LAYING DOWN THE LAW
Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.(Matthew 5: 17-18 – NAS)
In these two verses we see Jesus addressing something that certainly hounds many believers today – wanting to get out from under “The Rules.” I find it interesting that He saw the same impulse in His followers back then. Evidently, some who followed after Him thought He would relieve them of their obligations to God. And perhaps, the “religious authorities” of the day were also complaining that Jesus was not only breaking all the rules but even throwing out the ones He hadn’t broken yet.
Jesus has an answer to all that, and the answer is “No, I’m not throwing out the Laws.”
The point that Jesus wants to make here is that the Laws of God shall always have value. The Lord gave His Laws for a reason. God has a purpose in mind, and He gave guidance for how we are supposed to achieve that purpose.
But the Lord knows the difficulty we have in trying to follow the Laws. We get pulled one way and the other, and have a hard time sorting out what to apply to any given situation. Eventually, it becomes so confusing that we just give up and stop paying attention. Because we lose sight of the purpose of the Laws, they become dry and harsh, and we let them kill our hearts and souls.
There is something unbending about the Laws of God, and we break ourselves upon it. Or we break others upon it. For some people, the Laws of God seem draconian in their intent, unreasonable and harsh, unjust even, and thus they turn away from them. They often say, “If God would smite someone over this matter, then He is unjust and unworthy of allegiance.” For others, who are happy to have rules they don’t have to figure out, the Laws of God become something to hide behind. For these people, the Laws become a rock wall between them and the World, something they can continually push outward, letting the wall crush those on the other side. They don’t have to really see or interact with those on the other side of the wall of Law, so surely they are “of God.”
But the problem is that both of these sets of people have lost sight of the purpose of the Laws of God. And the purpose is to bring us closer to the holiness of God, to bring us into His presence intact.
So Jesus tells his followers that He has come not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.
“Fulfill the Law”? What does He mean by that?
He came to show us how to walk through our lives in such a way that we could every day fulfill the intention God had in giving the Laws. So that we could with each step draw nearer to our Father in Heaven.
Instead of cold words carved in stone, we would have a living, breathing example of what it would look like in a person. In Jesus.
“What Would Jesus Do?” That became a catch phrase a while ago, a populist reminder that we should be trying to “live the Christian life.” But how seriously did the people who touted the phrase follow it? Did they apply the instructions of Christ carefully to their interactions with their friends, and forget to apply them when they encountered a pan-handler outside the convenience store? But even though the phrase has been trivialized down to initialism (WWJD), the point of it gets to the heart of what Jesus meant by His fulfilling the Law.
He doesn’t mean that since He lived the perfect life and obeyed all the commandments that was the only purpose of the Laws and they could be shoved aside. No, He means that the whole purpose of the Laws was to let all of God’s people become like Jesus, perfect and worthy to stand in the presence of the Most High and Holy One.
Jesus drives this home by saying that not even the smallest bit of the Laws of God will be tossed away until everything is accomplished. We can’t be sure what that means. So we might as well stick to the guidelines we have. We don’t know how long this “not yet accomplished” state will go on. Jesus says that the time to throw away the Laws would be when “heaven and earth pass away.”
It seems that God will unmake heaven and earth before He will undo the purpose of His Laws.
For me, when I am confronted with situations where I don’t know which Law of God to apply, that perspective is what I turn to. What is it that God’s over-all purpose is? It is to bring us closer to Him. So, then, which choice do I make when it seems that ethics and justice are being challenged? I go back to ground level: God is Love.
It disturbs me when I see believers use the Law to brow-beat and castigate others, when they take the harshest stand of judgment of the actions of others. I know they feel they are making the righteous choice. I know they feel that they are in the right in condemning others who they see as breaking God’s Laws. But when they lose all sense of mercy toward others by clutching to the shape of the Law, when they use the Law to hack down those they disagree with, I am really left thinking that perhaps they do not understand the purpose God has in mind. When we use the Law to crush someone else for their choices, are we not hardening their hearts toward God? We tell them, “The Laws of God say that This is what is righteous. And because you will not do This, you will be condemned!” Why are we not remembering that God more than anything else wants to draw people to Himself?
For the overriding commandment is that we love God, and then others. That is the ultimate Law of God.
Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.(Matthew 5: 17-18 – NAS)
In these two verses we see Jesus addressing something that certainly hounds many believers today – wanting to get out from under “The Rules.” I find it interesting that He saw the same impulse in His followers back then. Evidently, some who followed after Him thought He would relieve them of their obligations to God. And perhaps, the “religious authorities” of the day were also complaining that Jesus was not only breaking all the rules but even throwing out the ones He hadn’t broken yet.
Jesus has an answer to all that, and the answer is “No, I’m not throwing out the Laws.”
The point that Jesus wants to make here is that the Laws of God shall always have value. The Lord gave His Laws for a reason. God has a purpose in mind, and He gave guidance for how we are supposed to achieve that purpose.
But the Lord knows the difficulty we have in trying to follow the Laws. We get pulled one way and the other, and have a hard time sorting out what to apply to any given situation. Eventually, it becomes so confusing that we just give up and stop paying attention. Because we lose sight of the purpose of the Laws, they become dry and harsh, and we let them kill our hearts and souls.
There is something unbending about the Laws of God, and we break ourselves upon it. Or we break others upon it. For some people, the Laws of God seem draconian in their intent, unreasonable and harsh, unjust even, and thus they turn away from them. They often say, “If God would smite someone over this matter, then He is unjust and unworthy of allegiance.” For others, who are happy to have rules they don’t have to figure out, the Laws of God become something to hide behind. For these people, the Laws become a rock wall between them and the World, something they can continually push outward, letting the wall crush those on the other side. They don’t have to really see or interact with those on the other side of the wall of Law, so surely they are “of God.”
But the problem is that both of these sets of people have lost sight of the purpose of the Laws of God. And the purpose is to bring us closer to the holiness of God, to bring us into His presence intact.
So Jesus tells his followers that He has come not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.
“Fulfill the Law”? What does He mean by that?
He came to show us how to walk through our lives in such a way that we could every day fulfill the intention God had in giving the Laws. So that we could with each step draw nearer to our Father in Heaven.
Instead of cold words carved in stone, we would have a living, breathing example of what it would look like in a person. In Jesus.
“What Would Jesus Do?” That became a catch phrase a while ago, a populist reminder that we should be trying to “live the Christian life.” But how seriously did the people who touted the phrase follow it? Did they apply the instructions of Christ carefully to their interactions with their friends, and forget to apply them when they encountered a pan-handler outside the convenience store? But even though the phrase has been trivialized down to initialism (WWJD), the point of it gets to the heart of what Jesus meant by His fulfilling the Law.
He doesn’t mean that since He lived the perfect life and obeyed all the commandments that was the only purpose of the Laws and they could be shoved aside. No, He means that the whole purpose of the Laws was to let all of God’s people become like Jesus, perfect and worthy to stand in the presence of the Most High and Holy One.
Jesus drives this home by saying that not even the smallest bit of the Laws of God will be tossed away until everything is accomplished. We can’t be sure what that means. So we might as well stick to the guidelines we have. We don’t know how long this “not yet accomplished” state will go on. Jesus says that the time to throw away the Laws would be when “heaven and earth pass away.”
It seems that God will unmake heaven and earth before He will undo the purpose of His Laws.
For me, when I am confronted with situations where I don’t know which Law of God to apply, that perspective is what I turn to. What is it that God’s over-all purpose is? It is to bring us closer to Him. So, then, which choice do I make when it seems that ethics and justice are being challenged? I go back to ground level: God is Love.
It disturbs me when I see believers use the Law to brow-beat and castigate others, when they take the harshest stand of judgment of the actions of others. I know they feel they are making the righteous choice. I know they feel that they are in the right in condemning others who they see as breaking God’s Laws. But when they lose all sense of mercy toward others by clutching to the shape of the Law, when they use the Law to hack down those they disagree with, I am really left thinking that perhaps they do not understand the purpose God has in mind. When we use the Law to crush someone else for their choices, are we not hardening their hearts toward God? We tell them, “The Laws of God say that This is what is righteous. And because you will not do This, you will be condemned!” Why are we not remembering that God more than anything else wants to draw people to Himself?
For the overriding commandment is that we love God, and then others. That is the ultimate Law of God.
Labels: Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount
posted by Sarah | 8:23 AM
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