Command 5: Honor God’s Law (video)
“Don’t ever think that I came to set aside Moses’ Teachings or the Prophets. I didn’t come to set them aside but to make them come true. I can guarantee this truth: Until the earth and the heavens disappear, neither a period nor a comma will disappear from Moses’ Teachings before everything has come true. So whoever sets aside any command that seems unimportant and teaches others to do the same will be unimportant in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches what the commands say will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. I can guarantee that unless you live a life that has God’s approval and do it more faithfully than the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-20 GW)
#1 Misinformed people today think Jesus removed the Law and instead we live by grace [meaning we do not have to obey God and we still go to heaven]
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” [verse 17 NKJV]
#2 Jesus fulfilled God’s Law
He fulfilled the prophecies and analogies in the Law related to Him
Example 1: spotless, sacrificial Lamb of God [John 1:29]
Example 2: “a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief” [Isaiah 53:3]
#3 His complete fulfillment of all these things has great significance for us
– when a person is born again, he enters into Christ and is given the fulfillment of Christ [Christ died and paid in full your punishment for sin]
– He died for sin, we died through Him, He was buried, through Him we are buried, through His resurrection, we have new power inside to fulfill His standard of the Law!
#4 Therefore the Old Testament Law and Prophets reveals the person and work of Jesus
“Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:25-27)
