Matthew 5:19-20 The Christian And The Law

Here in Matthew 5:19-20, as with subsequent messages for a little while in Matthew's Gospel, plain and simple, Jesus will teach us how disciples are to relate to the law of God. Last week in Matthew 5:17-18, we considered how the law related to Jesus or how Jesus related the law to Himself. Now we want to see how it relates to us and how we relate to it, as well as Jesus' commandments.

So here is the overarching question: Is the Christian, are you as a believer and follower of Jesus, under law, God's law? I wonder how you'd answer.

Well, the answer to that question is a little bit like the Kiwi colloquial saying, “yeah, nah.” Let me explain. Last week, we saw that the Mosaic law code as a whole is fulfilled, not abolished, in Christ; meaning that Christ was the flower of the law, as with the prophets. Or to say, a coming messianic satisfaction was pre-coded into the Mosaic law. Jesus carries it through to that intended end. We saw that.

To use the language of Hebrews 10:1, the Mosaic law was a shadow of better things to come. The law, the Mosaic law as a whole, as Paul says in Galatians 3, has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith. The law, you see, revealed that man does not have the ability to merit his own righteousness. It's not in man to do so, and it's not in the law to do so. The law contains no power whereby trying to keep it, one could receive the righteousness required for heaven.

The law was given, yes, to govern the faithful's life under God; but principally it was given to take us by the hand and lead us to trust in God's deliverance, the Christ. That's why Paul says the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ. The law, properly understood, tells us to believe in Jesus for what we cannot accomplish ourselves.

So in this way, no, the believer by faith is not under law. The law no longer has a claim against him or her. The law can no longer condemn us. It can no longer demand that the wages of sin be paid for in judgment for our violation of that law because grace in Christ has freed us from that penalty. So we've got that.

Yet in another sense, however, yes, the believer is under law; but it's more accurately phrased as being under the lordship of Christ. You see, just because we're saved through grace alone, through faith alone, this does not give disciples licensure to live however we please. So, yes, while the Mosaic code as a unit is covenantally fulfilled and wrapped up in Christ, the nature of God remains unchanged. The believer is a slave to Christ and under what Paul calls in 1 Corinthians 9:21, "the law of Christ".

In short, we are under the lordship of he who ransomed us to God through the giving of his own life. The law comes to us not as if Jesus gives us his commandments and says, “Do this and you shall live.” That's not what Jesus says. Jesus says, “Because you live, live by my commandments. Because I have saved you, live by my commandments.” And that's a big difference.

So this morning we want to understand how Jesus would have us as believers and disciples relate to his commandments.

Christians Are To Have A High View Of Jesus Commandments

Two headings again. First of all, Christians are to have a high view of Jesus' commandments. Looking at verse 19, which I'll read again in a moment, Jesus really emphasises here the seriousness of the Christian's obligation to what I would call the commandments of the kingdom. He says that how one treats even the slightest of his commandments, or those we might say are of less weight to them, is determinative of one's spiritual rank or maturity in the kingdom in a manner of speaking. There's no confusion here in what Jesus is saying.

On these verses, the late preacher Stuart Olyott put it this way: “This teaching of Christ cuts right across modern evangelical teaching,” he says, “It is the complete contradiction of the emphasis in many churches today. The emphasis goes like this: concern for detail? That's legalistic... Jesus teaches here that the greatest Christian is the one who has meticulous concern for the finest details of the word of God, who seeks to encourage other people to have meticulous concern for the finest details of the word of God."

It's not that here we need to determine which matters are of weighty substance compared to others and what's not. The point is that every command of the Bible carries authority over the Christian's life. From God's law, we learn what is pleasing to him and how he would have us live. You see, how one treats the commandments of Christ correlates to what we think of Christ.

One's attitude to God's word is their attitude to Christ. If you have a low regard for scripture and in how carefully you apply it, if you have a low regard, there is always a low regard for Christ lurking in the background of such a view. People that have a low regard for God's word have a low regard of Christ himself. Such a person, while they may be in the kingdom and truly be Christians, are considered by Christ as least of all; Jesus says, due to their carelessness with the commands of scripture.

So look again at verse 19. It says, “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Now, what does Jesus mean by these commandments? Does he mean the Old Testament law? Well, it's worth noting that Jesus switches from speaking of "the law" as in the law of Moses to speaking of "these commandments", which I take it to be Christ's own commandments of the kingdom. Now, it's a shame that in many churches and among church leaders and Christians, there is so little emphasis on our need to take seriously the instruction of Christ and the scripture.

