As I was preparing for our Seeing Jesus More Clearly broadcast the other day, I had a thought: How many different ways can you talk about the Grace of God? How deeply can you plumb the depths of it?
You see, we've been writing about this subject nearly every week in some form or fashion for the last 18 months. In the last 7, we've begun to dive deeper into seeing Jesus in a clearer light, and now we're sharing weekly videos...and we haven't even begun to scratch the surface.
To set the stage for where we need to go next, I want to establish a shared baseline for us and use this as our jumping off point as we enter into the fall and beyond.
If you were raised in church, you understand the basics: Adam and Eve sinned. God struck a deal with Abraham and his children, there were rules given to follow (The Law/10 Commandments) with sacrifices for when the rules were violated, and then Jesus came.
What so many people fail to grasp though is that Jesus' entrance on the scene completely destroyed the entire system that He was born into.
What do I mean by that? Quite simply, before Jesus, the Israelites were taught that it was their rule keeping and their rule keeping alone that got them in God's favor and qualified them to receive His goodness and there were sacrifices in place for when they missed the mark, but after the cross, we see that Paul tells us that Christ is the end of the law for all who believe. (Romans 10:4)
Now, when you begin to start throwing around things like Christ being the end of the law, you find a surprising number of Christians demanding to be back under the law. "But Dave," they say, "Jesus didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it," (Matthew 5:17).
This is where our lack of understanding gets us in trouble. When studying the Bible, there are a few things that we must constantly be looking to as we endeavor to understand a book or passage properly:
Type of Literature: is it a poetic book, such as Psalms? A wisdom book, such as Proverbs? A letter, like the Epistles? Apocalyptic Literature, such as Revelation? Without properly looking at what type of writing the book is, we fundamentally misunderstand what is being written and communicated.
The Intended Audience: Was this written or spoken to a particular audience or congregation? What issues were being addressed in that environment? What was their culture like? How does that color the text of the scripture?
The Original Language: What do those words actually mean? I mean, I understand what they mean in English, but if we don't go back to the original languages, endeavor to grasp the meaning behind the words, and understand that the translators did the best they could with the definitions they have, we could be misunderstanding entirely what is being communicated.
With that in mind, let's try to see if we can find this information for this passage that is so often used to demand that Believers live under some form of The Law.
The Gospel of Matthew is just that, one of the Gospels. This is a book in the Bible that lays out parts of Jesus' life in a narrative form and presents it to you and I, the reader. It's presented in a series of five different "Narratives and Discourses", which are each concluded with the phrase, "When Jesus had finished..." This passage of scripture is found in Matthew 5, and is considered to be part of the first discourse in this Gospel.
As we noted, Jesus is in His first discourse here, and when we look to the intended audience, we find that He is speaking to Jewish people, or those who followed the Law. Verses 17-48 are a section of the discourse known as "Matthew's Antithesis" or "The Antithesis", in which we see Jesus speaking to a Jewish audience begin to reframe the law that they had grown up being taught. Repeatedly we see the pattern of, "You have heard it said...but I say unto you,"setting the stage for us to recognize that Jesus is trying to communicate that their understanding of The Law was wrong. They had one degree of understanding, but there was another, deeper, better understanding for them to enter into.
And finally, examining the original language shows us that many of the words used here are straightforward, with the exception of the word "Fulfill". Traditionally, we have interpreted this passage to tell us that Jesus has not come to abolish the law and prophets, but to continue them, fulfill them, and you and I must at least participate in the moral laws, even if we disregard the ceremonial laws.
But when you take a closer look at the word, "fulfill", you find something fascinating. That word is the greek word "plēroō" (GR4134) and it means to satisfy, finish a period or task, accomplish, complete, end, expire, and fulfill.
So how does this impact our reading of this verse?
Jesus, in The Antithesis is reframing the Law, and He tells those who are there listening to Him that He hasn't come to abolish or wipe out the law, but He is there to bring it to a close - to complete, end, expire, and finish the period that was the Law.
A proper understanding of the context in this scripture shows us exactly what He was saying and doing here - Jesus' job on the earth was to bring the Law to a close, to take it to its end.
With that understanding of scriptural interpretation in mind, I want us to dive in more fully in the coming weeks about the requirements of the Law that Jesus was bringing to an end, and how we now have full freedom in Christ because of what He did on the Cross.
By Grace,
Dave