The Law Fulfilled by the Gospel of Grace

The Law Fulfilled by the Gospel of Grace
Matthew 5:17.20, 7/2/06, Kevin P. Larson, Grace Church of Columbia


Matthew 5:17 "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. 18 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. 19 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. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Have you ever wondered what to do with the Old Testament? This is a Christian church here, right? This is not a synagogue. Often times, I think we view the Old Testament as something we need, but we’re not sure why. We know its difficult parts mean something, but we’re not sure exactly what. We know it fits with the New Testament in some way, but we’re not sure exactly how. Today’s text helps us answer some of those questions. We will get to some of that shortly, but let me first make two introductory remarks.

First, this passage is exceedingly difficult, yet exceedingly applicable. We are tempted to come to this passage, throw up our arms, and give up. It’s very difficult to understand.

We are also tempted to dismiss it as not very relevant. Often times, people act today like, if we can’t run out of this room following our gathering, and immediately do something, the sermon is a waste of time. Some would say that about this section of Jesus’ teaching. If we can get a handle around it mentally, what difference would that make anyhow? Is it even applicable?

I want to defend the idea that we can understand this passage, and that it is extremely applicable.

Second, this passage begins the body of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount and demonstrates Christ’s desire to express His relationship with the Old Testament. We recently finished eight studies on the Beatitudes, as well as, last week, discussing what it means to be salt and light. Some would argue that section, Matthew 5:1-16, serves as an introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. In addition, others have pointed out that chapter 7, verses 13-29, function as a kind of conclusion. Jesus moves there from teaching to calling for a response. He says, “Pick a gate. Choose a way.”

This structure is displayed by the fact that the phrase “the Law and the Prophets” is used in both chapter 5, verse 17, and chapter 7, verse 12. Those two uses of the phrase function as brackets, showing us the body of the Sermon.
In addition, it says something about what Jesus wants to get across. He wants us to see His relationship to the Old Testament. He wants to answer our questions that I began with this morning. How does this Jesus fit with the law? This morning’s passage, as well as the rest of the body of Sermon, will answer this question.

Jesus says, in verse 17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets.” Here, Jesus is likely responding to critics who were saying that He was tearing down God’s Word. The words “Law and Prophets” seem clearly to be a technical term referring to all the Old Testament. Jesus responds here and says, regarding their words: “I didn’t abolish them.” “I didn’t change them.” “I didn’t say they’d go away.” “I didn’t say that they would fail.” “I didn’t tell people not to practice or teach them.” In other words, he says, as John 10:35 puts it, “Scripture cannot be broken.” Jesus says that, instead of coming to tear down the law, He actually came to build it up.

However, Jesus, while showing great respect for the law, isn’t arguing that it applies at all times in the exact same way. For example:
· Have you eaten any great crustaceans this week? Leviticus 11:10 condemns this.
· Do you happen to have on a shirt with 2 types of fabric today? Leviticus 19:19 says this is evil.
· Wearing any tattoos on your body? Leviticus 19:28 prohibits this.
· Did you have bacon for breakfast this morning? Leviticus 11:7 says you should not do this.
· Have you sacrificed any animals lately? The Jewish law repeatedly commands God’s people to offer blood sacrifices for their sins.
· Have you stoned any blasphemers lately? Leviticus 24:16 commands that, if someone blasphemes the Lord, He should be stoned by everyone.

Now, the reason why we haven’t done any of these things isn’t because we’re disobedient. It’s because we believe Jesus has, as it says here, in some way fulfilled the law.

First, we know from Matthew 15:1-20 that the Jewish food laws have been abolished. Turn with me to Matthew 15. Look first at verses 10-11. Jesus says,

Matthew 15:10 And he called the people to him and said to them, "Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person."

Look also in verses 16-20.

Matthew 15:16 And he said, "Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone."

Jesus here seems to be abrogating the food laws of the Old Testament. The author Mark, in his gospel, makes this explicit. He says, interpreting the event, in Mark 7:19, “Thus he declared all foods clean.” What Mark explained to his Gentile audience was obvious to Matthew’s Jewish audience. Jesus was saying the food laws had changed. Jesus said he didn’t “come to abolish the Law or the Prophets,” but he clearly abolished the rules about food. You don’t have to shop in the kosher section at the grocery store.

