After describing the kind of righteousness that pleases God, Rev. Sang Ho Bae explained the spirituality of the Law, which directs us to the Savior.
Jesus said,
You have heard that it was said to the people of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ will be brought before the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to the fire of hell (Matt 5:21–22).
He also said,
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt 5:27–28).
In these words, Jesus restores the original spirit of the law. The reason is that the Jewish biblical scholars added arbitrary interpretations to the law, reducing God’s word to human standards and distorting its true meaning. The sixth commandment was originally a simple and clear command, “You shall not murder,” but they added the phrase, “Whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.” The problem was that this “judgment” referred not to God’s judgment but to the punishment of a human court. As a result, the focus of the commandment shifted from holy responsibility before God to legal punishment in human society, and people came to think that as long as they did not actually commit murder, they had kept the commandment, no longer recognizing the hatred and anger in their hearts as sin.
The apostle Paul says, “The law is spiritual” (Rom 7:14). That the law is spiritual means that the law is God’s holy standard that deals not only with outward actions but also with the motives and attitudes of the heart. Human laws deal only with outward actions, but the spiritual law governs even the thoughts within a person’s heart. Therefore, even if one has not committed murder in action, if he harbors hatred in his heart, it becomes a sin that will be judged before God. Jesus’ words, “Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” follow the same principle. Even if one has not actually committed adultery, the lust in the heart has already broken the commandment.
However, the Jewish biblical scholars reduced the scope of God’s law (word). They changed the standard of the Law into a level that people could sufficiently keep, and as a result, people came to think that they were righteous simply because they had not committed murder or adultery in their actions. The rich young ruler who came to Jesus and said that he had kept all the commandments was in the same context. The reason Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and scribes, saying, “Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt 15:9), was precisely because they had removed the spiritual character of the law.
But no person has the ability to keep the law perfectly. The law is originally spiritual and judges not only outward actions but also the thoughts and motives of the heart. Although one may avoid crimes that appear in outward actions, no one is completely free from the sins of the heart such as hatred, jealousy, greed, and lust. But when the level of the law is lowered to something humans can manage, people deceive themselves into thinking that they have kept the law and regard themselves as righteous, and as a result, the original purpose of the law—to make people recognize their sin and need the redeeming grace of Christ—disappears. The role of the law is to reveal human limitation and lead us to Christ, but the scribes and Pharisees removed its spiritual character, causing people to regard themselves as righteous, and this ultimately became the cause of their downfall.
Because God’s word searches even the depths of the heart, no one is righteous before that spiritual word. Just as a disabled person cannot walk straight contrary to his will, a human being with a fallen nature has no ability to keep the law perfectly. Since a person cannot be justified or saved by the law, God sent Christ as the Savior. If we could obtain righteousness by keeping the law—if there were any other way to receive salvation—Christ would not have needed to die. “If righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Gal 2:21).
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