Have You Not Read S2E18 - Three Uses of the Law

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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Welcome to Have You Not Read, a podcast seeking to answer questions from the text of Scripture for the honor of Christ and the edification of the

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Saints. Before we dig into our topic, we humbly ask you to rate, review, and share the podcast.

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Thank you. I'm Chris Giesler and with me is Michael Durham. And we have a question from one of our listeners.

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It states, can you elaborate on the law's historic reformed understanding having three uses, a mirror, civil restraint, schoolmaster for the believer.

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Is this a correct understanding of God's law and what is the gospel's relationship to it?

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Yeah, so here's a good question about the historic reformed understanding of the law.

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What good is it? What is its use? How are we to properly apply it?

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After all, all Scripture is God -breathed, inspired by God.

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All Scripture, including the law, is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

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So all of God's law is good for telling us what is true, where we're wrong, how to get right, how to live

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His way. And so, how are we to understand the law? And if we're going to talk about the historic reformed understanding of the law, we have to not only talk about three uses, but three parts.

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Because in the understanding of the law in a historic reformed fashion, there's going to be a qualifier about how we are to understand the law's use today and the significance of the meaning of the law.

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There's an idea that was floated and worked with Thomas Aquinas, who was the great

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Roman doctor of the Roman Catholic Church, that was agreed with and adopted and pursued and developed by Calvin and those who followed him, that there was a tripartite division in the law.

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That there was the ceremonial part of the law, there was a civil part of the law, and then there was the moral part of the law.

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And that when we see the transition happen, the great transition because of Christ happen, and people describe it in different ways, but when we see that transition occur, one of the things that everybody really agrees on is that the ceremonial aspects of the law are not to be continued.

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We do not continue to offer the animal sacrifices, not because we're trying to be lawless, but that they're fulfilled in Christ.

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And then what about the civil aspects of the law? What about that instruction, you know, about if so -and -so does such -and -such?

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Well, then everybody gets together and they stone him. So is that, you know, hey, we don't want to be lawless.

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I'm just keeping the law. Just keeping the law, you know. How would you understand that? That's a very complicated issue, is it not?

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And then there's the moral part of the law, which seems the least controversial. Hey, the

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Ten Commandments, you know, pretty good stuff. When people follow the Ten Commandments, we have a great society, and we don't follow the

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Ten Commandments, everything gets really bad. So in describing the law in three parts, typically the moral law especially is isolated from the other two parts.

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Often both of those are seen as fulfilled, abrogated, that they have passed away in the movement from the

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Old Covenant to the New. Of course, if you're of certain covenantal persuasion, you would say things like moving from the older administration to the newer administration of the covenant.

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Or you might say there's an Older Testament and a Newer Testament with an emphasis on the unity between the

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Scriptures. And indeed there is a unity, there is a harmony of the Scriptures. But if, let's say, someone holds to the ceremonial law and the civil law having been fulfilled in Christ, have been abrogated, have passed away, however they want to say it, but then the moral law is still active and authoritative, then this question comes into play.

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That's where this question is landing. This question is not talking about the ceremonial and the civil portions of the law.

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Because in the historic reformed understanding of the law, it's the moral law that plays the three roles in our life and the lives of people.

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And what do they call it again? There is the first use of the law, which

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I believe is described as a mirror. And it shows us how sinful we are.

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I remember there's a great illustration by Donald Gray Barnhouse about the use of the law. The law can't save you, but the law certainly shows you you need to be saved, like a mirror.

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You look in the mirror, you see how filthy your face is. But that mirror isn't going to save you, isn't going to clean your face, isn't going to fix the problem.

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So the law is a mirror. The law also has a use for the civil restraint.

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Civil restraint in terms of society, what if everybody was under the impression that you shouldn't commit adultery?

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That'd be nice. Boy, yeah, that'd be a whole different world in which we live, right?

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A civil restraint restraining evil and the providence of God holding it back. And then we also have the schoolmaster.

