With the way Jesus turned the Law inside out in Luke 6, with His upside-down blessings and woes, it would appear that Jesus was attempting to do away with the Law. And He contradicts this:

“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. 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.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Jesus came to bring into being all that the Law and Prophets said would come into being. Namely…

• The crushing of the Serpent’s head (the destruction of his rebellion)
• The redemption of mankind – the removal of sin
• The restoration of the communion of heaven and earth, God and man as it was in Eden
• The placement of a descendant of Abraham and David on the throne of all the earth to reign as eternal King
• The expulsion and judgment of all rebels (both human and angelic) from this Kingdom

All of these things have already been inaugurated and begun in Christ. And the Law of God will stand until all of this is accomplished. But, the purpose of the Law was not do the things listed above. Paul will unpack this in great detail in Romans and Galatians, but for now, let’s try to get our heads around what Jesus is saying (as explained by Paul).

“Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people.

Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ. Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬, ‭21‬-‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Obeying the Law kept people out of the ditch of real wickedness until Christ could come as the one and only, once-for-all, worthy sacrifice as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

But the Jews do not understand this. Not even the prophets completely understood God’s secret plan to bring all humans back into fellowship with Himself (only possible by perfect, and I mean PERFECT holiness which must be imputed in Christ). All they know is that God said obeying the Law would keep them out of the ditch.

But there’s a BIG problem. They think they’re doing a good job keeping the Law.

The Law is supposed to show people their sinfulness. But the Jews have gotten really good at disciplining themselves to keep the Law. So they look at themselves and say, “Sinfulness? What sinfulness?” They think that as long as they don’t technically commit adultery or whatever, then they have kept the Law and they are spotless.

How little they know what real holiness is.

Habakkuk had said of Yahweh,

“Your eyes are too pure to see evil, and you are not able to look at wrongdoing…”
‭‭Habakkuk‬ ‭1‬:‭13‬ ‭LEB‬‬

God has zero tolerance for sin. He cannot tolerate it if He is to remain perfectly Just and True. And as the LORD said to Samuel, “…God does not see what man sees, for a man looks on the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel‬ ‭16‬:‭7‬ ‭LEB‬‬

So Jesus – ever the patient Teacher – explains. It’s not just your outward conduct that has to be perfectly holy. Every single inner thought and private motive must be without taint. Always.

SHOCKING! IMPOSSIBLE!

What person could do it?

Our favorite excuse is “Nobody’s perfect.”

And that is the entire point.

Jesus raises the bar of what is required to become righteous to IMPOSSIBLE heights. He does this so it will finally register, “Oh… I have failed in this. I am sinful after all.”

All people, (and particularly the Jews who had reason to believe they were holier-than-most), need to come to the point of realizing

I AM NOT NOW, AND WILL NEVER BE, GOOD ENOUGH TO BE FIT FOR COMMUNION WITH OUR PERFECTLY GOOD AND HOLY GOD. I AM A SINNER. I AM DOOMED. AND IT’S NO ONE’S FAULT BUT MY OWN. MY ONLY HOPE IS TO FALL ON THE MERCY OF GOD.

🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑

(Everybody have a seat and ponder, please.)

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MATTHEW 6

Giving, Praying, Fasting, Lifestyle

Chapter 6 is divided neatly into topics:

• Giving, v1-4
• Praying, v5-15
• Fasting, v16-18
• Lifestyle, v19-34

The first 3 sections assume that giving, praying and fasting will be a consistent and regular part of the lives of those who are following Jesus. It’s not IF you give, pray, or fast. It’s WHEN you give (v2, 3), WHEN you pray (v5, 6, 7), and WHEN you fast (v16, 17).

And the prescribed manner is secrecy.

GIVING

We are to give in so stealthy a manner that not even our left hand knows what our right hand is doing; let alone anyone else’s left or right hands.

Some Charismatic Churches I’ve been to have no idea this text is in the Bible, I think. I’ve observed dancing processions of happy givers grooving their way up the aisle (to the swanky rhythms of the worship band), waving checks and cash in the air all the way. I’ve witnessed money openly dropped on the floor before the pulpit (by many dozens in the congregation) so the anointed man or woman of God may come and tread upon it (always with a great deal of flair) before the ushers come pick it up and whisk it away to be counted. What utter nonsense.

