OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO FULLFIL THE LAW

Proceeding along with the requirements of entering the kingdom of heaven recorded in the book of Mathew chapter 5 verses 17 - 20,  the Lord Jesus taught His followers that the gravity of the Law of Moses intensified with the onset of His  ministry.

Whereas some may have interpreted the ministry of the Christ to be the abolition of the law, Jesus declared that it was, in fact, the oposite. In the way Jesus lived His life, He fulfilled the law at the highest possible standard that exceeded the standards of the pharisees. 

He accomplished each and every nuance of the law with His perfect righteousness and it was with this perfection that He went to the cross to die for the sins of mankind.

Because our own righteouness does not reach that high standard, our only hope of entering the kingdom of heaven is to have the righteousness of Christ accrued to us which in fact it is when we believe in Jesus and are justified and deemed to be perfect as Romans 5 verse 1 says; "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we a have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ..." We therefore depend on Jesus' fulfillment of the perfect standard of the law to enter the kingdom of heaven. The scriptures says it this way;

17 Don't 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 tell you, 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. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly 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. 20 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.

In qualifying to enter the kingdom of heaven, we are able to claim that our righteousness exceeds that of the pharisees because, by the mechanism of believing in Jesus, we appropriate His righteousness and are justified.

Once justified, we are privileged to enter the kingdom of heaven and it is while we are ensconced in the kingdom that we get to learn to live in the power of His resurection and find that, while still in the body, we are increasingly able to live righteously and to ultimately attain a degee of righteousness that exceeds that of the pharisees.

It is for this reason that Jesus, in verse 19 of our passage, underscores the neccesity of upholding every point of the law.

Amen.

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