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The third use of the law, a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, which is a language that we find in the book of Galatians.

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And in this sense, in general, the historic reformed understanding is that the law is good for restraining evil in society.

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The law is good to show individual men that they are sinners in need of a

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Savior. And then once they're saved, the law is really helpful to conform us to Christ, to be used in our sanctification, in our conformity, in growth and godliness.

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Now are you saying that the historic reform position is that the moral law does those three things?

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Yes, in particular. Now you can broaden that out a little bit because there's going to be a lot of diversity in that.

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I was generalizing because for those who are theonomists, they're going to be bringing in that civil law as well, right?

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So the civil law of Israel is in need for implementation in society today to be that restraint and so on.

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If we're going to have laws, let's use the ones that God has on the books. And of course, we recognize there's a lot of wisdom there that can be derived from those passages.

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So they would probably point to places in the New Testament where Paul quotes parts of the civil law? Yes, and that's very interesting, and I think we need to take a look at that as part of this discussion.

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So when we begin to try to understand the historic reform position, the first thing that we need to recognize is that when the

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Old Testament talks about the law, there is no tripartite division, right?

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So there is no dividing up of the law into various parts. We do not have a list, for instance, in Leviticus, and Leviticus 11 has all the ceremonial laws,

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Leviticus 12 has the civil laws, and then Leviticus 13 has all the moral laws. We don't get that.

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We don't get lists that are neatly separated from one another in that way. And in fact, even when you think about the

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Ten Commandments, which the historic reform position would be that the Ten Commandments are the moral law, including the

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Sabbath as a moral commandment rooted in creation and derived from God's grace in Israel's life and delivering them from Egypt.

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But even if you read the Ten Commandments there in Exodus 20, when you read Exodus 19 through 24, when you just read the text, and it helps to read it out loud, you move from the

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Ten Commandments into all sorts of rules and standards in addition to the Ten Commandments, and when you get to chapter 24, then

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Moses says, now this is the book of the covenant, right? So it's all together, right?

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It doesn't, you know, things that we would call moral, things that we would call ceremonial, things that we would call civil, all together as one book of the covenant, one law.

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And so then when we move forward throughout the Old Testament, it is treated as a unit. The law is a unit.

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When we get into the New Testament, the law is treated as a unit. There are times that the Ten Commandments are highlighted as representative of the entirety of the law because they stand as a measure of the covenant.

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The Ten Commandments were written on two tablets of stone, one the copy of God, one the copy for the people, as was suzerain treaties were done in that time of a master over his vassals, and the copy was placed in the ark.

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Well, the Ten Commandments were called the covenant. The Ten Commandments were called the testimony. So when they were put into the ark, the ark was called the ark of the covenant, the ark of the testimony.

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So when we understand that the law is a unit and we get to the New Testament, how does Jesus talk about it?

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How do the apostles talk about it? Well, Jesus, when he talks about the law, and we're gonna get to Matthew 5 in a moment, he gives examples that are, you know, from what people would call the moral, but he also gives examples from what people would call the civil.

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Let every word be established by two witnesses. Well, that's from the civil portion, but here Jesus is quoting it, and calling it the law ever as much as he called the moral portions the law.

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Paul does the same thing. Yeah, I think of the Pharisees asking about marriage, he talks about a certificate of divorce, and that'd be civil.

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Yes, exactly, and so you have a civil issue there, and so interestingly enough,

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Jesus goes back before the law was given and says, but from the beginning it was not so. So he actually has something to say before Moses there.

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But when we get into, just for example, when we get to Galatians, we really need to begin to think about this, because if the law is a unit, and we're not simply talking about the

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Ten Commandments, but we're talking about the whole law, and that's the way that the Scriptures naturally read, we're not going to impose some sort of foreign structure upon the text.

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We're just gonna let the text speak for itself. So the law is a unit. Now the question is about the historic performed three uses of the law.

