CHRIST The Fulfillment of The Law

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CHRIST The Fulfillment of The Law
Matthew 517-20
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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. I tell you the truth, until
heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest
letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by
any means disappear from the Law until everything
is accomplished. Anyone who breaks 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 practices and teaches
these commands will be called great in the
kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless
your righteousness surpasses that of the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will
certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
(Matt. 517-20)
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The BAD News
For I tell you that unless your righteousness
surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers
of the law, you will certainly not enter the
kingdom of heaven. (Matt.
517-20)
ABSOLUTE IDEAL Gods IMPOSSIBLE Standard
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Pharisees and teachers of the law competed with
one another in strictness. They had atomized
Gods law into 613 rules 248 commands and 365
prohibitions and bolstered these rules with
1521 emendations. To avoid breaking the third
commandment, You shall not misuse the name of
the Lord, they refused to pronounce Gods name
at all. To avoid sexual temptation they had a
practice of lowering their heads and not looking
at women (the most scrupulous of these were known
as bleeding Pharisees because of frequent
collisions with walls and other obstacles). To
avoid defiling the Sabbath they outlawed 39
activities that might be construed as work. How
could an ordinary persons righteousness ever
surpass that of such professional holy men?
(Philip Yancey)
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ABSOLUTE IDEAL Gods IMPOSSIBLE Standard
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in
Moses seat. So you must obey them and do
everything they tell you. But do not do what they
do, for they do not practice what they preach
Everything they do is done for men to see they
make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on
their garments long they love the place of
honour at banquets and the most important seats
in the synagogues they love to be greeted in the
market-places and to have men call them
Rabbi. (Matt. 232-3, 5-7)
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ABSOLUTE IDEAL Gods IMPOSSIBLE Standard
... on the outside you appear to people as
righteous but on the inside you are full of
hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matt.
2328)
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees,
you hypocrites!
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ABSOLUTE IDEAL Gods IMPOSSIBLE Standard

• Radical Righteousness
• Righteousness that surpasses that
• of the Pharisees and teachers of
• the law
• Not quantitative but qualitative
• Inward, of the heart

You have heard that it was said, Do not commit
adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks
at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. (Matt. 527-28)
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ABSOLUTE IDEAL Gods IMPOSSIBLE Standard
Radical Righteousness
Using the Torah as a starting point, Jesus pushed
the law in the same direction, further than any
Pharisee had dared push it, further than any monk
has dared live it. The Sermon on the Mount
introduced a new moon in the moral universe that
has exerted its own force of gravity ever since.
Jesus made the law impossible for anyone to keep
and then charged us to keep it. (Philip
Yancey)
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ABSOLUTE IDEAL Gods IMPOSSIBLE Standard
Radical Righteousness
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth
disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least
stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from
the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone
who breaks 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
practices and teaches these commands will be
called great in the kingdom of heaven.
(Matt. 518-19)
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ABSOLUTE IDEAL Gods IMPOSSIBLE Standard
3 Absolutes Absolute Permanence until heaven
and earth disappear Absolute Fulfillment
until everything is accomplished Absolute
Authority Anyone who breaks
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles
at just one point is guilty of breaking all of
it. (Jas. 210)
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ABSOLUTE IDEAL Gods IMPOSSIBLE Standard
The Curse of the Law
Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in
his sight by observing the law rather, through
the law we become conscious of sin.
(Rom. 320) law brings wrath. And where there
is no law there is no transgression. (Rom.
415)
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ABSOLUTE IDEAL Gods IMPOSSIBLE Standard
The Curse of the Law
All who rely on observing the law are under a
curse, for is written Cursed is everyone who
does not continue to do everything written in the
Book of the Law. (Gal. 310) for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God
(Rom. 323)
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The GOOD News
Having fallen from the absolute Ideal, we have
nowhere to land but in the safety net of absolute
grace. (Philip Yancey)
ABSOLUTE GRACE Gods INCREDIBLE Gift
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. (Matt. 517)
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ABSOLUTE GRACE Gods INCREDIBLE Gift
But when the time had fully come, God sent his
Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to
redeem those under the law, that we might receive
the full rights of sons. (Gal. 44-5)
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ABSOLUTE GRACE Gods INCREDIBLE Gift
He succeeded where we had failed And in him is no
sin. (1 Jn. 35) He became a curse for our
sake Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law
by becoming a curse for us, for it is written
Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.
(Gal. 313) God made him who had no sin to be
sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 521)
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ABSOLUTE GRACE Gods INCREDIBLE Gift
Gods Love Justness Revealed
If God were not just, there would be no demand
for his Son to suffer and die. And if God were
not loving, there would be no willingness for his
Son to suffer and die. But God is both just and
loving. Therefore his love is willing to meet the
demands of his justice. (John Piper,
Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die)
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ABSOLUTE GRACE Gods INCREDIBLE Gift
This is love not that we loved God, but that he
loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice
for our sins. (1 Jn.
410) God presented him as a sacrifice of
atonement, through faith in his blood. He did
this to demonstrate his justice, because in his
forbearance he had left the sins committed
beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate
his justice at the present time, so as to be just
and the one who justifies those who have faith in
Jesus. (Rom. 325-26)
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ABSOLUTE GRACE Gods INCREDIBLE Gift
Gifts of Grace
Being justified before God and being forgiven by
God are not identical. To be justified in a
courtroom is not the same as being forgiven.
Being forgiven implies that I am guilty and my
crime is not counted. Being justified implies
that I have been tried and found innocent. My
claim is just. I am vindicated. The judge says,
Not guilty. Justification is not merely the
cancellation of my unrighteousness. It is also
the imputation of Christs righteousness to me. I
do not have a righteousness that commends me to
God.
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ABSOLUTE GRACE Gods INCREDIBLE Gift
My claim before God is this not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law,
but that which comes through faith in Christ
(Phil. 39). What does it mean that God made
the sinless Christ to be sin? It means our sin
was imputed to him, and thus he became our
pardon. And what does it mean that we (who are
sinners) become the righteousness of God in
Christ? It means, similarly, that Christs
righteousness is imputed to us, and thus he
became our perfection. (John Piper, Fifty
Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die)
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Conclusion
Jesus proclaimed unmistakably that Gods law is
so perfect and absolute that no one can achieve
righteousness. Yet Gods grace is so great that
we do not have to. By striving to prove how much
they deserve Gods love, legalists miss the whole
point of the gospel, that it is the gift from God
to people who dont deserve it. The solution to
sin is not to impose an ever-stricter code of
behaviour. It is to know God. (Philip Yancey)
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Gods Word To

• Those who do not yet know Jesus
• Those who already know Jesus
• To FPBC
• Be distinct
• Be my witness