This week's "thought" comes to you from
what has become a Christian Classic for many people. It was written by
the World War II pastor, theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
-- a German citizen who was killed for his outspoken opposition
to Hitler and the Nazi regime. It's called "The
Cost of Discipleship."
Though the entire book is good, I chose this
particular selection because it helps clarify a portion of Scripture that has
tended to confuse many people.There are probably few issues more difficult to explain completely than the New Testament believers relationship to the Old Testament law. One example (which is incorrect) was actually stated like this in an online post: "And if you ignore the laws of the Old Testament, which is what we are supposed to do since Jesus died..." Another common way of saying it is: "In Jesus the OT law was done away with completely and has no place in the believers life." Such statements abound in our day, making it clear how important it is to correctly understand Jesus words here.
In this selection Bonhoeffer seeks to explain Jesus' statement from Matthew 5:17-20: "Do not think I came to abolish the law or the prophets, I did not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter or stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks the least of these commandments or teachers others to do so, 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."
Bonhoeffer
does an admirable job explaining it. I have had to shorten it
drastically, and thus leave out some important sections of his argument.
Therefore, reading chapter 8 of his book is advised. After all, it
wouldn't hurt to have a copy of such a classic on your bookshelf for easy
reference! Enjoy.
Speaking
of the above cited passage from Matthew 5, Bonhoeffer states: "How is
this to be understood? We know that Jesus is speaking to his own
followers, to men who owe an exclusive allegiance to himself...
Discipleship means adherence to Jesus Christ alone, and immediately. But
now comes the surprise -- the disciples are also bound to the Old Testament
law. This has a double significance. First, it means that
adherence to the law is something quite different from the following of Christ,
and secondly, it means that any adherence to his person that disregards
the law is equally removed from the following of him. Jesus himself
points to the law those whom he has granted his whole promise and his whole
fellowship. And because it is their Lord who does this, they are bound to
acknowledge the law.... To abandon the law would be to separate ourselves from
him... Every letter of it, every jot and tittle, must remain in force and
be observed until the end of the world.
But there is a "better righteousness" which
is expected of Christians. Without it none can enter into the kingdom of
heaven, for it is the indisputable condition of discipleship. None can
have this better righteousness but those to whom Christ is speaking here, those
whom he has called. The call of Christ, in fact Christ himself, is the
sine qua non of this better righteousness [He is the necessary condition
without which it is impossible]. This is why up until now Jesus has said
nothing about himself in the Sermon on the Mount. Between the disciples
and the better righteousness demanded of them stands the Person of Christ, who
came to fulfill the law of the old covenant. This is the fundamental
proposition of the whole Sermon on the Mount. Jesus manifests his perfect union
with the will of God as revealed in the Old Testament law and prophets. He has,
in fact, nothing to add to the commandments of God, except this, that he keeps
them. He fulfills the law... down to the last iota.... He alone
understands the true nature of the law as God's law. The law is not
itself God, nor is God the law. It was the error of Israel put the
law in God's place, making the law their God, and their God a law. The
disciples were confronted with the opposite danger -- of divorcing God from his
law. Both [are] errors....
Jesus,
the Son of God, who alone lives in perfect communion with [God],
vindicates the law of the old covenant by coming to fulfill it. He
was the only Man who ever fulfilled the law, and therefore he alone can teach
the law and its fulfillment aright... By pointing his disciples to the
law which he alone fulfills, he forges a further bond between himself and
them. He rejects the notion that men can cleave to him and be free from
the law, for that spells enthusiasm, and far from leading to adherence to
Jesus, means libertarianism... (ie: the idea that the Christian can live any way he
or she wants, or that Jesus fulfilled the law for us so that we could justify
our sin, go on living immoral lives, and then get heaven thrown in on top of it
all).
Now
we must ask, how exactly does the righteousness of the Pharisees differ from
that of the disciples?... The Pharisees idea of righteousness was a direct,
literal and practical fulfillment of the commandment. Their ideal was to
model their behavior exactly on the demands of the law. Of course they
knew they could never realize that ideal, there was bound to be an excess which
needed forgiveness of sins to cover it. Their obedience was never more
than imperfect.... But the disciples [whose own righteous efforts could only
take the form of obedience to the law as well] had an advantage over the Pharisee
in that his doing of the law is in fact perfect.
How is such a thing possible? Because
between the disciples and the law stands one who has perfectly fulfilled it,,
one with whom they live in communion. They are not faced with a law which has
never yet been fulfilled, but with one whose demands have already been
satisfied. The righteousness it demands is already there -- the righteousness
of Jesus... This righteousness is therefore not a duty owed, but a
perfect and truly personal communion with God, and Jesus not only possesses
this righteousness, but is himself the personal embodiment of it. He is
the righteousness of the disciples. By calling them he has admitted them to
partnership with himself, and made them partakers of his righteousness in its
fullness. That is what Jesus means when he prefaces his teaching on
the "better righteousness" with reference to his own fulfillment of
the law.
Of
course the righteousness of the disciples can never be a personal
achievement. It is always a gift, which they received when they were
called to follow him. In fact, their righteousness consists precisely in
following him, and in the beatitudes the reward of the kingdom of heaven has
been promised to it. It is a righteousness under the cross. It
belongs only to the poor, the tempted, the hungry, the meek, the peacemakers,
the persecuted -- who endure their lot for the sake of Jesus. It is the
visible righteousness of those who for the sake of Jesus are the light of the
world and the city set on the hill. This is where the righteousness
of the disciple exceeds that of the Pharisees -- it is grounded solely upon the
call to fellowship with him who alone fulfills the law.... In a word (the
better righteousness) means following Christ. It is the real and active
faith in the righteousness of Christ. It is the new law, the law of
Christ."
In
the modern day Church there are some who still do as the Pharisees did
and essentially make the law a god, and their god the law. They set it
before people's eyes and suggest that obedience to it can save or put one right
with God (what we call legalism). It's an error the faithful need always
oppose. Yet far more commonly the contemporary Church has -- as
Bonhoeffer says of the early disciples -- divorced or separated
God from his law, often using Christ's fulfillment of it as the
justification for doing exactly what it forbids. This understanding is an
equally distressing error, and in light of this passage, something Jesus would
never advocate.
God
is not the law and the law is not God. Obedience to it cannot save us,
nor earn us God's favor. Neither does it have the power to condemn those
who are in Christ Jesus. But what we often fail to realize is that in
growing in sanctification, or maturing in godliness, or Christ-likeness, we are
coming to fulfill the law -- for what is the life of Jesus but a life lived in
perfect obedience to it? And the whole time that the fruit of spiritual
growth is maturing in us, our shortcomings are covered by the righteousness of the One
who perfectly fulfilled it in our place.
Yours in the Joy of Following Jesus, Pastor Jeff