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And in particular, let's think about that third use of the law.

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Is the law of God, and again it's in its whole unit form, in its full fashion, civil, ceremonial, moral, we use those categories, but those are artificial.

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Is that law designed for the Christian sanctification?

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Right, that's the question. Right. All right, so let's read. So Galatians 3 verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

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So when you take the law on its own terms, and you let the law speak for itself, the law says, if you don't do everything in the law, you get cursed.

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Okay. Sounds like James. You fall at one point. Yeah, exactly. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith.

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And I'd say historic reformed position would give a big hearty amen to that.

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You can't be justified by the law, right? You can't keep the law perfectly to be righteous. Big hearty amen there.

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We continue on. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them.

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Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

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The blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the

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Spirit through faith. Now Paul is establishing a very important principle here about the Christian's understanding of the law and how one is made right with God.

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After all, he's dealing with the Galatian heresy, where they're bringing in circumcision as a requirement to be united to the

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Jewish Messiah. Well, you better get that Jewish symbol and sign of circumcision. And he's saying, no, we're not going to go back to the things of the law, right?

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We're going to recognize that we're made righteous by faith in Jesus. And so he says, this is for the

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Gentiles in Christ Jesus, we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith, right? Not through works, not through taking the sign of circumcision, that's not how we're saved.

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So then he continues on, and again this is going to be important because Paul's concern for the

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Galatians is, you know, having begun in the Spirit, are you going to continue in the flesh? Right. If you're going to take on circumcision, you've got to take the whole law back.

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And remember, if you've messed up in one area, you're cursed. So he doesn't want them to go back to the law.

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Which is interesting because we just summed up the law as a unit. Yes. So then if you want to take on the

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Ten Commandments... Everything else comes with it. Everything comes with it. Everything comes with it, because it's not separated in and amongst itself.

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Brethren, I speak in the manner of men, this is verse 15 of Galatians 3, though it's only a man's covenant, yet if it's confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.

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This is how covenants work, guys. So he's saying, verse 16, now to Abraham and his seed where the promises made, he does not say into seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, who is

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Christ. Right. So Christ is the fulfillment of those Abrahamic promises. And this I say, that the law, which was 430 years later.

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So Paul is saying the law comes 430 years after the

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Abrahamic covenant. Well, it cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.

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So the promise of Christ to Abraham was of grace, not of works.

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So the law coming in was not some sort of retrogression. It wasn't some sort of repudiation of salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

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No, that doesn't make any sense. Verse 18, for if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

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And now we get to the question that is sent in. What is the purpose of the law? Verse 19, what purpose then does the law serve?

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It was added because of transgressions. Right. It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come.

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So it was added for how long? 30 years. Well, yeah. 430 years after.

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Right. That's when it was given. It was given. Not until the offspring. Yeah. So the law had a beginning and here we're reading the law has an end.

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It was added until the seed should come to whom promise was made.

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It was added because of transgressions. Remember how Jesus talked to the Pharisees about that marriage, that divorce question.

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Right. You know, Moses gave you that command because of the hardness of your heart. Right. God knew what kind of a people you were.

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The law was added because of transgressions. So the seed came to whom the promise was made and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

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Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God?

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Certainly not. It wasn't like there was a competing way to God or that God would give a law that purposefully disrupted his own promises.

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No, God is not against himself. He's not divided against himself. Certainly not. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.

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But the scripture is confined all under sin that the promises by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

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Now before faith came we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.

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Once again we're being told that there was a time frame for the law. It was before faith came and we were kept for faith which would afterward be revealed.

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So he describes the law this way, verse 24, therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, our tutor unto

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Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come we are no longer under a tutor.

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So this was this the word for tutor here it was where we the original word in the in the

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Greek is where we get our word pedagogy from. And in the original language it had a connection to school, but it was this particular household slave that was in charge of disciplining the child to make sure that they got to school, that that was their job.

