Would you please turn with me and your Bibles to Matthew chapter five, Matthew chapter five, and we'll be working through verses 17 to 20. Let's begin by reading the text together. The Lord Jesus says, 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. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Amen, let us pray. Father, as we come now to your word, we pray that by your Holy Spirit, that you would nourish our souls, that you would grant to us understanding, that you would illuminate our minds. We pray that as we consider our relationship as your people to your law, that you would grant to us understanding. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. When it comes to the law, Theologians will often talk about the three uses of the law. You see, as you study the scriptures, you'll find that the law has really multiple functions. And what's the purpose of the law? Well, firstly, the law restrains evil. The law keeps people in check. We still, yes, transgress the law, and yet the law and a threat of punishment restrains sin. And the law provides for us at least some measure of justice that keeps our communities and the nations of this world from descending into absolute anarchy. That's the first use of the law. The second use of the law is that it exposes sin, humbles us, and drives us to Christ. that we might receive forgiveness and be reconciled to God in him. Through the law comes knowledge of sin, writes Paul. The law is like a mirror that reflects to us the perfect righteousness of Christ, thereby illuminating our own hopeless depravity. The law exposes our sin, the law condemns us. And while the law has no power to change us, the law at least teaches us that we cannot save ourselves. We must cast ourselves, therefore, upon God's mercy, his grace, his love. The third use of the law reminds us that the law is good. The law instructs us. teaching us what it means to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, and strength, and what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves. Now, while the law fulfills these multiple functions to restrain evil, to expose our sin and drive us to Christ, and to instruct us in the way of love, how does the law relate to the Christian life? How do each of these three uses of the law relate to the Christian life? If we misunderstand this issue, we will soon find ourselves in deep water. Overemphasizing one use of the law over another will soon veer us off course and land us in a ditch. This is especially true when it comes to the second and third uses of the law. Overemphasize the second use of the law, and you'll likely veer off course and fall into the ditch of antinomianism. Overemphasize the third use of the law, and you'll likely veer off course and find yourself landed in the ditch of legalism. As we continue working through the Sermon on the Mount, it's imperative that we understand how to apply the ethical instruction of Jesus Christ to our lives. So we'll proceed by highlighting the dangers of legalism and then antinomianism before seeking to answer how the law of God relates to the Christian life and what it means for Christ to fulfill the law and for us to fulfill the law in Christ. So then, first up, legalism. Legalism. What is legalism? Well, first of all, legalism can appear it can manifest itself in various forms, in various ways. When it comes to legalism, we must recognize that there is, in a sense, there are degrees of heinousness. In its most blatant, overtly heinous form, the legalist believes that we're saved by works, by our being good people. And I'd argue that in this country and throughout the world, the majority of people believe this. This is their hope, this is what their hope is founded upon. This belief, ask the average person if they're going to heaven, and most people will of course say yes, and ask them why, and they'll tell you, I believe that I'm a good person. They believe that God will accept them on the basis of their being good people. However, as Paul states, by works of the law, They are trying to be good people. No one will be justified because none is righteous. No, not one. Of course, when our lives are measured against the standard of God's law, the reality is that we find no one does good. No, not one, writes Paul. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. However, legalism can be far more nuanced and insidious than this. Think about Galatians. The legalism that Paul rails against is a form of legalism that still affirms the preeminence of grace, but states that grace must be supplemented by works. In the sense that the gracious, yes, the gracious work of Christ to redeem sinners is preeminent, yet it is insufficient. In order to be saved, we must likewise make a contribution. In the case of the Galatians, in order to be saved, they came to believe that they must supplement the gracious work of Christ with circumcision. And we read in Acts 15 that false teachers infiltrating and operating within the early church were proclaiming that unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. This form of legalism still affirms the necessity of grace. However, at the same time, it affirms the necessity of works in order to be justified. However, even if you affirm the preeminence of grace, and yet simultaneously, additionally rely upon your works as the foundation of your standing before God, in reality, you still stand condemned. In Galatians 3.10, the apostle writes, all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now, even Christians with right doctrine, with orthodox doctrine, can still