Shaped By Grace or The Law? // Marks of A Jesus Follower

Shaped By Grace Or The Law?

So church, you know that we are in our series called ‘Different’. We are listening to the most famous sermon ever preached by the most famous preacher who ever lived: that is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is called the Sermon on the Mount, and it can be found in Matthew 5, Matthew 6 and Matthew 7. So I am inviting you now to come to Matthew 5:17-20.

Let me read that passage for us and then we will get into it.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Now before we get into that passage, let me just set things up for us this way. The year is 1993 and this is my final year in high school. We are writing the final exam, we’re done after this exam. We’re done with high school and we are no longer in high school again. And so after that exam we went and we handed in our text books. Remember that? When you had to had in your text books and then the teacher signs off to say that you have been cleared. And then after that a group of friends and I, we decided, we are gonna go up to the root of the school – second floor of the school, on the roof – and we’re gonna take with us our note books that we’ve been using. And we’re gonna toss these not books up in the air and watch them fall to the ground two stories down.

That was our celebration. That was marking that we are done with high school, that this is the end of our high school careers. How did you celebrate finishing high school? What did you do? What was your ritual, what was your celebration? That was ours. And so you are thinking to yourself, what has that got to do with Matthew 5:17-20? And I know others of you are thinking, “1993 you were finishing high school? Dude! I wasn’t even born yet, how old are you? Because you don’t look a day older than 30!” And you’d be right. Not a day older than 30.

Don’t Throw Away The Old Testament

But the reason I am telling you this story, come with me to Matthew 5:17 – listen to what Jesus says. He says, don’t think that I’ve come to abolish the law of the prophets. So Jesus says, yes, I am speaking to you, don’t be tempted to go up onto the second floor of some building, or to go up a mountain somewhere or a high place, and throw away the law and the prophets, and throw away the Bible – the Old Testament section of the Bible. Don’t do that, that’s not what I am saying. Don’t think that because of the things I’ve been saying, now you need to get rid of your Bible. That’s not what I am saying.

So church, how might these guys come to that conclusion? How might they be tempted to think that Jesus is saying, throw away the Old Testament section of your Bible? Well, it’s possible that they might come to that conclusion, but how? Well it’s because of what Jesus has been saying in this sermon – and how he introduced this sermon. He gave us eight things, eight marks of a Jesus follower, eight marks of a person who’s approved by God. That’s what the word blessed means. It means being approved by God, accepted by God. The happy person, according to God’s economy.

And so the happy person, the one who is approved by God, has nothing to do with the law. And so notice what is missing in what Jesus has said. He doesn’t say blessed are the most spiritual. He doesn’t say blessed are those who keep the rituals. He doesn’t say blessed are those who do all to perform the law: those who are good at keeping the law are the ones who are blessed. No! There is actually no reference to the law. Not once does Jesus mention the law as the means by which you become accepted by God; as the means by which you become right with God; as the means by which you come into the kingdom of God. He does not mention the law at all.

And so if I was sitting there listening to Jesus as he was preaching on that day, I would be tempted to think that Jesus was saying, “Out with the old and in with the new”. Let’s go out and throw away, and toss into the air the Old Testament, because it is now null and void. It does not apply anymore. Those people listening to Jesus on this day might be delighted to say, “We don’t have to keep the law anymore! We don’t have to live by the law anymore”. But my dear friends, also in this crowd – there were about 200, 250 people gathered to listen to Jesus as he teaches – would have been the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.

Notice that in Matthew 5:20: “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law”. So they would have been listening to Jesus. This young rabbi from this obscure little town, this young man who says he is teaching God’s word, doing God’s work. They would have been listening to Jesus and they would have been losing their minds at this stage. They would have been absolutely furious with Jesus because he says coming into God’s kingdom and being right with God is now based on these eight things and not the law.

“Where was the law Jesus? How dare you come here and teach these things that are devoid of the law! Where was the law?” They would have been losing their minds at this stage. And so Jesus in Mathew 5:17-20 wants to address those groups: the group that might get it wrong in thinking that he is saying go and throw away the law, and the group that’s saying, “If you want to be right with God, you need to keep the law.”