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And in this case they're trying, the law is getting, Paul says it gets us to Christ. Okay, but after faith has come well we are no longer under a tutor, we're no longer under the law, okay?

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For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither

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Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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And if you are Christ and you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So on the first reading out of Galatians 3,

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Paul is saying if you are under the law then you're under a curse, right?

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Because I mean you can't keep the whole law and but Jesus delivers us from that. The law was there until the seed came, the law was there until faith came, and now we're no longer under the law.

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He's not saying by that the Ten Commandments have zero significance and zero meaning and go murder all the people you want, right?

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That would be an incredibly horrible way to read what Paul is saying.

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But now how do we live? Right. Now how do we live? That's what Galatians 4. So given that truth, now how do we live?

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The answer comes in Galatians 4 and Galatians 5, which we won't read the whole thing, but he says saying Galatians 4, now

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I say that the heir as long as he is a child does not differ at all from a slave though he is master of all.

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Until a certain age the child in that household didn't have any rights at all and he was getting ordered around by other slaves, right?

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You know you better shape up. He's under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, follow this analogy, when we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world but when the fullness of the time had come

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God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons.

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When we were under the law we were slaves but when we're in Christ we were adopted as sons.

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Now verse 6 says because you are sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying out

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Abba Father therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son than an heir of God through Christ.

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So then he starts into before you knew God before you knew Christ and you were slaves you were all about seasons and days and months and years you're all about that law, right?

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He's talking about the law and in here he's talking about the ceremonial aspects of the law, isn't he? Right. But he also again the law is a unit he's talking about the whole thing and he says

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I'm afraid that I've labored for you in vain these

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Judaizers are in here trying to court you to come back under the law but that's not what God has for you.

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Why do you want to go back and be slaves when you've been adopted as sons? You've been given the Holy Spirit. You've been given the

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Holy Spirit. This is the new covenant promise. Right. I mean so it's not an external law you have the

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Spirit within you drawing you to Christ drawing you to God the

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Heavenly Father. So he and then he gives the analogy at the end of Galatians 4 and he talks about in verse 21 tell me you who desire to be under the law do you not hear the law?

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And he gives the analogy of Hagar and Sarah and says this is this is a great metaphor a good allegory here a good typology here he says

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Hagar represents the earthly Jerusalem here today and it's slavery and Sarah represents the

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Jerusalem above who was our mother and there's freedom. Mm -hmm. And you're either gonna live by the law and be a slave or you're going to live free.

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Right. Verse 31 of 4 so brothers we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

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That's right and so what makes the difference remember well your son's now because you have the Holy Spirit which is why

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Galatians 5 talks about the fruit of the Spirit. Yeah. And he particularly says okay oh you're worried about the law

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I mean you just really focus on the law well he tells them love fulfills the law.

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There's a big difference in the way that the New Testament authors write about the law they don't say keep the law if you look up if you look up for yourself you go look through the

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New Testament find the phrases keep the law you're gonna find it negative in every sense and look up the phrases fulfill the law positive in every sense.

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What? Mm -hmm. What's the difference? Well keeping the law is trying to keep up right keep the law

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I'm trying to keep up and try to keep at it but you fail you can't but when you fulfill the law well then that's the whole point right where trying to keep the law you're gonna fail but if you fulfill the law there's there's nothing nothing to fail at if the law is fulfilled there's nothing there's no failure in that and what fulfills the law is love the love that God has given to us to live by a love for him and a love for his son and a love for one another rightly ordered affections and so on and so forth given to us by the grace of the

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Holy Spirit but how is it that we can fulfill the law because we're in Christ right before we were slaves but now we're sons in Christ and Christ is the one who fulfills the law right so it's not about living lawlessly because we are in Christ and he fulfills the law and we fought and then

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Paul says okay you want a law here's a law of Christ love one another as he has loved you right there you go here is a law a principle of the

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Spirit versus the law of the flesh if you really want to have that principle yeah sin is lawlessness straight up that is true it's still true but if you follow

