Jesus Christ Enhances the Law

How many people over the years have accepted the idea that Jesus came to do away with the law?

Let's get a perspective from the Bible on what God the Father inspired to be said about how His Son would look at the law. In the Old Testament, Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, that "He will exalt the law and make it honorable" (Isaiah 42:21), not abolish it.

During Jesus' time on earth, we see Him taking that obligation seriously, as when He was asked by a calculating group of lawyers, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"

Surprisingly to some, instead of a legal or technical response, Christ held out the opportunity to raise the sights of all present-and all humanity since-by saying: "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment."

Raising the stakes so the lawyers would have to start making changes close to home if they were to agree with Him, He added, "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Then the Teacher of the law, and of love, in words the lawyers couldn't dispute, ended the issue with: "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:36-40).

Other than the Ten Commandments, condensed by Christ into those two maxims in Matthew 22, where does His "new commandment" to "love one another" (John 13:34) fit in? Doesn't it in some way alter our obligation to keep the Ten Commandments? Isn't love all you need?

In John 13 Christ is simply summarizing what we saw Him explain in Matthew 22: that to love to the degree expected of us, we should have the love He had. His way of life magnified the law, a law of love toward God and toward every human being. This was living the Father's will, to which Jesus, His Son, was totally committed. GN

-- David Hulme