Sermon on the Mount #13- Heaven and Earth Must Be Gone for All the Law to be Accomplished to an Iota, to a Dot (II)
Mathew 5:15-20
Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that[b] they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.17 “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. 18 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. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes 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. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
In fact, this is a very difficult text. For those who cannot think outside the box, this will be very hard to understand but for those who had a paradigm shift, this verse will be very gracious. But overall, it will be difficult. So, please pay close attention. We are continuing with our study on “the reason Jesus came to this earth is to fulfill the law and the prophets”. Reformation theology explains this ‘fulfillment of the law’ with its focus on ‘Jesus kept each and every item of the law and imputed on to us. Even for me, I remember trying hard not to go outside of the frame of the reformation theology when dealing with issues of the law. You may remember me preaching “There is no such Christianity” the same way within the frame of reformation theology in the beginning of my ministry. Because all the great leaders of the reformation theology like Lloyd-Jones, Abraham Kuypers, and Jonathan Edwards expressed such an opinion, I could not dare challenge.
However, as I began studying the Bible more in depth, whenever I was faced with the many laws of the Old Testament, the reformation theology’s view on the law rather seemed more confusing to me than becoming clearer. First, it was the list of all the laws Jesus supposedly had kept. The law of the Old Testament is not just the Ten Commandments. If you look closely in the Bible, there are hundreds and thousands of laws given to Israel by God. There is even a law that says a man who ejaculated in his sleep must stay out of his house all day and cannot come in until sun down. And there is a law that forbids receiving interest when lending money. This is against the law. Also, there is a law that says one must go out with a shovel when going to the bathroom and must bury the excrement in the soil afterwards. When a woman has a menstruation she must do a cleansing ceremony afterwards. It is the law.
Would Jesus have kept all the laws, even those? What does it mean that Jesus kept all? Reformation theology says that Jesus kept all the laws, each and every one of them, but what does “Jesus kept them all” mean? How did He keep them all? Does “Jesus came to fulfill the law” really mean He came to keep all those and to impute that to us?
People, it says that Jesus not only perfected the law but also the prophets. ‘The law and the prophets’ is sometimes called just the law or the law and the prophets in some places. Thus, “Jesus perfected and completed the law” means Jesus perfected and completed the Old Testament, which is the law, and the prophets. When what does it mean He kept and carried out the entire Old Testament in full? “Jesus fulfilled the law” does not simply mean He kept every single item of the law but it means He concluded the entire Old Testament with Jesus. I will explain this in more detail so listen carefully.
After saying “I have come to perfect the law and the prophets” in chapter 5, Jesus explains “this is the law and the prophets” in chapter 7. In the same sermon on the mount, He says “I have come to fulfill the law and the prophets”. Then He lists out all the items of the law and afterwards says “this is the law and the prophets”. These are all connected. Please look at Matthew 7:12.
Mathew 7:12
So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Isn’t it so? He says, “I have come to fulfill the law and the prophets” and from then on, He lists out things like “do not murder, don’t do this, don’t do that, do it like this…etc.” and finishes it with “this is the law and the prophets.” So what is He saying? He is saying “I have come to fulfill all these things in their entirety.” After saying He came to perfect the law and the prophets in verse 17, He lists out murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, love your enemies, giving to the needy, prayer, fasting, wealth, anxiety, and judging and He explains these in detail. In the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament, God lists out the commandments about God and explains them but from “do not murder” and on, He just lists them out without further explanation about them. Jesus is explaining what comes after that. It is continuing like “do not murder means this and do not commit adultery means this”. God explained the first part and now Jesus is explaining the latter part.
If you look at them on the surface, it seems like a commandment such as “never do that and do this in this way.” That is why a person like Gandhi said he has found nothing like the Sermon on the Mount after searching though all kinds of books he had on morals and ethics. Until the day he died, the first thing he did after waking up in the morning was to read the Sermon on the Mount. And he kept it until he died. He must have tried hard, too.
Anyways, after all these commandments, it ends with “so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets”. It seems like it is sandwiched between the two pieces of bread called the law and the prophets. In verse 17 of today’s text, it says the law and the prophets are completed by Jesus. And after many commandments are explained it says it is the law and the prophets.
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them” is modifying the phrase “this is the Law and the Prophets”. So it means that Jesus, wishing others would do to Him, first did to them by fulfilling the law and the prophets. After saying, “I came to fulfill the law and the prophets”, He lists out some stuff and then says “so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets”. Doesn’t He? This means, after saying “I came to fulfill the law and the prophets” and explaining about it, He is saying, “I have treated you. How have I treated you? I have treated you by fulfilling them. So you must treat me, too.” Thus, let’s examine if we should interpret this as “Jesus kept all the things listed in there” or if the word ‘fulfilled’ has some other meaning.
It is right that Jesus fulfilled all and now we are not accused by the law and the prophets. Right? Whether He kept them all or if it means something else, isn’t it correct that we are free from the law and not accusable by the law because all is fulfilled? In that sense, it is okay to say that Jesus kept all the law and the prophets and imputed to us. But does that mean He kept each and every item in there and imputed to us or something else?
