A Time of Transition

Transition

During His earthly ministry, Jesus was announcing the kingdom of God, showing it to be something different from the nation of Israel. Before the cross, He declared the kingdom was not discernable with the eye, but was in their midst as He stood with the Pharisees (Luke 17:20-21). A kingdom not of this world but present - in part - upon it. Scripture provides four clear statements about Jesus’ position regarding the Mosaic Covenant:

Matt 12:6 Jesus is greater than the temple

Matt 12:41-42 Jesus is greater than Jonah and Solomon

Matt 12:2, 5, 7, 8 Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

Heb 3:3 Jesus has greater glory than Moses

In this transition from Old Covenant to New Covenant, Jesus was unveiling His kingdom while on earth, revealing Himself as the Greater Prophet and Son of God. When He was crucified and raised from the dead, this kingdom was inaugurated and is extant in His people. It will be consummated when He returns to judge the nations, gather His people, and make all things new.

Let us now take a look at these transitionary passages, showing how Jesus revealed what was coming: a kingdom not of this world, under a new ruler with a new rule.

Luke 2:41-50 (HCSB) Every year His parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. When He was 12 years old, they went up according to the custom of the festival. After those days were over, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but His parents did not know it. Assuming He was in the traveling party, they went a day’s journey. Then they began looking for Him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for Him. After three days, they found Him in the temple complex sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all those who heard Him were astounded at His understanding and His answers. When His parents saw Him, they were astonished, and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You.” “Why were you searching for Me?” He asked them. “Didn’t you know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” But they did not understand what He said to them.

The Mosaic Covenant commanded utmost respect for parents, with death required for those who went so far as to curse their parents (Lev 20:9). We see in Luke 2 the response of Jesus’ mother – shock at her son’s failure to treat them with respect, by staying behind without permission. This was based on the Mosaic law’s harsh stance against disobedience to parents. Jesus was at the cusp of being recognized as an adult and knew He had a higher calling from His heavenly Father, no longer a child under the guardianship of the Mosaic Law. His earthly parents did not understand this; it would appear many of His spiritual children have failed to look into this.

Luke 5:12-14 (HCSB) While He was in one of the towns, a man was there who had a serious skin disease all over him. He saw Jesus, fell facedown, and begged Him: “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Reaching out His hand, He touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean,” and immediately the disease left him. Then He ordered him to tell no one: “But go and show yourself to the priest, and offer what Moses prescribed for your cleansing as a testimony to them.”

Scripture moves quickly into the ministry of Jesus, 20 years after the first incident noted above. It was against the Mosaic Law for a healthy person to touch one with leprosy (Lev 5:3). By touching this man, Jesus was demonstrating that He was not bound by the Mosaic Covenant but answered to a higher calling. When Jesus began His kingdom ministry, He was no longer under the Mosaic Law as He was as a minor child, else He would not have touched the man. He was working to show the Jews that their Messiah was greater than Moses, bringing a new and better covenant founded on better promises to His spiritual people. True cleanliness is of the inner man, not the outer man.

Matt 17:24-27 (HCSB) When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the double-drachma tax approached Peter and said, “Doesn’t your Teacher pay the double-drachma tax?” “Yes,” he said. When he went into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, “What do you think, Simon? Who do earthly kings collect tariffs or taxes from? From their sons or from strangers?” “From strangers,” he said. “Then the sons are free,” Jesus told him. “But, so we won’t offend them, go to the sea, cast in a fishhook, and take the first fish that you catch. When you open its mouth you’ll find a coin. Take it and give it to them for Me and you.”

The clear meaning of this passage is that His disciples are sons of the King and not required to pay the temple tax. This is another demonstration that He and His people are not ruled by the Mosaic Covenant. Jesus explains why it will be paid this one time – to avoid giving offense. This is the same motive and method we hear from Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 where he acts like those under the law of Moses, though he is not under the law; he acts like those NOT under the law of Moses though he is not without law – he is under the law of Christ. No offense other than the cross. Christians, including redeemed Jews, are not under the law of Moses.

Several other passages of Scripture reinforce this idea. In Luke 8:19-56 Jesus touched a dead child and raised her to life; touching the dead was prohibited by the law (Num 19:11-12). The Mosaic Law forbade spitting on a person: Numbers 12:14 declares one unclean who has been spit-on; Deuteronomy 25:9 refers to spitting in in another's face as a curse on the person. Jesus spit on the ground, made clay to apply to a blind man's eyes to bring healing (John 9:6); He spit on a mute man's tongue to heal him (Mark 7:33); and He spit in a blind man's eyes to heal him (Mark 8:22-25), contrary to Mosaic Law. Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:15, 19), contrary to the Levitical law; He healed a paralytic on the Sabbath (John 5:7-10).

For these things they wanted to kill Him (John 5:18), for He not only violated their Sabbath, He made Himself equal with God. John did not write that the Jews claimed Jesus was breaking their Sabbath; he wrote that Jesus broke the Sabbath. In Matthew 12, Jesus defended His disciples plucking grain on the Sabbath, positioning Himself as greater than David (who had eaten bread meant only for priests) and greater than (Lord of/over) the Sabbath. David was not prosecuted for violating this law because he was king of Israel; Jesus is King of kings! In this instance, He cites Hosea 6:6, "For I desire mercy and not sacrifice." The law was not full of mercy, it provided no specific exceptions to the weekly Sabbath for acts of mercy. Healing was required in the law but no provision for doing so on the Sabbath was given. Circumcision was required on the 8th day, which sometimes happened on a Sabbath. Jesus pointed out the priests recognized that the law of circumcision must not be broken, even if it was performed on the Sabbath (John 7:22-23). The Sabbath law gave no exception for circumcision, just like it gave no exception for baking the bread that was required by the law. I think these points of tension were there to lead the Jews to seek guidance from YHWH, but they built up a system of rules that they thought they keep and be pleasing to God. Of old He told them, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice."

