Freedom in Christ
…13For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.…
What does Matthew 5:17 mean?:
As He gained fame through healing miracles and compelling teaching, some of Jesus' critics claimed He was teaching people to ignore the law of Moses (Matthew 12:2).
Hostile religious leaders began to falsely say He was teaching a new or different law from what God gave to the nation of Israel
(Matthew 12:2).
Jesus was eventually accused by the Jewish religious leaders of blasphemy, primarily for His claim to be the Son of God
(Matthew 26:63–65; John 8:58–59).
Jesus counters the lie that He is calling for the law of Moses to be "abolished." He tells all those who are listening His intent is not to discard the law or the Prophets. The Jewish law of Moses consisted of the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch. "The Prophets" include most of the rest of what Christians now call the Old Testament, especially books by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets sent by God to deliver His messages to Israel.
The book of Hebrews explains how God always intended the
old covenant to lead to a new covenant
(Hebrews 8:6–8).
That transition is not to eradicate what God has spoken, but to complete its intended purpose. As the Son of God, the God who gave the law to Moses and gave the prophecies to the prophets, Jesus would have no desire to wipe out those messages. Instead, Jesus declares that He has come "to fulfill" the law and the Prophets.
This is a key point of understanding Scripture: everything in the Jewish Scriptures—what we now call the Old Testament—has been "pointing forward" to the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah. The law described a life of perfect, sinless righteousness, which no Israelite had been able to fulfill until Jesus arrived. He was the first and last to accomplish this.
In addition, the sacrificial system given to Israel by God in the law required the killing of animals, blood sacrifices, to pay for human sin. They were effective only temporarily, and only until new sins were committed, then more blood had to be spilled
(Hebrews 10:1–4).
Jesus, though, as the perfect, sinless human sacrifice for sin fulfilled the need for that blood sacrifice once and for all
(Hebrews 10:11–14).
Matthew also demonstrates throughout his book how Jesus' life fulfilled one prophecy about the Messiah after another. Jesus did not discard the words of these prophets; He fulfilled them with every word and action of His life.
Matthew 5:17–20 sets up an important point about the nature of sin. To do so, Jesus first declares that heaven's standard of righteousness is beyond human ability. His purpose is not to discard the law of Moses, but to accomplish the purpose for which the law was given. A cornerstone of Jesus' teaching is that man cannot earn salvation, since we cannot hope to be good enough. This passage sets the stage for this idea, through exaggeration. In order to earn the kingdom of heaven, a person must be even more righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees—that culture's ultimate standard for ''good behavior.'' In later passages, Christ will expand on how sin involves not only what we do, physically, but our thoughts and motivations.
The Sermon on the Mount contains some of Jesus' most challenging teaching. It begins with the unlikely blessings of the Beatitudes. Jesus' disciples must do good works in order to be a powerful influence: as the salt of the earth and light of the world. The superficial righteousness of the Pharisees is not good enough to earn heaven. Sins of the heart, such as angry insults are worthy of condemnation just as much as adultery and murder. Easy divorce and deceptive oaths are forbidden. Believers should not seek revenge. Instead, God intends us to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. In short, we should strive to be perfect, as God is perfect.
Matthew 5:17–20 sets up an important point about the nature of sin. To do so, Jesus first declares that heaven's standard of righteousness is beyond human ability. His purpose is not to discard the law of Moses, but to accomplish the purpose for which the law was given. A cornerstone of Jesus' teaching is that man cannot earn salvation, since we cannot hope to be good enough. This passage sets the stage for this idea, through exaggeration. In order to earn the kingdom of heaven, a person must be even more righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees—that culture's ultimate standard for ''good behavior.'' In later passages, Christ will expand on how sin involves not only what we do, physically, but our thoughts and motivations.
Leviticus 19:18
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
Matthew 22:40
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Matthew 7:12
In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.