The desire to obey Jesus and his word is one of the great evidences that we truly know Christ for salvation. Obedience to Jesus and his commandments is part of the Great Commission. The final words of Matthew's gospel are by Jesus: “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.” The Christian, then, is a surrendered man or woman to the teaching of Christ and the apostolic witness which has inscripturated that teaching. But sadly, there seems to be a prevailing attitude, even if unspoken, that attention to detail regarding what God has or hasn't said to his church is legalism; how tragic.

So I hope you can see we are to have a high view of Christ's commands and be totally surrendered in love to the rule of King Jesus.

Christians Are To Have A Deeper View Of Righteousness 

The second heading here is Christians are to have a deeper view of righteousness. Now we really get into the substance here. This is coming from Matthew 5:20. Jesus next says something quite profound to reinforce his point. When we read this verse in context, Jesus is quite simply saying that every disciple of his is not only to have a high view of his commandments, but a far deeper understanding of them than the scribes and Pharisees ever had; that's what he's saying here.

We are to have a deeper view of the commandments of God than the scribes or Pharisees ever had. Now, when Jesus said this in the original setting, it must have just made the people's jaws drop when they heard this. Jesus is calling kingdom citizens to pursue a way of righteousness with their lives to a greater extent than the scribes and Pharisees ever had, and the people would be shocked by this. For no one in Jewish society, they thought, loved or obeyed the law of Moses quite like the Pharisees. The word Pharisee means "one who is set apart."

To the Jew listening, not yet understanding what Jesus meant, Jesus had effectively gone to an athletics competition at a primary school and set up an Olympic-level high jump bar for the school kids to jump over. To their minds, this is essentially what Jesus is saying; he has said something impossible: a righteousness more than the scribes and Pharisees? Are you kidding me?

So understand what Jesus means. First, remember that the call to pursue righteousness in the life of faith does not mean earn your salvation, but work out your salvation; so there's that. But it's necessary to quickly fly over Judaism in Jesus' day to help clarify his point. I'll illustrate it for you.

In 2019, I think I pronounce this right, Eliud Kipchoge, an African runner, set a new marathon world record, in a way. It didn't count for an official record, but he ran a marathon in under two hours. Since then, I've seen footage of several places with oversized treadmills moving at the average speed that Kipchoge had to run to do a marathon in under two hours. They set up these big treadmills and let people jump onto the treadmill and see how long they can run at Kipchoge's speed before they fall off; most people last no more than ten seconds and they're flat on their face falling off. Incredible speed.

Here's my point: In the first century, Judaism had become a legalistic religion akin to placing people onto a religious treadmill. This form of Judaism largely emerged during Israel's exile in Babylon. Once the temple sacrifices stopped, the study of the law received heightened attention and gave rise to these offices such as scribes and Pharisees. I don't want to confuse you, but just simply know that Jesus arrived in the first century to a distorted post-exile version of Judaism.

The scribes and the Pharisees had added their own law, added their own tradition to God's law, evolving Judaism into a legalistic treadmill system conditional for a person's salvation. The law was not given with power to save; man needs a heart change; he needs grace.

So Jesus will say to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:25, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.” It's a heart issue. You see, religious externalism can't bring the required heart change that we need; only God can do that.

And so everyone thought that there was no one more righteous than a Pharisee, no one who loved the law and God more than they; but the people were wrong. The Pharisees were more concerned about their own traditions than they were about God's law. They had made righteousness about externalism. They weren't obedient from the heart out of love for God or out of faith; they were obedient to the letter of the law out of self-righteousness.

Here in Matthew 5:20, what Jesus is calling for is for his disciples to have a deeper, more radical holiness than the scribes or Pharisees ever had. Jesus is not putting his disciples into the Pharisees' game; he's not putting them onto their treadmill and saying run faster, do better, jump higher. No, no. Jesus is redefining what pursuing righteousness means because the Pharisees had gotten it all wrong.

For example, as one commentator says, "the scribes and Pharisees sought to codify righteousness, prescribing proper behaviour in minute detail for every foreseeable situation. They specified proper Sabbath rest by setting precise limits on work. They codified how far one might walk, how much one might write, how much food one could take out of storage without breaking the Sabbath." Jesus protested this view of righteousness, which was legalistic; the Pharisees had entirely overlooked the spirit of the law of God.

Jesus' disciples, however, you and I, we are to grasp the deeper principles of the law. And the first example that Jesus is going to give comes in the next verse, verse 21 and following. He will take the letter of the law, “You shall not murder,” to the spirit of the law which forbids us from becoming angry with other people! You've broken the sixth commandment when you become haughty and angry towards other people; do you know that?