People, the Bible calls ‘the fulfillment of the law and the prophets’ righteousness, or ‘dikaiosune’. This is called righteousness. The reason I kept raising an issue on this subject is because if we see this as Jesus kept each and every item of the law and imputed to us, we become the main characters and Jesus the supporting actor. Jesus becomes a tool and a method to forgive my sin. So far, we have always thought this was right and never wondered why this kind of thinking is wrong because we are so saturated in the Adam-like mindset and ideas. In that kind of thinking, human beings are the main characters. It looks as if Jesus is being degraded to a tool or a method for the high and precious beings like us. And the reason I am disputing such opinion of the reformed theology is because of the Greek word ‘perisseuo’ in verse 20 of today’s text. In verse 20, the phrase ‘unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees’ comes out. Here, the word ‘exceeds’ is ‘perisseuo’ and this word does not mean ‘better’ but it means ‘of different level’. It is of a different dimension. It is a different kind of righteousness. It means the righteousness Jesus requires from us believers is different in its class from the righteousness the Pharisees thought of and acted on.
What was the Pharisee’s definition of righteousness? ‘Let’s carry out each and every item of the law and fulfill the righteousness of the law’- this was their definition of righteousness. And if the righteousness Jesus gave to us was this kind of righteousness, He should not have used the word ‘perisseuo’. He should not have used ‘righteousness’ of a different level because it is of the same class. If Pharisees tried to achieve righteousness by keeping each item of the law and if Jesus also achieved righteousness by keeping each item of the law and imputed that to us, that righteousness is not that of a different level. But the Bible clearly says we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven by the righteousness of the Pharisees and tells us to prepare a righteousness of a different level. Therefore, ‘I came to fulfill the law and the prophets’ does not mean He kept every item of the law. Think of it this way. Israel in the Old Testament believed that they could fulfill the righteousness God wants by keeping all of the laws. This law was also the social law of Israel. Israel had no other separate law. Because Israel had no other law, the law was their constitution and governing law. They obviously believed they were the kingdom of God because they were the people of God. Where do the people of God live? They live in the kingdom of God. But they believed the kingdom of God was where the Messiah makes it the way they want. Why? To the Hebrews, there was no such concept of heaven being some kind of a world on the other side where people die at some point and go. To them, heaven was a world that comes to be in their life on earth. That is why they believed that the people of God must show and witness their being the people of God by perfectly keeping the law of Israel, which is the kingdom of God. And they worked to do that. Why? To maintain their character as the people of God. It doesn’t sound bad, does it? However, the first stone plate Moses received was broken. That was the very first law of Israel but that was shattered. Under that mountain, was not Israel exposed as those who could not possibly keep the law? ‘That is why you cannot keep the law’- this was how they were judged. That is why the first law was broken. And there was an intercession of Moses putting his life on the line, and with his life put up as a security another stone plate was given to Israel.
And that second stone plate is placed hidden inside the Ark of the Covenant. It cannot come out. And this law is leading Israel around. The law wrapped inside the Ark of the Covenant is leading Israel around. Israel does not take over the law and keep it but the law takes over Israel and leads it. Whenever Israel should go anywhere, the Ark of the Covenant, the law, always leads them around. On the Day of Atonement every year, Israel had to give a sacrifice by sprinkling the top of the Ark of the Covenant, which is covering the law with the blood of a spotless and blameless lamb, until the top is all covered with blood. The day of atonement was a ceremony where the sin of entire Israel was redeemed. Their sin was redeemed by the blood of the lamb being poured on the law. The top had to be covered in blood. That very Ark of the Covenant is orchestrating Israel in the very front. In short, it is an appearance of grace leading them away and not the law. If by the law, they all had to die. Why? Because it was proven by the first stone plate. But grace has covered it and that grace is leading them around. As if it is saying the same thing Jesus said to Peter, that there will be a certain force what will dress him and carry him where he does not want to go, the Ark of the Covenant was leading in the front when crossing the Jordan River and also when Jericho crumbled down. And each time the high priests had to carry the Ark in a way that made the ark would look like it is being united with them. The priests had to carry the ark. Who does a priest model? He models Jesus Christ, the intercessor, the high priest. Right? Jesus and the Ark are always united and leading Israel around. The fall of Jericho and the separation of the Jordan River both model salvation. Each time, the Ark of the Covenant is leading them in the front.
It is not that they took over the law and kept the law that the Jordan River separated. It was just when grace, the high priest, first fell into water with the Ark of the Covenant, they crossed the Jordan River. And when the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant blew the horn, Jericho crumbled down. It did not fall because they did something or kept the law but they were just lead by grace. Therefore, the law was not an ideology of decrees and regulations which the people of God had to keep and carry out but it was the power of God that governs or ‘pulls and leads’ them to the kingdom of God. The law of God is executed in the territory of God and by that law the people of God are being governed. Thus, it is talking about our lives.
You will see what sovereignty of God, the law of God, is in a short while. Aren’t you the kingdom of God? There are three elements of a country: people, sovereignty, territory. The kingdom of God is where He rules over His people in His territory. Where does God execute His sovereignty? It is you guys. You yourself are the dwelling place of God, the sanctuary, and the nation. The Bible is simply talking about what is happening inside you. You are the kingdom of God. You are the people of God and you are the land of God. And there the sovereignty of God which is the law comes down and takes you over and governs. It is showing this is the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. We are to realize in this history how miserable we are when we live after our own pleasure, what we like, and our own lust and desire and to experience how we are at peace when the sovereignty of God leads us. It is like how we were in the Army, only doing what we were told to do but having gained so much weight when we came out because we had no worries. We are experiencing this in history, learning that “following just as God tells us to is our way to life”. Please look at Galatians 3:11.
