Christ is the Key
Matthew 5:17-20
Preacher: David Williams
Mt 5:17-20 Theme: Christ is the Key. Sermon by Pastor David Williams. Strathalbyn Church of Christ. 11 Dec 2022.
We had an old door that hadn’t been opened in living memory. The keys were in a large jar. You patiently tried one after another. Of course, the door was out of plumb so one hand pulled up the handle while your knee kept the door flat. After an hour or so in this contorted position you were left with one last key. A hammer blow to fix a kink probably made things worse. But it went into the slot, and you wriggled it until it was in just that right position, and you listened carefully for that first click. Finally with great skill and care you turned with just enough force … to snap off the head. Then you said a few words, which I won’t repeat here, and went off to find a crowbar.
How different would it be if I had a skeleton key that would unlock any lock. It does it right, every time. When it comes to understanding the OT, we have a few clues, but some clues work a bit like those old keys. With great difficulty and uncertainty. But we have something much better – a skeleton key that opens the OT to us – all of it. It does it right, every time. Jesus is that skeleton key – that is the theme of today’s reading_._
Outline:
· v.17. How does Jesus fulfill the OT?
· v.18. Should we chuck the OT?
· v.19. How to do & teach the OT now?
· v.20. How to be perfect?
1. How does Jesus fulfill the OT? (v17).
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets…
What are the Law & Prophets?
They are simply, the Old Testament. In Jesus’ time, the OT was called “the Law & the Prophets” (7:12; 11:13; 22:40; Lk 16:16; Jn 1:45; Ac 13:15; 28:23; Ro 3:21), or sometimes “the Law, the Prophets & the Psalms” (Lk 24:44); or just “the Law” – he uses that shorthand term in the next verse (also, Jn 10:34; 12:34; 15:25; 1Co 14:21).
Fulfilling the OT
Jesus says of the Law and the Prophets
… I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
What did Jesus mean by this? For starters, Jesus obeyed the OT perfectly – loving God and neighbour without once wavering. But it goes further than simple obedience. Jesus fulfils the OT in a much deeper way. The OT – all of it - points to Jesus. He is the key.
Do you like murder mysteries? There is a roomful of suspects. You know it has to be the mistress taking revenge. But no, in the final chapter, the knife is found with the bloodied fingerprints … of the butler. And as you think back, you realise that every clue points to him.
The OT has many clues – it has laws and institutions, prophecies, signs and promises – and they all point to Jesus. Jesus made this audacious claim – that he fulfils the OT - the whole OT points to him. No wonder the Jews accused him of blasphemy. Jesus made this claim several times. He quoted Isaiah –
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me
and summed it up with
Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, Lk 4:18, 21.
A riot soon followed this.
He rebuked the disciples on the Emmaus Road:
“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! … And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself, Lk 24:25-27 (also, Lk 24:44-47, Mt 26:24, Lk 18:31, Jn 1:45, 5:39, 5:46, 12:41, Acts 13:27).
All the scriptures – 3 times Jesus rams this home – speak of him
2. Should we chuck the OT? (v18).
This all begs the question – now that Jesus has come and fulfilled the OT – do we still need it? Is the OT redundant? Reading Hebrews, you might think so. Hebrews teaches that the Law is inferior, “weak and useless”, Heb 7:18. The Law is “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things”, Heb 8:5 (also, Heb 9:23-24, 10:1).
But Hebrews does not say we should chuck out the OT. Indeed, Hebrews, more than any other book, is full of OT quotations, and gives stern warnings about ignoring God’s word. Paul speaks of the scriptures – meaning the OT – as
Able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus
And says
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching … that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work, 2 Tim 3:15-17.
In today’s passage – three times Jesus says the OT is essential.
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 not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
19 whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments … will be called least in the kingdom of heaven…
Jesus had a very high view of the OT. So, the OT is valid. But how much of it remains valid? Some theologians separate the law into moral, civil & ceremonial categories. They say the moral law – like you shall not steal – continues, but civil and ceremonial laws about animal sacrifices and the Jewish state – these ceased with the new covenant. This distinction is helpful in a way, but Jesus doesn’t make any such distinction. Instead, he said,
not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law
and he frowned on anyone who
relaxes one of the least of these commandments
So for Jesus, it seems that the whole OT remains valid – but for how long? Two passages begin with ‘until’
until heaven and earth pass away,
not an iota, not a dot,
will pass from the Law
until all is accomplished.
