Ever since the beginning, the enemy has had one deadly tactic: the strategy of placing a barrier between mankind and God. Now there is a variety of ways in which he can go about doing this, but none has been quite so effective among believers as the idea of having to become righteous before we can fellowship with God. This idea has caused great harm to both believers and potential believers, and it stops so many from even attempting to come to Jesus simply because they feel unworthy or that they are not clean enough yet.
My friends, it’s time that this idea be done away with once and for all. If you have been feeling or thinking the way that I have just described, then this message will set you free today.
The first scripture that we are going to be looking at, is Jesus’ own explanation of how He has come to fulfill the law. So let’s not waste any time, and get right into what the Word says… Matthew 5:17-18:
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
For truly I say to you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle will in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
Now believe it or not, these verses are actually the center of much confusion among the various Christian circles. Some look at these verses and say that they prove that Jesus did abolish the law, even though He clearly states that He did not come to abolish it. Others say that these verses prove that we need to strive all the harder to keep the law because Christ did not abolish it. So what then is the answer? Who is right?
The truth is, both are wrong! Both have missed it!
See, we must always interpret the Bible in the light of the finished work of Christ. And the reality is that many in the church today are not doing that. Instead of interpreting the Bible properly in the light of Christ, they are interpreting the Bible based on their own limited human reasoning, and that always leads to error.
The key to proper interpretation of these particular verses is in Jesus’ own apt use of the word fulfill, along with the realization that He is the one who fulfills it, and not ourselves. We must put these two points together to receive our answer.
You see back in the Old Covenant, there was the Law, and it operated such that if you performed correctly, you would be blessed, if you performed wrongly, you were cursed. God Himself hated this. It was never part of His plan for mankind, this is stated plainly in Hebrews 8:7:
“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.”
It was God Himself who found fault with the Old Covenant, because God knew that the sin-nature in man would prevent mankind from being able to keep the law of the Old Covenant.
This is where Jesus’ fulfillment of the law comes into play. As we’ve previously read, He came to fulfill the law, and He fulfilled it in two ways… first He fulfilled the law by living a perfect life Himself totally free from sin. Secondly He fulfilled the law in us by changing our position from sin to righteousness.
My friends this is the key. Today it is not our own striving and effort which makes us righteous, in-fact nothing we do at all can change our position and give us new birth the way Jesus Christ has done. It is His work alone which has made us righteous, and our own efforts can not add anything to His perfect work. Furthermore, by our own trying and striving, we are actually exalting our own strength above the work of Christ, and this is why God takes such a dim view of man’s efforts to save ourselves — every time we try to do it ourselves we are demonstrating our own ignorance of our fallen and completely bankrupt spiritual state without Christ.
Now does this mean that the law has actually been done away with? Not at all. This is the other point that needs to be addressed, because there are some people who think that because Jesus is the fulfillment of the law, that today we have a license to sin, and this is not the case at all.
Today we are able to do something that the people under the Old Covenant were unable to do. We are able to keep the law effortlessly, but not under our own strength. Not by willpower or trying hard! Today we keep the law not to “get right with God.” but we keep the law, because we are already right with God in Christ Jesus.
This is exactly what Jesus meant when He said to the woman who was caught in adultery in John 8:11, He said “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.”
You see my friends, it is Jesus’ gift of no condemnation that truly allows us to go and sin no more. By simply releasing to Jesus and receiving His free gift of righteousness and new birth, this enables us to effortlessly love, effortlessly, give, and effortlessly live right by the power of Jesus and not our own power.
Everything that I have been saying today is stated openly in scripture. Let’s take a look at Romans 3:31-4:5:
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yes, we establish the law.
What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has found?
For if Abraham were justified by works, he has whereof to glory; but not before God.
For what said the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
In the context of these verses, the word “works” here is referring to the striving of human-effort to try and keep the law under our own power. And we were never meant to accomplish anything that way.
It is clear from these verses that we have just read that God desires us to accomplish by simply believing on Him and His perfect completed work of Jesus Christ for us. Verse 4 even goes as far to say that anything we try to do by our own strength is not counted as grace but as debt! It can not be any more clear than that.
Make no mistake, God still wants us to love, He still wants us to shine for Him in every single way. However the church has mostly been going about it the wrong way. An analogy that I use quite often is the sun and the moon. Jesus is the sun and we are the moon. The moon has no light of its own. It can strive and work and sweat and try really hard, but no matter how hard it tries, it can not shine by itself, but it does shine when it simply reflects the light of the sun.
Likewise, we were not created to shine by ourselves, or be independent or self-sufficient. We were created to rest and receive from Jesus and shine with His light reflecting on us and through us.
In closing, today we are not called to abolish the law, or to rail against what is right… No, that is what the enemy would have us to do. We are also not meant to strive and work-hard to keep the law… that was the old covenant which God found fault with.
Instead, my friends, we are under the new covenant of grace, where Jesus gives us an effortless obedience where our nature has changed: from sin to righteousness; from sickness to health; from chaos to peace; from death to life.
And today, if you do mess-up, you have the grace of Jesus Christ which wards-off guilt and condemnation – your conscience can be a peace knowing that your sins were already punished in the body of Jesus Christ and you are covered by His blood.
Jesus has made it simple. He has fulfilled the law completely, and as we allow Him to shine on us we reflect His light effortlessly. It is what we were meant for. Give Him praise!