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Christ if you love Christ if you are filled with his Holy Spirit and following Jesus you're not lawless right you're under his authority you're doing what he's called you to do but you're certainly not taking up the

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Old Covenant law and making that your standard the

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Christ who saves you from the condemnation of sin is the same

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Savior who delivers you from the power of sin every wave of sanctification that breaks upon the shore of our lives comes from that same ocean of justification it isn't as some have said that were justified by faith alone in Christ but sanctification is by the law that is not how the

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New Testament reads now there is a particular passage I think we had a question right about Matthew 5 yeah versus verse 19 and 20 that pertains to this very discussion yeah so the question reads what is your interpretation of Matthew 5 19 through 20 how should we understand this difficult statement yeah so so Matthew 5 and verses 19 and 20 of course the context begins back in verse 17 all right so verse 17 says do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets

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I did not come to destroy but to fulfill so when Jesus comes and we hear about you know we hear about grace and we hear about the righteousness is through faith in Jesus Christ not by the law we read that in Romans we just we should not think that Jesus came to eradicate the law and the prophets which is a way of talking about the entirety of the

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Old Testament right he didn't come to destroy the Old Testament or to you know unhitch us right right from the

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Old Testament he came to fulfill it to fill it in a full way so that there's nothing about the law and the prophets that isn't filled up with Jesus hmm okay for surely

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I say to you till heaven and earth pass away one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled and if you have any questions about who fulfills it he just said it in verse 17 right okay so this is strong language and he's saying

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I'm the one who fulfills the law and the prophets so 2nd Corinthians 1 verse 20 says all the promises of God are yes in Christ and so everything in the law the shadow

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Christ is the substance verse 19 whoever therefore ah so this therefore is like pointing back to verses 17 and 18 whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does and teaches them he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven okay so he just said

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I didn't come to destroy the law on the prophets right so verse 19 he says whoever tries to destroy one of the least of these commandments

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I didn't come to destroy the law on the prophets if you come in and try to destroy even the smallest part of the of the law on the prophets we're gonna have a problem aren't we right

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I didn't come to destroy them but to fulfill and to fulfill them in such a way that not one jot or one tittle will fail so he didn't come to destroy it you better not come to destroy it either right and there is a temptation is that is there not when we come in and we say well we're in the

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New Testament and we look at the Old Testament and we were like well I might get around to reading that one of these days or we read something in there about homosexuality and we're like whatever you know that's not the world we live in yeah that's old that's old that's

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Old Testament or we or we read something in there about you know butchering a red heifer and burning it to a crisp and her like well that's moronic

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I'm not gonna do anything about now listen we were not to come in and destroy or break one of the least of these commandments all right that's not how that works in the kingdom of heaven

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Jesus did not come to to destroy the law on the prophets in order to be king of the kingdom of heaven he comes in to fulfill it all he's the fulfillment of it all if we're against the scriptures if we're against the law and the prophets that Christ fulfills and we're against him right that doesn't make any sense so he says therefore whoever breaks one of the least these commandments and teaches men so he should be called the least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does and teaches them he should be called great in the kingdom of heaven about these commandments again about these commands again what did

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Jesus say about them he came to do what to them to fulfill them to fulfill them that's right well and it said it to fulfill them he's using the word law there mm -hmm

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I've heard many people try to import the moral law and say well he's talking about the law and anyone that relaxes least of these and they try to say relax the moral law but like you said he's talking about the law not a jot or a tittle of anything that's been written right that's right so how in how in the world are we to do and teach them mm -hmm

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Jesus just told us first of all you're not gonna break them you're not gonna bust them up and destroy them you're not going to toss away jots and tittles out of them that's not how that works deny them or say they don't apply at all no you're gonna teach him right you're gonna you're gonna teach him and you're gonna do them how through Christ who fulfills them now if you try to teach and do the law and the prophets without respect to Christ at all without respect to Christ then you're not paying attention to what he just said he came to fulfill them and he says so so whoever doesn't teaches them he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven now again he's already told how this is fulfilled is in him for I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the