So Jesus is speaking to both groups. And so that’s what I want us to see in Mathew 5:17-20, and so we are going to be doing it under two headings: The first is, Jesus’ attitude to the law, and the second thing I want us to see is the disciples’ attitude to the law. So I hope that you’ve got your Bibles open to Mathew 5:17-20. And I also hope that you’ve got some device where you can take down notes, because there are some key things that God wants to say to you this morning for your growth and for your relationship with him.

 

Jesus’ Attitude To The Law

So let’s get into it: Jesus’ attitude to the law. Listen to this, Mathew 5:17-18 as I read for us once again. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

What is Jesus saying? Don’t get it twisted, don’t get it wrong, don’t get mixed up from what I’m saying. Let me clear things up for you, let me tell you how things really are. Church, have you ever been in that situation? Where you’ve been misunderstood? Maybe in your office, or you’ve been misquoted – maybe with your friends or with your family. You ever been there church? Please put that in the comments section, either yes or no if you know what it means to be misunderstood or misquoted.

As a husband I know how it is to be misquoted and misunderstood. As a parent I know what it means to be misquoted and misunderstood. Because my kids have this habit of coming and saying, “But Daddy you said 1, 2, 3, 4, 5”. And then I have to go back to them and say, “Listen, that is not what I meant. You misunderstood what I was saying”. And so then I begin to tell them once more the thing that I want them to know.

So Jesus doesn’t want people to come to their own conclusions or to come to this conclusion that he is here to abolish the law of the prophets. He doesn’t want them to think or to also think that keeping the law of the prophets is a means of being right with God – is the key to entering into a relationship with God. He says no to both parties.

 

The Key To Being Right with God

And so that’s why he says listen, if you are going to be right with God, you have to start by recognising that you are poor of spirit, that you have a deficit spiritually, that you are bankrupt spiritually. Because God is holy and perfect and pure, and he demands holiness and perfection from you and I. We are far from that, and so we are spiritually bankrupt: we cannot do anything to help ourselves.

If you are going to be right with God, you have to start by recognising that you are poor of spirit, that you are bankrupt spiritually.

And so we come before God as beggars for God to do something for us. And we come in an attitude of mourning before God. We mourn the things we think about, the words we say, the deeds of our lives, because they are in contravention to God and his word. We come with an attitude of humility before God, knowing that we are helpless and hopeless without him. And so we come, crying out before him, “God, won’t you do something for us that we can’t do? Won’t you do something that only you God can do? Won’t you make us acceptable before you, for we have sinned and fallen short.”

And God does that! He does it out of his grace and his mercy. He accepts us and says that you are the blessed man, you are the approved woman because you’ve come to realise where you stand spiritually. But church watch this, once I’ve been accepted by God as a kingdom person, as his child, once I’ve been approved of God as one of his own, it then leads me to living God’s way. Because there was a time in my own life when I didn’t care what God had to say. I didn’t care what the Bible had to say. But once I came to this place where I saw that I’m spiritually poor, that I am destitute and desperate before him, and God did this transformational work – this change – within me by grace – and grace meaning undeserved favour, and God poured out his mercy and love upon me, I now want to live God’s way. I now have a desire to obey what God says in his word.

And so where do we go to find how to serve God? How to live our lives to please God? Where is it that we go to find how to live the life that worships God, that honours God, that gives glory to God? Well it is in God’s word, isn’t it. It is in God’s law.

And so Jesus says, I’ve not come to abolish the law. I’ve come actually to uphold it. The law was there, it was given by God, as an expression of our gratitude for his grace and love. The law was given as an expression of our loyalty and faithfulness to God for his grace and favour that we did not deserve. The law was given by God so that we could express our appreciate that we have been approved by him, that he has welcomed us into his kingdom, that we did not deserve because of our sin and our rebellion.

So watch this church. In Exodus 19-20 you read there, God begins by saying: I am the Lord your God who rescued you, Israel, out of slavery. I am the Lord your God who has delivered you. I am the Lord your God who has saved you with my powerful outstretched arm. I’ve rescued you, I’ve saved you, and I’ve brought you to this place. It was out of my grace and mercy and love. Not because you were a numerous, big nation. Not because you’re the most holy and righteous people, but because I set my love upon you and because of my grace and mercy showed to you. And so, because I’ve saved you… so God brings them to the foot of this mountain, and he begins to speak to them. And he says, because I’ve rescued you, because I am the Lord your God, here’s how you ought to live. And he gives them the law.

