Jesus View of the Law (Part 1)
The Sabbath (Matthew 5: 17-18) 

Should we keep the Sabbath?  Before you answer that question, I need to clarify what the Sabbath is. I know there are some Christians who refer to Sunday as the Sabbath, that for soe is just a turn of phrase and for some it reflects a particular point of view. However, if you look carefully at the 10 commandments, there is simply no question that there is a Sabbath, but that Saturday is the Sabbath. Now before you jump down my throat let me remind you that the Sabbath is part of the 10 Commandments, and we are called to keep it holy and if you break it seems we are breaking a commandment. Does that sort of create a dilemma in your mind? Should we be meeting on Saturday and changing our Sunday School’s to Saturday school. 

Now this issue of the Sabbath is just one example of the whole subject of our relationship as Christians to the Mosaic law. Is this a variation of that law for us? Well, for theo answer this question and all the other that come out of it let’s look at what Jesus said about the law here in Matthew. We are going to spend two episodes looking at this issue, so first I’m going to read the entire passage we are going to be unpacking together and then as usual I shall return back to the text and look at it in detail one verse at a time. Because this is important stuff as it looks at what it means to be a Christian and what if any are our requirement under the Old Testament Laws Would you turn with me to Matthew Chapter 5, Matthew Chapter 5, and I’m going to begin reading with verse 17

17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

(Matthew 5: 17-20)

In this passage, Jesus has just finished an attention-grabbing introduction to His Sermon on the Mount. He’s talked about the blessing that come to us if we develop certain characteristics and attitudes. The blessing you will receive if you do that.  Now here he comes down to the subject of the main sermon itself. As I have already suggested there is a summery overview text to His sermon, and it’s found here in verse 20. 

Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven.

(Matthew 5: 20)

Jesus is about to introduce and discuss the main subject of his message, which is “righteousness” But in the context of the day in which Jesus lived, if he’s about to discuss righteousness, he must discuss the law. Because the popular opinion of his day is that you were made righteous by keeping law of Moses. That was how you obtained righteousness, at least according to the prevailing view of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. So, in that context, Jesus came along, and he suggest something completley different. If you listen carefully to what he said previously, we saw  back in chapter three, that he came announcing that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. So, it already sounded like he’s going to be doing something new, and then he is seen to perform miracles. Remember nobody had done miracles in the land of Israel for hundreds of years. Miracles didn’t happen very often in the Old Testament, which covered a period of over 2000 years. So, he is already operating in a different way to just following the rules of the Mosaic law. 

Clearly Jesus is coming with something new. So, what does that mean about the mosaic law? If he’s doing something new, what’s he going to fit in with the law of Moses? And that’s the sort of the tension that form a backdrop not only to this statement, but his whole teaching about righteousness that is to follow. The first thing he says is really very simple.

 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil it.

(Matthew 5: 17)

The word that’s translated “destroy” here means to overthrow or annul, to invalidate the law. So, does that mean then we’re going to need to keep the law today? There’s no way any of us can keep the Mosaic law today anyway. I mean, it requires that you take a lamb down to the Temple and sacrifice it. Today we have no temple, even the Jews don’t have a temple anymore. Can we replace the Jewish temple with a Christian tabernacle. What can and can’t we still do today. what did he mean? Jesus didn’t come to destroy the law, he came to fulfil it, so what does that mean? Clearly, he changed some of the practices of the law. As I mentioned, though, he changed the food laws. Let me just remind you that the food laws according to the Old Testament, where you could not eat pork, rabbit or shellfish like Lobster of prawns. I know you might not have rabbit very often, but many people would eat a lobster if they could afford it. lobster and many eat prawns these days. Many Christians are happy to eat pork. So, he clearly he changed some rules around the consumption of food. But he still appears to say, “I did not come to destroy the law? I didn’t come to nullify the law”. Does that question ever bother you? If you’re reading the scripture thoughtfully, that question should grab you attention what does he do with the law if he doesn’t actually destroy it.? 

Well, let me give you one possible answer. This is the way some Christians try to solve this problem. They divide the law into three parts. 

1.      There’s the moral law - The 10 commandments.

2.      The civil law - Which would have to do with things like divorce and carrying things on the Sabbath all those kinds of things.