Second, we also know from the Bible that the sacrificial system was abolished by Christ. Turn to Hebrews 10. Listen to verses 11-18.

Hebrews 10:11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," 17 then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

The author of Hebrews says that “there is no longer any offering for sin.” He says it’s because forgiveness has come. The once-for-all sacrifice was made. Verse 1 says that the “law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities.” The reality is here, so the shadow is over. As Hebrews 8:13 says, Christ made the first covenant “obsolete.” The old sacrifices don’t work anymore. They are not needed. Jesus said he didn’t “come to abolish the Law or the Prophets,” but he clearly abolished the sacrificial system. So don’t be slaying any lambs, as it won’t help, and it insults Christ!

Third, hasn’t the detailed Old Testament legal code been abolished, as well? Contrary to what many other preachers will be preaching today on July 2nd, our country is and never will be a theocracy. This is not really “one nation under God” and it never was and never will be. Therefore, all the laws in the Old Testament that detailed precisely how Israel was to live together don’t apply. They have been abolished. So don’t stone anybody.

Let me explain to you one predominant way this idea of Christ fulfilling the law has been understood, particularly by the Reformed community, of which we’re basically a part. For hundreds of years, Christians have divided the law into three categories: the ceremonial, the civil, and the moral.

Ceremonial refers to the worship of Israel and includes the sacrificial system, the feasts, the food laws, and the like. Civil law refers to the government of Israel, including the detailed legal code. Moral law speaks of the ethics of Israel, summarized best in the Decalogue, also known as the 10 commandments.

Those scholars then proceed to argue that the ceremonial law is abolished with Christ’s death on the cross. The civil law is abolished because we’re no longer a theocracy. The moral law, however, has not been abolished, they argue. The Ten Commandments are an eternal expression of God’s desire for humanity. So they remain. Therefore, when Jesus says, in verse 18, “until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished,” he is talking about the “law” of the Ten Commandments. They will remain forever.

This, however, has its difficulties. Let me share some of those. First, this distinction seems artificial. This threefold distinction is never mentioned in the Old Testament.

Second, when Jesus says, in verse 18, that “not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished,” it sounds more comprehensive than just the Ten Commandments.

Third, “Law and Prophets” in verse 17 and “Law” in verse 18 seem to be used in parallel. Is Jesus moving from speaking of the entire Old Testament to just the Ten Commandments? It seems like a stretch.

Fourth, it seems odd to limit the “moral law” to only the Ten Commandments. Something “moral” is by definition something that God considers good. Therefore, obeying all the civic and ceremonial laws would also be moral. If God says something’s wrong, it’s immoral—regardless of where it’s found in the Bible.

It seems better to say, therefore, that Christ fulfilled the “Law” and “Prophets” in some other way. To understand fulfillment, we need to understand prophecy, particularly how it’s used in our gospel at hand, Matthew.

Sometimes in the gospel prophecy amounts to just a simple prediction. For example, Micah 5:2 says specifically that the Messiah will come out of Bethlehem. Matthew says, in 2:5,

Matthew 2:5 They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 6 "' And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'"

This is a straight-forward prediction. Other times, however, prophecy is more like what could better be called typology. The author’s intended meaning of the Old Testament passage ended up meaning something much more than he intended. Consider Hosea 11:1. It reads, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Matthew 2:15 then takes this verse and says it pointed forward to Jesus, along with His parents, coming back from Egypt after the death of Herod.

Here is another example. In 1:22-23, Matthew writes, regarding the virgin birth,

Matthew 1:22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).

Isaiah 7:14, what Matthew quotes here, refers to a completely different baby in a completely different historical situation. Yet the gospel writer says that it reaches forward, pointing to Christ.

Look also in Deuteronomy 8:1-3.

Deuteronomy 8:1 "The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

In Matthew 4, Jesus is in the midst of forty days in the desert, and He quotes verse 3 to the devil. You get this sense in reading the New Testament in general, as well as Matthew, in particular, that all the Old Testament—obvious prophecy, law, poetry, and history—all pointed to Jesus. This is exactly what Matthew 11:12 says. It reads, “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.” Notice that not just the prophets prophesy. The law does, also. But again, this is more likely just a way to refer to the entire Old Testament. All the Old Testament prophesied about Christ. All of it spoke about the gospel! Why does he mention John? John was the one who announced and ushered in Christ. That which was prophesied had come—Jesus!

