1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation
of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our
Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word this 5th Sunday after Epiphany is
taken from Matthew 5:13-20 and it is entitled, “Living a True Righteousness,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Here in Matthew 5:18-20 Jesus demands a
perfect righteousness for His people. He
wants us to live in a true righteousness.
Listen to what He says, “18For
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. 19Therefore
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. 20“For
I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
3. Jesus
upholds every letter of the Law. These
days, we’re getting W-2s, 1099s—or 1099-INTs or 1099-DIVs or1099-DIV
SUBSTITUTES—1098s, in the mail. Which means we’ll soon start assembling
deductions, exclusions, exemptions, seeing if we qualify for any credits. It’s
complicated! A few years ago a billionaire businessman by the name of Steve
Forbes was running for president, and he proposed a flat tax to replace the
whole federal income tax structure: Here’s how much you made, now pay 17
percent. Simple. The problem, critics say, is that it’s not that simple. It
won’t work. At least not at a rate that low.
4. In
our text from Matthew 5 Jesus is trying to show that the law teachers and the
Pharisees couldn’t be saved by what they did.
The law teachers were Israelites who interpreted and made laws and tried
hard to live righteously according to them.
The Pharisees were an Israelite sect that zealously attempted to keep
the law. Both were proud of their own
righteousness. Their fellow Israelites
considered them super-righteous. But,
their own righteousness was flawed with sin (Matthew 23) and far short of the
perfection God requires. Jesus says in
Matthew 5:48, “48You therefore
must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The Pharisees and the teachers of the law
were zealous to establish their own righteousness, not knowing the righteousness
that comes from God (Rom 10:2–3). They
didn’t submit to God’s righteousness, and were found lacking for salvation,
deserving death. If they couldn’t be
saved, who can? No one is saved by his or her own righteousness.
5. Some
people would like to simplify what God has to say. Some just flat out deny the
truth of certain teachings of Scripture: Creation didn’t happen in six days.
The Red Sea didn’t really part. Jesus wasn’t really born of a virgin. Others
deny that certain teachings of Scripture still apply today: God’s word that
only men may be pastors was relevant in the first century but not in the
twenty-first. More often, people simplify God’s Word by ignoring passages that
seem a little too tough when temptation strikes: “Those words about adultery, sex before marriage, or divorce can’t
really apply to me. Everybody else is doing it. We’re really in love; we’re
going to get married. There’s no romance anymore; we shouldn’t stay
married.” The problem, Jesus says,
is that it won’t work, hear Him say again in Matthew 5, “Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not [one jot or
tittle] 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.” (vv 18–19a) Anything that
lowers God’s standards won’t work. Seventeen percent keeping of the Law won’t
work. Neither will 97%. But God doesn’t
want any of us to be lost, but all to be saved (Ezek 18:23, 32; 1 Tim 2:4), and
He has his own way to accomplish that.
5. That’s
why Jesus shows us here in Matthew 5 that to live in a true righteousness is to have it fulfilled in Him. Jesus says in Matthew 5:17, “17“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.” As a true human being, Jesus put
himself under his own law. To redeem us and all humankind, who were under the
law (Gal 4:4–5; 1 Pet 3:18), Jesus, the righteous one, joined all of us who are
unrighteous. He fulfilled the Law and
the Prophets perfectly, establishing a perfect righteousness (Rom
5:15–19). Our own righteousness won’t do (Rom 3:10–12;
Ezek 33:12). It falls short and is tainted with sin (Phil 3:4–8; Is 64:6),
making us unable ever to enter the kingdom of heaven (1 Cor 6:9). We need God’s perfect righteousness, which
surpasses that of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. We obtain it as a
gift through faith in Jesus (Rom 5:1, 2, 17; 10:4; 2 Cor 5:21; Phil 3:4–9).
6. As we live in a true
righteousness, that is in Jesus Christ our Lord, Jesus says that we have
righteousness to share with those around us.