Romans 13:8
Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the
Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”—Matthew 5:17
Abolish vs. Fulfill:
Jesus summarized his relationship to the Old Testament with this surprising statement in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17). If we understand what Jesus means here, it will shine clarifying light on other important questions: What do the Old Testament commands have to do with New Testament Christians? Should Christians seek to obey the Old Testament just like the Israelites?
Can we “unhitch” ourselves from it altogether?
We can rule out one interpretation right away: Jesus is not abolishing the Law and the Prophets—he says as much explicitly. But, on the other hand, he apparently didn’t come to simply keep, restate, or reestablish them either. The word he used signals something more radical and profound: He came to “fulfill” them.
Here’s one of the key questions we can ask of Jesus’s statement: What, specifically, did he come to fulfill? We may at first assume he’s only referring to ethical commands. But he actually refers to something much broader—he has in view the entire Old Testament, which he summarized here and elsewhere with the phrase “the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 5:17; see Matt. 7:12; Matt. 11:13; Matt. 22:40). This includes the whole Old Testament, with all of its commands and covenants and poems and prophecies.
Jesus also used this same phrase in Matthew 11:13 to say that all the scriptures were prophetic: “all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.” This means it’s not just the prophets like Isaiah and Malachi, but also the Law of Moses that prophesied. In other words, the whole of the Old Testament is a unity that prophetically anticipated Jesus and his kingdom. The scriptures tilted forward toward the arrival of Jesus. They “prophesied until John,” who came as the last of the Old Testament-era prophets to point to him.
An Era of Fulfillment: But what does it mean that he came to “fulfill” the scriptures? It’s not just that he fulfills various scattered predictions. It means he is bringing the entirety of the scriptures to their appointed goal.
The Old Testament prophetically anticipated Jesus, and he came to fulfill these expectations.
This fits with how Matthew often used the word “fulfill.” He used this word several times before this (Matt. 1:22; Matt. 2:15, 17, 23; Matt. 3:15; Matt. 4:14). They together show that the Old Testament told a story awaiting an ending, and Jesus came to complete it. The Old Testament story is the shaft of an arrow, and its tip comes to rest on Christ.
Everything finds its intended destination in him.
And how does Jesus bring this fulfillment? By inaugurating the long-awaited age which would fulfill all the ancient promises—promises like a true King who would create a new humanity and promises of a new covenant that brings new hearts for true obedience. With the arrival of Jesus, this new age of fulfillment has dawned. Or as Jesus announced just before the Sermon on the Mount: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). We no longer live in the old covenant era of anticipation, but the new covenant era of fulfillment. The whole of the Old Testament is a unity that prophetically anticipated Jesus and his kingdom.
How then do New Testament Christians relate to the Old Testament scriptures? We seek to keep the scriptures in two ways: as they are fulfilled in Jesus and with heart-rooted and holistic obedience.
Consider the Old Testament stories and instructions related to the temple.
God gave Israel the temple as the place to meet with him. Priests represented the people, drew near to God, and offered sacrifices. The whole temple system was designed to echo the Edenic blessing of dwelling with God while also pointing forward to a new age when God would purify his people to dwell with him forever. When Jesus came, he announced “something greater than the temple is here” (Matt. 12:6). All the commands associated with the temple find their fulfillment in him. He is the true temple, high priest, and final sacrifice. Now those united to him become part of this temple, draw near to God through Jesus as a new priesthood,
and offer their whole selves in sacrificial worship.
What about other commands that seemed more directly ethical—like “do not murder” and “do not commit adultery”? Jesus addressed a sampling of these in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. He showed that they prophetically anticipated this new covenant era where we would give a deeper and holistic obedience. Unlike the scribes and Pharisees who reduced God’s expectations to something they could externally manage, Jesus enables us to obey from the heart (Matt. 5:20). In light of this, the command to not murder is fulfilled in God’s people as they renounce hatred (Matt. 5:21–25). The command against adultery is fulfilled as his people renounce even lustful thoughts (Matt. 5:26–30). Every command is caught up in this bigger story that finds its fulfillment in Jesus’s kingdom and the heart-level transformation he brings.