He gives them the law to live by so that they can be different. The law made them different from all the other nations. It set them apart in their thinking, in their speaking, in their doing, to be different from all the nations. And it was meant to be, for Israel,  something that communicated their appreciation for what God has done; their worship of God for his grace and mercy shown to them. The law was given to Israel so that they might show their loyalty and gratefulness by obeying the word that God had given to them. It was never meant to be the means by which Israel will come into relationship with God. The law doesn’t bring us into God’s grace. God’s grace leads us to obedience to God’s word so that we might live as his people.

 

The Law Is Not Null & Void

But friends, you and I know how this operates, don’t we? Because we live our lives more or less in the same way. Let me show you. I have two kids. I want my two kids to listen to me and to do what I tell them to do. Not because they fear me. Not because they think by doing what I’ve told them to do they will have a relationship with me. I want my kids to listen and to do what I am telling them because they know that their father loves them, that he has their best interests at heart. And so they will do what I say to them because they trust me. They know who I am and I have nothing but their best interests at heart.

And so, in Matthew 5:17-18 Jesus says, listen guys, don’t come to a wrong conclusion. You don’t come to enter God’s kingdom, you don’t come into relationship with God by keeping the law – as the Pharisees and the teachers of the law thought. And the law is not null and void – for you who are thinking that there is a new way of living – but the law is there. It’s an expression of your gratitude before God.

Because once you’ve come to an understanding that you are bankrupt, once you’ve understood that you’re broken before God, and you’ve understood that God’s grace has been poured out upon you – the undeserving – you will want to live God’s way. How? By keeping his word, by keeping the law that he has given to you, by you living out God’s word.

And for the people that were listening to Jesus on that day, God’s word, as it is summed up here by Jesus, is summed up and called the law and the prophets. So the law was the first 5 books of Moses, the law that God gave to Moses: the 10 commandments and the rest of the Old Testament that explains how to live the law. And the prophets were those that were doing two things: number one, calling God’s people back to repentance and faith in God, and reminding them of the truth that there is a Messiah to come.

So this is the law and the prophets – it was the Old Testament Bible. So Jesus is saying, I’ve not come to throw away the Old Testament Bible. I’ve not come to throw away the law and the prophets. I’ve not come to do away with that, says Jesus. But notice what he does say in Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them”. There is the key of what Jesus says about the law and the prophets.

Jesus says “I have come”, I am God’s son on God’s mission. I have a purpose to fulfil and I have a mission to carry out. And it is not to abolish the law and the prophets. But notice there in Matthew 5:17, it is to fulfil the law and the prophets.

 

How Jesus Fulfils The Law

And so the question, C4, that we need to ask ourselves is: “How does Jesus fulfil the law and the prophets?” So watch this. Let’s just take a couple of examples from the Old Testament. God said in his law to the people of Israel, if you’re gonna maintain a relationship with me you have to bring a sacrifice. So he establishes the sacrificial system, as a reminder that we are sinful and God is holy, and we need God’s forgiveness upon our lives all the time. You bring the blood of bulls and goats and rams and sheep as a sacrifice before the Lord, before God Almighty.

Jesus says I’ve come to fulfil that. And how does he do it? Well we have to come to the end of the gospel of Matthew. Because there we find that Jesus is crucified on a cross and as he is dying on the cross he is saying, I am dying in the place of others so that they can find forgiveness. I am going to be the ultimate sacrifice. I am going to be the lamb whose blood is spilled so that you can have relationship with God: a complete relationship with God. That cannot be fulfilled by the blood of goats and bulls and sheep. I am the ultimate sacrifice.

How about the temple? God said build a temple to Israel, and I will cause my name to dwell in the temple, that’s where my presence will be found. Jesus comes and he says, I am the temple. I am the ultimate temple that the Old Testament was pointing towards. I am now the place where a Holy God meets with sinful people and has relationship and fellowship. So I am the fulfilment of the temple.