Galatians 3:11
Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, (it is confirming that it is clear that no one can be justified before God by the law. Not by that.) for “The righteous shall live by faith.
What is called faith- Faith in myself completely eliminated and throwing myself to some other being is called faith. Thus, one does not become righteous by changing himself into someone trustable and keeping the law well but he does become righteous by himself being denied and throwing himself into some other being in faith. No one is justified by the law- this is the law God has decreed. Flesh can never keep the law. It said life and blessing will be given if all the law is kept but it cannot be because the cross becomes useless if someone, even one person, does it. Even Jesus in flesh cannot. Because Jesus came as the old temple, this old temple has to be destroyed on the cross and He has to resurrect as the new temple on the third day. Therefore, if you do not kill from your heart the historical Jesus you believed and trusted, the Jesus of the public ministry who told you to do this and that, you cannot meet the real Christ. That Jesus was the Jesus who was to be destroyed on the cross as the old temple. That is why He said ‘give tithe, do this, or do that’. Because He came under the law, He became the old temple and was destroyed on the cross, embracing all the old temples. “No stone over a stone will remain” means a complete death. And then, He is living as a new life. Thus, Jesus who came as the representative of men must not keep all the law and impute that to us. God did not give us the law with the intention to make men compete against one another (as in who does better than the other and to bring in only those who achieved righteousness) but He gave it to explain that no other can come to a being without God’s power of creation. He gave it as an excuse for the creatures to pursue the possibility. “Okay, let’s say that there is a possibility. Then, try keeping it.” But if someone who represents human beings completes and imputes that to them, the possibility of all men being able to do that is acknowledged because someone who represents men has done it. It cannot be that way. Then, there is no need for the cross to take place.
That is why Jesus must not fulfill them by keeping them. Rather, He must clearly prove the impossibility in the side of the flesh by being accused by the law and dying. That way, the power of God, which brings back to life, can be fully revealed as glory. He must be beaten by the law to death so the power of God, which brings the flesh which is beaten to death back to life, the power of God which creates life out of death, or nothing, can be revealed as glory. Jesus in flesh dies and the new Son who is resurrected by the Holy Spirit is coming to life. And from there, the power, grace, and glory of the Father are revealed. Like this, the purpose of giving the law is for the glory and the power of the Father to be revealed. Right? That is why Jesus dies embracing all men saying, “The flesh can never keep the law no matter what.” And by resurrecting by the Holy Spirit, only the power of God is revealed as glory and only the power of God is praised. By doing so, the true meaning of the law and giving the law is proven. It is revealing “God is giving life. God is the creator.” In that sense, “Jesus dying on the cross and resurrecting by the power of God” is Jesus fulfilling the law. That way, ‘the law becomes fulfilled in us’ connects consistently. Jesus fulfilling the law does not mean He kept all the laws but it is Him beaten to death by the law saying, “The law cannot be kept”. It is completely the opposite. People, if Jesus kept all the law, He must not die on the cross with all that He kept. If He kept all, He should live and impute that to us. Isn’t it so? Why die when He kept all? This is not it. Jesus’ fulfillment of the law and the prophets means Jesus, by embracing all the people of heaven and dying to the law, took off men’s burden of ‘work’. It is talking about the cross- the fulfillment of the law, the cross. Please look at Romans 7:1.
Romans 7:1&6
1 Or do you not know, brothers[a]—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? (The law was binding Jesus while He was living. Jesus came as a servant of the world under the law. But by Jesus dying on the cross, what the law should bind is gone. It is talking about this.)
6 But now we are released from the law, having died (How? In Jesus) to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code
The Spirit and the written code, the law, are being contrasted and look at this carefully. By Jesus killing is to the law, the entire people of God with Jesus as its head became free to the law. The Bible says Jesus fulfilled the law and we are to live following the footsteps of the life of the cross of Jesus. So if Jesus kept all the law and gave it to us, then, the church, the saints who are to follow the His footsteps must follow Him and labor to keep all the laws that Jesus kept. Doesn’t it say we live the life of Jesus with a mark of Jesus? This is what Paul talks about. But if it is that Jesus kept all the law and gave it to us, we will have to live that life, carrying the heavy burden on our shoulders and keeping it all. It certainly is not this. People, because we died to the law in Jesus, the law cannot bind us. The law cannot require anything from us. Why? We died to the law. Where? In Christ. What is to command to the dead? Would you go to the dead bodies and tell them to obey the traffic regulations? Would you give them moral and ethical lessons to live nicely? We are dead. We are nailed on the cross in Jesus. (The Bible is just floating in your head as a concept, you are not moved.) We are dead. If so, can the people of the kingdom of God not keep any law? Logically, yes. We do not need to keep any law.