In Matthew 5 He says, “You are the
salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be
restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and
trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world… Let your light
shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to
your Father who is in heaven.” (vv 13–14, 16) That’s not optional; it’s a command. We must
be salt to season the world around us. We may not start tasting like the
rest of the world. We must let our light shine—live like Christ, speak
of Christ. We may not blend in. We must obey every letter of the
Law. Jesus doesn’t give us the slightest leeway. If it weren’t Jesus speaking, we’d probably
think this was the worst kind of legalism. Pay attention to every tiny detail
of the Law.
7. On the other hand, Paul knows nothing except Christ
crucified in 1 Cor. 2:1-2 he says, “And
I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony
of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you
except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Paul
says the cross is the whole message. Sounds as if Paul would have done great
children’s messages—nothing fancy, always simple, and the answer to every
question would be “Jesus died on the
cross for our sins.” We say it every Sunday: Jesus died on the cross to
save sinners. Jesus died for you. Jesus’ death saves me. Is that really all
we’re supposed to preach every Sunday? Is it possible that says it all? Know that Jesus was crucified for you, really
know it in faith, and you’re in. That’s what Paul says, right?
8. Yeah, but is that what Jesus said? “Until heaven and earth pass away, not [one jot or tittle] will pass
from the Law until all is accomplished.” Sounds as if Paul is guilty of
reducing God’s Word to a few simple things, maybe one thing, like the cross of
Christ, and then anything else goes: do whatever you want, live however you
want, deny any other part of the Bible, especially that the Law is binding on
Christians today. It sure sounds as if
Paul is contradicting Jesus, doesn’t it? How can the two be reconciled? The
answer: . . . Christ crucified is the fulfillment of every letter of the Law.
9. Proclaiming Christ crucified proclaims the whole Law. The
cross shows how binding the Law is. That’s the Son of God hanging up there!
That’s God the Father turning his own Son over to hell and damnation over one
piece of fruit eaten in a garden long ago. Over one thoughtless word spoken
yesterday. Over one word that should be spoken tomorrow to tell someone about
Jesus, but won’t be. The cross shows that God’s standard can never be lowered.
One 100% compliance—that’s it! No excuses. In Christ crucified we see that
every transgression of every letter of the Law must and will be punished—and
to the full extent of the Law. This is why living in a true righteousness
has to come through faith in our Lord Jesus who died on the cross for us.
10. Knowing Jesus and Him crucified is knowing that the whole Law
has been fulfilled: “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” (v 17). The full extent of the Law has been executed!
Christ has been crucified! The demands of every jot and tittle have been met.
Every letter has been fulfilled. Not by us, but for us. Jesus is no legalist. He’s not driving us to
keep the Law. He’s promising to do it for us. Paul was no Gospel reductionist.
He wasn’t dismissing the importance of every other word of Scripture, including
every demand of the Law. He was proclaiming them all when he said, “Christ crucified.” That to be a Christian isn’t simply to
follow a set of rules day by day and so earn God’s favor, that’s religion. No, to be a Christian is to live in the righteousness of Jesus. It’s knowing that we can’t achieve God’s
favor on our own, that’s why Jesus died on the cross for our sins. But, now that Jesus dwells within us and has
given us His righteousness, we can be salt and light to the world to show
others Jesus in our lives through our words and actions.
11. Jesus teaches us that we don’t, mustn’t, can’t diminish the
demands to let our lights shine, to be salt of the earth. It’s just that when
we’re knowing Christ and him crucified, really knowing him, we will be
fulfilling the Law too and living in a
true righteousness that comes through Jesus. The more we know the one thing
Paul knew, the more we’ll love doing everything the Law demands. Paul was neither a poor student nor a bad
teacher. Quite the contrary. So beautifully did he learn the whole message of
God that he was able to teach it all in one phrase: Jesus Christ and him
crucified. Amen.
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