11th September 2024

11th September 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Matthew 5:17-20 focus v18-19)


Message (Alan Burke)


Jesus has not abolished the law or the prophets, he fulfils them. This is good news for the one that the Lord promised in Genesis in the midst of the fall as he declared the covenant of grace, of one who would come to deal with our sin and its consequences, the one whom the rest of the Old Testament had been pointing too has now come. Jesus once more speaks of law but this time it has a different meaning. The term Law and Prophets speaks of the entirety of the Old Testament whereas law uses by itself speaks of the commandments that God has given to us, those laws that deal with civil life ceremonial life ie the worship of the people and the moral law. 


And Jesus says, amen, truly, surly that until the heaven and earth disappear, basically all of creation, until it has all disappeared that not the smallest letter or punctuation mark would disappear. Or as the KJV puts it one jot or one tittle referring to the smallest letter and the punctuation used. Until everything is accomplished. This is when the full manifestation of the kingdom of God is displayed. This will come when Jesus returns. What this means for us is that while Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets he did not throw out the commandments and commands what is require of us, he didn’t come to abolish but to fulfil and he hasn’t removed the duty that is required of us how we are to live in response to our God as his image bearers. Some would say that Jesus has accomplished everything and therefore we have been freed from the Law’s requirement but as v19 makes clear that is not the case as it compares those who break the commandments and those who practice them. Those who break them will be called least the other will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 


Does this mean then we continue to observe the sacrificial system? Does it mean that we observe laws regarding justice so if someone commits the act of adultly then we stone them to death (Deut 22:21). The short answer is no. Jesus was the one that the ceremonial law pointed to, he is our passover lamb which means it doesn’t apply to us today, we no longer need to make sacrifices because Jesus gave his life for us as a sacrifice atoning for sin. In regard to the civil law that governed the relationship within the people of Israel, the Civil laws describe the judicial and civil duties of the citizens of Israel as God’s people. The civil law under the Mosaic Law was God governing His people under the government of the Law of Moses. Jesus inaugurated a new kingdom, God’s people the church are no longer identified as a nation, but as a people from all over the earth. The civil law no longer applies to us. 


But the moral law summarised in the Ten Commandments describes the principles of behaviour for all people. This is how we are to live, all people, in every land. This means that we can eat shrimp and tasty tasty bacon as Christians for we are freed from the ceremonial law and civil law though we as all people are bound by the moral law, summarised in the Ten Commandments and in the words of Jesus to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbour as ourselves. 


And remember our Lord Jesus says to us: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you (Jn 15:14). I could get more examples but if we are his we seek to obey his commandments. While we are totally unable to keep the moral law summarised in the Ten Commandments, we are unable to love the Lord our God with all out hearts and our neighbours as ourself, we might despair of that inability, but along with the law, there is the blessing which is found in the lawgiver, the one who alone kept the law perfectly for his people, that he might impute righteousness to them by grace. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q87. What is repentance unto life?
A. Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.
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