As believers in Christ one thing to remember is that we are brand new creations. Everything in the Bible is good, but not everything in the Bible is meant for us....the believer in God's grace and in the "finished" work of the cross.
It's important to see who is being spoken to in this passage of Scripture. This is not being spoken to the gentiles, but to the Israelites....the Jewish people. If there had been any gentiles listening in on this teaching of Jesus, they would
have had a hard time to know what He meant because they were not familiar with the Law of Moses. So it really needs to be noted that this teaching was directed to the Israelites, and not to the Gentiles.
We can learn from this passage, but this passage IS NOT directed at us.
The Jewish people were and even today are, without Jesus, a people who are trying to get to heaven by their works,
so everything Jesus is sharing confronts them on these issues of the law. Jesus came to fulfill the law....to live it perfectly (for man, on man's behalf because man just couldn't do it. Trying to keep the law always ended in failure because it is impossible to do. The law was given to lead us to Jesus....to set us free from it's demand. (Matthew 5:17; Galatians 3:24-25)
Jesus kept the law on our behalf. Everything He did on this planet, He did for us....to complete what we could never do. God has always wanted us to live by His grace. It was never His heart that man live under law, but under grace. Man is the one who chose to go his own way. They wanted a King like the heathen nations.....not realizing they had the greatest King of all...the sovereign creator of all that exists. They didn't want direct communication with God....they decided for Moses to tell them what God wanted. That was never God's intent. He wanted relationship with all men.
Man's hard heart brought about the law for which God showed them their inability to succeed by tryng to live by it. He gave it out of love....for all that He does is out of love....it's who He is. He gave it to lead them to the one who could finally deliver them to real freedom.
Now, knowing that Jesus has fulfilled the law on behalf of mankind, then no one can ever break the law again. No one
can ever be charged for the same crimes. Jesus did it all.....that's why He could cry out, "It is finished."
Even sinners cannot break the law. Sinners do not go to hell because of sin. They go to hell because of their unbelief in what Jesus did....their unbelief in the total freedom for which He died. They reject what He did. He completed all the necessary requirements on our behalf. What amazing love, yet still many refuse to believe it and accept it. How sad.
It is vital to read Scripture through the lens of Grace. If we don't, then we think that so much is personally directed at us and it is not. For example:
Mat 5:19 "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be
called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach [them], the same shall be called great in
the kingdom of heaven."
Many think this passage is still meant for us today. It is not. It was only meant for those who lived under the law, which at the time of Jesus's teaching, these Jewish people were living under it....But we are no longer under the law. It was for freedom that Christ has set us free...no longer to be subject to the demands of the law.
In the very next verse, Jesus is showing them a better way.....
Mat 5:20 "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed [the righteousness] of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." He's actually telling them that it's not
through the letter of the law that you get to heaven, because no one can keep the law. He's is leading them to a better way.....better promises that can only be found IN HIM.
You see, people who try keep the law have something to boast in. For example, how many times have you heard
someone say, "Well, I'm not a bad person. I've never killed anyone." Yet Jesus tells them that by living under the law there are much more implications to consider. Jesus goes on to say.....
Matthew 5:22 "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the
judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."
Another example is:
Mat 5:27 "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery".
How many can look at themselves and say with pride that they have never been with anyone other than their spouse? That is good thing, yet Jesus takes it a step further in the next verse.
Mat 5:28 "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
So that takes it a step further with greater responsibility. Can those who don't actually commit adultery also say that they have never had an unclean thought of imaginations of being with someone else, or of looking at someone in a way that they should not? It's all wrong.
We can never make it by trying to keep a bunch of laws that are absolutely impossible to keep.
By sharing this with the people, Jesus is trying to show them the impossibility of keeping the law, so quit trying. He wants to show them a better way.....He IS the WAY, the Truth and the Life.....no man comes to the Father
but by Him.
You see....when you try to live by law, and even by keeping some, you may feel good about it and about yourself, and give yourself reason to boast in any small attempt to succeed, yet Ephesians 2:8-9 "Your salvation was a grace thing from start to finish, you had no hand in it; because it is all God's gift to you, because He believes in you.
If this could be accomplished through any action of yours then there would be ground for boasting, (but you did not even invent faith. It was His faith in you that made you believe in Him.)" ---The Mirror Translation
Our responsibility is to share the grace of God. We no longer preach law. The only time we should ever bring it up is when people start boasting in their self efforts or own works at pleasing God. Then we show them, as Jesus did in Matthew 5 that no one can please God by keeping the law, because it just can't be done. In and of ourselves we can do nothing. Jesus could do nothing on this planet apart from His Father. We can do nothing apart from Him.
Once we come into a revelation of Christ's grace and His finished work, then it is essential to read the Scriptures through that lens. We will begin to see things in a brand new light.......a light that brings life, and life in abundance. Jesus is that life and He's come to life that life of abundance out, in and through all those who trust in His completed work. It is no longer an issue of doing, but of trusting and resting in what He has already done.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment