Key Passage - Matthew 5:17-22

Key Words- aspects of the law, principles of the law, righteousness

Precepts of the Kingdom of Heaven
Matthew 5:17- 22

At this point in the Sermon on the Mount, what Jesus has been saying so far has been revolutionary to those gathered around Him because they have a purely external religion. Because the truths He has laid down are not common to their understanding of religion, they would have questions like, “This may be well and good, but how does it relate to the Old Testament, and to Moses, and to what the rabbis have taught?” “How does it relate to the system of traditional law that we adhere to?” In Matthew 5:17 Jesus reveals to them how His teachings relate to the Old Testament, Moses, and to what the rabbis have taught. Verse 17 becomes the key as He says, “Do Not think I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

Beginning in verse 21 and 22, we find a phrase repeated several times throughout the chapter, “You have heard” and “But I say.” Jesus is not comparing Himself with the Old Testament. He is not raising the standard higher than the law of God. He is not talking about what Moses said. Jesus is talking about what their religious leaders taught them. He is saying, “Your standard is too low.” You only worry about murder while God looks at the heart and says if there is hate there; it is the same as murder. You only worry about fornication, while God says that if there is lust in the heart, it is the same thing. God is looking at internal things while you are looking at the external.

In His comparison of the internal and external Jesus chooses two commands from the Ten Commandments, “You shall not kill (murder)” (Exodus 20:13), and “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). Then, He chooses two other commandments, taken from other portions of the Mosaic writings, which are more general and deal with social relationships. Finally, He broadens to discuss the whole subject of love. In effect, what Jesus is saying is that God has standards, such as those regarding murder and adultery that affect the very foundation of a society, the individual, and the family. Beyond those basic standards are ones that relate to a wider set of social relationships, involving the issues of truth and justice. Finally, Jesus says that God's standards extend to the attitude of love, which affects the widest possible category of society, including even enemies.

Therefore, when Jesus said that one's righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees to be pleasing to God, His listeners were immediately shocked. However, do not think for a minute that Jesus Christ came to set aside the law of God. He came to make it as pure as it was when God gave it by lifting it back to where it belonged. The people of Israel had lowered the standard and consequently needed to be reminded of that. They were justifying themselves by what they did not do, while their hearts were full of murder, lust, lies, hate, and anger. To appear righteous, they were forced to lower the standards to accommodate their sin. This is what is happening in our nation and many churches.

In the Sermon on the Mount, while it gives grace the priority and the prominence, it is far from excluding the severer part of God's character and government. No sooner, indeed, had grace poured itself forth in a succession of beatitudes, than there appear the stern demands of righteousness and law. God is not saying that if you are a Christian, you are free to do whatever you want. He is saying that for a child of the Kingdom, the standard is raised rather than lowered. The standards are still there, because the God who examines the heart has not changed.

You may be one who goes through life and never strikes a blow to anyone. You may have never killed anybody or even fought with anybody, but you may literally burn inside with anger. You may have never been unfaithful in your marriage, but you cultivate the thoughts of adultery repeatedly. You may be one, who has never perjured yourself in a court of law, and yet your word is not really your bond, you do not always follow through with the things you have promised. These inner things cannot escape the scrutiny of God. You may want so badly to commit a sin, and though you never actually do it, God still holds you accountable as if you had. God judges the evil desire.

In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus was literally hitting these Pharisees right between the eyes. Their hearts were filthy, while their deeds were religious. Their carnality and self-righteousness had led them to exalt the precepts respecting ceremonial observances to the highest place, and to throw the duties inculcated in the Ten Commandments into the background. They just dealt with externals. Though the state of the heart was not their concern, it was Jesus' concern. Look at our own society; they do this very thing all the time.

The condition of the Jew at the time of Christ was remarkably like that of the people in the Reformation. Prior to the Reformation, the Scriptures were not translated into the people's language. When you went to church for the mass, the whole thing was done in Latin. There was no Bible to speak of in the hands of the people. The only contact the people had with the Bible was from what the priests read in Latin. Consequently, nobody understood it and nobody read it, except for the priests, who would expound upon this Latin text. The people would simply believe whatever the priest said because they had no basis by which to evaluate what the priests taught and preached. They could not read the Latin, let alone interpret it. Therefore, they accepted what the priest said.