All of these incidents reveal the tension between the covenant that was growing old and nearing its end and the New Covenant that was being revealed and would soon be in place. Jesus was showing by word and deed how His people were to live – not bound by the letter of the law, but guided by the Spirit of God.

The Latin phrase, “Ex Lex,” is sometimes used to describe God as being “without law” or “not under law.” We see this in the Old Testament when the One Who declared the taking of man’s life was forbidden (Gen 9:5-6; Ex 20:13; Deut 5:17) killed many (Ex 4:12, 29; Deut 4:3; 1 Sam 6:19). There are other examples, but the idea is established: God is not bound by the laws He gives man; He is bound by His character and will. He makes alive and He kills. He cannot lie nor can He sin. Note this: One who is not bound by a law cannot break it. This is why when Jesus “broke the Sabbath” He did not break any law – He had removed Himself from being “under the law” as part of His bringing His kingdom into being.

Many teach, as I used to, that Jesus came to keep the Mosaic Law perfectly. I taught that the law-giver became the law-keeper to save the law-breakers. But the Bible does not teach this. Jesus said “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work” (John 4:34); He further stated “I can do nothing on My own. I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” (John 5:30) He came to do the will of the Father – but what is this? The answer is also in John’s gospel: "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:38-40) This is the will of the Father regarding the Son, not law-keeping but soul-saving; to redeem every lost sheep, to lose none of those the Father has given Him.

In each of the instances cited, Jesus is acting and speaking as one who is not under the law of Moses, but above it; just as Paul said he was not under the Law of Moses but under the Law of Christ (1 Cor 9:19-22). Jesus was teaching His people that life in the New Covenant, the kingdom which is not of this world, does not require devotion to the Mosaic Law but devotion to the Son of Man.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 – 8, Jesus was explaining to the Jews this new kingdom, which was not what most of them were expecting. He reviewed commands from the Old Covenant and contrasted them with instructions and commands from the kingdom. One saying which most claim was not in the Mosaic Covenant is in verse 43, “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” That is not found verbatim in the Old Covenant. But go read: Deut 7:1-2 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and He drives out many nations before you — the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you — and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.” And Psalms 139:19-22 God, if only You would kill the wicked — you bloodthirsty men, stay away from me — who invoke You deceitfully. Your enemies swear by You falsely. LORD, don’t I hate those who hate You, and detest those who rebel against You? I hate them with extreme hatred; I consider them my enemies. Kind of sheds new light on what Jesus said. Indeed, they had heard that they should hate their enemies.

Another thing that Jesus said needs explanation: Matt 5:17 “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” All throughout Matthew’s gospel the word “fulfill” has an eschatological meaning; he is telling us the Law and the Prophets (the entire Old Testament as we call it) had by Jesus been brought to its intended end point or culmination. At no point in this gospel does “fulfill” mean “to keep” or “obey.” As we read in 1 Corinthians, the Law and the Prophets were written for our edification; in Luke 24 we read that they testify about Jesus. But their role as the guardian for national Israel is over (Galatians 3:23-24 Speaking to those who wanted to live as Jews, Paul said: Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.). Luke 16:16 tells us the law and the prophets were proclaimed or in force until John (the baptizer); since then (a new thing), the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed and all are urged to enter in. The law and prophets were for a time, but since Christ came, the gospel is proclaimed to every person. The Law and Prophets remain as revelation even as their role of regulation came to its intended, planned end.

What is man’s part, in the New Covenant? Many teach that the Mosaic Law, in part, is to be our rule of life. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commands.” (John 14:15) Further, “The one who has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father. I also will love him and will reveal Myself to him.” (John 14:19) Does Jesus lead us to the Mosaic Law, is that where His commands are found? In part, yes – but not as presented in the Mosaic Covenant. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt 22:37-39) He observed that “All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” (Matt 22:40) To properly love God and those made in His image is higher than the entire collection of teaching in the Old Testament. And to understand how to love God we must look unto and hear Christ rightly.

Hear ye Him: “This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.” (John 15:12-14) We do not look to the Tablets of Stone to discover how to love, we look to the completed canon to see how Christ and His Apostles taught and lived. All of the “one another” passages shed light on this idea. We are not ruled by a list of “do this” and “don’t do that” commands; we are ruled by the Law of Christ, which is the fulfillment of the two greatest commands. We have the New Covenant Scriptures which show and instruct us how to love, including Galatians 6:2 Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. In many of the epistles we see practical instructions for how to live: Romans 14, all of 1 Corinthians, James, etc. In none of them are we told to return to Moses and read and apply the Law and the Prophets as national Israel was commanded. In fact, we are told NOT to do so in Galatians 3:1-3 “You foolish Galatians! Who has hypnotized you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified? I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?” The Mosaic Law was fit for a people living in the flesh. The Law of Christ is fit for a people walking in the Spirit.

The Spirit of God will illuminate our understanding of Scripture and by His willing and equipping (Philippians 2:13) we will to do what is pleasing to our heavenly Father.