The Christian and the Law
Matthew 5v19
29th November 2024
Last time, we read Matthew 5v17-18, where Jesus insisted that He didn't come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfil them. He said, "I tell you the truth, 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." That's pretty clear, isn't it? We saw that Jesus was saying that the Old Testament Law still applies today. He perfectly obeyed the moral law, as nobody else ever has, and He offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice, and so completely fulfilled the sacrificial Law for all time, as Hebrews 19v12 tells us, so that we never need to make any other sacrifice for our sins. Jesus continues:
Matthew 5v19
Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do
the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and
teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Can we hear that? Why do Christians and churches teach it so rarely? Christians should keep the Old Testament moral Law. It's sometimes said that Christians don’t need to concern themselves with God's Law. Some people quote the phrase "you are not under law, but under grace" and say it means we don't need to read the Law, study it, and try to obey it. But that's a terrible abuse of scripture. This phrase only occurs twice in the Bible – in Romans 6v14 and Romans 6v15. Let's read those verses in context:
Romans 6v3-18
Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but
rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life;
and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you
are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to
death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly
obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.
You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
That whole passage is saying that being not under law but under grace is a reason not to sin – not to break God's holy Law. As 1 John 3v4 tells us, "sin is lawlessness". If we continue to sin, we continue in slavery.
How can we be Christians, how can we say we've repented and believed, if we're prepared to ignore or even oppose any part of the Bible, the written word of God? Again, "Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven". This is serious stuff.
We know we all sin sometimes, and we can't all be "last in the kingdom of heaven", so what does Jesus mean? To understand this, I think we need to see that "sinning sometimes" is not the same thing as "continuing to sin". I'm not trying to weasel out of Jesus's words; I'm just saying that putting our sin to death is a lifetime's work. I sin sometimes, but I'm not continuing to sin. I'm putting the brakes on, but I haven't come to a complete stop yet.
I think Jesus is saying two things. The first is that we must not continue to ignore any of God's Laws. That is, we must not continue in any sin. As Jesus says later in the same sermon:
Matthew 7v21
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
May God give us hearts that want to read the Bible with open minds and open hearts. May He so work in us that we "hunger and thirst for righteousness" (Matthew 5v6) so that we accept whatever the Bible teaches, regardless of what the world around us teaches, and regardless of what we used to believe. To repent is to change one's mind, which means being prepared to stop believing anything that the Bible teaches is wrong.
The second thing Jesus is saying here is that we must not teach others that anything the Bible calls sin is not sin, or is unimportant, or is outdated. We live in an age where, at least in the UK, many church leaders, and even denominational leaders, teach that some sins are not sins. These people are least in the kingdom of heaven. That's not my opinion; it's what Jesus teaches. Later, Jesus said:
Matthew 18v6-7
"If anyone causes one of these little ones - those who believe in me - to stumble,
it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be
drowned in the depths of the sea.
Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things
must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!"
It's a terrible thing for a Christian to continue in a sin, pretending to himself that it isn't a sin. It's a much more terrible thing for a Christian to teach other Christians to do the same. As James said:
James 3v1-2a
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who
teach will be judged more strictly.
We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what he says is perfect
...
If we love God, surely we will love the Bible which He has graciously given us.
If we trust God, surely we will trust the Bible which He has graciously given us.
If we respect God, surely we will want to obey the Bible which He has graciously given us.
If we teach other people to ignore the Bible, or seek to change it, or even to deny parts of it, how dare we claim to be followers of the God whom we only understand by studying the Bible which He has graciously given us?