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Scribes and Pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven now this is very important here he says the righteous as much exceed that of the

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Scribes and Pharisees or you don't even get in not that you're the least in the kingdom of heaven you don't even get in right so our righteousness how is it that any of our righteousness could exceed that of the

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Scribes and Pharisees that were so careful that they tithed from their mint and garlic and cumin herbs right they pulled ten little leaves off of their cumin that morning and they took one of them gave it to the temple okay your righteousness has to exceed yeah right and then what did

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Jesus say to his followers he said they sit in the seat of Moses so listen to what they tell you to do right but there was way more to be thought about what was it your righteousness has to exceed that of the

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Scribes and Pharisees or you don't even get in first of all question where do we get our righteousness from what does the

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Bible tell us from Christ from Christ now by works of the law no man will receive righteousness by the works of the law but by faith which is in Christ the righteous

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I live by yeah so once we're a righteous by Christ and Christ alone then we look at the law and the prophets and we try to toss that away

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Jesus says you're gonna be least in the kingdom of heaven hey you're in by my righteousness but you're gonna be the least because you're they're tossing away the scripture that I fulfilled it should be meaningful and significant in your life you shouldn't just be like tossing it away and so our righteousness only exceeds that of the

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Scribes and Pharisees when we're in Christ and once we're in Christ we are to see how he fulfills all the scriptures and we are to teach them and do all the scriptures in the light of the one who has fulfilled them all who is

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Christ right now that's my interpretation of the text wouldn't it make sense that he would immediately begin talking about this very subject matter

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I mean Jesus is a great teacher right hey he gives like the general principle and then he gives the specific examples well let's see what happens first up murder okay yeah that's a pretty big one from the

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Old Testament thou shalt not murder you know oh and bonus for the historic reform position is part of the moral law right number six right at the heart of the chiasm of the

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Ten Commandments boy that's a bullseye let's start right there don't murder right that's pretty good it's high up on the list yeah yes pretty good now now

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Jesus it just finished saying but your righteousness hang on the kind of righteousness that is gonna be evident in your life has to be of a higher quality than that of the

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Scribes and Pharisees now you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder hmm well who said that yeah

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God said that God actually personally wrote that down on a stone tablet give it to Moses read that to the people you shall not murder and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment but remember your righteousness has to exceed that of the

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Pharisees so but I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment so prior it was just murder now

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I'm telling you if you're angry without a cause whoever says to his brother Raqqa shall be in danger of the council but whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire whoa yeah that sounds like teaching them so all of a sudden we have a standard of righteousness that Christ stands in our place and for our sake to this nth level of righteousness praise be to God that far exceeds that of the

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Scribes and Pharisees so let's just think about that the law is good the law does reflect the character of God but there is a brighter reflection of the character of God there is a more full expression of the righteousness of God than the law than the old covenant law you know who that is that's

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Christ Christ is the law is not was never designed to be a tool for our sanctification it we're not called to follow the law for righteousness we're called to follow

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Christ and so Christ is a brighter reflection of God's character than the law ever was in fact the law is shadow and Christ is substance so if we really want to know what the righteousness of God is to its nth degree to the expressed image of God Hebrews 1 in these last days he's spoken to us it's supremely in his son we look at Jesus we don't look at the law the law is good the law is good yeah but it's good just like the other shadows are right and even when it talks about the work of the

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Holy Spirit it's not to conform us into the law it's to conform us into Christ to being like Christ that's correct and after murder he talks about adultery after that he deals with divorce and marriage and then there's the the swearing of oaths you know again you could look at on list of the

