Observe them carefully,
for thus will you give evidence
of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say,
'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.
This isn't what the nations think they will think about moral law. They think they will find a people subjugated and mindless, not able to think for themselves. But what they think they will find is not actually what they find. If we walk off a cliff to express our freedom from gravity it makes gravity no less real. If we walk off the cliff of sin in protest of the limits of morality we find that the realities and consequences it describes are no less real. Defying moral laws, just as with physical laws, does not give us more freedom but less. Keeping the laws allows us to stand firm as the forces of society press against us. Just as knowledge of the structures of chemistry and physics allow us to build better, stronger, and more efficient technology, so too does the law of God allow us to build better, stronger, and more efficient lives in this world.
Jesus did not come to take away the law.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
He came to perfectly fulfill the law. We ourselves learned the rules but could not keep them by our own strength. All of our moral technology was being overwhelmed by the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil. But not Jesus. Jesus overcomes the world! He conquers the devil. He puts sin to death in his own flesh. And he offers us union with himself so that we can share in his victory.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
Jesus is the greatest in the Kingdom. Our only greatness is found in union with him!
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
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