However, in the Bible, there is another law different from the Law. It is ‘nomos’ the completed law, the new law. Jesus fulfilled the law by completely dying to the law on the cross and revealing what the law really meant. And this completed law was newly established. If you read Paul’s letter, a lot about this new law comes out. It is described as the law of life, the law of the Holy Spirit, and the law of the heart but they all are the same. There is a new law, ‘nomos’. Now that we are freed from the pressure of having to keep the law, this new law appears and instead of saying ‘you must keep’, it says ‘now I will pull and lead you’. Now it is leading and pulling us. It is a completely different thing. The appearance of the zeal, change, and the maturity may look the same on the outside surface. But one is going by “I must keep it by my own effort” and the other is the law pulling us to acknowledge that ‘we must believe Jesus who fulfilled the law’ denying all of our possibility, power, and everything. The law pulling and leading us is called sovereignty. Our keeping the law is not sovereignty. Sovereignty is where the law takes us over and pulling and leading us. That is the kingdom of God. That is why it is the called the law of the kingdom of life, or the law of life. It is saying that is the only law that revives, the law that gives life, or the law of life. Please look at Romans 8:2.
Romans 8:2-4
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you[a] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (These two laws are here: the law of the Spirit of life. Law of life. Law of the Spirit. And there is law of death. This is called sin.) 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,[b] he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Look. Law is not a way to live by keeping. No flesh can achieve all that law requires. It is the same for Jesus, who is in flesh. Jesus is fulfilling the law by denying it. Jesus denying, “This is not it. This is never a way for us to live” on the cross is fulfilling the law because it is revealing its true meaning. This is why the Bible says the law is not perished but fulfilled. It does not say this to mean that Jesus fulfilled the law by keeping all the law and completing it. In verse 4, it says “the requirement of the law might be fulfilled”. The word used here is the same word used in ‘to fulfill the law and the prophets’ in today’s text. How does it say the requirement of the law is fulfilled in the text? Jesus fulfilled the law by completely denying and rejecting the law on the cross saying, “Life cannot be gained by this”, and resurrecting to life by the Holy Spirit, the life, ‘ruach’ of God, revealing the true meaning of the law. Then, what does this Holy Spirit do after coming to us? It says it fulfills the law in us. If so, what happens in our lives in order for the law to be fulfilled in us? Hanging on the cross happens. The Bible was not given to us to keep it as the law. All scripture, the law and the prophets are not just the Old Testament but it means the entire Bible, the entire word of God. Nailing us on the cross means He will make us realize, prove, and explain that “by the law, we cannot become life” through our lips and life and make the confession “we can only live by the Holy Spirit” come out from us. This is the role played by the word. This is the role played by the law, the role of the law and the prophets. Paul describes the law as the law of death and the law completed by Jesus and that sets us free like this. Please look at Romans 7:23.
Romans 7:23
but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Two laws exist in us. One is the law that leads to death and the other is the law of the mind. And the law of the mind is also called the law of the Holy Spirit of life. Let me explain. When we face the word described as the law and the prophets in today’s text, we, including those who are born again, first recognize it as the law and regulations. Why? We accept things that we see in the mindset of Adam because we are Adams who ate the fruit of good and evil and who are living under the system of good and evil. So, as given, before deciphering it with Jesus, we take it as the law when the word says do this and do that. We accept it as the law. Even when we hear the word, the law, the law of sin builds up inside us. This becomes a burden. Among such Adams, there are sons of God who are selected by God. And the law of life- it’s called the law of the Holy Spirit, or simply the Holy Spirit or faith in another word- the Holy Spirit goes into them and the law of life, the Holy Spirit or faith which is the law of the Holy Spirit and another law, the law of sin or the law are fighting with each other. Because you are the kingdom of God, there is a war in that kingdom. There are many people who go around somewhere and talk about things like the spirit of the government in Washington or the spirit of adultery in LA or some kind of territory spirit. Many leaders of mission organizations go around talking about this a lot, but the fight is not with this kind of things. What territory spirits? Do they mean demons fight for their own territory and have their own land in this world? It is all in you. It is all in us. Those demons are us.
One law says ‘you must keep the law’ and it leads to death. And the other law says ‘you are to submit to the law of God. You are not to live as if you are God by exercising your own power and might. You are not to live as an Adam who makes himself a judge of good and evil and judges good and evil based on the system of good and evil, who keeps human worth by keeping the laws determined by him’. This is the law of the Holy Spirit. These two laws fight each other inside us. But what does Paul say? He says the law of the mind often loses to the law of sin. He says he is always taken captive by the law of the sin. If the law of the sin cries out, “Follow and model after Jesus by working hard just like Jesus kept all the law and fulfilled it”, the latter law, the law of the mind denies all our potential and power and takes us to the direction we do not want. What is the direction we want? We want to keep being God and a king of my own. What does it mean to take us to the direction we do not want? It means it will empty us out, deny us, and negate us. “Live being led by the law of God, the law of the Holy Spirit, which pulls you to that direction.” – This is the law of the mind. But honestly, the first law seems more attractive to us. It seems worthy and we can have a sense of achievement and be respected by others and our faithfulness and excellence will be acknowledged. But, how about a person being pulled by God in the direction of “We are nothing; we must believe in Jesus. We can live only by the righteousness Jesus fulfilled being imputed to us”? It doesn’t seem worthy; people may say, “He used to work hard before. Why does he not work earnestly all of a sudden?” Of course, he will go after the first law. How about us? Even though we say no, we are frequently taken there because we are anxious and embarrassed.