It is not quite forever, but it is close to that – until a new heaven and earth arise. And until all is accomplished. When is that? When all that is in God’s plan for creation has been accomplished. Not just the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. Many prophecies pointed to these three events, but some OT prophecies are yet to be fulfilled. We are yet to see the promises to Abraham being completed. The day when all nations will be blessed through his seed, Jesus. Other prophecies look to Jesus’ return as judge and to the new Eden.
Ok, so the Law stays. But how are we to teach it? How are we to practice it? Again, the answer to these questions is found in Jesus. He is the key.
3. How to do & teach the OT now? (v19).
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.
‘These commandments’ are not just the 10 commandments but all the commandments of the OT.
How not to teach them
i. Ignoring OT
Marcion was a heretic who taught that the OT and much of the NT should be thrown out. He taught that the OT was about a God of wrath and the NT had a different God of love. Indeed, Alexander Campbell, an early COC preacher, taught something similar, flatly contradicting Jesus by claiming the law and prophets terminated with John the Baptist.[i]
Some Christians are really Marcionites. They ignore the OT. They say:
“I can’t make it out”
“I don’t like the God of wrath that I read there”
“The OT is at odds with science”
There are lots of excuses for ignoring it.
We also ignore the OT when we ignore its commands. Look at how we have relaxed the command about keeping the Sabbath, or not committing adultery. I’m not speaking to society here but to the church. How many youngsters in the church – and not so young – sleep together before marriage. How many of us, me included, fail to devote a day a week to rest so that we can focus on the things of God?
ii. Moralising.
We misread the OT when we moralise. Sunday school teachers often fall into this trap. Stories like Noah’s ark and Jonah & the whale are turned into moral lessons. Jesus is totally missing. But our Sunday school teachers are using an excellent resource called The Jesus Storybook Bible. The subtitle says it all: Every story whispers his name.
iii. Being too literal
Should we celebrate the old Passover, sacrifice animals, and rebuild the temple? Some Christians say yes! Should all males be circumcised? For the law insists on that.
Which commandments should be practised and which not? Jesus seems to be saying we should practice the lot.
Key is Jesus
Again, the key to this is Jesus. With the coming of Jesus as the one who fulfilled the law – there will be some things that change and some that stay the same. Take the Passover. Paul wrote,
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, 1 Co 5:7.
That is, Jesus is the Passover. Clearly, Jesus is not a lamb. It was not his blood that was sprinkled on the doorposts. The Hebrews did not eat his body when they roasted the lambs. There are some things that do not transfer across to the new covenant. But the basic truths do continue. As the lamb’s blood rescued them from death, so Jesus’ blood rescues us from death. The Passover always had two sides: it looked back to that Passover night in Egypt, and it looked forward to the promise of Christ’s Passover sacrifice. What has changed is that the promise has been fulfilled in Jesus. We continue to practice the command to celebrate the Passover but in a different way now – as a command that points to Jesus’ sacrifice.
You know those cardboard models that architects have? A model of a hospital gives an idea of what it will look like. But it is not the real thing. There is no power to make things work. The models are empty shells. Much of the OT is like a carboard model. But when Jesus appeared, people could see what the model was pointing to.
· Jesus is the Exodus – the escape from slavery
· He is the true Temple, Jn 2:13-22.
· He is Israel, God’s son, called out of Egypt (Matt 2.13-15, Hos 11:1).
· He is the Lord of the Sabbath and our Sabbath rest
· He is the prophet, priest and king
o The prophet that Moses spoke of.
o The true priest, in the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:6; 6:20, 7:11-28)
o And the King, the son of David.
· The King who conquered by suffering, for he is also the Suffering Servant.
So, this is how we teach and practice the OT commands – as we read them through the lens of Jesus. He is the Key. Without Jesus, we completely miss the point of those commands (Rom 3:21). Indeed, the whole Bible points to Jesus. So Paul said,
I did not come proclaiming … with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified, 1 Cor 2:1-2.
The test
What is the test of a good sermon? Does it point to Jesus? How do we decide whether those religious people knocking at the door speak the truth or not? Do they proclaim Jesus and him crucified? Or do they focus instead on when the world will end or some other controversy? There are many online preachers. When they preach on the OT or any text, the test is: do they point to Jesus? Do they point to the cross? If not, switch them off.
Do you want to be great in the kingdom? Then follow his teaching. But to what extent?