As Jesus says himself in John 5:39,

John 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

Jesus tells the religious leaders, “You are studying your Bible, the Old Testament, from cover to cover, and it’s all about me, and you don’t get it!”

Turn also to Luke 24. The resurrected Jesus is walking along the road to Emmaus with two of the disciples, and they can’t tell who He is. They are sharing with him their discouragement regarding His death, and He says to them, in verse 27, “‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Note what Luke says there. He writes, “Beginning with Moses.” Jesus isn’t just spoken of in the prophets. He is spoken of in Moses, what is properly called the Law. Now look in verse 44. It reads,

Luke 24:44 Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."

Not just the Prophets, and not just the Law, but the “Psalms” pointed to Christ. All the Old Testament pointed to Him. It all was fulfilled by Him. He was its goal. This, I think is the best way to understand Christ fulfilling the Law. He not only kept it all. He was its point.

So it seems this is what Matthew means. The Law was superseded by Jesus. The food laws no longer apply. The sacrifices no longer are necessary. And, no, the Sabbath is no longer binding on us. Listen to Colossians 2:16-17.

Colossians 2:16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Once the substance has come, the shadows are no longer necessary. Once what is prophesied is fulfilled, the things that foreshadowed are abolished. So, in some sense, in His fulfillment of the Law, He has also abolished it.

But Jesus says here, “I have not come to abolish them.” What does Jesus mean? I think He means that, if they all point to Him, He, in another sense, far from abolishes them. He establishes them.

Here He affirms the immutability and the permanence and the infallibility of the law. Listen again to verse 18.
Jesus states, “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.”

“Iota” is Matthew’s way of expressing what Jesus likely referred to—the “yod,” the smallest Hebrew letter. The “dot” likely refers to a “horn,” a small mark separating two very similar Hebrew letters. Speaking to scribes and Pharisees that paid the most careful attention when copying manuscripts, they knew what he was saying. One of the reasons why we don’t have tons of Old Testament manuscripts is that the scribes were so careful and particular that, if they made one minor goof, they would trash it and start over. Jesus is saying that not the tiniest little part of one Hebrew letter will be changed. That word is unchangeable or immutable.

He also says that the truths of the Law are permanent. He says the word won’t be abolished “until heaven and earth pass away.” Until the end of the age, it will remain. It is not forever. But it’s permanent.

He also speaks of the word’s infallibility. He says “until all is accomplished.” Until the entire divine purpose prophesied in Scripture takes place, it will remain.

So Jesus says, until this age ends, or until everything gets done, nothing will be changed in the Law. In other words, in both statements, He’s saying that the Law and Prophets will remain until the consummation of the kingdom of heaven spoken of so much in the Sermon on the Mount. The consummation of the kingdom ends this age. The consummation of the kingdom signals all has been accomplished. One day, God’s people will be in God’s place under God’s rule. Then we’re not going to need our Bibles anymore. The kingdom of God in Christ will mark the end of the Law and the Prophets.

So, Jesus is by no means abolishing the law. It’s going to stand prophesying until it all happens. Some of it has been already fulfilled. Some of it awaits fulfillment. How can the one who the Law is all about be accused of tearing it down? Listen to this great quote by D.A. Carson.

Jesus does not conceive of his life and ministry in terms of opposition to the Old Testament, but in terms of bringing to fruition that toward which it points. Thus, the Law and the Prophets, far from being abolished, find their valid continuity in terms of their outworking in Jesus. The detailed prescriptions of the Old Testament may well be superseded, because whatever is prophetic must be in some sense provisional. But whatever is prophetic likewise discovers its legitimate continuity in the happy arrival of that toward which it has pointed (Carson, 37).

What, then, does Jesus mean by verse 19? He again says,

Matthew 5:19 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.

The question is clear: what “commandments” are Jesus referring to? Some say that Jesus is speaking clearly of the Sermon on the Mount—His commandments found right here. This has some merit. Others say that, in this context, it clearly refers to the Old Testament again. Jesus says “therefore” and ties this verse to the others.

