Grace & Law (part 2)
Romans 3:28,31 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law… Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
In the previous note, we read that although we are not under law (because of the finished work of Christ on the cross) to keep the workings of the law in order to be righteous, we are still expected to uphold the law.
In fact, Christ Himself came to fulfil the law. Matthew 5:17-20 spells out exactly what He said,
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil 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. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
This passage of Scripture was spoken as part of His sermon on the mount. Interestingly, He used the occasion of a large group of people following Him as an opportunity to present an important message to the entire crowd and to clarify His purpose. Picking up on the pattern that He used, you would have noticed that Jesus presented a law followed by a clarification of that law.
For example:
a) Presentation of law #1 (murder). Matt 5:21 “You have heard… You shall not murder, whoever murders shall be liable to judgment …”
Clarification of law #1. Matt 5:22 “But I say to you… Whoever is angry with his brother, will be liable to judgment, whoever insults his brother will be liable to council, whoever says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire.”
b) Presentation of the law #2. (lust). Matt 5:27 “You have heard… You shall not commit adultery.”
Clarification of law #2. Matt 5:28 “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
c) Presentation of the law #3. (divorce). Matt 5:31 “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce”
Clarification of law #3. Matt 5:32 “I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
In fact, there was further explanation of the original law in Matt 19 when Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees on the issue.
Matt 19:3-9 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
This explanation brings about a home-run of the crux of the matter. Notice that the Pharisees were using the law to test Jesus as they always did. But Jesus, who had come to fulfil the law as God’s Son, did not merely interpret the letter of the law but He brought out the spirit of the law; the fundamental value system undergirding the entire structure of the law that was laid out for them during Moses’ time.
Two timeframes were present in Jesus’ explanation: the first being Moses’ establishment of the law and the second, being the beginning. He knew that the Pharisees would quote Moses’ law as their foundation for discussion and He did not fault Moses’ law because it merely stated the need to issue the certificate of divorce to provide legal legitimacy not for the men who were doing so, but for the women who were pretty much dependent on the men as their means of financial support. With that certificate of divorce, it would protect the women who would then be free to remarry and have access to financial support from their new husbands.
However, Christ clarified the entire bill of divorce by bringing them back to the beginning. He said, “Because of the hardness of your heart, Moses allowed you to divorce…” (notice that it was Moses, not God), but from the beginning it was not so.” This was so that He could introduce the law on marriage in its entirety from God’s original intention and He did so by first giving the clarification: “Whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immortality, and marries another, commits adultery. Whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
By this statement, Jesus was restating God’s intent of “they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” in a practical sense. He deliberately brought about a closed loop system that would bind both the man and woman into their marriage relationship that was not meant to be entered into lightly. The onus was not just on the man but the woman else well to uphold this covenant - “The two shall become one flesh” with its entire crux - “What God has put together, let no man separate.”
The whole point of the clarification was to inform them that their standards of keeping the law was simply insufficient because although they may have the best of intentions of dotting every “i” and crossing every “t” to the best of their ability, their best was simply not good enough and would never be good enough because they did not fully understand God’s original intent and were therefore unable to fulfil it!
(to be continued in part 3)
Jason
