"The law and the prophets were until
John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into
it"
(Luke 16:16 KJV). The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ marked a new
age in God's history with His people. With Jesus the kingdom age dawned, forcing
people to respond to or reject the call to repent. "Forcing his way" is
difficult to understand. It may mean Satan or human opponents are fighting forcefully
against the kingdom or that the crowds are thronging to the kingdom in contrast to
earlier response to the prophets. The kingdom did not stand in contrast or opposition
to God's earlier work. The kingdom initiated by Jesus will fulfill every promise
and demand of the Old Testament.
"Think not that I am come to destroy
the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil" (Mat 5:17
KJV). Christ was the fulfillment of the Law. Jesus fulfilled all God had done for,
given to and promised Israel. His teachings did not replace the Old Testament. They
represented the completion of and accomplishment of the Old Testament. He lived out
what He taught and thus was the only person to be what the Old Testament taught all
people should be. Jesus' teachings completed the Old Testament at the level of motivation
and intentions. Jesus called people to join God's kingdom and be like God. We trust
in Jesus' likeness to God as our Savior. Jesus accepted and used the Old Testament
as authoritative Scripture which needed completion through His messianic ministry.
Jesus warned against a false, legalistic use and interpretation of Scripture which
seeks to determine God's minimum requirements or uses observance of Scripture to
gain earthly prestige and power. Jesus showed He had respect for all of Scripture
and a higher commitment to the God who inspired Scripture.
The Church leaders
of Christ's day had reduced the law to set rules a taskmaster that no one could live
up. "Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him,
and saying, {36} Master, which is the great commandment in the law? {37} Jesus said
unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. {38} This is the first and great commandment. {39} And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself {40} On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets" Matt 22:35-40 KJV). Christ was
saying to these people that people are first must the right relationship with God
and then we need relationships with our neighbor through a commitment of sacrificial,
giving love. Loyalty and faithfulness are to characterize such relationships.
Jesus provided the best summary possible of all the Old Testament revelation. He
focused on the priority of a right relationship with God and then with our neighbors.
Jesus said the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments to love God supremely
and to love neighbor as self. Jesus pointed out people do not have to learn a list
of rules or face prophetic judgment.
We have to let God plant His love so
deep within us that we respond to every situation in love, seeking God's will and
the best for the other people. Acting in self-giving love is obeying God. As we act
in love, we will fulfill the Law's deepest demands Christian love is the active,
vitalizing power necessary in Christian living. Jesus' command to love God is directed
primarily to the will rather than the emotions. It means to esteem God, to regard
Him above all else, to give Him unchallenged first place, and to give His claims
unquestioned priority. This love means, likewise, to esteem all that God esteems,
to love what God loves to the extent not only of doing but of being. Our lives are
to radiate Christ's love continuously. Christian relationships must be built on love;
Christian fellowship must be maintained in love; and Christian service must be motivated
by love. Love, of its own nature, produces the fruits of Christian devotion and service.
The love Jesus commands eliminates injustice in human relations. It fulfills the
law by abstaining from all that law forbids. Jesus states that the twofold love commandment
fulfills "the Law" and "the Prophets," which when combined indicates
the whole Old Testament. "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love
is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom 13:10 KJV).
"For the law was
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17 KJV). "For
as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as
have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; {13} (For not the hearers of the
law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. {14} For when
the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law,
these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: {15} Which show the work of
the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their
thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) {16} In the day when
God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel" (Rom
2:12-16 KJV).
"No one can plead ignorance before God. He judges us on
the moral knowledge we have. Those who know the teachings of God's Word face judgment
on that basis. Others have through creation a sense to do right. They are judged
on this basis. None can plead innocent. All have sinned consciously against what
they knew to be right. Right knowledge is not the criterion. Right action is.
Whether
a person has knowledge of the law does not alone determine moral accountability before
God. Many have sinned without knowledge of the law. Everyone has some internal code
or law that acts as a standard of behavior. The apostle's point is that no one can
keep a code without fault, whether that code is written or unwritten, from God or
from man. Sin is the deification of self which is a rebellion against divine restraint.
An expert in God's Word is still a sinner. God does not evaluate us on our knowledge
of His will. He judges us because we disobey. We do not do what we know to do. God
reckons as righteous those who do the law and not those who merely hear it with their
ears. Jewish pride in their law profited nothing because it did not lead to obedience.
Jesus is God's Agent to judge all people at the end of time. The law was
to convict, grace is to save. Both require an acceptance that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God and only when we accept Him as Lord and Savior can we be in a right relations
to God and man.
References
Holy Bible. King James Version.
New York: Oxford University Press.
