What Jesus Says

Mt 5:17-20
17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. 18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished. 19 "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.

There are a number of interesting things to notice in this passage.

1. The Law is not abolished in Christ. He tells us that not the least part of the Law will pass away until all has passed away.
2. Yet, He does not exclude any from heaven for abolishing parts of the Law, only gives them the lowest of status in that kingdom.
3. At the same time, He tells us we must outshine the Pharisees, if we would seek to enter the kingdom!

Seems contradictory, doesn't it? The Law stands, but not as a barrier. Righteousness, which is no more or less than our obedience to God's commands, must better that of the Pharisees, who worked so hard to follow all the rules, yet failure to follow a rule is not a barrier to heaven. How is this?

Mt 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

Notice: Jesus did not condemn what the Pharisees were doing, He condemned what they weren't! It wasn't a complaint about their efforts to comply with the Law of God, but a call to go farther.

Lk 16:16-17
16 "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since then the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. 17 "But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

How can we read this, and think the Law is done away with? Since John the Baptist came preaching repentance, Jesus tells us we have come into the time of the Gospel, but the Law still does not fail or change. If our Master says the Law still holds, can we afford to ignore it?

What Paul Says

Paul's views on the Law have proven perhaps the most confusing. Yet, most of the confusion has come from people wanting to find the answer of the flesh. Face it. We don't want the Law. It keeps us from doing as we please. Much harm has come from taking Paul's discussion of the Law out of its proper setting, and so completely missing his point.

Consider what he tells us in Romans:

Ro 2:13 for not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.

Ro 3:19-20
19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

These two passages seem to contradict each other on the face of things. First he tells us that the one who obeys the Law will be justified, then he tells us that no flesh will ever be justified by that same Law. How is this? The best answer seems to lie in recognizing that were it possible to completely obey the Law, then indeed the Law would justify. But no man yet has been able to do this in the flesh. This is key. The flesh cannot obey the Law, because the flesh has absolutely no desire to do so.

Ro 3:28-31
28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.
31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

In Romans, Paul is focused on justification - specifically on addressing the mistaken view that the Jewish community had toward it. This is the view that the Pharisees exemplified, that somehow, they could earn their way into heaven by complying to every detail of the Law. This is the whole history of Israel. The great mistake of the Pharisees was that in their desire to obey, they had reduced the Law to something within their reach. They had set attainable goals, but they were goals that could not attain the desired end.

Yet, in combating this view, and pointing them to faith, Paul makes very clear that he is not suggesting that the Law is done away with. No, he says, we establish the Law.

In our next study, we will begin by looking at Paul's thoughts from Galatians.