Giving should be like slipping someone a folded bill so subtly in a handshake that no one sees it happening.

PRAYER

Prayer is to be without ostentation and show. It is not to be like a mantra or repetitive incantation.

It grieves me, though, how many Christians are embarrassed to pray out loud or lead a group in prayer. I’ve often seen Christians treat public prayer of any kind – even something as simple as retuning thanks for a meal – as a punishment given to the loser who got the short straw. For shame! We should be lining up for the privilege!

Most will say they just aren’t very fluent in prayer and don’t know what words to use. I would say… that’s the state of anyone just learning to speak a foreign language. You don’t gain fluency in a new language without a lot of conversational practice.

Jesus tells us how to grow strong and fluent in prayer: “Pray to your Father who is in secret.” If we spent more time praying (out loud!) in secret, we wouldn’t be nervous about praying aloud in public.

🤔 Question.

K.

🤔 If God knows what we need before we ask, why doesn’t He just give it? What’s the point of prayer?

Bringing our needs to God reminds us how dependent we are on Him. And it’s part of the privileged partnership we have with God to bring His purpose into reality in the world. Prayer, (when done as Jesus taught), also shifts our perspective to see from God’s eternal point of view and refines our will to be conformed to His. It’s a strengthening exercise.

😐 Sooo… real prayer is like working hard and long at the gym to build muscle while just wishing God would be like a genie in a lamp and give me everything I want instantly is like cheating by taking a bunch of steroids.

Not a bad analogy.

FASTING

Most committed Christians give and pray on a weekly basis. But fasting? Isn’t that reserved for Lent or maybe the New Year? Would we only give or pray twice a year?

What if we incorporated fasting into our devotional life as much as prayer and giving? I have a feeling it would do us all a world of good. New research on intermittent fasting show that regular periods of abstaining from all food for 16-24 hours has tremendous benefits to our health. In particular, fasting for 24-48 hours has been shown to trigger autophagy [aw-toff-uh-gee] – the process where specialty cells dismantle broken cells (including cancerous and pre-cancerous cells).

Here are 3 (of several) methods of intermittent fasting and some of the known effects in the body:

It can be very difficult to do a fast in secret when friends, family, and coworkers ask you if you’re going to take a lunch break or why you aren’t eating. We don’t have to make it awkward, and we certainly shouldn’t lie. I think the point Jesus is making is that we aren’t trying to attract attention by a show of piety. So… shower. Comb your hair. Spritz on come cologne. Go about life as usual and do your fasting in a way that doesn’t turn it into a whole production.

REWARDS

The reward system for giving, praying, and fasting is like the marshmallow test.

We can give, pray, and fast publicly, and show everyone what awesome saints we are and have our one marshmallow reward of their esteem now. OR, we can wait. Give, pray, and fast in secret and our Heavenly Father will reward us with 2 marshmallows.

🤓 God rewards people in marshmallows?

😧 What about the crowns and mansions and stuff?

We’ll get to that soon.

🤓 Will there be chocolate in heaven? And graham crackers?

I certainly hope so.

🤓 Then I plan to make s’mores. A good s’more qualifies as a heavenly reward.

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LIFESTYLE

The 2nd Half of Matthew 6 is about how our beliefs affect our daily habits; our “lifestyle.”

Jesus addresses 3 things specifically:

• Money 💵
• Food & Drink 🍔🥤
• Clothing 👗

These are still the 3 main topics of all “lifestyle” magazines. We all use money. We all gotta eat. And we all need clothing.

😏 Some need more clothing than they think they do.

The dead giveaway about where our beliefs are is ANXIETY. If we view this world as our source and reward, then we tend to expend a lot of energy concerned about money, groceries, and other essentials. But, if like the birds and the wildflowers, we view our Heavenly Father as our provider and know ourselves to be fulfilling His purpose (even if that purpose is singing songs that only He will hear or brightening the corner of a field that only the Creator will see), then we don’t need to expend excess thought about material things, wealth or fame.

In the scope of eternity, it is the life beyond the grave that is infinitely longer. I would rather have treasure for eternity than a measly 80 or 90 or even 100 years.

As hard as it can feel to miss out on enjoying the marshmallow right now, we can wait patiently, being faithful in secret, for the full reward for all to see from the Father.