standards - it was just an assumption everyone made. Until today.
It is becoming increasingly evident that many people no longer value or even believe in the standards of the past. Fifty years ago homosexuality was thought to be wrong. People understood why the military or public schools would not want to hire homosexuals. Today, homosexuality and most other sexual issues have moved from matters of morals to matters of personal preference. You make up your own mind whether they are right or wrong. The feeling is that no person, institution or document can set standards in these areas.
You might say that fifty years ago the majority of Americans believed in a religious foundation for standards and authority, but soon only a minority will. The shift is already having ominous effects for our nation.
As strange as it may seem, Jesus Christ himself was thought to be a radical in this area by many people. They thought he was trying to dump God's standards and set up his own. To put it in our situation it was like Jesus was saying it was OK to be a homosexual or a thief.
When Jesus says in verse 17, "Think not that I have come to destroy the Law or the prophets," it means that some people thought the charge was true. "The Law and the Prophets" was a Jewish way to refer to the Old Testament which contained God's standards and had his authority. If something could be established from the Old Testament, it became God's will, period.
Jesus did several things which seemed like he rejected the Old Testament. He allowed his disciples to pluck handfuls of grain along the road as they walked on the Sabbath. But the Old Testament said you shouldn't work on the Sabbath, so the religious leaders saw him as a lawbreaker. He wasn't in reality - plucking grain was forbidden by the leader's interpretation of the Old Testament but not by the Old Testament itself. In another passage Jesus says that food can't make you spiritually unclean but anyone who's read the Old Testament knows that food laws make up a big chunk of it.
The Sermon on the Mount contains more ammo. In verse 21 Jesus says: "You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill." That's a quote from the Ten Commandments. Yet in verse 22 he announces: "But I say unto you...." Passages like this sound like Jesus destroys the authority of the Old Testament Scripture.
To illustrate the consequences for Jesus ministry, turn in you Bibles to John 8:3, a very famous passage. It says:
"And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken (or-caught) in adultery, and when they had set her in the midst, they said unto him, Master, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou?"
"But what sayest thou?" The widespread perception was that Jesus rejected the God-given standards.
Nevertheless, back in Matthew Jesus says in verse 17,
"Think not that I have come to destroy the law or the Prophets - I have not come to destroy but to fulfill."
The key to this passage is the word fulfill. Verse 18 defines it further -
"For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."
This is a very strong statement on the authority of the Bible. Jots and tittles are the smallest marks in Hebrews letters. In effect Jesus is saying that not a dot of an "i" or a cross of a "t" can be taken from God's Word. Remember that when you hear someone say they accept some parts of the Bible but not others. Jesus was accused of this but he says here that the whole Bible must stand together - you can't "pick and choose."
That's a great Baptist-sounding statement - accept all of the Bible or none of it. But then why don't we follow the kosher food laws of the Old Testament? Why don't we sacrifice lambs and goats like Leviticus says we should? Why don't we have church services on Saturday, the real Sabbath? Heaven and earth haven't exactly disintegrated yet.
Many solutions have been proposed. One of them is to divide the law into three categories - Moral, Civil (or State) and Ceremonial. The civil law is no longer needed because God's people are no longer made up as a nation. The ceremonial law which dealt with kosher food and sacrifices is no longer needed because Jesus fulfilled it by dying on the cross.
This leaves the moral law, such as the Ten Commandments. According to this view, Jesus only has the moral law in mind here in the Sermon on the Mount. Unfortunately, the Old Testament doesn't divide easily into moral, civil and ceremonial laws. These aspects all overlap. The ceremonial law had many moral dimensions and so did the civil law. Another problem is that "jot and tittle" encompasses a lot of territory and eliminating vast passages in the Old Testament would contradict the impression this gives.
Another solution is to say "fulfill" means "to confirm" or bring out the true meaning. Jesus fulfilled the law by keeping it perfectly. This is all true but it doesn't seem to do justice to the context of the passages. I believe the best meaning of "fulfill" is the prophetic sense. Turn to Matthew 1:12. It says in the New International Version -
"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John."
Verse 12 is difficult but verse 13 is very clear. Not only do the Prophets prophesy but so does the law. The entire Old Testament has a prophetic function, and Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament. The fulfillment takes place in many ways. The Old Testament sacrifices are fulfilled by the cross, as one example. Other parts of the Old Testament will be fulfilled at a later time, until God's plan for the world is complete at last.
In other words, Jesus does not oppose the Old Testament. Instead, his life brings it to completion. Some of the detailed laws have been superseded because they're already fulfilled and some have not. By studying the New Testament you can find out how the Old Testament still applies to your life.
Jesus says in Matthew 13:52 -
"Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."
Many things are changing in our world but some things always stay the same. Even though our society may be drifting away from moral absolutes doesn't mean we have to. Both the Old Testament and the New contain God's principles for our personal lives and our society.
Both Testaments also point us to Jesus Christ. Many of the prophecies in the Old Testament predicted exact events in Jesus' life. The place of his birth and the details of his death were all precisely predicted hundreds of years in advance. But the greatest prophecy is that everyone who accepts Jesus will be accepted by God himself.
[Invitation]
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Typed on February 2, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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