Because we live a life in which we are frequently taken by the first law, the Apostle Paul says he dies every day. Even while carrying out the duty of an apostle, Paul keeps dying every day saying, “Why are you still alive? Die!” It does not mean he killed himself but he was exposed of ‘still being a dead man’. That is why the Apostle Paul says he dies every day. He thought he died but came alive the next day. He looked dead but came alive minutes later. So he dies every day. He gets sick of dying every day so he cries out “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” in the end years of his life. He called himself the worst of all sinners in the end of his life. Please look at Romans 8:10.
Romans 8:10
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
It says in many ways: Holy Spirit is in us, Christ is in us as it is written here, or the Spirit of Christ is in us. These are all the same thing. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ and it can just be called Christ. So what happens when Christ who fulfilled the law comes into us as the law of the Holy Spirit of the life, the Spirit of Christ, or the Holy Spirit? It says our body is revealed as dead because of sin but our Spirit is alive because of righteousness. It means our body is revealed as dead and only the “I” who is united with the Holy Spirit is revealed as alive. So the Spirit is not some kind of objective being that exists as its own inside us but it is “I” united with the Holy Spirit, taken over by the Holy Spirit. The “I” taken over – this is called the Spirit. That is why the Bible interchangeably uses the word the Holy Spirit, ‘pneuma’, to call the spirit of men. Only that is life. That is called the new temple. So it means the new law, the law of the Holy Spirit, this law of life exposes us as dead men and God takes us over and rules over with the law instead of us working to keep the law. This is the new covenant. Please look at Jeremiah 31:27.
Jeremiah 31:27-34
27 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. 28 And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord. 29 In those days they shall no longer say: “‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.’ 30 But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge (Here the same thing from Ezekiel 18 comes out.)
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, (It is the old covenant till above. What is the old covenant? If you ate the sour grapes, you must die with your own sin- this is the old covenant. But God says He will establish a new covenant.)
32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. (He is not giving the new covenant because they did something well. He is saying, “It was not possible even when I lead you as your husband. So there needs to be a new covenant.”)
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (The law will be put within them. And He will write it on their heart. The Apostle Paul quoted from here and wrote words like the law of life, or the law of the mind (heart).)
34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
What did they do that God will forgive and not remember their sins? It means they did nothing but, by God putting the law in their heart, by putting the Holy Spirit in them, they will never again be judged as sinners before the Lord. Here there is nothing they did.
Ezekiel 36:24-27
I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules
Here, ‘my spirit’ and ‘my Spirit’ are both ‘ruach’ R and Ch are silent. ‘Ruach’, the Holy Spirit, breath of nostrils, and breath of life are all the same word. So are ‘breath’ and ‘breath of air’. The new covenant is being given and it is “I will no longer judge you by the law but I will put the law inside you.” This is the new covenant. How can the law be put in the flesh? People, how can the word of God be put into the flesh? The word can become flesh and come. It is beginning to explain by saying, “With that as a start, the word, the flesh, and the fulfillment of the new covenant will be done like this.” The word become flesh and comes in. It is showing ‘the Son of God will come into the flesh called Jesus and become a new person’ and Jesus the flesh dies and only the word inside Him comes to life by the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus has shown. Same for us. After Jesus fulfills the law and the prophets on the cross, He pours the Holy Spirit unto us. He is making the law of the Holy Spirit pull and lead you by giving you a new heart and the Holy Spirit. That is how we look in this history. The word has come into the flesh. It looks the same as Jesus who was the old temple inside the history. As sons of God who are to live the history following the first Son, the first fruit, we need to live the exact life Jesus lived. So what happens is that this flesh gets denied and dies hanging on the cross, like “this is not it…” And then, only the “I” whom the Holy Spirit, which is poured into us, takes over and brings to life, lives as the new creation. In easy words, it means you will die. It means you will be denied. But we try to prove ourselves by keeping the law. That is not it. People, look also here. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. It sounds like “If I give you my spirit, with that as your strength, you will be able to keep my statutes and commandments.” No! If you read this in the Hebrew original text, it means “Putting my Spirit in you, putting my law in you in itself is that you have kept all the law. That itself becomes the fulfillment of the law. It is speaking of grace, people. Like this, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets is fulfilled by the death of the flesh.
With such foreknowledge, let’s move on to verse 18.
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.
