Chapter 8 The
Righteousness of Christ Continued…
Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law,
or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all
be fulfilled.
Mat 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these
least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the
kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye
shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Bonhoeffer- 'Instead
the disciples now learn that genuine adherence to Christ also means adherence
to the law of God.
But if Jesus comes
between the disciples and the law, he does so not to release them from the
duties it imposes, but to validate his demand that they should fulfill it. Just
because they are bound to him, they must obey the law as he does. The fact that
Jesus has fulfilled the law down to the very last letter does not release them
from the same obedience. The law is fulfilled, that is all. But it is precisely
this which makes it properly valid for the first time. That is why he who obeys
and teaches the law will be great in the kingdom of heaven. "Do and
teach": we are reminded that it is possible to teach the law without
fulfilling it, to teach it in such a way that it cannot be fulfilled. That sort
of teaching has no warrant from Jesus. The law will be obeyed as certainly as
he obeyed it himself. If men cleave to him who fulfilled the law and follow
him, they will find themselves both teaching and fulfilling the law. Only the
doer of the law can remain in communion with Jesus.'
My thoughts-
Our world is filled
with Christians who believe the law was done away with. Our world is filled
with Christians who believe it doesn't matter a whit what they do, Jesus loves
them and will save them in spite of how they continue to live. Our world is filled
with Christians who have made up their own feel good religion that has nothing
to do with all of Christ's truth. They've taken bits and pieces that please
them and suit their lifestyles and that's all she wrote, they need nothing
more.
Deceived!
So much comes back
to the fact that there will be a whole slew of people who think they are
Christ's, but they aren't!
Shouldn't this fact
alone cause us to study God's word and study it hard for all the truth it
holds?
Bonhoeffer is
stating facts here, Biblical facts. He's saying that Jesus fulfilled the law
and by doing so is teaching us that we
too much do the same!
It boggles my mind,
it truly does, that people can genuinely believe that the God of the Old
Testament somehow changed into a big ol' softy and decided people no longer had
to follow His laws. Those moral laws are as everlasting as God, there will
NEVER be a time it's okay to lie, cheat, steal, murder, etc..etc.. All ten
Commandments remain in effect forever!
Reading the Old
Testament for my daily Bible reading has only revealed more and more how
exacting God is, not WAS, but IS! He's NOT to be trifled with! Constantly every 10, 20, 30, 40 years God's
chosen people would turn away from Him, disobeying His laws, choosing to have
other gods before Him, and they'd suffer for their decision as God tried
desperately over and over to get His people to understand that only in Him is
there truly life. Judge after judge
would rise up and bring the people back to God, but then they'd stray. The danger in abandoning the law is
extreme. In truth we ABANDON Christ when
we abandon His law.
More from
Bonhoeffer- 'No one who failed to do the law could be accounted righteous. But
the disciple had the advantage over the Pharisee in that his doing of the law
is in fact perfect. How is such a thing possible? Because between the disciples
and the law stands one who has perfectly fulfilled it, one with whom they live
in communion. They are faced not with a law which has never yet been fulfilled,
but with one whose demands have already been satisfied. The righteousness is
demands is already there, the righteousness of Jesus which submits to the cross
because that is what the law demands. This righteousness is therefore not a
duty owed, but a perfect and truly personal communion with God, and Jesus not
only possesses this righteousness, but is himself the personal embodiment of
it. He is the righteousness of the disciples. By calling them He has admitted
them to partnership with himself, and made them partakers of his righteousness
in its fullness. That is what Jesus means when he prefaces his teaching on the
"better righteousness" with reference to his own fulfillment of the
law. Of course the righteousness of the disciples can never be a personal
achievement; it is always a gift, which they received when they were called to
follow him. In fact their righteousness consists precisely in their following
him, and in the beatitudes the reward of the kingdom of heaven has been
promised to it. It is a under the cross, it belongs only to the poor, the
tempted, the hungry, the meek , the peacemakers, the persecute-- who endure
their lot for the sake of Jesus; it is the visible righteousness of those who
for the sake of Jesus are the light of the world and the city set on the hill.
This is where the righteousness of the disciple exceeds that of the Pharisees;
it is grounded solely upon the call to fellowship with him who alone fulfills
the law. Their righteousness is righteousness indeed, for from henceforth they
do the will of God and fulfill the law themselves. Again, it is not enough to teach
the law of Christ, it must be DONE, otherwise it is no better than the old law.
In what follows the disciples are told how to practice this righteousness of
Christ. In a word it means following him. It is the REAL and ACTIVE FAITH in
the righteousness of CHRIST. It is the new law, the law of CHRIST. '
My thoughts-
Our Savior lived the
LAW - the OLD TESTAMENT MORAL LAW perfectly!
He did NOT invent some new law to fulfill. He came and PROVED it was
possible to fulfill the law of God and WE THROUGH HIM can live it too!
As I mentioned
earlier it seemed impossible for God's chose people to follow His laws for
long, they were trying to do it in their own righteousness. Only those who
placed their faith in GOD, could keep His law.
When we say Jesus
was sinless, we mean, Jesus did not break a single moral law given to the
people of God to follow. He followed all the laws perfectly! He never coveted!
He never lied! He never broke the Sabbath! He always honored His mother and
father! He never stole! He never committed adultery! He never took God's name
in vain! He never put another before God! He never bowed down to any idol! He
never murdered!
You might sit there
and be able to say that you've never down most of those things, but in truth,
you've done some of them. For even our
thoughts of doing them betray us. The Pharisees could lay claim to keeping them
all, but in truth their hearts, their thoughts condemned them, and Jesus
exposed this fact.
It's the same for
us, we are betrayed by our own thoughts and hearts! This is why we must constantly seek
forgiveness, and lay claim by faith to Christ's righteousness, a better
righteousness!
To say the law was
done away with, any part of it, is to negate the keeping of it all in every
point by our Savior.
Please LORD, help us
to teach and do Your law, through Your righteousness, and only through Your
righteousness! Help us be Your true disciples!
All by YOUR grace and mercy, YOUR love! Our hope is in YOU, all in YOU!
Love us, know us,
Lord! Please!
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