2014-2-04: Christ and the Law in the Sermon on the Mount

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Published on April 25, 2014 by

Study 4 of 13 on Christ and His Law

God gave the books of law so the people who had lived in slavery all their lives could learn to live in freedom. The laws were not restrictive they were guidelines to help slaves learn to think for themselves…but more importantly to grow in their relationship with God. But along the way, those who professed to worship God…chose to add to His laws, take away some of them, and adjust others…. and thus began our restriction of freedom…and in due course distortion of truth. By the time Jesus came along those laws were so detailed that people lost God in the minutiae. So, Jesus began to demonstrate the laws—by His living, in his parables, and in His sermon on the Mount…its almost like He was telling us…the law is good…but don’t be so much in it that you lose yourself and God…let it be in your attitude…so that how you worship God and how you treat others demonstrates God and his law to the world around you…Blessed are those who love God and respect those around …even those who don’t believe like us.

Scriptural Basis: Matt. 5:17–48; Luke 16:16; Rom. 7:24.

Key Text: ” ‘Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot, or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled’ ” (Matt. 5:17, 18, NKJV).

1. Why do we seem to prefer having a list of things to tick off rather than having our motives changed?

2. Why did Jesus’ opponents claim that Jesus was out to destroy the law?

3. How does Jesus’ keeping of the law differ from the way the scribes and Pharisees kept the law?

4. Some may have accused Jesus of being soft on sin. How would you answer that accusation?

5. Why did Jesus emphasize that the Kingdom of God has come?

6. In what ways does Jesus challenge us to keep the law even more strictly than even the Pharisees did?

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