Day #146: Matthew 5:17- 20

Written this week by Alan Lindberg

Background: The Jewish people at this point have lived for about 1500 years under the laws recorded by Moses. The original laws He recorded have been expanded to include a great deal of detail proscribing how people should live their lives. Much of the true meaning behind the laws was lost to them through their focus on following all of the rules which had been documented. The meaning was so lost that a man who was learned in the law had to ask Jesus what the greatest commandment was. Jesus replied with the great commandment as recorded in Matthew 22:37-38 And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. Knowing the law He should have realized that this commandment had already been taught to the people of Israel and had been recorded in Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

The scripture at the time, revealing God’s nature, consisted of the books written by Moses (the Law) and those written by the later Prophets. The people must have wondered how He would relate himself to God’s word in the scriptures.

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.

We find hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament (their scriptures at the time) of the coming Messiah. The book of Isaiah from several hundred years earlier alone contains many references to him. The Book of Psalms (see Psalm 22) also has a great number of references to the Messiah. Every one of these prophesies were indeed fulfilled in Jesus. The Law too, as we saw in the example from Deuteronomy 6:5, was often quoted by Jesus during His ministry. He brought out the true meaning of the Law to the people, which was not the ritual which they had grown accustomed to.

18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Christ as a part of the Trinity, as God, was the true author of the Law which Moses recorded. God is the true giver of law to man. The truly righteous laws are God’s, not man’s. Man’s laws can emulate God’s but don’t always do so. God’s laws are righteous and eternal. Although at the time Jesus was speaking to those people about the scriptures they had then, He is speaking to us about our entire Bible. There are many prophecies in the Old Testament and in the New which are yet to be fulfilled, but as the Lord says, you can be certain that they will. When He talks about an iota, while this is not in common usage today, He is saying that not the smallest thing will be left undone.

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.

God’s laws are absolute, just, and righteous but because men interpret them, as the scribes and Pharisees of the day were doing, they can be poorly applied and poorly taught. The religious teachers of the day had produced books of laws that they had derived from laws in scripture and were teaching them. Today when we do that we call it legalism. We want to make sure that as we follow Christ we follow what is written in God’s word, not what someone told us they thought was in His word. That is one of the reasons why we want to be reading the Bible, so we know what it really says and not take someone else’s word for it. In extreme cases we see others corrupting God’s word and founding cults which are purported to be Biblically-based, but when it comes down to it they are based on man’s invention rather than God’s word itself. Again, those who do God’s will, in this case by teaching His laws, are called great and will be so in the kingdom of heaven.

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

At the time the scribes and Pharisees were known for their outward righteousness. Unfortunately many also had hearts which were far from righteous. It is the righteous heart that the Lord desires, not the outward appearance of righteousness. That is not to say our actions do not also speak of our righteousness. If our hearts are following God then our actions will follow. We don’t need to make a deliberate outward show of how righteous we are, all will see it from our actions. By citing the Pharisees as extreme examples of visible righteousness Jesus is implying that you could only enter the kingdom of heaven if you are more righteous than the most righteous, a difficult thing to be. As we know though, Christ’s blood makes us righteous in God’s eyes, allowing us to enter heaven even though it would be impossible for us to get there based on our own efforts.