The latter seems best. However, it really doesn’t make that much of a difference. Here’s why. Jesus, in verses 21-48, deals with passages from the Old Testament, either those quoted rightly or those perverted by the Pharisees, and explains their true meaning. The Old Testament commandments Jesus refers to here need to be practiced and proclaimed, but they need to be practiced and proclaimed in a different way based on verses 17-18. Again, they all pointed forward to Christ and His teaching. They are only rightly now obeyed by obeying His Word. Listen to Carson again:

The law pointed forward to Jesus and His teaching; so it is properly obeyed by conforming to His word. As it points to him, so he, in fulfilling it, establishes what continuity it has, the true direction to which it points and the way it is to be obeyed. Thus ranking in the kingdom turns on the degree of conformity to Jesus’ teaching as that teaching fulfills Old Testament revelation. His teaching, toward which the Old Testament pointed, must be obeyed (Carson, 146).

So, those who are in trouble here are those who disobey and don’t teach the law, but more specifically those who don’t teach it as it is fulfilled by and clarified in Christ. The Pharisees, those Jesus is likely talking about in its immediate context, fit this description.

But what warnings should we see in here for the church? I’ll give you four:

First, it warns us not to ignore the Old Testament. Again, as New Covenant people, we can avoid way more than half our Bibles, directly violating what God has said here. It is to be taught and practiced.

Second, if we are people that don’t ignore the Old Testament, it warns us not to make it a collection of moral maxims or helpful fables teaching values. If that’s the case, we might as well use Aesop’s book of fables or Bill Bennett’s book of values. We must see the Old Testament as one book that has an unfolding story of redemption that leads to Christ. Every part of the Old Testament must point to Christ and His gospel.

In our men’s theology club, we’re reading through Graeme Goldsworthy’s According to Plan. Listen to what he says when teaching about Moses and the Exodus. He writes,

Moses’ ministry is to be the human instrument through which God will act to redeem his people. It is vital that we understand the place given to certain key figures, such as Moses, in Old Testament revelation. Their significance for us is not primarily in the way they stand as examples of godliness and faith, but rather in the role they play in revealing and foreshadowing the nature of the work of Christ. Moses is the divinely appointed man to whom God reveals his purposes and will for his people.

Third, this warns us against antinomianism. What does that big word mean? It is a word that means “anti-law.” We can think that, due to our newfound freedom from the law in Christ, the fact that He fulfilled it for us, we can now live however we want. Remember the end of the book of Matthew. The Great Commission says that we are to baptize, “teaching them to observe all that [he] commanded [us].” Again, we’re not saved by our obedience. But we’re saved to obedience. This verse warns us against not teaching or practicing God’s word.

Fourth, this verse warns us that teachers must exercise great care. We must carefully teach. And we must practice what we teach. This is a warning for me. And it is a warning for whomever else God would call to lead along with me here in Grace Church. James 3:1 says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”

Jesus says here that those who don’t lead well will be called “least in the kingdom of heaven.” Some have argued that this teaches that those who don’t take God’s commands seriously will have less of a reward. Others say that this is just a Jewish way of saying they won’t enter the kingdom. That makes most sense to me, as Jesus is talking about the Pharisees here, who, in verse 20, he says won’t “enter the kingdom of heaven.” Teachers will be judged very strictly.

Let’s turn to verse 20. Jesus states, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” As I mentioned several weeks ago, this is one of two key theme verses in the Sermon on the Mount. The other is perhaps Matthew 6:8, where Jesus tells the disciples, “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Our Lord is encouraging them not to live like pagans there. I mentioned back then that the two opposite worldviews that are equally dangerous are moralism and relativism.
Usually we see relativism or irreligion as the real enemy. Blatant unbelievers are those who threaten us or who need our evangelism. Pagans are the problem.

However, in today’s passage, Jesus says that moralism or legalism is just as wicked and dangerous. He is condemning the Pharisee. The hypocrite is just as much a threat and should be just as much an object of our evangelism.

The Pharisees, we see in verses 21-48, were teaching and practicing the law. And they perceived that both made them right with the Lord. But it’s clear that their “righteousness,” which was no true righteousness at all, was outward only and was designed to bring glory to themselves. And, on further examination, the outward wasn’t that beautiful. It was ugly.

