"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. 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" (Matt 5:17-18).Jesus seems to have held the Law in pretty high regard ... perhaps higher than modern Gentile Christians do. He seemed to think, for instance, that the passage in Genesis 2 was real, that the Pharisees weren't suffering from a failing of legalism, but a failure to sufficiently follow the Law, and that the Law would not pass away in this existence. Somehow, in light of this, "Jesus never said ..." seems to be a weak argument when considering matters of the Old Testament Law since Jesus did appear to view that Law as completely relevant.
"Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh" (Matt 19:4-6).
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others" (Matt 23:23).
But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void (Luke 16:17).
And as He was setting out on His journey, a man ran up and knelt before Him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother'" (Mark 10:17-19).
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:20).
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Jesus on the Law
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2 comments:
Regarding your first exerpt, from Matthew 5, how do (or would) you respond to one who said that Jesus's life was the fulfillment of which He spoke, and thus, focus on the Law is to live a works-based life in order to achieve salvation? It seems as if this "argument" seeks to put faith in Jesus as some sort of way around adherence to the Law's intent, which I believe was to help us discern the difference between what God regards as proper and improper behavior so that we can know how He means for us to live. By doing this, whatever law one decides cramps one's personal style, one can then reject the law as necessary to abide.
You'll never guess where I hear this stuff.
There is no such thing as "works-based salvation". Never existed. Never will. The standard is perfection. If you achieve the standard (as Christ did), you don't need salvation. If you don't achieve the standard and need salvation, there are no works by which you can achieve it. No one has ever been saved by works. All salvation has always been by faith in Christ, either by looking forward to His arrival or looking back.
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