At a glance, it seems like it is saying, “Even if heaven and earth pass away, an iota and a dot of the law will be accomplished. So keep them all!” Here ‘heaven and earth’ is ‘ouranos kai he ge’ and ‘ouranos’ is a dwelling place of God, the kingdom of God. And ‘ge’ is the kingdom of the earth. Both heaven and earth is a kingdom. If you look at ‘heaven and earth’ as a dwelling place or a kingdom, as a dwelling of God and a dwelling of the earth, it is Jesus who is of heaven but came wearing the thing of the earth. In different words, what is something that exists on earth with a thing of the earth as a message to explain the original form of the heaven? In Hebrews, it says “what is seen was not made out of things that are visible”. The entire history of the old covenant is called the Old Testament and this whole history is containing a message to explain something about the kingdom of God, the word, the revelation of infinity. That is why what is seen is not made out of things that are visible but it is a model that contains something that is invisible. That is why this model has to disappear for it to explain the original form and be fulfilled. That is why all history and all lives or models disappear. That is why the old temple is taken down. The Bible says the old temple is the model for the kingdom of God. Is it hard? Please listen to it a few times. For those who have been listening to all the sermons until now writing all these things down, it would be easy to understand because they have each and every meaning in their head but those who do not have these organized in their mind will be confused. But people, you have to know this. This ‘heaven and earth’ is Jesus, the kingdom of God built in this earth, including the old heaven and old earth, to model and explain the new heaven. Jesus, who is the kingdom of God who came to this earth wearing the flesh to explain the true kingdom of God, Jesus who is both God and a man is ‘heaven and earth’. He is also called the old temple. This has to be gotten rid of for the original to be revealed. By it being gone, the glory and the power of God the true Creator are revealed and the law is to explain this. So what must the ‘heaven and earth’ do? They must be gone. In “until heaven and earth pass away” the word ‘thayer’ is used and it means the heaven and earth must disappear for an iota and a dot of the law will be fulfilled. In easy words, it means Jesus must die for the kingdom of God to be completed. This is pictured in Revelation as the old heaven and the old earth get blown away and the new heaven and the new earth come down. The new heaven and the new earth are called the church and the holy city and it is you. The Bible seems to be complicated but it is not. It just talks about the kingdom of God. At the end it only talks about one thing. ‘Heaven and earth’ is the finite and phenomenal world, a model which is to disappear before the true thing comes. Since Jesus came in that appearance, the heaven and earth must disappear for an iota and a dot of the law will be accomplished. Jesus who came as the dwelling place of heaven and the dwelling place of the earth is called ‘heaven and earth’. As a model His flesh has to be destroyed and disappear on the cross so this explanary model disappears and the true form comes. ‘Until’ is ‘heos’. Until that, an iota, a dot of the law will not disappear but will be accomplished. ‘Heaven and earth’, the first ones will disappear but the true form will not disappear. What an iota, a dot of the law was representing will not disappear but will be accomplished. They are being compared like this. The words ‘an iota’ and ‘a dot’ here are not selected to say that even a dot of what these letters are representing will be accomplished or to speak of its complete achievement. Here, ‘iota’ is a small spot called ‘yod’ the smallest alphabet among the Hebrew alphabets. In Hebrew original text, even a piece of feces left by a fly can change the whole meaning. That is why there are many mistranslations. By that one spot, the meaning completely changes. That spot is ‘yod’, the smallest spot. The Hebrews use ‘yod’ to indicate something that is the very least, the smallest. The word itself is the very smallest. The word ‘keraia’ which is for the word ‘a dot’ has a meaning of ‘horn’. In the Hebrew perspective, the word ‘horn’ is a representative word for salvation. Let me show you where the word ‘keras’, which shares the same root with ‘keraia’, is used.
Luke 1:69
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
This horn is ‘keras’. So ‘an iota, a dot’ is not just an alphabet indicating a small item of the law. Of course, words like ‘an iota, a dot’, ‘yod’, and ‘horn’ are used to mean what this law is representing will be completely accomplished, but there is a deeper message in there. It means He will come as the least of men and He will not miss the least of them and save all who are saved. That is why even ‘an iota or a dot’ will not disappear and be given up. That is why the word ‘horn’, salvation is attached to ‘an iota’.
He came as the least of men and appeared as the least of men. That is why the Bible calls the saints the least of men. ‘The least of men’ comes out a lot in the Bible. These are the words. The story of salvation- salvation will be accomplished with not even an iota and a dot disappearing. By what? It will be done by ‘heaven and earth’ passing away. Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came into finity must become the old temple, the old heaven and the old earth, and die on the cross so that the true meaning of the new temple, the new heaven and the new earth, the old heaven and the old earth were pointing out to will be revealed. It means this. This is salvation and the completion of the kingdom of God. The one who completes the law came into this world as the least of men, right? He came as an iota. The impossibility of ‘a dot’ is the first place of ‘an iota’ because it is the smallest and the smallest means nothing. He covered the first place of that smallest being with grace and saved him by the covering that impossibility with grace. By ‘heaven and earth’ passing away, an iota and a dot will not disappear and the meaning of this iota and the dot contained in the law will be completed without disappearing.
Let me summarize up to this point. The true meaning of what God wanted to speak through the law and the prophets becomes revealed by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. It was a paraphrased expression that life and salvation is only given by Jesus Christ. Life is only in Jesus. If so, the law will be denied and it cannot be. Jesus treated the saints first by dying on the cross and fulfilling the law and the prophets. Then, how should saints treat Him? They should die on the cross the same way and say, “Jesus, you did it.” This is treating Him. That is why He says,"I first treated you" at the end after saying, " This is the law and the prophets. I came to fulfill the law and the prophets." Why? To be treated by you. So, how should you treat Jesus? By hanging on the cross. Don’t you just want to give up? I want to give up twelve times a day. You guys are too holy… No, the more I know God, the more I am only revealed as someone who cannot live dependent on God and I do not get to think “I should believe better.” The Holy Spirit comes down to the saints by what Jesus has done. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ comes to us and convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. What is sin in the Old Testament? Good and evil is separated by doing. But when the Holy Spirit comes, things like sin, good, evil, and righteousness are separated by believing in Jesus or not. Sin is becoming something different. Under the law, sin was determined by doing or not doing but after the Holy Spirit comes, sin is determined by believing in Jesus or not.