And all the other rituals that are in the Old Testament? All the other sacrifices, all the other ceremonies, they were all pointing to Jesus and in Jesus they are fulfilled, because he gives up his life on our behalf. He lifts up his life on our behalf so that we can have relationship – and be approved and accepted – by God. What about the prophets? Well the prophets spoke about the coming Messiah. And the prophets spoke about and warned Israel to come back into relationship with God. Jesus fulfils that. He says, those who come to me will find forgiveness. Come unto me all you who are weak and heavy-laden and you will find rest.

And then Jesus also said that he is the Messiah who has come to rescue those who are in dark places – the good news that has come. So he is the fulfilment of the Old Testament. So watch this C4. Because Jesus has fulfilled the Old Testament, fulfilled the law and the prophets, two things become true.

Number one, we don’t become anti-law. We don’t throw away the law, we don’t do away with the law as though it is null and void. But now we see the law as an expression of our gratitude. We use the law to worship God, in obedience to his word. We use the law to remind us of his grace and his mercy. We use the law to say. “We want to serve you God. We want to live for you. We want to do things that bring glory and honour and praise to you – the things that bring you joy. And so we live by your word” We don’t use the law as a means to becoming right with God, but we use the law, we see that law as our expression of faithfulness, loyalty to God, by doing as he said.

And then number two: we trust in Jesus who fulfilled the law. He is the fulfilment of the law so we trust in him; we follow him; we listen to him; we do as he tells us to do. And so Jesus says, “I have not come to abolish the law but I have come to fulfil it.”

 

Our Attitude Towards The Law

And the second thing that we find that Jesus says, he says that I don’t want you to have the wrong idea, so what should the disciples’ attitude be to the law? Well listen to this in Matthew 5:19-20, follow with me: “Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The disciple, the one who says I am following Jesus, I want to live for Jesus, keeps the law, says Jesus. You don’t throw away the law. You don’t go up on a second story building as we did on our last day of high school and throw away the law. You don’t do that. You keep the law. And the word that Jesus actually uses there for keeping the law is not to relax the law, not to break the law but to loosen the law in any way. No we uphold the law. We are a people who have been accepted by God into his kingdom. We are a people that have received grace, and love, and mercy from God – that we do not deserve.

We are a people who have been accepted by God into his kingdom. We are a people that have received grace, and love, and mercy from God

And so what is our response? What is our act of worship and service before God? We uphold the law, we keep the law, we obey the law. Because that’s what pleases God.

 

Sin Is Sin

So we don’t try and find loopholes to get away with stuff from the law – to get away with sin. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were experts at doing that. They looked at the 613 laws given by God and they would say, “Yes, we want to keep them. But how can we stretch out each one of them so far that we know where sin is. How far can I go before it becomes a sin? How far can I go before I break the law?”

My dear friends, it’s not only the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who have this problem. I have this problem! Because I tell myself, “Well, how far can I go before it becomes sin? How far can I entertain this thought? How far can I continue to do what I am doing with my life before it becomes sin? How far can I relax the law, can I massage the law, so that it fits into my thinking and my wishes and my desires?” I find ways to relax God’s law, to soften it, until it looks the way that I want it to look.

But the truth is, my dear friends, we know what God calls sin. We know what sin is from the Bible. We know the things that please God and that bring him honour and pleasure. We know what is unfaithfulness before God – what is betrayal of God – when we do these things. We know these things. We know what the word of God says, because we have God’s word. And so Jesus is speaking this morning and saying we don’t throw away the law. We as disciples – people who have been blessed, who have been approved by God, accepted by God, who understand the grace and the mercy of God, the love of God that is shared abroad in our hearts – we practice the law.

Notice this in Matthew 5:19: “but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven”. What a title to be given by the Lord! To be called great in the kingdom of heaven, in God’s kingdom. But when you and I massage the law, when we relax it, when we try and pull it to its furthest and tell ourselves, “How far can I go before I break the law?” And then teach others – notice there in Matthew 5:19 : “and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of God”. What an embarrassment.