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Ten Commandments maybe look at bearing God's name in vain you know at that point but you know he continues on and he's got he begins to address the civil law yeah verse 38 an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth welcome to the civil law and he phrases it just the way he was phrasing these other parts that people have called the moral law you have heard it with that it was said right he doesn't make a distinction right and he's quoting straight from the scriptures he's not quoting rabbis who quoted rabbis who quoted rabbis he doesn't teach that way he taught with authority not like one of the scribes that's what the assessment is at the end of this very sermon so he is quoting the scriptures and he is saying this was the righteousness of the

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Scribes and the Pharisees the stewards of the old covenant but I tell you your righteousness has to exceed it here's what righteousness looks like in my brightness in my light a righteousness which far exceeds that of the

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Scribes and Pharisees and so he's quoting that and even the you shall love your neighbor right which was basically an admonition to do no harm now

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Jesus says you've heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor as yourself and you read the little bit of cool case law connected to it and it was basically do no harm right neighbor now he says actually what beyond that now you're gonna do good to your enemy why do you see how he exceeding that righteousness of the

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Pharisees yeah if there if this was a drag race and Jesus was right next to the law the law never got out of fourth gear

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Jesus would just went into fifth and completely blew him away left him in the dust right

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I don't want to use a fourth gear Old Covenant shadow law as the measure of my sanctification right right

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I have a Savior yeah but it and then there's some other phrases we have

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Christ's teaching there and then Paul seems to pick this up also there's phrases we had mentioned

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Galatians Galatians 6 to bear one another's burdens and so fulfilled the law of Christ exactly so there's this phrase that starts popping up the law of Christ yes instead of the

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Old Testament law the the law it's the law of Christ Romans 10 for for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes talking about having that faith in Christ there are several places that talk about that and many of these are

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Paul but like we had mentioned earlier Paul brings up some of those civil laws and he teaches us what it is to good love because love is fulfillment of the law yeah so we need to we need to examine that so let's consider that a very classic example that gets brought up that of do not muzzle the ox that one gets mentioned a lot so let's go look at you know not muzzling the ox this is an interesting thing when you think about the

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Old Covenant law we have this in first Corinthians 9 and also in first Timothy 5 so let's go to first Corinthians 9

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I think that that's gonna be helpful in the Old Covenant law when it said thou shalt not steal is an interesting that the the

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Bible you know that God talked this okay let's think about all the different dimensions that you could steal you can steal from God by withholding the tithe or steal from God by but not letting your ground rest you know for Sabbath years and stuff like that you could also steal from your neighbor you know even the subtle ways right the guy works for you and then you don't pay his wage yeah hey you're coming back tomorrow yeah that's stealing you also steal from animals when you muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain it's it's do some grain well he's walking around let it chew on the grain yeah so let's see here he does take this

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Old Covenant law he's talking about he and Barnabas could have rightly asked for remuneration support as some kind of help as they did their

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Christian duty amongst the Corinthians and they forewent all of that for the good of the you know the good of the church and so on but verse 8 says do

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I say these things as a mere man or does not the law say it's the same also so here he's making appeal to the law very interesting very interesting this from the man who says

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I'm not under the law right right he says I'm not under the law of Moses even though I am under the law of God what does that mean you know

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I'm still under authority yeah right I'm on you know and authority of Christ so here he's oh did

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Paul just say we're going back under the law you know oh this oh it was a different Paul that said that you know people come up with all sorts of theories about why but he doesn't contradict himself notice first nine for it is written in the law of Moses you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain

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Deuteronomy 25 for you turn 25 for and then the question is it oxen

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God is concerned about oh what hang on well you know you said ox what were you saying is there more to this or does he say it all together for our sakes for our sakes no doubt this is written that he who plows should plow in hope and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope hang on what just happened there there's an old story about someone who who would play