What is believing in Jesus? It is asking, “Are you a dead man or a live man?” The one who says “I am a dead man without Jesus” is the one who does not sin. The one who says, “Why should I only believe in Jesus? I also want to try to do something” is the one who sins. Therefore you have to believe in Jesus well, people. The Holy Spirit will eventually make you treat Jesus till the end. He will hang you on the cross and bring out a confession of “everything at the end is fulfilled by Jesus” from you. This is the denial of the flesh and the death of the saints. The possibility of the flesh becomes zero and this is being hung on the cross.
Verse 18 is passing away, ‘parevrcomai‘ of Jesus who came as ‘heaven and earth’. It is heaven and earth disappearing and passing away. It is showing that the completion of an iota and a dot which the law represents will be accomplished by His passing away. An iota and a dot is an ingredient to picture the reality of salvation completed by Jesus who came as the least of men. So far, do you understand? With this understanding, let’s go to verse 19. It is almost done.
19 Therefore whoever relaxes 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.
It says whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. What was the least of the commandments? It is Jesus. And who neglected it and taught others to do the same? The Jews, legalism did. And they called themselves great. It means they are in fact least. But those who receive the word as the law and diligently act it out seem great when they are seen in the world. But Jesus, who is inside there, looks small because it is Jesus of grace. That is why Jesus of grace is called the least of men. Like this, grace is neglected by men. Please look at 9:48.
Luke 9:48
and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”
Who is this child least among all? It must be Jesus who is speaking of this. He is the one who is great, Jesus who is the least among all. Pharisees and scribes and law experts were all teachers. It means if you explain and teach the law as commandments and statutes even though Jesus is contained in the law, you are not worthy of the kingdom of heaven because there are no small ones in heaven. But the one who is great comes out and he is the one who teaches this and does this is great. What is Jesus doing in the Sermon on the Mount? He is teaching on the mountain. Who is the one who came to do and fulfill the law and the prophets? It is Jesus. It means He who came to do this is teaching them as the least of men but people who are blinded by the law and the prophets will never accept Him. But those whose eyes and ears are opened by God, those who have received the Holy Spirit, will accept that He is the great one. Doesn’t it say this? He is saying “I am the one who does and teaches this. I am the great one.” It does not mean “You must diligently act out the law and teach it. You must not just teach in words.” People use this well to criticize preachers saying, “That bastard preaches well but his life is all messed up. He only talks the talk”, although I’ve never heard it. But this is not what it means. Men should not be the autonomy of the law. God must be the autonomy of good and evil, the law. Being the autonomy of the law means He makes the law, carries out the law, and governs with the law. But men, after eating the fruit of good and evil, make the law in their own system of good and evil and stand on their own, saying they can keep the law. This is history. And this must die. But this is in us, not somewhere else. When men become the autonomy of the law, men will for sure blindly swing the sword of the judge who will sort out good, evil, righteousness, and unrighteousness. And afterwards, they use the fact that they kept the law as their power. That is men’s power. Do you know why human beings try to live cleanly, faithfully, and desire to be acknowledged as excellent? It is because that is power. And they build a system using the power. They use it as energy to build a kingdom. That is why human beings must not be the autonomy of the law. That kingdom must be destroyed but they use that to build and fortify their own kingdom. We must come to life as the new haven and the new earth. The Sermon on the Mount is written to demolish our ideology of gaining righteousness by overcoming evil by our own might, or gaining salvation and freedom through works, and therefore, it should not be read as commandments and statutes. That is why it begins with ‘the poor in spirit’ when we are expecting the kingdom of God as some kind of kingdom what we like in the perspective of the flesh. He is issuing the kingdom of God as a matter of the heart. He is saying it is not it. It means once God gives us a new heart, we are to experience the opposite of what human beings in history pursue and consider as a blessing and admit that it is right. Please look at Luke 16:15.
Luke 16:15-17
15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. (It says being praised by men is an abomination before God.)
16 “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. (Here, it is not a deponent verb (verb form is a passive form but meaning is active in Greek and Hebrew) In “Kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence” in Matthew, it is a deponent verb which should be interpreted as passive even though it is in an active form. But here, it is just in a neutral form.)
17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.
The same thing comes out here and it is saying that the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it. It is saying it is possible until the time of John the prophet since it is still the Old Testament. But the good news is preached since then and people are still working hard to force his way into it by keeping the law. What does the Bible say when this happens in verse 17? It says it cannot happen. He is saying give it a try. Everyone means all men. All men are trying but it will never be possible. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. One dot of the law, the horn of salvation will never be realized by the method you are pursuing. That is why it says the horn of salvation, one dot will not become void. “The horn of salvation, that one dot is fulfilled by ‘heaven and earth’ passing away. God’s providence and plan will not cancel or change because you try to force your way into the kingdom of heaven.”- This is what it means.