This was the kind of thing that was going on in our Lord's day. Another similar illustration can be found. when Israel went into captivity for seventy years, historians tell us that they essentially lost the Hebrew language, acquiring instead a language known as Aramaic. Consequently, when they came back from captivity, the Jews were still speaking Aramaic up to, and beyond, the time of Jesus. Because the Jewish people spoke Aramaic and were, for the most part, completely unfamiliar with Hebrew, the people were dependent upon the rabbis to read and interpret the Hebrew language, which the people did not understand. Thus, the rabbis began to build an entire system based upon the ignorance of the people regarding the Hebrew text. Because of this situation, the Lord used the phrase, “You have heard that the ancients were told.” In this phrase, Jesus was describing the religion of the Jews at that time as a product of the oral tradition of the rabbis, rather than from the written Word of God. Partly for this reason, our Lord attacked the emphasis upon external works for righteousness, saying, “You have heard it said by them of old, but I say unto you.” With this phrase, Jesus established Himself as the authority. As a result, the people were shocked. In fact, they said He teaches as one with authority and not as the scribes.

They were shocked for someone to set himself as equal to the law of God, because the Jews believed that the traditional law that they assumed to be the law of God was sacred. The rabbis said, “Those who deny that the law is from heaven have no part in the world to come." They believed this was the only law and that eternal destiny was dependent upon it. However, Jesus speaks without ever quoting a rabbi. When He gave His own authoritative statement, the people were literally shocked, for He was claiming equal authority to the law they so greatly reverenced. Whereas the prophets always said, “Thus says the Lord,” Jesus said, “I say to you.” Jesus clearly claimed the authority of God, stripping away the layers of tradition that concealed God's true law and lifting it back to where it belonged.

The Sermon on the Mount exemplified the positive aspects of the law. The law is not just negative, it is also positive. The law of God is not just to prevent us from doing certain things; its real object is to lead us to right attitudes. It is a positive thing. The Pharisees were concerned with the external. God was concerned with the internal. The Pharisees and scribes did not hunger and thirst after righteousness. They did not seek to be merciful. They were not pure in heart. They did not mourn over their sin. They were not poor in spirit. They were not peacemakers.

The second aspect of the law, it is not an end in itself.

The law had a purpose. The Pharisees said the goal of the law was to glorify me when I keep the law so that people could see how righteous I am. However, the true goal of the law is to glorify God. It is not a question of asking yourself, “Have I kept all the laws today?” but “Have I glorified God in my spirit today? Have I had a pure heart that had no thought of evil, anger, hatred, bitterness, lust, or unrighteousness?”

Next, we come to the first of two principles, first, God alone can judge men, He alone sees the secrets of the heart. He knows you, and He knows if you are really a Christian or if you are playing a religious game. He knows if you are carnal or spiritual as a believer. He knows whether it is just a matter of acts or really of attitudes. He knows whether the heart matches the outside. God knows our hearts. He knows if they are rotten, but He stands with His arms open, ready to give us grace and mercy. God alone can judge the heart. Though many a man and woman can stand the judgment of men, they will fall before the discerning eye of God. You had better examine your own heart.

The second principle, His demands

Verse 20 – “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Verse 48 – “Therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Every person in the world is required to live up to that standard. You say, “You've got to be kidding.” No, we are obligated to live up to that standard. However, you say, “I cannot” and you are right.

Though we cannot obtain on our own the righteous standard Jesus set, we can receive His righteousness if we are one of those who believe. God set the holy standard and when we acknowledge that we cannot live up to the standard, He says, “My Son is not only the Lawgiver, but He is the Redeemer as well.”

Because He is a merciful and gracious God, He makes His Lawgiver not just a lawgiver, but a Redeemer, too. Jesus, who perfectly kept the law, imputes His righteousness to us but, you cannot have that gift of righteousness as long as you live your life justifying yourself on your external behavior.