This all leads us to avoid two extremes in relation to the Old Testament. We neither ditch the Old Testament altogether, nor do we seek to follow it apart from its fulfillment in Jesus. He did not come to start something brand new, nor did he come to maintain status quo. He is the king of God’s long-anticipated kingdom. He didn’t come to abolish the scriptures, but to fulfill them.
(1) The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me . . .--We have obviously a new poem in the form of a soliloquy, and we ask, "Who is the speaker.?" The Jewish Targum and many modern critics hear only the voice of Isaiah. Guided by Isaiah 41:1; Isaiah 1:4-9, we recognise here, as there, the utterance of the ideal Servant of Jehovah. That view, it needs scarcely be said, is the one suggested to all Christian minds by our Lord's application of the passage to His own work in Luke 4:16-22. The opening words repeat what had been said by Jehovah of the Servant in Isaiah 42:1. The "anointing," as it stands, might be that of king (1Samuel 9:16; 1Samuel 10:1), or priest (Exodus 29:2; Leviticus 7:36), or prophet (1Kings 19:16). As interpreted by its fulfilment, it may be held to include all three. . . .
THE MISSION OF THE SERVANT OF THE LORD.
The words of our Lord in Luke 4:21,
"This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears,"
preclude the application of this passage to any other than the Lord himself.
If you were a Jew in Israel at the time of Jesus,
you were waiting for the long expected
Messiah promised in God’s word.
You would have been familiar with the book of Isaiah which is rich in Messianic prophecies.
In the first 3 chapters of Luke we
find prophecies of
Christ from Isaiah fulfilled.
Some examples: In Luke 1, the angel says Mary will conceive and bear the “Son of the Most High.” Isaiah 7 says; “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and he shall be called Immanuel (God with us).” Then in Luke 2 we read of angels appearing at the birth of the child and singing of the glory of God and peace on earth. Isaiah 9 promised: “Unto us a child is born, to us a son is given,” who among other things will be, “Mighty God, Prince of Peace.”
Likewise the appearance of John the Baptist in Luke 3 fulfills Isaiah 40:3-5 of
“one calling in the wilderness
to prepare the way of the Lord.”
The obvious unity of prophecies
with the person and work of Christ
is given by God
so that we will believe in Christ.
This is God reaching out to us to assure
us Christ is the Savior he has sent.
In Luke 4,
Jesus begins his ministry, in fulfilment of Scripture.
He had become the news of Galilee by all he was doing and saying, so people were very curious about him. He goes into a synagogue in Nazareth, is handed a scroll of the book of Isaiah, finds the place he is looking for, and reads Isaiah 61:1: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And wherever the gospel is,
his Spirit gives stirrings in souls.
If people do not yield, it is because of rebellion in their hearts.
More grace of the Spirit is offered than is accepted,
so that the mouths of men shall be stopped.
But to those who receive him, he gives the right to become children of God.
We see here the essence of the gospel in Christ’s words. He proclaims “liberty to the captives,” and “the year of the Lord’s favor.” When Jesus began his ministry it was the year of jubilee. In the Old Testament all slaves were set free, their debt forgiven at this time.
The jubilee was a pattern looking ahead to the spiritual liberty Christ gives to captives. He sets us free from the debt of our sin before God, from the oppression of the devil, and the power of death. He declares a jubilee for the captives.
Christ said if he sets you free
you will be free indeed.
In the Old Testament jubilee, if a slave wanted to remain a slave his ear was pierced to mark him as a slave perpetually. It is a pity that now, in the glorious jubilee of the gospel, where all the promises of God are offered in Christ, some resolve still to be slaves, in love with sin and the world.
But the more noble spirits, who see the glory of Christ and the wonder of his salvation, especially desire spiritual liberty. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Wherever a man resists the gospel of Christ, there you will find bondage. If we would see the gift of life God has blessed us with, it is in Christ. Let this be the year of the Lord’s favor for you. Look to Christ the Lord.