4. How to be perfect? (v20).
- in 3 easy steps – or rather – impossible steps! For that is what is laid out here. Jesus’ teaching – far from lessening the rigor of the law, has far greater demands. For Jesus, near enough is not good enough! He unpacks this with ever increasing levels of impossibility:
i. The Pharisees
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
In v 20, Jesus compared his disciples to the scribes and Pharisees. Pharisees get a bad press in the gospels as legalistic hypocrites. But there is another side to them. Many looked up to them as law abiding, upright citizens. They followed the law down to the letter. But Jesus’ followers had to beat that. So how righteous must we be?
ii. The six challenges
After verse 20 comes six challenges. All begin something like,
You have heard that it was said …
and then an OT commandment follows, like
“You shall not commit adultery”
But Jesus then raises the bar. He adds,
But I say to you …
Ever tried one of those weight machines at a gym. You start off with 2 weights and can only just pull it down. Then it feels like Jesus comes along and adds 5 more weights. He adds_,_
But I say to you – that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Not a single Pharisee could pass that test – look at the way they melted away before the woman caught in adultery (John 8). Each challenge Jesus issues raises the bar way beyond the standard set out in the OT command.
iii. Be perfect!
If that wasn’t hard enough, Jesus concludes with
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Peter makes a similar call:
Be holy for I am holy. 1 Pet 1:16.
God is perfect – and that is our standard:
be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
So why does Jesus set out such an impossible standard? He doesn’t say, try your best to be perfect – but you must be perfect. We are not told in this passage how we are to become righteous or perfect. The bare demand is simply stated without further explanation:
Unless your righteousness exceeds …
Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.
Christian perfectionism
Let’s be clear on what it does not say. It does not teach Christian perfectionism. That was a wrong turning that John Wesley took. In simple form it teaches that once truly saved, Christians will not sin. Some push this today, saying, If you are baptised in the Spirit, if you are living the victorious life, you will not sin. Now some get into great guilt trips because they keep sinning. Here we need balance. Even the great apostle Paul kept on sinning, for he complained,
I do not do the good that I want to do. Instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do, Ro 7:19 (see 7:7-25).
John also was a realist about sin.
If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us… If we say, “We don’t have any sin,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 John 1:8, 10.
This is not to say we give up trying. Just let sin rip (cf. Rom 6:1-4, 15-19). No, sin is serious. It pays its wages in death. It brings ruin to families, churches and people. God hates sin. We are to do our utmost to turn and keep turning from sin.
Jesus: the key to perfection
So what do we make of Jesus’ statements then? Again, we need to see that Jesus is the key: the OT points to Jesus. He fulfilled the OT promises. He alone fulfilled the law’s demands. And he makes us righteous. There are three consequences for us:
i. We are already perfect in God’s eyes.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, 2 Cor 5:21.
This is a status we have now. It doesn’t look that way to us – but in faith, we know that God accepts us through his son’s death.
ii. And we are being made perfect.
Knowing we are freed from our sins, having his Spirit motivating us, we can live righteously. In his power, we can love God and others freely. We can resist sin.
Paul urges,
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind …, Rom 12:2.
We are daily being conformed to his image.
iii. When we get to heaven we will be perfect.
In short then, we are perfect, we are being made perfect, and we will be perfect. Our response is – in faith and obedience – to start living that way. So let us go forward in faith to love the lord our God … and to love my neighbour as myself.
Jesus is the key. He is the one who fulfils the OT.
We can only truly understand the OT through Jesus.
Through Jesus, we achieve that perfection we need to be God’s sons and daughters.
Jesus is the key.
Thankyou Jesus that you came to fulfil the Law and the prophets. Nothing will pass from your word until all its promises are met. Help us to teach and practice your word – knowing that you are the key to all of it. In your name, Amen.
Sources
Carson, D.A. (1984). “Matthew”. In Gaebelein, Frank E. (ed.). Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[i] Campbell, A. (1846). Sermon on the Law. The Millennial Harbinger, Third Series, Vol. 3, No. 9, Sept 1846. The following extracts demonstrate Campbell’s hostility to and misunderstanding of the OT:
“From what has been said, it follows that there is an essential difference between law and gospel–the Old Testament and the New.”
“Respecting the ancient rules of life, the law and the prophets [Jesus] taught them they were given only for a limited time. “The law and the prophets prophesied until John” … Jesus taught us that … the law and prophets terminated at his entrance upon his ministry”.
Series: Matthew
Topics: #Matthew , #Law , #Fulfilment , #Christian Perfectionism