But when I realise that I am poor spiritually, when I realise that I have no spiritual standing and God by his grace and mercy has accepted me, I uphold the law, says Jesus. I keep the commandments and I keep God’s word because that’s what Jesus did. And I do it as an act of worship. I do it as an act of showing my gratitude, my love, my appreciation for God’s grace. And grace means undeserved favour.

 

Living Under God’s Grace

My dear friends, God has poured out his grace upon yours and my life. So how do we live? We bring ourselves and say, “Lord, we want to obey you. We want to be faithful to you. We want to honour you by doing what you have said in your word for us to do.” And then Matthew 5:20: “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Can I tell you church, this morning, that those listening to Jesus say the words in verse 20 will have been gasping for air. They will have been gasping for air because Jesus says my righteousness my surpass that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law? They would have been gasping for air at these words of Jesus!

I remember a scene in Avengers Infinity War when Iron Man dies. I was sitting in the movie house and the whole movie house gasped for air. “Like, what happens next? What’s gonna come?” These guys listening to Jesus were gasping for air in the same way. Because Jesus says, “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Listen! The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were men who had said, “We are going back to the Bible”. They are the back-to-the-Bible Movement guys. They said, “We are going to keep the law. All 613. We are actually going to even explain the law so that we can keep it as best as we can.” They were committed to doing that. And so within their communities within their society and culture, they were known as the righteous ones, the holy ones who kept the law. And so Jesus is saying if I am going to enter the kingdom of God, then I need to outdo them. I need to outperform them?

Take one of these great athletes, because some of you love basketball. Think of LeBron James. You are going one on one with LeBron James. Or playing with Rodger Federer tennis at Wimbledon. You have no chance! I have no chance of winning that game! I have no chance of beating those people. And so these guys would have taken a breath as they listened to Jesus. Because how can my righteousness surpass that of the Pharisees who were committed?

So you know what the Pharisees used to do? If they were walking down the road and there was a woman coming their way they would actually close their eyes and bump into things because they did not want to look at that woman lustfully, because then she would cause them to sin.

And so as you read Matthew 5:20 and as people listened to Jesus say the words of verse 20 they are saying, “It’s impossible. It’s impossible!” And this is where Jesus wants us to be. To come to a place and a point where we realise that we cannot keep the law. We cannot have our own righteousness. And so we cry before God, “Won’t you make me right?” That’s what the word righteousness is. To be right before God. To be in the right standing before God.

“I can’t do this on my own. I am failing. And yet I want to become part of your kingdom people. I want to enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

 

Righteousness Is Not Earned

So notice this my dear friends this morning: righteousness is not earned by keeping the law. Righteousness is given by God out of grace and mercy. Amen? We are given righteousness! And how do we know that we’ve been given righteousness? We have to look at God’s son as he is on the cross. He says, “I have come to give my life as ransom for many”. And so he gives me his obedience, his faithfulness, his right standing before God, as he takes on my unrighteousness so that I can be approved by God; so that I can become part of God’s children; so that I can stand and enter into the kingdom of God.

Righteousness is not earned by keeping the law. Righteousness is given by God out of grace and mercy.

So Jesus says I have not come to abolish the law. I have come so that I can fulfil the law, and so that you can see that your only response – once you understand the grace and mercy of God – is to go out and live for him; obey him in what he has said. So don’t use the law to try and be right with God, my dear friends. Perhaps this morning I am speaking to somebody who is saying, “If only I can get better at obeying God’s law. If only I can be good then I will be acceptable. If only I can do that which the Bible says I must do, then God will love me!”

Listen, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees you cannot enter. So maybe today is the day you come and you say, “Lord, won’t you give me your righteousness?” And perhaps you’re a Jesus follower, a disciple, and you say, “Well, do I do away with the law?” Jesus says no. The law is our act of worship for an almighty God. It is the thing that we live out in appreciation for all that God has done for us.

My dear friends, God has had amazing grace upon me. And so how do I show my appreciation and my love? I live out his word. And wherever it is that God has placed me, I live out God’s word. And I am different and I call others to recognise this work of God, this grace of God, to desire their lives to be different.

Is that you Christian friend? So why don’t we bow our heads and ask God to help us to understand and to live out his word. Shall we pray together.