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Chinese checkers with her grandpa and if you know anything about Chinese checkers you know you have all these little marbles and these indentions and these triangles and so on the goal is to get your marbles from one side of the board to the other his grandpa would pick up his marble way back on his own side and he would lift it up and he would just the marble would just mysteriously just kind of float in the air and he would pick it up and he would put it all the way over on the opposite side and score a point you know the grandchild would complain grandpa you're cheating you can't do that and the grandpa says no he's any watch and he shows the grandchild how he makes every single one of the legal jumps all the way till he lands in the right space right and sometimes when we're reading the

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Bible and one of these one of the Apostles and even one of the later prophets makes an interpretation of something that was written long before it feels like that moment you're like hang on a second you can't that's not legitimate you can't go from muzzling an ox to missionaries what are you doing yeah that's not right that's not proper hermeneutics but in fact it is in fact it is because the law is a shadow the law is a shadow of Christ and so who is it that brings in the harvest who is it that sows the seed who is it that brings in the harvest who was given threshing floor the thresh and who was given the fields who was given the vineyards who inherited it all but Christ did it's all his it's all his and you know what is the language that Jesus himself used about what it's like to live in his kingdom he talked about harvesting he talked about bringing in the harvest and and bringing in his people in that way well well what are

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Paul and Barnabas you know they're in the complete submission and control and ownership of the master and Jesus has them working okay

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Jesus has them working and they are plowing and hope and threshing and hope and thus they are partakers of that hope you see how they do that they're interpreting the

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Old Testament the Old Covenant law in light of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of everything and then they make their proper application now that's exactly what

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Jesus said to do in Matthew 5 see Paul what he's doing there he is not breaking canceling giving up on the jots and the tittles of the

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Old Covenant law he's also not teaching it without reference to Christ he's teaching it as fully fulfilled by Christ so that when he's talking about oxen he's talking about missionaries hmm and in that sense

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Paul was great in the kingdom of heaven because he taught it and he did it right but he did it in such a way where it was fulfilled in Christ right and he didn't unhitch himself from it oh no and knowing the

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Old Testament the Word of God when we know Christ and we look back and we read and the more we read and the more we learn and we look at it through the light of Christ we better know how to love our neighbors yes yes so the so all scriptures inspired by God profitable for doctrine for for reproof for correction and training and righteousness because Christ is the light of the world he's the light of the word and so when we we take up with his

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Old Testament scriptures everything's gonna be immediately clear you know without Paul's help there

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I would never have seen oxen as me right yeah no everything's gonna be entirely clear right away you know

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God is good he's gonna help us with that right I think of one example that I've heard is in Deuteronomy it talks about if you borrow someone's ox and it's injured or killed that if you rented it then you're not on fire but if you didn't rent it you borrowed it and it dies then pay it back yeah and so I'm thinking well how did what does that have to do with me and then

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I'm mowing my lawn yeah but with borrowed equipment from someone else what would the loving thing to do if I broke their equipment and buy him a new one buy him a new one yeah give it back to him that would be that would be loving your neighbor and so when we look at the law we don't find in the

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New Testament the law being said this is going to help you get sanctified and get holy in fact we find

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Paul saying when the law shows up makes sin exceedingly sinful however when we see the law is fulfilled in Christ and we have our attention upon our

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Savior then there's a lot of wisdom in the law that we use to follow our

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Savior the law is wonderful for wisdom and the law is wonderful for prophecy so in this case the whole thing about them you know don't muzzle the ox there's wisdom and prophecy all mixed in together there you know sometimes the prophetic parts of the law are not going to be as clear to us how is this fulfilled in Christ but the wisdom portions will be right good well

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I think that about wraps it up for that question let's move into what we are grateful for I'm very grateful for this church

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I'm thankful for Sunnyside Baptist Church we've been here over eight and a half years and it's been a very very rich and loving and beautiful thing to see the work of Christ over this short period of time and to watch what he does with his people you know he just never fails to save to sanctify to transform we are not the same as we were eight and a half years ago none of us not now me not the elders right not the deacons not the people the

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Lord is doing his work and I'm just very grateful very good I have to say that I am grateful for my children and their differences just what