Is it hard? It is difficult. That is why it is a mystery. The Bible is written so people cannot understand. It is not written so that everyone can understand by reading it. What did God say when sending Isaiah? He says, “Go and tell them. Make them deaf so they cannot understand.” So when the word is preached people become deaf and only the people of God hear it and understand it. Please don’t say in your mind, “What the heck is he talking about. That bastard speaks even easy things difficult.” It is supposed to be difficult. But there are people who understand. Just because I said this, now all are pretending to understand… and are trying to mask it by laughing…
Let me say this once again. The fulfillment of the law and the prophets are accomplished by the destruction and denial of the old things including Jesus Christ who came into the phenomenal world as the old heaven and the old earth. That is why Jesus as He was dying said all is finished. All is finished is the same word. He is passing away with the law and history. And that is called fulfillment. It is the same for us. In order for all these things to be fulfilled inside you, you must pass away. Thus, believing in Jesus is being beaten and dying a little by little every day. That is why it is hard. Let’s read Romans 8:4 again.
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit
The requirement of the law takes place in us when the Holy Spirit comes to us. Then, we who have received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ who is the word, must live in this world as those who have the law in us and go down on the exact road Jesus did. Let’s look at what the Bible calls the life of Jesus. Hang in there a little more. We are almost there.
Galatians 3:13
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
Why wasn’t Jesus beheaded or killed by dismemberment, but rather hung on the cross? At that time, the word curse could be used only when hung on the cross, as in the one who is cursed. That is why He is hung on a tree. It says Jesus was cursed. Until when? His entire life was a life of curse since birth till He was hung on the cross. If so, should your life, which is supposed to follow Jesus the same way, be the life of a blessed person or the life of a cursed person? People, where did we learn the life of a cursed person? We studied in Deuteronomy 28. Do you know who experienced what is in Deuteronomy 28? People, the Apostle Paul quotes the words from the list of the curses that come out after Deuteronomy 28:15 to describe his suffering. Please look at 2 Corinthians 11:22.
2Corinthians 11:23-27
Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,[a] in cold and exposure.
All these are what Jesus lived through. The phrase, ‘danger in the city, danger in the wilderness’ comes out here. Please look at what comes after Deuteronomy 28:15.
Deuteronomy 28:15-16
But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
This is what ‘wilderness and city’ means. The Apostle Paul purposely quotes these words from Deuteronomy 28:16 to describe his life. What does it mean? Isaiah 53 is the same thing and it says by Jesus being cursed, being whipped, and suffering, we have come to life. Because Jesus received the curse of the law and died, his life was the life of curse. Paul is explaining that Jesus’ life of curse was the life of curse in Deuteronomy 28 and it is happening in his life the same way. What Paul is doing here is writing his resume. The church he planted kept raising doubt about his apostleship saying, “He is not really a pastor” he says “I will write a resume for myself” and wrote it and this verse is a part of it. Usually when writing one’s resume, he should write, “I am truly an apostle of God, I am truly a saint” and he should take out things like these. Because he wrote these things, people criticize him saying, “Why would an apostle of God, the people of God always suffer and get imprisoned and get bitten by a snake unlike others?” He should have taken these things out. Weren’t there many good things he could write about himself? But why would the Apostle Paul intentionally write something like this? It is an evidence of being a saint. It means saints show their life of being under the curse of God and therefore hung on the cross as an evidence of being a saint. The Apostle Paul is saying he lived that kind of life.
Then, look here. Is Deuteronomy 28 saying “keep the law well so I can bless you”? No, it is saying “you are to live a life of being hung and dying on the cross under the curse of the law in this world.” Then, why do you write and put up those verses from Deuteronomy 28, “He will bless your baskets and pans and fill them with food. He will bless you at all times in everything you do. The Lord will help you defeat your enemies who come to fight against you. Your enemies will come against you one way, but they will run away from you seven different ways!” on your refrigerator? You have a big dream don’t you. The fact that you have those on the refrigerator means the same as “I will not believe in Jesus and instead be blessed in this world and go to hell. So, God send me to hell.” It is a scary thing. Please go home and erase it. Take it down. You can never enter the kingdom of God if you were blessed in this world and live a life that will fatten the flesh in this world. You must be cursed and die to enter the kingdom of God.
It says the law will be fulfilled inside you too. Therefore you must say “God I am dead” and go. The law of the Old Testament was not given to keep but to realize that we cannot keep it and to hold onto the grace of God when we cannot keep it, receiving the curse in the flesh and being denied of the flesh. Simply put, “Hold on to grace, Believe in Jesus. There is nothing else, believe in Jesus.” The entire word, the law and the prophets, were given as that. If the law and the prophets were written about Jesus how much more the New Testament! Just like Jesus was denied of the flesh and hung His flesh on the cross to fulfill the law, we also will be lead to the life of being hung on the cross when the fulfilled word invades into us. That is living according to the word. Life by the word, life being led by the law is living according to the word. It is not keeping the word.
Die diligently and be denied diligently. That is the life of those who have received the new law of the heart, the Holy Spirit. Does the desire to be devout and clean and holy come out from there? Why wouldn’t it? For sure, it comes out. Why? If we know Jesus and if we are thankful to Him, we must also be sick of the sin Jesus hated. Then, how can we not have that kind of desire and remain the same saying, “Everything is fine now so I am just gonna live the way I want.” It cannot be like that. Even with that desire, we are to despair again but even so we will say again, “I can only be miserable if I live like this. Yes, I will live a life lead by Jesus.” Like this, we would go back and forth and back and forth until we finally meet Jesus and we will be united with Jesus, God, and end up living as a son of God. Thus, do not expect things too great and just be lead well and live on. Let’s pray.