Introduction
The first essay on the new covenant (see: 13 March, 2017) noted, among other things, that key Old
Testament prophecies of a new covenant envisioned no change to the Law. Instead, Isaiah 59.20-21, Jeremiah 31.31-34,
and Ezekiel 36.25-28 speak of a restoration of Israel from exile due to their
sins—a restoration that would involve forgiveness and transformation of God’s
people such that they would obey God’s Law.
These texts repeat the expectations stated already in Deuteronomy 30,
where Israel’s failure to abide by the covenant, its exile due to this failure,
and its restoration and ultimate obedience are already in view.
These prophetic texts affirm a continuity of the Mosaic Covenant with the New
Covenant. There is not a change of covenantal
stipulations or laws. In this essay, I will note that
the same perspective is in view in Jesus’ teaching and ministry as we find it
in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus did not, as
is sometimes erroneously thought, reject the Old Testament commandments as
pertaining only to the Old Covenant. Nor
did Jesus take the view that Christian ethics should involve a departure from a
‘command ethic’ (or rule ethic) in favour of a value ethic (e.g., love or
liberation) or even virtue ethic—even though values and virtues can be affirmed
as part of Christian ethics. Yet Matthew does help us to see how the New Covenant is not merely a duplication of the Old Covenant but an intensification of it. In this regard, there is a difference between the Old and New Covenants. Secondly, in Jesus' own Passover sacrifice for the New Covenant, he brings more than what the first Passover sacrifice did for the Old Covenant: he not only establishes a people for God but also saves them from their sins.
Jesus’ Intensification of the Law
in Matthew’s Gospel
A key passage is Matthew 5.17-20:
Matthew 5:17-20 (ESV) "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.
The language of ‘fulfill’ and ‘until all is accomplished’ has, at times,
led to speculation that Jesus had in view some impending transition from the
Law during or at the conclusion of his ministry. Moreover, the statement that his followers
needed to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees—Jews committed
to obeying the Law—has also suggested to some that Jesus intended an end to the
Law. Nothing could be further from the
truth.
As the passage continues with the so-called ‘Antitheses’ of the Sermon on
the Mount (Matthew 5.21-48), Jesus does not counter the stipulations of the
Mosaic Covenant. He rather calls for a ‘New
Covenant’ form of obedience to the Mosaic Covenant’s ethics. Where his followers were to exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was not in the Law’s stipulations
but in their obedience from the heart.
Isaiah 59.21, Jeremiah 31.31-34, and Ezekiel 36.26-27 present the New
Covenant in terms of an internal obedience—with God’s words in their mouth, a
heart of flesh, and God’s Spirit within.
As Ezekiel says, ‘And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules’ (Ezekiel 36.27). Jesus’ ‘Antitheses’ explore ways to obey God’s
Law from within, not ways to reject
the stipulations of the Old Covenant.
Moreover, Jesus calls on his disciples to obey his commands not because they are different but because the ethic of the Kingdom is deeper. The letter of the Mosaic Law is only
indicative of a deeper Law of God. A classic instance of this matter may be
found in Jesus’ teaching over against Moses’
teaching on divorce and remarriage.
Moses’ allowance of this on account of human sin (cf. Deuteronomy
24.1-4) is not relaxed by Jesus but intensified in light of what God had intended
for marriage in creation (cf. Matthew 19.1-9).
To be sure, Jesus does relax
certain practices of the Pharisees (cf. Matthew 15.1-20) and is not partial to
Mosaic laws that do not extend to the heart (such as food laws, cf. Mark 7.19). The Pharisees’ practices are ways to maintain
an external rather than internal righteousness of the heart; they are ways to
halt the pursuit of righteousness before it extends to the inner person. Consequently, their ethic involved ways to
continue in sin even while making a great show of obedience to commandments. Such is not, however, an option in the
Kingdom of God, where perfection (an ethic of the heart) rather than
half-measures (a merely literal obedience to the letter of the Law) is the goal
(Matthew 5.48).
Thus, Jesus’ teaching continues the stipulations of the Mosaic Law, but it
becomes His commandments. He does not merely repeat the external rules of
Moses but intensifies the stipulations.
The Law of the first covenant, a moral code written on tablets of stone,
becomes an internal Law of the new covenant, a law of the heart. Now Israel will be truly restored from
captivity in their sins; now they can
enter the Kingdom of God and there seek God’s righteousness (cf. Matthew 6.33). When the risen Christ sends out his disciples
to the nations to make other disciples and teach them His commandments, it is the intensification of the Law for God’s
Kingdom, not a replacement of the Law, that is in view (Matthew 28.20).