In verses 21-26, we see they were proud that they had not murdered, but they were angry and insulting to their brothers. In verses 27-30, we see that they were proud of their marital faithfulness, while their hearts were filled with lust. In verses 31-32, we see Jesus correcting their disrespect for the covenant of marriage. In verses 33-37, we see the Pharisees’ pride in their oath-taking while using it as a cover-up for their dishonesty. In verses 38-42, we see the Pharisees using a command designed to make the punishment fit the crime, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” as a proof-text for personal retaliation. In verses 43-48, we Jesus confronting the Pharisees’ complete perversion of the law—that you should “hate your enemy.” Matthew 5:17-20 introduce that section of Jesus’s teaching. Here is the type of righteousness the disciple is called to “surpass.” One that is false, outward, and self-glorifying. One that is from a dirty heart that ultimately produces dirty deeds. Jesus says elsewhere, in Matthew 15:8, quoting Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” They were hypocrites. In other words, they were stage-players. They were acting on the outside something that wasn’t on the inside. And they weren’t doing a very good job.

So, while verse 19 warns against antinomianism, verse 20 warns against the opposite, legalism. We can have a system of religion where we rely on our own moral attainments. We necessarily dumb down the commands of God, making them attainable. We conform on the outside, while not being transformed on the inside. We then look in the mirror and are proud, all the while others can see a very different angle on us. This is what Jesus says we must surpass. Otherwise, we will go to hell. We won’t “enter the kingdom of heaven.”

This passage brought to the forefront of my mind once again the alcohol issue. Now, I don’t drink. I never have. But I don’t think the Bible forbids it. It only forbids drunkenness.
For us to argue that members of our church or that people in our denomination can’t consume anything alcoholic smacks of Pharisaical legalism, plain and simple. How dare we put rules on people that the Bible doesn’t place on them! Listen to these words from John Piper, back many years ago, when he argued that his church’s requirement that members not be allowed to consume alcohol should be removed from their constitution.

I want to hate what God hates and love what God loves. And this I know beyond the shadow of a doubt: God hates legalism as much as he hates alcoholism. If any of you still wonders why I go on supporting this amendment, after hearing all the tragic stories about lives ruined through alcohol, the reason is that when I go home at night and close my eyes and let eternity rise in my mind I see ten million more people in hell because of legalism than because of alcoholism. And I think that is a literal understatement. Satan is so sly. "He disguises himself as an angel of light," the apostle says in 2 Corinthians 11:14. He keeps his deadliest diseases most sanitary. He clothes his captains in religious garments and houses his weapons in temples. O don't you want to see his plots uncovered? I want Bethlehem to be a place Satan fears. I want him to be like the emperor in "The Emperor's New Clothes." And we will be the babes (not in thinking! 1 Cor. 14:20) who say, "Look, he thinks he is clothed in white, but he is naked and ugly."
Listen as I uncover one of his plots. Legalism is a more dangerous disease than alcoholism because it doesn't look like one.
Alcoholism makes men fail; legalism helps them succeed in the world.
Alcoholism makes men depend on the bottle; legalism makes them self-sufficient, depending on no one.
Alcoholism destroys moral resolve; legalism gives it strength.
Alcoholics don't feel welcome in church; legalists love to hear their morality extolled in church.
Therefore, what we need in this church is not front end regulations to try to keep ourselves pure. We need to preach and pray and believe that "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither teetotalism nor social drinking, neither legalism nor alcoholism is of any avail with God, but only a new creation (a new heart)" (Gal. 6:15; 5:6). The enemy is sending against us every day the Sherman tank of the flesh with its cannons of self-reliance and self-sufficiency. If we try to defend ourselves or our church with peashooter regulations we will be defeated even in our apparent success. The only defense is to "be rooted and built up in Christ and established in faith" (Col. 2:6); "Strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy" (Col. 1:11); "holding fast to the Head from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together … grows with a growth that is from God" (Col. 2:19). From God! From God! And not from ourselves.