struggle. and find themselves wrestling against what we might call a legalistic mindset, a legalistic disposition, a legalistic leaning. We can develop, for instance, an unhealthy obsession with obeying the rules in such a way that detaches law keeping from our relationship to the law giver. The do's and don'ts of the Christian life can be abstracted from our relationship to God. and our obedience can rather quickly become altogether mechanical and lifeless. Some Christians develop a rather unhealthy, obsessive preoccupation with law-keeping, rule-keeping that is devoid of love, and become over time ever increasingly motivated by fear, the fear of transgressing God's law, the fear of slipping up, the fear of getting caught, the fear that others might see our sin and think less of us. Therefore, what we might need are more rules, perhaps, more man-made commandments designed to hedge us in, designed to keep us from sinning. Of course, this is an abuse of the law. As we'll consider, that's not what it means to keep the law, to fulfill the law. An obsessive preoccupation with law-keeping devoid of love exposes an obsessive preoccupation with self, with self-protection or with self-promotion. Perhaps another way that a legalistic spirit can likewise rear its ugly head in the life of even a mature Christian is when, in pride, we look down upon others and we think of ourselves more highly than we ought. as though our righteousness, our Christlikeness, is somehow our accomplishment, something that we might ourselves boast in, as opposed to it being what it truly is, the gift of God. Our works, our good works, must never induce within us a sense of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is always the fruit of legalism. Legalism comes in many forms and many guises. And in all of its forms, legalism runs counter to the gospel. Legalism is anti-gospel. It's anti-grace. And it's the executioner of faith, true saving faith. Now, a legalist might point to this text that we've just read together in Matthew and point to it and say, well, this would justify my legalism. Of course, I think they'd be distorting and misinterpreting the text. But it could certainly be done. For instance, look again at verse 20. Jesus says, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You see, Jesus isn't teaching us that our righteousness grants us entry into the kingdom of heaven. He isn't teaching that. And Jesus isn't somehow saying that your righteousness, your works, are what secure you a place in the kingdom. Jesus isn't teaching us that the basis, the sure foundation of our standing before God is our own righteousness, our observance of the law. After all, remember what Jesus has just instructed us back in verse three. Back in verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You see, the chasm between sinless God and sinful man is, at least for us, insurmountable. Remember, to be poor in spirit means that we've come to terms with the reality of our own weakness, our own inability, our own spiritual bankruptcy. And therefore, we draw near to God as poor beggars. with empty hands, trusting not in ourselves, not trusting in our works, but trusting and wholeheartedly depending upon God and God's grace alone. And that's how we enter the kingdom, through confession, repentance, and faith. The righteous live by faith. As we'll see, the righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees is a righteous way of life that proceeds from faith and is filled with love and is itself, again, the gift of God. We've briefly touched upon legalism. Let's briefly explore the danger of antinomianism. What is antinomianism? Well, much like legalism, antinomianism manifests itself in various ways. Again, when it comes to antinomianism, we might recognize that there are degrees of heinousness. The word antinomianism is really constructed of two Greek words, anti meaning against and nomos meaning law. Antinomians are against the law. In its most blatant, overtly heinous form, antinomians reject the binding authority of God's law. Antinomians at their most extreme reject any and every law that would claim to have authority over their lives. In such people, we might consider to be anarchists, nihilists, or hedonists. Perhaps anger-fueled disruptors that seek to destroy all forms of authority, or pleasure seekers that rail against any hindrance in their quest to satisfy their own sinful desires. However, in a Christian context, antinomians argue that Christians are free from the law, and are therefore under no obligation to obey it. After all, doesn't the apostle teach us that we are not under law, but under grace? Grace means we're forgiven. In Christ, our sins, past and present and future, have been nailed to the cross, as the apostle writes. God has canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. Yes, we've been set free from condemnation. We've been set free from the law's legal demands upon our lives. In Christ, we're justified. We're forgiven. We're clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Therefore, the antinomian declares that the law isn't binding anymore. We're set free from it. It has no place in our lives. Of course, this would be another distortion, corruption of the gospel, and really a corruption of grace. Antinomianism presents us with really a withered, watered-down gospel that falls far short of the glory of God's amazing grace to us in Christ. The gospel isn't just a get-out-of-hell free card. The gospel makes demands upon our lives. And that's part and parcel of the good news. Antinomianism, easy-believism, cheapens