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Author
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Topic: How True Righteousness Comes
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MentorsRiddle
Advanced Member
Member # 2108
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posted
Carol,
This was a great post for several reasons – the main reason because it teaches of our Lords love for us! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
It amazes me how much the modern church of today reminds me so much of the historical Scribes and Pharisees of yester-year.
So much hypocrisy and so little living Word!
Amen! Jesus fulfilled the law within his self and his sacrifice. ![[clap2]](graemlins/clap2.gif)
Great post & as always: thank you for your time in posting it for us.
God Bless!
![[wave3]](graemlins/18.gif)
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With you I rise,
In you I sleep,
kneeling down I kiss your feet,
Grace abounds upon me now,
I once was lost
but now I'm found.
The gift of God dwells within,
To this love I now give in.
Posts: 1337 | From: Arkansas | Registered: Sep 2003
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Carol Swenson
Admin
Member # 6929
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posted
How True Righteousness Comes
(Matt. 5:17-20)
Certainly after the crowd heard our Lord’s description of the kind of person God blesses, they said to themselves, “But we could never attain that kind of character. How can we have this righteousness? Where does it come from?” They wondered how His teaching related to what they had been taught all their lives. What about Moses and the Law?
In the Law of Moses, God certainly revealed His standards for holy living. The Pharisees defended the Law and sought to obey it. But Jesus said that the true righteousness that pleases God must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees—and to the common people, the scribes and Pharisees were the holiest men in the community! If they had not attained, what hope was there for anybody else?
Jesus explained His own attitude toward the Law by describing three possible relationships.
We can seek to destroy the Law (v. 17a).
The Pharisees thought Jesus was doing this. To begin with, His authority did not come from any of the recognized leaders or schools. Instead of teaching “from authorities” as did the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus taught with authority.
Not only in His authority, but also in His activity, Jesus seemed to defy the Law. He deliberately healed people on the Sabbath Day and paid no attention to the traditions of the Pharisees. Our Lord’s associations also seemed contrary to the Law, for He was the friend of publicans and sinners.
Yet, it was the Pharisees who were destroying the Law! By their traditions, they robbed the people of the Word of God; and by their hypocritical lives, they disobeyed the very Law that they claimed to protect. The Pharisees thought they were conserving God’s Word, when in reality they were preserving God’s Word: embalming it so that it no longer had life! Their rejection of Christ when He came to earth proved that the inner truth of the Law had not penetrated their hearts.
Jesus made it clear that He had come to honor the Law and help God’s people love it, learn it, and live it. He would not accept the artificial righteousness of the religious leaders. Their righteousness was only an external masquerade. Their religion was a dead ritual, not a living relationship. It was artificial; it did not reproduce itself in others in a living way. It made them proud, not humble; it led to bondage, not liberty.
We can seek to fulfill the Law (v. 17b).
Jesus Christ fulfilled God’s Law in every area of His life. He fulfilled it in His birth because He was “made under the Law” (Gal. 4:4). Every prescribed ritual for a Jewish boy was performed on Him by His parents. He certainly fulfilled the Law in His life, for nobody was ever able to accuse Him of sin. While He did not submit to the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees, He always did what God commanded in the Law. The Father was “well pleased” with His Son (Matt. 3:17; 17:5).
Jesus also fulfilled the Law in His teaching. It was this that brought Him into conflict with the religious leaders. When He began His ministry, Jesus found the Living Word of God encrusted with man-made traditions and interpretations. He broke away this thick crust of “religion” and brought the people back to God’s Word. Then, He opened the Word to them in a new and living way—they were accustomed to the “letter” of the Law and not the inner “kernel” of life.
But it was in His death and resurrection that Jesus especially fulfilled the Law. He bore the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:13). He fulfilled the Old Testament types and ceremonies so that they no longer are required of the people of God (see Heb. 9-10). He set aside the Old Covenant and brought in the New Covenant.
Jesus did not destroy the Law by fighting it; He destroyed it by fulfilling it! Perhaps an illustration will make this clear. If I have an acorn, I can destroy it in one of two ways. I can put it on a rock and smash it to bits with a hammer. Or, I can plant it in the ground and let it fulfill itself by becoming an oak tree.
When Jesus died, He rent the veil of the temple and opened the way into the holiest (Heb. 10:19). He broke down the wall that separated the Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:11-13). Because the Law was fulfilled in Christ, we no longer need temples made with hands (Acts 7:48ff) or religious rituals (Col. 2:10-13).
How can we fulfill the Law? By yielding to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to work in our lives (Rom. 8:1-3). The Holy Spirit enables us to experience the “righteousness of the law” in daily life. This does not mean we live sinlessly perfect lives, but it does mean that Christ lives out His life through us by the power of His Spirit (Gal. 2:20).
When we read the Beatitudes, we see the perfect character of Jesus Christ. While Jesus never had to mourn over His sins, since He was sinless, He was still a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). He never had to hunger and thirst after righteousness since He was the holy Son of God, but He did delight in the Father’s will and find His satisfaction in doing it (John 4:34). The only way we can experience the righteousness of the Beatitudes is through the power of Christ.
We can seek to do and teach the Law (v. 19).
This does not mean we major on the Old Testament and ignore the New! Second Corinthians 3 makes it clear that ours is a ministry of the New Covenant. But there is a proper ministry of the Law (1 Tim. 1:9ff) that is not contrary to the glorious message of God’s grace. Jesus wants us to know more of the righteousness of God, obey it, and share it with others. The moral law of God has not changed. Nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament epistles and commanded to believers. (The exception is the Sabbath commandment, which was given as a sign to Israel, see Neh. 9:14.)
We do not obey an external Law because of fear. No, believers today obey an internal Law and live because of love. The Holy Spirit teaches us the Word and enables us to obey. Sin is still sin, and God still punishes sin. In fact, we in this present age are more responsible because we have been taught and given more!
(Wiersbe)
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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