Brothers and sisters, John Piper is a teetotaler. And I think he’s absolutely right here. We so much have to resist legalism. And how ridiculous is it for us to codify it as churches or denominations! We can’t just throw off all restraints, but we can’t set up man-made rules, either. Comparing the abuses of alcohol with the effects of legalism, legalism simply costs more!

Church of God, what we need to “enter the kingdom of heaven” is a heart transformed by the grace of the gospel—one that does good works on the outside, but does them because of a heart saved by grace and one desiring to glorify the God of grace—a change on the inside.
We must guard ourselves from legalism. We must have a true, inward righteousness. We must have one that far “exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees.”

Notice that Jesus demands more than what they demanded, not less. The Pharisees were proud of how thoroughly they kept and taught the Law. But Jesus said it wasn’t good enough! In fact Matthew 5:48, also in this Sermon, states, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Our only hope is to have a righteousness given to us by Jesus and worked into us by Jesus. Then we can go beyond the Pharisees and be saved. Then, we can “enter the kingdom of heaven.” But we can’t do it in our own strength. We need God’s grace in the gospel.

So, as I began, this is a difficult passage, but I think it’s one we can understand. Simply put, Jesus came to fulfill the entire Old Testament. It all pointed to Him. Because it came to fulfillment, the nature of the prophecy changed for today. It still stands. It still must be taught and lived. But it only is to be studied and taught and lived as it relates to, and finds fulfillment in, Christ Jesus our Lord. And this Old Testament points to a new kind of righteousness that goes beyond keeping the law externally to keeping it internally by God’s grace and for His glory.

Let me show you why I think this passage is so applicable.

First, it brings freedom. This is a weekend where many preachers will be talking about American freedom. We never want to forget to thank God for that. But, the key thing is that, thanks to Christ’s work on our behalf, we are freed from the Law. We are no longer bound to keep any of it. Jesus obeyed it all on our behalf perfectly. As I mentioned earlier, He won all the blessings for us. He took all the curses on our behalf. Now we’re free!

Second, it brings responsibility. Again, Jesus didn’t free us from the law to provide for our lawlessness. 1 Corinthians 9:21 and Galatians 6:2 tell us that we’re now under the “law of Christ,” which primarily is expressed, as the New Testament shows us, through love. It isn’t as if being freed from the law removes all constraints. All of the Ten Commandments, except one—the Sabbath command—are repeated in the New Testament. His “yoke is easy, and [His] burden is light,” as it says in Matthew 11:30, but we’re still called to take it upon ourselves. We are now free to obey Christ.

Third, it comes with power. As we read previously in Jeremiah, the coming of the kingdom of Christ, the era of the New Covenant, would bring a Holy Spirit that would create a people that would obey God deeply from the heart. Listen to Ezekiel 36:25-27.

Ezekiel 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

As New Covenant believers, we have these promises. We have a power to obey God.

Fourth, it gives us great hope. Looking at what God demands in the Old Testament, particularly in the Ten Commandments, brings great fear. But to know that Christ fulfilled it all gives us amazing hope! His life, death, and resurrection—the gospel—was the point of it all.

And, brothers and sisters, we are the ones who are experiencing that hope. We stand here beyond the time of Christ, seeing His fulfillment of the Law and Prophets, experiencing the gospel in the church, the climax of redemptive history. We’re experiencing what 1 Peter 1 says the prophets longed to see, and couldn’t, and angels long to look into, and can’t. That should give us great hope!

Fifth, it gives us a story. When we see Christ as the point of the whole Bible, it turns the book of Scripture into something more than a bunch of unrelated, quaint tales. It then becomes a complete worldview—a lens through which we can see the world. In a postmodern, pluralistic world, we need more than a religion. We need a worldview. And, as we see the Bible going from creation to fall to redemption to consummation, we see a common thread—Jesus and His gospel. And that becomes our story.

Some of you may be unbelievers this morning. You know that you need freedom. You know that you are responsible to one vertical from you and to those horizontal from you. You know that you have no power to do what is needed. You know that you are without hope. You know you want to get caught up in something bigger, something greater.

Unbeliever, run to Jesus.

Believer, revel in that Jesus this morning. The Law is fulfilled by the gospel of grace. You are experiencing that gospel! This is true freedom. America may pass away. But Jesus and His kingdom are forever!