When Jesus says that there is a first and second commandment among all of
the Mosaic commandments, he does not do so in order to overthrow the other commandments
of the first covenant. He does so in
order to give right perspective. Jews
did not at the time simply treat the supposedly 613 commandments of Moses as
independent rules but sought a way to structure them. Jesus was not the first teacher in Israel
ever asked to suggest which one of the commandments was primary. When he is so asked (Matthew 22.35-40), he
responds that the first commandment is to love God, as Jews affirmed daily in
the Shema from Deuteronomy 6.5. And to this he adds that the second of the
commandments is to love one’s neighbour as oneself—also an Old Testament word
(Leviticus 19.18). Jesus uses Old
Testament commands to provide a means of interpretation for the other commands,
not to move beyond commandments with an ethic of love. Indeed, he says, ‘On these two
commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22.40). This makes excellent sense, for the first
law, to love God, encapsulates the first four of the Ten Commandments, and the
second law, to love one’s neighbour as oneself, encapsulates the last six of the
Ten Commandments. And, as we know from
Philo, for example (see his Special Laws),
other laws could be related to the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments functioned more as
topics for the rest of the laws. If the
laws of the covenant could be encapsulated by the Ten Commandments, then Jesus’
two laws of love could encapsulate the two parts of the Ten Commandments. Thus all the Law and the prophets could be
said to hang on these two laws—not replace them.
Jesus’ Provision of a New
Passover Sacrifice
Jesus’ teaching on the Law comes with his sacrificial offering of Himself
on the cross. He does not merely
intensify the Law that Israel, after all, was not able to keep in the first
instance. He intensifies the Law and offers a forgiveness of sins through
his own blood of a New Covenant. Jesus
dies at the time of the Passover, a Passover sacrifice for the people. While it may be pointed out that the Passover
sacrifice was not a sacrifice for sins, it was, after all, a sacrifice in
reference to establishing God’s covenant people. The initial Passover allowed Jews to leave
Egypt and to gather at Mt. Sinai to receive God’s commandments and become His
own people. Jesus’ celebration of the
Passover with his disciples (cf. Matthew 26.26-28) was like, and yet slightly
different from, this initial Passover.
He tells his disciples that it is a sacrifice of his body (symbolized in
the bread) and blood (symbolized in the wine) to establish a new covenant—the new
covenant foretold by the prophets. It is
a sacrifice that establishes a new people, Jesus’ disciples. Yet he adds that his blood of this covenant is
‘poured out for the many for the forgiveness of sins’ (Matthew 26.28). This goes beyond establishing a people. Jesus’ Passover sacrifice is also a sacrifice
for sins.
How is it that the first Passover is a sacrifice that establishes a people
for God and the Passover of the new covenant is this plus a sacrifice for sins?
The answer lies in the story of Israel itself. The first exodus of the Jews was a liberation
from slavery in Egypt that led to establishing them as God’s treasured
possession. At this time, God gave them
His commandments. Subsequently, however,
Israel broke God’s commandments to the extent that, in time, they were rejected
by God and sent into exile (the northern kingdom in 722 BC and the southern
kingdom in 587/6 BC). When the prophets
speak of a future new covenant, they speak of it as God not merely restoring
Israel from captivity but also dealing with their sins. The new exodus from exile is not merely a
liberation but a salvation from sin. Nor
is it merely a forgiveness of sins but a transformation of the heart, a giving
of God’s Spirit, such that the people will be established in
righteousness. Thus, Jesus’ ‘Passover’ is
associated with the new covenant and so not
only establishes a people for God’s Kingdom but also, in keeping with the inauguration of an inward
righteousness in the new covenant, is a
sacrifice for sin.
Conclusion
Jesus’ intensification of the Law with his announcement of the coming of
the Kingdom of God was in keeping with expectations in the prophets about the
new covenant. The difference between the
Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant lies in its keeping, not changing its
stipulations. Yet to keep the
stipulations of the covenant, a new heart was needed, and this involved not a
relaxing but intensification of the ethics of the Mosaic Covenant.
Along with this intensification of the Law also came Jesus’ dealing with
sin in accordance with God’s promises for the New Covenant. Whereas the first Passover brought about
redemption from slavery in Egypt and led to establishing Israel as God’s covenant
people, Jesus’ Passover brought about redemption from slavery to sin through
his shed blood. As Matthew states in the
beginning of his Gospel, Jesus was given his name precisely because he was to
save his people from their sins (Matthew 1.21).
This new Passover, established by Jesus’ blood, constituted not simply a
people freed to live for God but a forgiven people that was now able to live
for God.
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