17“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18For 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. 19Whoever 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. 20For 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
Matthew 5:17-20
Jesus came to fulfill the law. He came to allow us to live it out in our hearts and move beyond legalistic dutiful compliance to heartfelt obedience. As Jesus continues this teaching of fulfilling the law, He teaches us it is much more difficult to live by the Spirit of the Law than by the letter of the Law. Here in verse 20 He tells us right up front that the Pharisaical compliance just isn’t enough. He expects true worshippers to hold to a higher lifestyle.
Jesus says that “not murdering” isn’t enough to fulfill the law. He tells us that our anger used wrongly can be just as condemning. Character assassination and arrogance towards another brings the same guilt. We have to work things out here on a horizontal level with those we love and those who are our enemies before we can come to Him with a sacrifice of worship.
Then He tightens things up quite a bit by letting us know that sexual purity is about what is in our hearts as much as it is in our action. Sexual purity includes the proper view of the opposite sex. We are to see them as a person and not as an object we can pleasure ourselves with. Even in the confines of marriage we can be unfaithful in our hearts. We are urged to cut off any avenue that leaves us vulnerable to inner sin since it will be judged as sin in our lives.
The Lord does not shy away from our responsibility to our spouses when applying this standard. At home we are to put our heart into our marriage and by extension our parenting.
2 Corinthians 3 informs us that we do not follow the law that was written on stones but he Law that is written on our hearts. We reach for a higher righteousness than the legalistic performance of duties. We reach for a true obedience of the Law from our hearts. It is harder to live by the Spirit of the Law than the letter. But we aren’t counting on ourselves but on Christ who lives in us to impute His righteousness to us so that we are able to live as He lived.
But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Romans 7:6
We are no longer under the law but on top of it serving in newness of the Spirit. We are no longer trying to suppress our base nature but releasing the new nature in us that agrees with God’s commands. Our lives are not a set of do’s and don’ts but a living power growing in us to be like Him.
In Newness of Spirit,
Pastor Jason
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