Thoughts for the Day

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law … ?            Matthew 5:17

I have not yet finished with the Council of Jerusalem and promise to return, with some trepidation, to the matter of sexual immorality!  But today I simply repeat that surely Jesus’ teaching was being preached to Jew and Gentile alike.  However much the judgement of that Council was designed not to make it difficult for new converts, it did not extend to lightening the demands of Jesus’ own teaching.  So, we return to the question from a few days ago: what is his whole teaching that we should obey?  And we quickly meet one of those “Did God really say?” moments.

We may struggle with the full implications of salvation being by faith and not by works, but certainly we make no attempt to live under the full weight of the Old Testament Law.  Indeed we probably pay relatively scant regard to those sections of scripture at all.  So it can come as something of a shock to us to find Jesus declaring that he hasn’t come to abolish it but fulfil it.  Ah, perhaps that word ‘fulfil’ will let us off.  Sadly not.  We can ignore the ritual laws which Jesus ‘fulfilled’ and rendered obsolete.  Likewise laws specific to that time and place (though we had best be sure they are just that before we do so) but not the moral laws.  Jesus continues for several ‘make no mistake about it’ verses ending up with ‘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’.

Fortunately, things are not quite as dire as they may appear.  We will have the Holy Spirit to help us, and it will turn out to be more about diligently trying than never slipping up. 

But be ready for some uncomfortable surprises when we dive in tomorrow!