LP14 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS THE LAW FULFILLED

In Jesus Christ the law of God has found its ultimate fulfillment. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus himself says, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”. With these words Jesus is fighting against two misunderstandings of the place of God’s commandments in the lives of Christians. The first mistake is to think that since we believe in Jesus Christ and he has won our salvation, we no longer need to pay any attention to God’s commandments. We can love Jesus and do as we please, so to speak. The other mistake is to think that it is good enough to keep the letter of the law with outside behavior alone. For instance, even though we are not to kill, there is nothing wrong with hurting another person with our words or our deeds. In Matthew 5:17-26 Jesus speaks against these wrong ideas. Write down questions if you don’t understand what he is talking about.

Jesus came to fulfill the law. This means many things. First, it means that Jesus kept God’s law perfectly in his life and death which no other person has ever done. In Matthew 4 we see that he was tempted to sin but never did sin. No other person can keep the Ten Commandments completely as Christ describes them in Matthew 5-7 or as Martin Luther describes them in his catechism. We are all guilty of breaking these commandments and falling short. This means we have no choice, we must be saved through the forgiveness and love of Christ. Without Christ’s help we are hopelessly guilty. People may ask, “How can God expect me to do all the Ten Commandments?” The answer is, He doesn’t expect us to do all these things, he expected Christ to do them. He only asks that we let Christ do what he can through us as believers.

The second way Christ fulfilled the commandments is to give us the power we need to use God’s commandments. Since we are grateful for being saved through faith in Jesus Christ, then following his commands is the way left to us to show our gratitude.

The third way Christ fulfilled the law is by showing us that the goal of Christian living is to keep the spirit of the law, not just the letter of the law. God did not give his commandments to his people so that they might be saved by keeping the law. God has always saved his people through their faith in him. Instead God gave his commandments to preserve the health and welfare of his people. He wishes to show his people how they can best enjoy the good gifts he gives them through life and faith. To keep the spirit of the law is to do anything which serves this purpose of God and avoid anything which does not serve this purpose. In Matthew 22 Jesus tells what the spirit of the Ten Commandments should be: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depends all the law and the prophets.”

The purpose of today’s traffic laws is to prevent unnecessary accidents and injuries on the highways. To keep the letter of the law is like stopping for a stop sign only when there is a police car parked at the corner. To follow the spirit of the law is like stopping at the stop sign even at midnight when the street is deserted because it is a good habit.

Chapters five and six of Matthew’s gospel give an illustration of how the spirit of the Ten Commandments is applied to Christian life.

Since Jesus used the Ten Commandments to remind people of their sin, to show people what they needed in their lives and to remind people of the opportunity they had to serve God, we as Christians use the Ten Commandments in these three ways also.

The apostle Paul showed us the different ways of looking at the commandments of God. The non-believer is a slave to the Ten Commandments as law. Either he feels he has to keep all God’s commandments or a certain part of them to be acceptable or he feels he must disregard God’s laws in order to enjoy life. Either way, the law becomes a burden that he feels forced to bear. But the believer knows that Jesus Christ has kept and will continue to keep his promise to save us from our sins through faith. Then the Ten Commandments are Good News. They become to us a part of the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to give us new life now and a glimpse of the eternal life we are promised.

Let’s look at two pictures of what the Ten Commandments can do for us. The first example comes from Paul in Galatians 3:23-26. Please read these verses. Paul says that the commandments work like the servant common in Roman homes of his time. The servant took care of the children. One of his duties was to take the children to school each day so they would be where they could learn. He then took them home and watched out for their safety along the way. In the same way, the commandments keep us where we can most easily hear God’s word for us and most easily believe in Jesus Christ.

Now the second example: If a little child were let loose on a busy intersection in a big city with no one to take care of him, he would certainly die. The child needs its parent’s guiding hand. For the Christian, having the Ten Commandments is like the privilege of having God’s guiding hand to hang onto all during life. This is part of the love he promises us when we believe in him as our Savior.