Love is the Fulfillment of Law - World Evangelical Alliance

Part I
Love and Law – General Biblical Ethics
Love Is the Fulfillment of the Law:
With the Law Dies Love (1993) 1
The Sermon on the Mount
As we begin to think about law and love, let us consider the controversy
about the Sermon on the Mount. Is Jesus here giving a new law or is He
restating the Law of the Old Testament? Those who believe that Jesus is
proclaiming a new law in the Sermon on the Mount, show a lack of knowledge
1) of Jesus’ answers to the Pharisees, 2) the text of the Sermon itself,
and especially (3) of the commandments of the Old Testament.
1) Jesus always used the Old Testament to refute the Pharisees. How
could He use the Old Testament as His authority against the Pharisees if
the Pharisees represented the Old Testament? Jesus again and again rebuked
the Pharisees and scribes for misinterpreting, misusing and rejecting
the Old Testament. This can be seen especially in Mk 7,1-5 (Mt 15,1-13).
Here Jesus says for example: “For laying aside the commandments of God,
you hold the tradition of men … You have a fine way to set aside the commandments
of God in order to observe your own traditions” (Mk 7,8-9). In
the ‘woes’ on the Pharisees and scribes in Mt 23 just before His prophecy
of the destruction of Jerusalem in Mt 24, Jesus pronounced: “Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise
and cumin, but you have omitted the weightier matters of the Law, judgment,
mercy and faith. These you ought to have done not leaving the other
things undone” (Mt 23,23).
2) The same can be found in the Sermon on the Mount itself. The list of
subjects each beginning with “You have heard it said … But I say unto you
…” (Mt 5,21-48) is introduced by a clear statement that Jesus came to fulfill
the Law: “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” (Mt 5,17). He
1 Lecture at the Twelth Northwest Conference for Christian Reconstruction in Seattle
May 2, 1992. Reprinted from “Love is the Fulfilment of the Law”. Calvinism Today
(now: Christianity and Society) 3 (1993) 2 (Apr): 7-11+32. A shortened version was
published in the book ‘God Wants You Learn, Labour and Love’.