That's the spirit of the law. That's the kind of life the disciple is being commanded to live under the lordship of Christ: to go beyond the letter of the law to its spirit. Jesus says, without which we have no part in his kingdom; we're carnal. Paul puts it well, I think, in Romans 6:17-18. He says, “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” You see, from the heart, slaves of righteousness — that's the believer's new life.

I want to give you a very practical example. Let's get really practical here. In the law of Moses, there were many laws which were given in order that the Jews might remain a peculiar people for God's possession. When the Lord delivered the people of Israel from Egypt, we read in Exodus 19, “Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

The deep principle here is that God's people are to be separated in heart to God. One law among a number that illustrated this for the children of Israel was in Deuteronomy 22:11. “You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together.” People who object to the faith often say, “Oh, you Christians don’t even keep the law. You wear mixed fabric clothing.” They’ll quote this verse, of course, not knowing what it means or the context in which it is given.

The scripture reads, “You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together.” In other words, the Israelites were forbidden from wearing clothing that had mixed fabrics. Now, was this law given by God through Moses because there is something inherently wrong with mixed fabrics? All of us here are wearing clothing of mixed fabrics. Is there something inherently wrong with that? No, that's not the point. This law reminded Israel that they were different from the nations; it reminded them that God is holy and that his people are to live consecrated to his glory and not be mixed with sin that is in the world.

So now, we do not keep the law of mixed fabric clothing, of course. Theocratic Israel is no more in God's design. But we do not nullify such commands; we apply the spiritual principle of such law. The Christian can take the mixed fabric laws, understand them in their context, and apply the spiritual underpinnings to them today. We do not annul what reflects a timeless truth: that God's people must be set apart from the world, from the heart.

The apostle Paul writes, “Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” There’s the spiritual application of the mixed fabric garments law. Do you see? That's the kind of righteousness which Christians pursue, which exceeds anything the legalistic scribes and Pharisees knew. Do you see that? Jesus says your righteousness must exceed theirs. This is how the Christian can exceed that righteousness: by going to the spirit of the law and living it out in the presence of God.

I might illustrate it another way. I remember years ago attending a men's Bible study, and one of the men came up with this intriguing question. He said, “Do Christians have to go to church?” I remained silent at the time, but the question disturbed me a little bit. What disturbed me was the apparent underlying motivation for asking such a question. I knew the man wasn't a regular churchgoer, though he professed faith. Yet he wanted to identify specific laws or commands that required his attendance on the Lord's Day.

Now, of course, the Christian assembly is mandated in places like Hebrews 10:25. However, the real issue extended beyond this man's lack of awareness of Hebrews 10:25. He was looking for rules to follow and not his God to love and pursue. You see, a professing believer has entered into a spiritual no-man's land when to them the Christian life has been reduced to “Jesus died for my sins; now I must determine the Bible's do's and don'ts for me, and I've done my part.”

No, no. Jesus has already established earlier in the Sermon on the Mount that the believer's new blessed state is that they hunger and thirst for righteousness. A true Christian's internal dialogue is about what course of action or way of thinking will bring the most glory to God in light of his revealed will.

This is worlds apart from asking where in the Bible it mandates this thing or that thing. You see, Jesus, through the gospel, wins the believer's affections so that now the commandments of God are a delight to them. So we desire with David in Psalm 119:97, “Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day,” because the law tells us what pleases God. We can seek the spirit of that law to live by it and conform ourselves to it.

The heart of faith loves what God loves. It desires holiness as God is holy. It wants God's smile. It wants his blessing. It wants his ways. These are the fruits of grace in the sinner's heart. Psalm 40:8 says, “I delight to do your will. Oh, my God, your law is within my heart.” This is the kind of righteousness which exceeds anything that the Pharisees or scribes ever knew because it's obedience born out of relationship; obedience born out of love for Christ, which is worlds apart from pursuing legalism for your own righteousness.

As we close, one very practical example came to mind the other day. I've become sensitive lately to blasphemy in films. As I was preparing this sermon and thinking about how this might work out in my own life, one thing I think we need to consider is how to apply the spirit of the law beyond the letter. Now, obviously, in the Ten Commandments in the moral law, Christians are prescribed not to take the Lord's name in vain, aren't we? But if we were to go to the spirit of such a law, what would it mean? It means that God detests when his name is used in an unworthy manner. Now, what does that say to the Christian? That applies far beyond your simple not taking the Lord's name in vain yourself. If we go to the spirit of such a law, what does it say?

Well, it means we should be careful about what we're watching and hearing: other people taking the Lord's name in vain as well. We don't want to entertain ourselves with content in which our Lord's name is being blasphemed over and over again. There's one way we might apply what it looks like to live under the lordship of Christ.