February 10, 2024 -- Matthew 5:17-18 -- Why keep the Old Testament Law?

17 “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. 18 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.
Matthew 5:17-18 ESV

Do Christians still have to keep the Law? I thought that was Old Testament stuff? Today’s passage is clear. Believers are commanded to keep the Law. Jesus Himself is reaffirming that in today's passage. It is by His perfect Law-keeping Jesus proves He is completely righteous, without sin so He is the only human ever Who can be the One Sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world.

Okay, for Jesus, it makes sense to keep the Law, and believers are blessed because He kept it perfectly. Do Christians keep the Law in order to make God happy or by it to somehow add to their salvation? To answer that you need to know why there is a Law at all? The purpose of the Law, in the Garden of Eden, was to guide Adam and Eve in their relationship with the Living God. They failed. They deserved death, the punishment of God. Instead, God withheld His immediate punishment, pouring out all His wrath on His Own Son, Jesus. For believers the Law is designed to help one walk in communion with God. Since God is your Father in Jesus Christ, the question can be asked: “how can I please my Father in heaven?” The Law and the Prophets (that is a short-hand for the whole Old Testament) point out how a believer walks in fellowship, in deep and true relationship, with the God of Heaven and Earth.

The Law has a purpose—it will be accomplished unto the glory of God. One day, when Jesus Christ returns, those who have been guided and instructed in the Law of God by the Spirit of God, kept in the Spirit’s power for obedience to Christ, will be free from sin and guilt, so that they will spend eternity in the blessed, joyful, wondrous presence of God. At the Judgment Seat of the Almighty, sinners and Lawbreakers who refused the work of Jesus will be thrown into the eternal lake of fire in hell. Believers, who by the righteousness of Christ have been given His righteousness, will look and realize how the Law of God was their guide and instructor in joy and all blessedness.

MY DEAR LORD
I depend wholly on You,
wean me from all other dependences.
You are my all, You overrule all and delight in me.
You are the foundation of goodness,
how can I distrust You?
How be anxious about what happens to me?
In the light of Your preciousness the world
and all its enjoyments are infinitely poor:
I value the favour of men no more than pebbles.
Amid the blessings I receive from You 
may I never lose the heart of a stranger.
May I love You, my Benefactor, in all my benefits,
not forgetting that my greatest danger arises from my advantages.
Produce in me self-despair that will make Jesus precious to me,
delightful in all His offices, pleasurable in all His ways,
and may I love His commands as well as His promises.
Help me to discern between true and false love,
the one consisting of supreme love to You, the other not,
the former uniting Your glory and man’s happiness
that they may become one common interest,
the latter disjointing and separating them both,
seeking the latter with neglect of the former.
Teach me that genuine love is different in kind
from that wrought by rational arguments or the motive of self-interest,
that such love is a pleasing passion
affording joy to the mind where it is.
Grant me grace to distinguish between the genuine and the false,
and to rest in You Who is all love.

Prayer from Valley of Vision

https://youtu.be/h-wYZLd_FIk?si=XIUKDIu3t2XjYhQS “Awake My Soul” Phillips, Craig, and Dean

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