3.      The ceremonial law - Like taking the animal down to the site of the temple and sacrificing and so forth. 

What some say is that what Jesus did was he fulfilled the ceremonial and the civil law, but we’re still under the moral law. Sounds like a nice neat little answer. But there are a couple problems with that answer. For starters the is nowhere in the Bible where the Mosaic law is broken down like that and the New Testament never says Jesus fulfilled this part, or that part of the law and not the other part. So that distinction is something theologians have created to help us see how the law applies in different areas of our lives, but it is not something you can find structurally in plain text of the scriptures. The second problem with that view is found in what Jesus says in the next verse, verse 18.

 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

(Matthew 5: 18)

Sure, sounds to me like he is saying the Mosaic law still stands in some way, none of its being done with by him . It doesn’t sound to me like he is saying, well, we’re just need to fill part of it and let the other parts pass. Sounds to me like he’s saying, none of it’s going to be written off. 

Then there’s a third problem, and it a huge one. One that seems to me is inescapable fact that in some way the law of Moses still applies. Which surely must include the Sabbath. Read Exodus 20. The Sabbath is the 7th day. If your one of those people who subscribe to the idea that only the moral law still applies. Then you’re still under the moral law to the 10 commandments, which means you are still obligated to worship on Saturday, the Sabbath. Have I created enough of a tension for you to say, I need an answer to this, once and for all.

Well, Jesus is emphatic that he did not come to destroy the law? Well then what did he come to do? Let’s listen again carefully to what he said. He says in verse 17 he did not come to destroy the law, but two. fulfil the law, till heaven and earth pass away not one jot or one title will pass away. It is not going to pass away until all of it is fulfilled. I’m sure you’ve heard this jot and title idea before, but just to remind you these were very small, in some cases just parts (tiny pen strokes) of a Hebrew letter. Closest thing we have in the English language is the dot above the letter I or the stoke across the letter L that turns it into a t. It was that small part of a letter, that could sometimes change the meaning of a letter or word that is being described here. In Hebrew, those little markings could change the meaning of the whole word. So what Jesus is saying is nothing is going to be passed away. Nothing is going to be changed from the law not one sentence not one syllable. Not even the most minute part of it until it is all the law has fulfilled. 

But now, we find out that Jesus Himself says He is the one who has come to fulfil the law. So did Jesus fulfil the law, and if so how did Jesus fulfil the law? That’s the big question. The civil and the ceremonial laws, there is obviously a difference between those kinds of laws, then and what we do today but what about the moral law, like the 10 commandments. Well, let me use that to show you how I think the Bible teaches Jesus fulfilled the whole law. He was, as a man subject to the same law as you and I are but He did not sin. Jesus fulfilled the moral law, by living without sin. But Jesus also fulfilled the ceremonial law. People would previously have had to bring a lamb to the Tabernacle and in so doing, we they were fulfilling the Mosaic injunction. 

Remember what John the Baptist said when Jesus appeared. “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”. So that original sacrifice of a lamb was a just picture, if you will, of something greater that was to come. We call that a type, and that type was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. It was made complete in him, which is what the word fulfilled means. Under the Old Testament law, the sacrifice for sin was settled one sacrifice at a time, sacrifice by sacrifice, sin by sin. But Jesus comes along and fulfils the requirement of the law for sacrifice in its entirety by being a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. He fulfilled the ceremonial law by being a sacrifice for sinful humankind once and for all. He fulfilled the civil law in that he taught us to love one another, and that’s the essence of all of those injunctions in the beatitudes concerning our relationship to one another, which is what the civil law was actually all about. He also fulfilled the prophets, as a matter of fact, this passage talks about the law and the prophets. In that the prophets prophesied about the coming of the Messiah and he was that fulfilment. Some of the prophecies have not yet been completed yet but will all be fulfilled at the 2nd coming of Christ. 

My point is very simply this. Jesus Christ fulfilled the law, every aspect of everything as prophesied, everything that was demanded. By the law of Moses, Jesus Christ fulfilled. That is why he was able to make the statement. “I did not come to destroy the law, but I came to fulfil it”. Jesus Christ fulfilled the law or to say the same thing another way. Everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus Christ?