Moses' presence signified that in Jesus the shadows of the law were all fulfilled and now withdrawn. In Jerusalem men were still fighting, not merely for the law of Moses, but for the traditions of the elders, and priests and leaders were still arguing about the tithe of mint and cumin. Here upon the mount was the great law-giver himself, by his presence acknowledging that this glorified One, Who should presently be crucified in the name of the law, did in Himself gather up all that was hinted at, suggested,
included in the economy of the past.
The law, with its commands, its forbiddings,
was fulfilled in the Person of Jesus; and the law-giver Moses, by the will of God had left the heavenly places to greet upon the mount of transfiguration the One, Who in His own Person, had magnified the law, and made it honorable.
So also with Elijah.
He had spoken the word of God.
From place to place he had journeyed, speaking to kings in their corruption, to courts in their degradation, and to individuals in their need, that one unceasing word, "Thus saith Jehovah." He had certainly been one of the most remarkable men in the history of the nation from the prophetic standpoint. God had spoken in times past by divers portions in the prophets, but by no man had He said more to the nation than by Elijah.
And now he stood upon the mount in converse with One Who had said to His disciples, "I am the truth," and concerning Whom Peter, on a subsequent occasion, speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit, said, " To Him bear all the prophets witness." Every word that had passed the lips of Elijah in the olden days had been but the spelling out in simple syllable and speech, of that which was embodied in the Person of Christ; and he stood now upon the mount to acknowledge that in this transfigured One, all the speech of heaven begins and ends, that in Him every prophecy of the past is fulfilled, and that the prophet of the days to come, will gather from this Man and His teaching, his inspiration and his power.
“Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they
were talking with Yeshua”
(Mark 9:4).
What is the significance?
The Torah requires two witnesses to establish a matter. Perhaps, Moses and Elijah function as the requisite two witnesses. The prophet Malachi mentions both names when predicting the coming of the day of the LORD:
Remember the Torah of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. (Malachi 4:4-5)
Perhaps Moses and Elijah represent the testimony
of the Torah and the Prophets respectively.
Moses wrote the Torah and Elijah acted as the quintessential prophet.
The Master referred to the dual testimony of the Torah and the Prophets frequently. For example: “Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27).
Moses and Elijah both climbed Mount Sinai, and both heard God speak on the mountain top.
Both Moses and Elijah have end-time roles. Elijah will come as the forerunner of the Messiah, and the Messiah will come as the prophet like Moses.
One obscure opinion even pairs
Moses and Elijah as heralds of the Messiah:
The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses:
“Moses, by your life, just as you have given your soul for Israel in this world, so in the future to come, when I bring them the prophet Elijah, the two of you will come as one.
(Deuteronomy Rabbah 3:17).
The apocalyptic tradition of the early believers seemed to expect Moses and Elijah to come during the turbulent period of the messianic birth pains. Two witnesses wielding the power of Moses and Elijah appear to herald the second coming in Revelation 11.
The appearance of Moses (who died) and Elijah (who did not die) constitutes testimony from both the living and the dead.
Messiah is “Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Romans 14:9).
Moses died on Mount Nebo,
and the LORD buried Him in the land of Moab. In what form did the dead Moses appear at the transfiguration? The resurrection of the righteous has not yet occurred, so one cannot say that Moses appeared in His resurrected state. Moses could only have appeared as a spiritual entity, disembodied yet recognizable in a human form.
Elijah, on the other hand, did not taste death but ascended into the sky in a whirlwind. Because he never died, he frequently makes cameo appearances in Jewish literature and folktales. The Spirit of the LORD might take “him up and cast him on some mountain” (2 Kings 2:16).
One never knows when Elijah might show up.
Jewish families set a place for him at the Passover Seder table and a reserve a chair for him at every circumcision ritual. In rabbinic literature, Jewish folklore, and the tales of the Chasidim, Elijah often appears to a rabbi or sage
to impart a revelation.
Likewise, he appeared at the time of the transfiguration.
Moses and Elijah did not appear simply to endorse Yeshua or impress the disciples. They came to relay important information to the Master.
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