If the law has not passed away, what then of grace?

Personally, I am in the process of working my way through the Gospel of Mark in preparation/repentance as we move closer and closer to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. However, a question came up today from a professor of mine that I had to address.

Matthew 5:17-20 {ESV}
[Jesus taught, saying:] “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. 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. Therefore whoever laxes 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 does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Late last year I did a rather lengthy blog about the later portion of this verse — “exceeding the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.” This post however will look at the earlier portion of this verse, particularly v 18– the bit about NOTHING of the law is passing away with Christ’s coming.

What exactly brought about the gears in my head turning in regards to this verse? I started focusing a bit on this verse as a result of a brief conversation I had with one of my professors and a fellow Religious Studies Major. I do not exactly know HOW we got to talking about it… but Travis mentioned a student in his youth group had asked about why they were no longer bound to the levitical law. Travis gave the answer, “Because we are under the new covenant,” yet admitted he did not have, at that moment, a better answer than that and began to wonder a bit for himself what the answer was. My Prof. alluded to Matthew 5 in stating that Jesus had said he did not come to do away with the law, and not
one “jot or tittle” would pass away from the law.

The next words (as close as I can remember) were “Now, this is in complete contradiction to what is written in Galatians! Yes it is — Complete contradiction… [Christians] pick-and-choose which rules to follow and which ones to not.”

For better or for worse, I did not respond to that comment. Possibly for worse. I had no desire to get into a theological discussion /argument
with her however. Not only does she come at scholarship from a more
secular angle, her coming at the conversation from a… well… NOT Reformed tradition means we are coming to the table from utterly different presuppositions about what the purpose of the law is, how man is saved, etc. Furthermore, if I do not chew on something for a while, my tendency to stutter really gets in the way. Either way, I figure I could pseudo-respond in blog-fashion. Certainly my prof’s noting that Jesus said that not one bit of the law would pass away. However, I would take GREAT exception to the rest of her statement. To claim Jesus’ words are contradictory of Paul’s?

So what is my response?

I will first state the presuppositions I hold. I and a Reformed Christian and hold to the inerrancy and infallibility of the Holy Bible. I hold to the actual authorship of the Bible– that is, if a book in the cannon says it is written by St. Paul… it WAS written by St. Paul. This goes for ANY book of the Bible, btw… even Daniel! I believe the Bible as being, as Paul wrote to Timothy, “theopneustos” — breathed-out of the mouth of God. And as it is theopneustos, and our God is a God of order, not confusion or contradiction, then the Bible never contradicts itself. Any “contradiction” that we may observe IS either able to be harmonized with clear Scripture or may be beyond our comprehension as fallen man to understand. Again… no true contradictions in the Scripture. No double-talk from the Holy Spirit.

Now that that’s out of the way…

Again, Jesus DID say that not one bit of the law is to be thrown away with the coming of Christ. This only makes sense with what Jesus was doing in the sermon of the mount – showing the TRUE nature of the law in the first place! Again, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, & 7) is NOT some sweet little sermon about good morals. Not at all. You think you’re only guilty of murder if you actually KILL a guy?? HAH! If you even are P-Oed with someone, you are a murderer at heart! You think you can get a divorce?? If you get any sort of divorce other than sexual immorality, you are an ADULTERER! You think you are to only love those you like? Love EVERYONE! Oh and by the way… adultery isn’t only what you do … it includes your THOUGHT LIFE!! Not the nicest most encouraging sermon I’ve ever read, I’ll tell you that! But this is completely in line with what Christ himself said about the law. Not only was he not abolishing it… he was showing that the TRUE nature of the law is SO MUCH more tedious and demanding on man than once thought! What does the law demand? Jesus tells us: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).

Just in case his disciples and those listening to his sermons thought Christ had come to do AWAY with the laws, he makes them IMPOSSIBLE to follow, by saying that through the law, Christ demands PERFECTION!

So… How does this fit in with salvation by grace, apart from the law? Easy. The law was never meant to save anyone. It was to point toward the Savior– Christ Jesus. “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19-20). Paul writes here that the law was NOT to justify anyone in the sight of God; it can’t be done!

How then are we justified? Romans 5:9 – “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by [Christ's] blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” Galatians 2:16 – “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of
the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

Romans 5:18-21:
“As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Furthermore, as written throughout Paul’s letters and in Hebrews, we know that Christ’s sinless perfect life allowed him to be the perfect atoning sacrifice for our sin to be made “once for all,” as in NO more sacrifices are needed. That’s it — “it is accomplished/finished” as Christ said on the cross. His death atones for our sin, and HIS righteousness in life becomes OUR righteousness, imputed to all who repent of sin and place their trust in the gospel!

There is NO contradiction between what Christ spoke of concerning the law in the Sermon on the Mount — that not one part of it would be done away with — and the gospel of grace through faith, apart from the law. The law has not passed away… but its purpose was never to save us through obedience. For salvation via obedience to the law, PERFECT OBEDIENCE is required; this is something we are utterly unable to accomplish because of our utter sinfulness.

The law has not passed away. Its purpose is now what it always has been — to bring about the knowledge of our sin. It is a signpost pointing toward Christ Jesus. The law points out our utter sinfulness and inability to obey the law perfectly and be righteous of our own doing. However… there is one who DID fulfill the law by perfect obedience — Christ Jesus. And his righteousness and death on the cross purchases salvation for all who will repent and believe. This salvation is by grace through faith, not a result of works… so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The law is still there… still showing us our need for the Savior. And the fulfillment of the law is Jesus Christ– our needed Savior. Salvation is not through the law that condemns. It is in the lived-out righteousness and perfect atoning sacrifice paid in full on the cross for the sin of all who would repent and believe.

It is a beautiful and glorious gospel.

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