Before my week away from Facebook, one of the things I kept seeing over and over that made me nuts - is the concept that Jesus taught under the law. Or, that Jesus taught Jewish people under the old covenant.
This is completely false, and very important to get right.
“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.” Luke 16:16-17
The law and the prophets (yes, the old covenant and ENTIRE Bible at that time) was 👉 until John the Baptist. At that very moment, the gospel or good news of the kingdom was taught by John, Jesus, and the apostles.
Why is this important?
Because everything Jesus taught applies to Jew and Gentile alike. Yes. Both have an inheritance in Christ. Both receive eternal judgment for refusing to enter into covenant. Yes, both are fully invited to the discipleship of Christ.
Yet, verses like these below, are obviously Jesus style hyperbole for the hearer to understand the impossibility of keeping the law apart from the Messiah - yet at the same time - not nullifying judgment itself.
Matthew 5:29-30
“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
Just because we are under grace, doesn’t mean that the law has become void. The law itself has been placed upon the heart of the believer (Jer 31:33) and the unbeliever will be JUDGED by their own version of the law of TORAH (Romans 2:14).
Friends. The law is no longer useful for Godliness (Romans 10:4), but at the same time the law hasn’t been removed for the judgment of mankind. This is exactly why the law itself is still useful as a tool today for evangelism, “Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully (1 Tim 1:8).”
Jesus taught the good news of the kingdom. He invited us to selflessness, power, dominion, surrender, and kingdom living.
Yes. Everything He did, we can do from the same place of surrender. To minimize His words are theft from what’s rightfully ours.
In fact, Paul declares, “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.” 1 Tim 6:3-4
I’m hinged to every word Jesus said. Why? I want to be just like Him.