Sermon on the Mount: 3rd Blessing

MATTHEW 5:17-20 

CHRISTIAN RIGHTEOUSNESS 

 So far Jesus has spoken of a Christian’s character and of his influence in the world if he displays this character and if the fruit of that display is good works. He now proceeds to define further these things in terms of righteousness. He explains that He has already mentioned righteousness twice in that His followers hunger after it and suffer because of it. Now He teaches that the righteousness is a conformity to God’s moral law and it exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees. The good works are works of obedience. 

This teaching is of prime importance because it brings light on the relation of the Old Testament to the New Testament, and between the Law and the Gospel. This teaching is divided into two parts. First we are taught the matter of Christ and the Law and second we are taught the matter of the Christian and the Law. 

CHRIST AND THE LAW 

Jesus begins by teaching that He has not come to abolish the Law and the prophets, which would be the Old Testament or any part of it. 

From the very beginning of His ministry people had been struck by His authority. People asked “what is this” and noted that “even the unclean spirits obey Him”. So it would have been natural for them to ask what is His actual relation to the law of Moses and His authority. From the start of His earthly ministry Jesus spoke with His own authority. Here Jesus gives the answer to this matter that was evident in His day and is commonly asked in our day. 

The OT contains teaching of doctrine, normally translated as “law”. This means revealed instruction and the OT does indeed reveal and instruct us about God and man. But it allowed only a partial revelation. Jesus fulfilled it by bringing it to completion in His person, His teaching, and His work. 

The OT also contains prophecy, most of it looking forward to the Messiah to come. It foretells Him in actual promise and also in type. His very words here, “I have come” reveal the truth that He had come to fulfill scripture, not to abolish it. The ultimate end to this truth was the cross in which the entire ceremonial system of the OT, both in priesthood and sacrifice, was perfectly filled. After Him both systems ended. 

The OT also contains ethical teaching of the moral Law of God. Jesus fulfilled all of this teaching by His perfect obedience to these teachings. His purpose was not to change the Law, but to reveal the full depth of its meaning. He fulfills it by declaring the radical demands of the righteousness of God. For the rest of the Sermon He stresses this matter by using many examples. 

The apostle Paul understood this matter clearly as taught that Christ was the “end of the Law” (Romans 10:4) meaning that acceptance with God is not through obedience to rules but is found only through faith in Christ. 

THE CHRISTIAN AND THE LAW 

Jesus now goes even further in His teaching. Not only is greatness in the kingdom noted by a righteousness which conforms to the Law, but entry into the kingdom is impossible without a conformity better than the scribes and Pharisees, for God’s kingdom is one of righteousness. 

Christian righteousness far exceeds Pharisee righteousness in kind rather than in degree. It is so because it is deeper, being a righteousness of the heart. The Pharisees thought an external conformity to rules would be righteousness enough. Jesus most clearly taught that this belief was insufficient. 

Now this deep obedience, which is a righteousness of the heart, is possible only in those whom the Holy Spirit has regenerated and now indwells. This is why entry into God’s kingdom is impossible without a righteousness greater (deeper) that that of the Pharisees. It is because such righteousness is evidence of a new birth, and no one enters the kingdom without being born again (John 3:3). 

Further, Jesus says all promises must be kept and all people must be loved, without exception. The Pharisees had obscured and distorted the Law of God to suit their own position, twisting the Law to put a heavy yoke around the necks of the people. Jesus has restored the Law to its original integrity. In this matter, Christians must follow Christ, not the Pharisees. 

Jesus never disagreed with the understanding that the Pharisees believed in the authority of the Law. What He disagreed with was their interpretation of it. In the strongest possible way, Jesus asserted its authority as God’s written calling to His people and now, through His Messiah, God was calling His own to accept its true and far deeper interpretation. This acceptance is only seen through faith in the One who was sent by the Father to fulfill it.