Mat 5:17-20, To Be Fully Moral Is a Blessed Gift.

Tuesday May 28, 2024

Idea: Christ fulfilled the entire Old Testament by which He has made us righteous in person and upright in practice. 

Mat 5:17-20

Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament:

Results in the gift of righteousness and morality. 

Mat 5:20, greater than the Pharisees is both in the gift of righteousness and the practice. 

Our practice of righteousness is not only the whole law but keeping it to the very heart of the law (because the Fulfiller has made us righteous). 

Gift of righteousness: Rom 3:21; 2Co 5:21. 

Righteous by identity, in position, by nature (new nature). 

Gift of morality: 1Pe 1:13-16. 

Morality is the ability to discern right from wrong and the ability to live according to the standards of right conduct. 

Temperance, obedience (love of God and faith in God), and love of neighbor. 

Not just overt or ritual, but in the heart of God’s law. 

Example Israel: Jer 1:11-12, 16; 2:13.

Whole Old Testament (Law and prophets, Mat 22:40; Rom 3:21). 

Not one dotting of the “i” or crossing of the “t” will pass until it is all accomplished. (use of double negative; “not never one…”) 

Clear jab at the Pharisees who claimed to keep it all but were not even close. 

Moral law: we all broke it, Rom 3:19-20. 

Jesus fulfilled the law and prophets through His cross and resurrection - He satisfied the justice of the Father (propitiation) and justified sinners (made them righteous) through faith in Him. 

He made us righteous and now we live by God’s law by the Holy Spirit, Rom 8:2.

The law is no longer over us like a threatening hammer, but under us like an inviting and honoring red carpet. 

No condemnation means that we are not under the Law as our judge (Rom 8:1), but we do certainly keep the morality of the law right to its heart. 

All morality, to its very heart, is our very real life by the gift of Christ. 

Application: Rejoice in the blessing of the ability to obey the letter and the heart of the law of God. 

Gift of righteousness is a gift in promotion / position and a gift in morality - living moral, ethical lives (Pro 3:32; 10:29; Psa 1:6; 2:12). 

The ability to be moral to the core is a grace gift.