God's grace. and it strips away the life-transforming power of the gospel. To quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship. At its worst, with antinomianism, you can supposedly repent once in your life, pray the sinner's prayer, and go on living like the devil. With biblical Christianity, You must come to Christ, take up your cross, and die to self. As Luther wrote in the first thesis of his 95 Theses, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, repent, he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. That is to say, the entire life of the Christian is to be marked by both mortification and vivification. By the grace of God, we are being renewed in the whole man after the image of God. And we are enabled thereby to put sin evermore to death in our lives. That's the work of mortification, putting sin to death. And we're enabled more and more by God's grace and by the presence of his Holy Spirit working in our lives to live evermore unto righteousness. That's the work of vivification. And it's the law of God that reveals to us what it means to live a righteous life. Of course, what we see in this text is that Jesus upholds the law. Look again with me at verses 17 to 19. Jesus proclaims, do not think that I've come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. In other words, he hasn't come to overthrow the law and the prophets, to tear them down and discard them, to cast them aside or replace them with something entirely new. I know he's come to fulfill the law and the prophets, and we'll consider what that means a little later. Verse 18, read along with me if you can. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. You see, Jesus hasn't come to diminish or to dilute the law. Jesus upholds the law in its fullness, in its entirety. The law reveals God's will. The law reflects to us the moral perfection of God's divine essence, his divine nature. Therefore, the will of God as it pertains to right and wrong, to good and evil, does not change. Although, as we'll see, the application of the law post-Christ does change. The civil and ceremonial aspects of the law are superseded or redefined. in the light of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Even so, we, like Christ, are taught to uphold the law. Verse 19, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. You see, we mustn't temper or tone down God's law. We mustn't make God's law to be somehow more palatable or digestible to people. As citizens of the kingdom, we are called to teach God's law. And as you'll remember, that is an integral part of the Great Commission. Part and parcel of making disciples, as we read at the end of Matthew's gospel, means teaching them to observe, to keep, to practice all that Jesus has commanded us. And we are called to embody the law of God in our lives. Jesus is clear, we mustn't only uphold the law and teach the law, but we must likewise practice the law of God. As citizens of God's kingdom, we pray, don't we? Our Father in heaven, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. However, before we can desire that God's will might be done out there somewhere, in the lives of those people out there somewhere, We must each of us first pray that prayer with the desire that God's will would be first and foremost done in here, in our own hearts, in our own lives. Anyone that claims to be a citizen of the kingdom and relaxes the law and teaches others to do the same is acting against the kingdom and living in rebellion against their king. Again, Antinomianism can be far more subtle and insidious than we oftentimes realize. When we fail to take sin seriously, when we fail to take righteous living seriously, we're drifting toward the ditch of antinomianism. We can make excuses for ourselves, can't we? We can give ourselves what we think is a free path. We might think to ourselves, well, it's only just a niddle sin. In the grand scheme of things, it's not really a big deal. It's just a little bit of gossip. You know, I haven't clicked on that website for a while. I know it's wrong, but surely God understands, and after all, I know that God will forgive me. In fact, in Christ, I know that I already am forgiven, justified in God's sight. We must cherish God's grace, but any time that we begin to start presuming upon God's grace in order to minimize or to justify our sinful behavior, we're drifting away from the gospel. Now, how can we take the law seriously without falling into legalism? Taking the law seriously, upholding the law, and yet not falling into legalism. And how can we take grace seriously without falling into antinomianism? Well, we must understand and we must keep coming back to the importance of the duplex gratia, the double grace of the gospel. The duplex gratia means the double grace. In Christ, we must see, we must understand, and we must keep coming back to the reality that we are both justified and sanctified. And you can't receive one grace without the other. You can't be justified but not be sanctified. And you can't be sanctified and not be justified. Because when you receive Christ, you receive both graces by virtue of being united with him. In fact, in Christ we receive, don't we, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. To quote John Calvin, from whom I'm borrowing this language of the duplex gratia, Calvin writes, But by partaking of him, that is Christ, we principally receive a double grace. Namely, that being reconciled to God through Christ's blamelessness, we may have in heaven, instead of a judge, a gracious father. And secondly, that sanctified by Christ's spirit, we may cultivate blessedness and purity of life. It's this duplex gratia, this double grace, justification and sanctification that respectively deals with the issues of both legalism and antinomianism. You see, justification destroys legalism. We're not saved by our works. We're saved through faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone. And sanctification destroys antinomianism. The spirit of Christ transforms our lives, conforming our wills to God's will. and empowering us to fulfill the law of Christ in our lives. So then, in Christ, we receive a new status, a new identity. In Christ, we're reconciled to God. Yes, we're forgiven and we're clothed with the very righteousness of Christ. But it's not only our status that's changed. In Christ, we receive a renewed nature. Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. The washing and renewal of the Holy Spirit, the regenerating work of the spirit, transforms our nature. We're raised from spiritual death to newness of life. And in Christ, we're empowered to walk in newness of life. This duplex gratia, this double grace, lies at the heart of the new covenant promises of Jeremiah 31 that we read together earlier. In regard to justification, God says, I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more. In regard to sanctification, God says, I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. Now it is right for us to emphasize the foundational importance of the doctrine of justification. However, it's likewise important for us to remember that justification and salvation are not synonymous terms. Salvation isn't less than justification, but salvation is much more than justification. And if we reduce the gospel to justification alone, or if we reduce the gospel to, say, sanctification alone, we'll end up with an incomplete gospel. We'll have an incomplete Christ. It's sometimes said, isn't it, that we must come to Christ just as we are. Come to Christ just as you are. And that's right. You know, it's not as though you need to clean up your life and reform your life before you can come to Christ. Simply come to him. If you're heavy laden, come to Christ. He'll receive you. That's his promise. He'll receive you and give you rest for your soul. However, Come to Christ as you are, but recognize that Christ will not leave you as you are. He'll change you. He'll transform your life. Your whole life will be turned upside down. He'll write the law of God upon your heart and cause you to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments. So then the way to keep yourself from falling into the ditch of legalism one hand or the ditch of antinomianism on the other, is to embrace the fullness of Christ, the fullness of Christ's redemptive work. In Christ, we're set free from the law's demands. The law cannot condemn us. We're forgiven, we're clothed both now and forever in the righteousness of Christ. However, in Christ, we must likewise seek to conform our lives to God's will. to fulfill the law in our lives. Both are true. Both realities come together in Christ. Now, would you look again with me at verse 17? Verse 17. Jesus says, do you not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets? I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Now, what does Jesus mean when he says that he's come to fulfill the law? Well, these words are often contested. The meaning of these words are often contested. Some commentators argue that Christ fulfills the law in the prophets through his obedience, through his keeping of the law, where we have failed Christ's triumphs. However, while it's true that Christ fulfills the law in this sense, in the context of these verses, The emphasis is not so much upon the work of Christ, but the teaching of Christ. Other commentators argue that fulfilling the law and the prophets means that Christ brings out the full meaning or extends the law's demands to a higher and more transcendent righteousness. However, this interpretation of the word fulfilled doesn't really align itself with Matthew's previous uses of the word. which signify Jesus' fulfillment of scripture and the redemptive purposes of God. So what's perhaps most likely is that Jesus has come to complete the law and the prophets, to complete them. The law and the prophets anticipated the fulfillment that is now being brought to reality with the coming of Christ. They progressively revealed to us the will of God. And Christ has now come to provide that ultimate, full, and final revelation of God's will to us. The law and the prophets were pointing forward, in many ways pointing beyond themselves. Therefore, in one sense, Jesus' teaching transcends the Old Testament revelation. However, far from abolishing it, his teaching represents its intended culmination, its intended fulfillment. The law then isn't abolished, it's not cast aside. The law is brought in Christ to its culmination. It is brought to its perfect expression. The law now finds its fullest expression in the teachings of Christ. And we must read the law and the prophets of old and apply the instruction of the law and the prophets of old to our lives in the light of Christ's coming, in the light of Christ's teaching. And yes, we must recognize that some of those Old Testament laws are now superseded and rendered obsolete with the coming of Christ. He hasn't cast them aside. He hasn't said they don't matter. They've simply been fulfilled in him in the way that they apply now differently, distinctly. Now, how then does Jesus summarize the moral instruction of the law and the prophets? And how can we, in Christ, being both justified and sanctified, fulfill the will of God as revealed in the law and the prophets, and fulfilled now in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Well, in Matthew 7, verse 12, Jesus says this. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Sounds rather simple, doesn't it? When we love our neighbor, we fulfill the law and the prophets. Of course, Jesus hasn't forgotten the first and the greatest commandment, to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. But the reality is that our love for God is really evidenced in our love for one another. It can oftentimes be all too easy to say, well, yes, I love God. I'm devoted to God. But I hate my brother. I want nothing to do with him or with her. The true meaning of love is revealed to us in the person and work of Christ. And it's love, it's Christ-like gospel-shaped love for God and neighbor that fulfills the law and the prophets. The thing that both legalists and antinomians have in common is the same. They both lack the same thing. They both lack love. Think about the parable of the prodigal son. The youngest son is an antinomian. He despises and rejects his father in favor of living a life of lawlessness. The oldest son is a legalist. He lives a life of duty, yes, but his obedience was of a mechanical and altogether lifeless sort. He only focused on the external, on the superficial. He was motivated by, in the end, self-interest. What could he get out of his obedience to his father? His obedience was hollow and empty. Neither of them loved their father. Sinners either reject God and run and hide from God or else use God as a means to an end. Amazingly, it's the love of God that overcomes our hard hearts and transforms our lives. God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We learn to love, don't we? Because God first loved us. And it's the love of God revealed to us in Christ that must motivate and empower our love for God and neighbor. The love of God sets us free from selfishness. It sets us free from fear. When we experience God's love for us in Christ, we learn what love really means. And we'll be empowered to reflect that love back to God and to our neighbor. You see, it's the gospel that empowers us to fulfill the law. We don't cast aside the law. The gospel empowers us to fulfill it. Our justification sets us free from self-righteousness. We no longer need to use the law as a means of self-protection or self-promotion. We're not trying to earn something anymore by our observance of the law, to selfishly gain something for ourselves by means of our obedience. Because of our justification, the law can now instruct us without condemning us. We can delight ourselves in the law without fear of condemnation. And even when we stumble and fall short of the love of Christ, we must then remember that we are forgiven and clothed in his righteousness. However, our sanctification delivers us evermore from our own sinful desires. By God's grace, our hearts are being evermore purified. We are being transformed from one degree of glory to another so that we might be motivated to love God and neighbor with a pure and with a wholehearted devotion. Our capacity to fulfill the law is the gift of God to us in Christ that we receive through faith. And yes, while we still stumble and oftentimes fall, perhaps, into the ditch of legalism or find ourselves falling, perhaps, into the ditch of antinomianism, if we belong to Christ, the promise is that he will always pursue us and rescue us, and he will keep setting our feet upon the narrow way. and the good work that God has begun in each of our lives, he will one day see through to its completion, so that one day we will truly fulfill the law, even as Christ himself fulfills the law, and will walk in the way of perfect and sinless love, love for God and love for neighbor. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank you for your amazing grace to us in Christ. that in our Lord Jesus Christ we are justified, that we are forgiven our sins and clothed with his righteousness. And we thank you that also, in your amazing grace, you are at work to transform our lives. You have granted by your Holy Spirit to us newness of life. We have been raised from death to life, that we might now walk in newness of life, that we ourselves might be motivated not by sinful, selfish desires, but by pure, desires, the desire that you would be glorified in our lives, the desire that we would be able to love our neighbor. We thank you that you have set our hearts at liberty, that we might love you, that we might love our neighbor, that in our Lord Jesus Christ we might begin to fulfill the law in our lives. And Father, we pray that you would be at work by your Holy Spirit to continue to sanctify us to continue to work in us your law, that your law would be written upon our hearts. Help us to not get caught up with, just in a very mechanical way, going through the commandments, the things that we need to do in the Christian life, in a way that is abstracted from our relationship to you. Keep and guard our hearts from that kind of legalism. But would it be that in every act of obedience, Our obedience would be the overflow of our love and our devotion to you, not because we're seeking to gain something from you, not because we're seeking to exalt ourselves, but because we delight ourselves in you, and that that is the greatest gift that we could ever ourselves think, that we might be able to glorify you and enjoy you in our lives. So be with us, bless us, and help us, we do pray in Jesus' name.