By Rea Beloved
Recently I posted a list of 37 scriptures (which I got from Phil Drysdale) that said we are not under the law. You can check those out here: http://www.phildrysdale.com/2013/10/37-scriptures-that-prove-christians-are-not-under-the-law/
Despite the overwhelming amount of scriptures that tell us this, I always get at least one person to respond “yeah but Jesus said I did not come to abolish the law.” This rebuttal, used as an attempt to put believers back under the law, has left many precious children of God in bondage. So let me first say if you are going to quote Matthew 5:17 make sure you quote it fully. Don’t just quote the first part of that verse “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets…” But quote the next part of that verse as well:
“I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill”
If you fulfilled paying off your house mortgage would you continue sending monthly payments to the bank? Of course not. But what if the bank came demanding more payment? Well you just show them the title deed and say “not today satan.” So when the devil comes and says “you owe more payment to the law” point to Christ’ finished work and say, “He already fulfilled it I got the title deed.”
Think of it this way. If a football game got canceled (abolished) it never happened but if a football game got completed (fulfilled) it happened but it is now over. The law was not canceled (abolished) by Jesus it was completed(fulfilled). Both canceling and completing lead to the same thing the game is over now. But they are extremely different means to an end.
“But Brother Rea in the next verse Jesus said heaven and earth would pass away before the law passed away!”
Well lets examine the next verse:
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
Notice something very important here Jesus said not one jot or tittle (the Hebrew equivalent of crossing T’s and dotting I’s.) Would pass away UNTIL all be fulfilled (emphasis on until) so when was the law fulfilled? 2000 years ago on the cross. To say the law is not fulfilled would be like saying the cross never happened.
If you read Luke 4:16-30 you would see an account of Jesus preaching in the temple quoting a scripture from Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19 NIV).
After Jesus read this He said “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (V 21).
What’s funny is we all accept that this scripture has been fulfilled. No one I know questions if Jesus really fulfilled this scripture He said He would fulfill. So please tell me why do we not equally accept that the law has been fulfilled? When we strive to keep the law we are saying its not yet fulfilled.
Jesus said He would fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17). This occurred in His death and resurrection. Then Jesus said once it was fulfilled (which it was) the law would pass away. So why are so many ministers putting us back under an old covenant system of reality today?
Now don’t misunderstand me. The law is not useless. It does have one purpose and one purpose only today. The law exposes a non-believers sins (Romans 3:20) so that the non-believer will despair in the thought of saving himself upon realising how bad he really is. This will bring the non believer to trust in Christ for salvation rather than self (Galatians 3:24-25). As DL Moody once said, “the law can bring a man to Calvary but no farther.”
Paul put it this way to Timothy:
“But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man [believer], but for the lawless [non believers]…”
“So if the law is not for a believer what will keep that believer from living in sin Brother Rea?”
Grace will. When you understand how good Gods grace is the Bible says, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11-12 NIV).
On the other hand law will only cause you to sin more. The law doesn’t help you in your battle against sin The law helps sin in its battle against you. The Bible says the strength of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). When law says “thou shalt not” your flesh yes “oh yes I shalt!” If I tell you don’t think of a purple dinosaur. Don’t do it. Don’t you do it. The truth is you probably did it (any one else imagining Barney)? So we don’t need the law to help us live holy and not in sin (that’s like adding gasoline to the fire anyhow) grace is more than effective.
Finally, Mathew 5:19 says, “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.”
Before I dive deep into this verse let me first say I am not teaching anyone to break the law. Nor am I preaching they have to keep it (but to be honest you will live holier under grace accidentally than you ever did under law intentionally). What I am teaching is the same thing the Apostle Paul taught, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision [law keeping] nor uncircumcision [law breaking] counts for anything, but only faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6 ESV parenthesis added by me). Christianity is not about keeping or breaking the law its about believing in Jesus (and your faith works through understanding Gods love for you).
Now back to Matthew 5:19. Jesus said to keep the law and to teach others to do so as well. But we must remember the context. When we take a “text” out of “context” we get a “con.” So the context was Jesus was going to fulfill the law at the cross (v. 17). Then once all was fulfilled at the cross we would no longer be under the law (v. 18) so in verse 19, He was saying, “but until I fulfil the law you better keep it and teach others to do so too.” Remember that He hadn’t yet died in this verse. He was telling them until He died they were obligated to keep the law and in fact He then proceeded to make the law harder so that by the time He did die they’d already be so weary of law and ready for grace they would hypothetically have no problem believing in Him alone for salvation. They would have effectively come to the end of themselves. So yeah, if you were in Jesus Jewish audience listening to this before the cross it would be a scary verse. But you’re not. You’re a new covenant post cross and resurrection believer. That means like Paul, you can celebrate that Jesus “…abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances…” (Ephesians 2:15) because Jesus’ work is a lot like this post. It is finished.
See more from Rea Beloved at www.gospelresurrection.org