Wednesday, March 23, 2022

23 March 2022 - law, but ordered


Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

Jesus spoke this as a disclaimer early on in his Sermon on the Mount. After all, with all of the pairs of "You've have heard it said" and "But I tell you", the disciples might well have suspected that he was in fact about the business of abolishing the law. Yet even those things which did not remain the same pointed forward toward a greater fulfillment in Christ and in his teachings. Jesus himself said that the law and the prophets were summarized by the commandment to love God and love neighbor. The life Jesus lived perfectly demonstrated the fulfillment of this law of love, and enabled others who would share in Christ's life through baptism to fulfill it as well.

Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.

Even the ritual aspects of the law that are no longer binding on Christians, Jewish feasts, ceremonial laws, circumcision, and the rest, remain eminently valid and important for understanding Jesus himself. He did not step onto the seen over and against the Old Testament as though it were unenlightened and in need of correction. He was not opposed to the God of the Old Testament as though the God and Father of Jesus in the New Testament was someone else. Jesus did help us to see more clearly that the face of God was primarily one of mercy more than wrath, that of a Father more than a master. But in doing this he was following the trajectory already present in the Old and bringing it to a full exposition.

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (see John 14:9).

On the one hand the difference Jesus made was so significant that the author of the of  Hebrews called the Old Covenant obsolete, and in the sense of that author it was. The Old Covenant did not have the ability to provide grace that would make the law anything other than a burden. But in another sense the Old Covenant remains perennially valid. The Spirit  now dwells within us to change us from the inside out into those who are able to keep the law from our hearts, who in fact want to do so. For us, in whom the righteous requirements of the law are thus fulfilled, (see Romans 8:4) the commandments are transformed from burdens into blessings.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome (see First John 5:3).

Now, for those of us who live by grace, the commandments can finally fulfill their true purpose. They allow us to live in the freedom of the sons and daughters of God in the promised land of his Kingdom.

Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

For us the law represents precious wisdom that ought to resonate with the presence of the Spirit in our souls as we find guidance to become the "wise and intelligent people" that we are meant to be. For us, finally, because of the fulfillment brought by Jesus Christ, the law allows us to draw near to the Lord, our God, and keeps from us anything that what threaten that relationship as our highest good. We would therefore do well to take the advice of Moses given to the people.

“However, take care and be earnestly on your guard
not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen,
nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live,
but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.”


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