Exodus - Part 18
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Welcome...
Introduce self...
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What is the law?
What is the law?
There are 613 commands given in the first 5 books of the Bible (Torah)
I mistakenly often though of the list of commands as being “The Law”
The Torah is often translated “the law”
But it’s not just a code or list of rules
It’s primarily a story. A narrative.
Jesus is bringing this story to fulfillment...
Jesus shows where this story ends.
All the law and summed up...
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
This then is referred to elsewhere in the New Testament as “the law of Christ”
One place is Galatians 6:2, which we talked about 2 weeks ago:
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Pattern in the first 5 books:
Laws given —>> laws broken
Problem is that heart is hard… (end of Deuteronomy)
The law is a heart issue:
Jerimiah
Jesus (the law is far more demanding than we thought)
Paul summarized Jesus’ teaching:
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Are we still “under the law?”
Are we still “under the law?”
No. We are not under the law of Moses, we are under the law of Christ,
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,
Not justified by the law. We are not justified by works.
yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Do Christians need to follow all the commands in the Old Testament?
Do Christians need to follow all the commands in the Old Testament?
No.
Christians are not under the law.
God’s covenant (relationship, with its terms, conditions, and expectations) with Israel is different than his covenant with us.
The arrangement is different.
[[SLIDE]]
None of the commands in the Old Testament are binding in and of themselves because that whole covenant has passed away as a package. We’re under the New Covenant entirely. So really the question is, “Why do we keep any of the commands of the Old Covenant?” Not, “Why do we avoid some,” but “Why do we keep some of them?” … Some of them are repeated in the New Testament. Don’t commit adultery. Honor your father and mother. Don’t murder. Don’t steal. Don’t lie… Is there a rationale in what the New Testament writers are doing? … The New Testament writers argue that we are under now, what Paul calls the law of Christ.
Dr. Thomas Schreiner
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The law of Christ is the law of love.
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
What does it mean, “Jesus fulfilled the law?”
What does it mean, “Jesus fulfilled the law?”
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Therefore whoever relaxes 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 does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
2 Statements
Not come to abolish
Jesus’ purpose was not to make it invalid.
Jesus is not throwing out the Old Testament, but explaining what the Old Testament actually means.
The Old Testament was never about self-righteousness, pride, or superior living. (like the Pharisees)
The Old Testament was always about loving God and loving others.
Come to fulfill them
Jesus’ purpose was to complete the story.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
τέλος (telos) n. neut. end. The goal or end of something.
Another word might be culmination or conclusion.
Jesus was both TEACHER and DOER.
Jesus didn’t come to destroy the old system, but to build upon it.
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
This is referencing the sacrifices that are explained through “The Law” / “The Story”
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
This is referencing the Tabernacle and the Temple.
They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.
What is the “new order?” The New Covenant.
This is the new way we relate to God and to each other. Only by the shed blood of Christ.
Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The 10 Commandments is something like a “constitution” and summary of all the commands given in the Old Testament.
9 out of 10 of those commands are repeated in the new testament.
And God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
The foundation of our covenant (relationship) with God is initiated by him and accomplished by him. Thus, he sets the terms for the relationship.
This is a major issue in our culture today.
Each person feels that they themselves stand in the place of God and get to define what is good and evil.
We have a fancy academic term for this: “Postmodernism”
This is the idea of relativism and to say that no thought or idea is superior to any other thought or idea.
The great irony of postmodernism is that it does not apply this standard to itself.
We are going to see first 4 commandments pertaining to Israel’s relationship with God
and the latter 6 commandments pertaining to Israel’s relationship within its own covenant community.
First Commandment
First Commandment
“You shall have no other gods before me.
To worship the one true God.
To make the true God ultimate.
To submit to Him.
To treasure and love Him.
To express honor and respect before all other.
Second Commandment
Second Commandment
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
To make an image of God.
God is not something to be made with human hands as if God is a product of human imagination.
Third Commandment
Third Commandment
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Even the name of God is to be revered.
But more than that, to do things in the name of God.
Or to even represent God poorly.
Fourth Commandment
Fourth Commandment
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
This is the one command that is not repeated in the New Testament.
We are not under the law, we are under the law of Christ.
Jesus fulfills this commandment because he is our rest.
Fifth Commandment
Fifth Commandment
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
God has given a created order.
The natural order is that a father and mother would love and protect children who would submit to and honor them.
Sixth Commandment
Sixth Commandment
“You shall not murder.
This does not say “you shall not kill”
Jesus helps us understand the heart behind this law in the New Testament...
Seventh Commandment
Seventh Commandment
“You shall not commit adultery.
Again, Jesus ups the ante on this commandment and explains more fully what is happening at the heart level.
Eighth Commandment
Eighth Commandment
“You shall not steal.
Do not take that which does not belong to you.
Ninth Commandment
Ninth Commandment
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Do not lie.
Tenth Commandment
Tenth Commandment
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
To desire what does not belong to you.
Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly, even to the point of death.
Even to the point of death for his enemies.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
When we break God’s law, and specifically I mean the law of Christ, we accumulate a cosmic rap sheet. We have a record of wrongs committed.
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.