Matthew 5:17-20
Mat 5:17-20 Our King honours his Father's Law He took care to revise and reform the laws of men; but the law of God he established and confirmed.
17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, hut to fulfil. The Old Testament stands in all its parts, both as to "the law and the prophets,," The Lord Jesus knew nothing of "destructive criticism." He establishes in its deepest sense all that is written in Holy Scripture, and puts a new fulness into it. This ho says before he proceeds to make remarks upon the sayings of men of old time. He is himself the fulfilment and substance of the types, and prophecies, and commands of the law.
18. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Not a syllable is to become effete. Even to the smallest letters, the dot of every "i", and the crossing of every "t", the law will outlast the creation. The Old Testament is as sacredly guarded as the New. "The Word of the Lord endureth for ever." Modern critics have set themselves an impossible task in their endeavour to get rid of the inspiration of the whole sacred volume, or of this book, or that chapter, or that verse; for the whole shall come forth of their furnace as silver purified seven times.
19. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Our King has not come to abrogate the law, but to confirm and reassert it. His commands are eternal; and if any of the teachers of it should through error break his law, and teach that its least command is nullified, they will lose rank, and subside into the lowest place. The peerage of his kingdom is ordered according to obedience. Not birth, knowledge, or success will make a man great; but humble and precise obedience, both in word and in deed. "Whosoever shall do and teach," he is the man who "shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.'17 Hence the Lord Jesus does not set up a milder law, nor will he allow any one of his servants to presume to do so. Our King fulfils the ancient law, and his Spirit works in us to will and to do of God's good pleasure as set forth in the immutable statutes of righteousness.
Lord, make me of this thy kingdom a right loyal subject, and may I both "do and teach "according to thy Word! Whether I am little or great on earth, make me great in obedience to thee.
20. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
We cannot even "enter the kingdom "and begin to be the Lord's, without going beyond the foremost of the world's religionists. Believers are not to be worse in conduct, but far better than the most precise legalists. In heart, and even in act, we are to be superior to the law-writers, and the law-boasters. The kingdom is not for rebels, but for the exactly obedient. It not only requires of us holiness, reverence, integrity, and purity, but it works all these in our hearts and lives. The gospel does not give us outward liberty to sin because of the superior excellence of a supposed inner sanctity; but the rather it produces outward sanctity through working in our inmost soul a glorious freedom in the law of the Lord.
What a king we have in Jesus! What manner of persons ought we to be who avow ourselves to be in his holy kingdom! How conservative ought we to be of our Father's revealed will! How determined to allow no trifling with the law and the prophets!