1996 Issue 7 - Sermon on Luke 5:33-39 - The Lord of the Sabbath and Biblical Law - Counsel of...

8/12/2019 1996 Issue 7 - Sermon on Luke 5:33-39 - The Lord of the Sabbath and Biblical Law - Counsel of Chalcedon

1/7

he

Lord

of

the Sabbath

and

Biblical Law

The

fldee

oj

Biblical

Law

in

.

the Kingdom

of

Christ

..

With

these words, Jesus is not

criticizing or abrogating the Law

of God. He is criticizing the

traditions

of

the rabbis and, as the

Lord

Who gave the Law, showing

us how to interpret and apply His

Law. The

Biblical Law

of

the

Sabbath stills S\a.nds

in

the

Kingdom of Christ, although the

day has been changed from the

seventh

to the first by the Lord

of

demand in the light of the

ORIGINAL meaning of THE

.WHOLE

of

the divine

commandments . It is always the

law that Jesus claims to maintain

and fulfill. And every time it

appears that the interpretation of

the law, i.e, the knowledge of the

divine will from the law, must

satisfy higher demands than those

made by the current interpretation

of the Jewish teachers of the law.

The issue is

not

the law as such

but its interpretation."

(Ridderbos, THE COMING

OF

THE KINGDOM, pg. 312 .

commitment to the law but

against their refusal to be really

committed to the law, Mat. 15:6;

9:13. No doubt the most basic .

cause of this refusal of ]tidaism's '

was the fact that it )lad divorced '

the law from the living

Cod and

had made the law merely a subject

for formal and scholarly learning.

In contrast to th

iS

Jesus leads tiis

disciples back to God llimselffo.r

the knowledge of the Divine will.

They must show that they are th

children of their heavenly Father .

But this encounter only takes '

place

in

:the

he Sabbath

through

His

Spirit-endowed

Apostles,

and

its ceremonial

trappings

have

reached a

climax

in

Christ.

F T ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ law,

We

cannot

agree

with

those who

deny the

abiding

authOrity of

God's Law

in

the kingd9t )

of Christ. "The theonomy of the

gospel is subjection to the law,

and any

attempt

to eliminate the

category oflaw from the gospel is

frustrated by the continuous and

undeniable ms.interiance of the

law

by

andin thegospel."

(Riddetbos,

THE

COMING

OF

THE KINGDOM, pg. 307).

So):Ileti

.mes the ful(illment

of

the

law formulated

by

Jesus in His

commandments consists in a

deepening, a refinement, a

qualitative reduction of a

particular sin to its

roOI

and

origin; at others it contains the

rejection of the atomistic

conception of sin and

r i ~ h t e o u s r : e s s

ar:d sets God's

The Main Flaw

of

Pharisaism

with Reference

t

Biblical Law

"For Pharisaism was

not

put in

default because it thought it could

'grasp' God and His will

in

the

law, or because t nferred

consequences from particular

principles or general precepts of

the law. But it was blamed

because

it

did so

in

such

a way

that the real

and

profound sense

of the law was deprived of its

force. --- ... the whole of His

teaching is dominated by the

thought of the living reality of

God's revealed will IN His law.

--- His frequently recurring

reproach is not directed against

4 TH C O U N ~ E L o Chalcedon September 1996

conceived

however,

as

.

the

translation .. '

and wording

of

Cod's will,

as the

personal

address by

the living and

holy

G o d ~

Rldderbos, .

pgs. 313-314.

he

Demand

of Biblital

Law According to Jesus

If the question is asked s to

what is special and characteristic

in Jesus' fulfillment

of

the law, the

answer must

be

that it is certainly

not to be found in the pointing .

out of the limited importance of .

the law as a source of knowledge

about the divine will

,

but much .

rather, in Jesus'

vindicationofthe

totalitarian and all-embracing

nature

of the demand of the laW ,

This, and nothing else, is the

meaning of the radicalization

of

the law's demand

in

the

applications given by Jesus in His

commandments. This is also the'

starting-poim of the antithesis,

,

. \;


2/7

'unless your righteousness shall

exceed the righteousness of the

scribes and Pharisees.' This

'excess' demanded by Jesus is not

meant in a quantitative sense ,but

in a qualitative sense (the demand

of the law goes deeper and reaches

further

than

the

velY

elaborate

interpretation of the law which

the scribes would suggest), The

dimension in which such

fulfillment moves is not one of

width but of depth, --- This is the

'perfection' required by Jesus,

viz

the holding of nothing back, the

unconditional surrender to the

will of God with all that one is

and has, This, and

nothing

else, is

the meaning

of

the reduction of

the content of the law to the duty

ofloving God above all and one's

neighbor as

oneself:

Ridderbos ,

pgs, 314-315,

Jesus made clear that THE

lAW DEMANDS LOVE, which is

only possible

if

the heart has been

converted to God,

t

is the

obedience that will perform any

service which God demands from

His children, and that

presupposes the total,

unhampered surrender

of

heart

and

wilL --- To put it

in

one

statement,

we

can therefore say

that the fulfillment of the law by

Jesus consists in his setting in the

light in a matchless way the

character of love of the obedience

demanded by the law,

In

this

statement love is conceived of as

the totalitarian, all-embracing,

self-surrender. - Ridderbos,

317-318,

THE SON OF MAN

IS

LORD

OF THE SABBATH, He was

humiliated in suffering

and

death

to secure the blessings of the

Sabbath for us; and He arose from

the dead

with

unlimited

sovereignty to guard the Sabbath

and

to administer blessings

on

its .

observance and curses on its lack

of observance.

(6:6-11) The Sovereignty

o

esus Over

His

Enemies

The Sovereign jesus

Setting

Up

His Enemies

The Control o the

Situation

By

jesus

Jesus is in full control of this

situation, 6:6-11, which

eventually led to His crucifixion,

He faced his enemies, who were

looking for a legal excuse to kill

Him, called the man with the

withered

arm

to stand right in the

middle

of

His enemies so they

would not miss the miracle, chose

a Sabbath day to heal the man,

and then embarrassed His

enemies

with

a question that

exposed the failure of their

religion, thus discrediting

them,

Luke tells us that Jesus healed the

man

on

the Sabbath

on

purpose in

front of those who were looking

for some excuse to dispose

of

Jesus, because He knew what

they were thinking.

The Reason jesus Did What He

Did in

FJ Ont o

His Enemies

The Conspiracy

o

the Scribes

Pharisees Against jesus

Luke informs us that, by this

time in Jesus' minisny, the scribes

and Pharisees were already so fed

up

with

Jesus

and

so intimidated

by His ministry and theology, that

they were keeping an eye on

him to see if they could find

something, anything, of which

they could accuse

Him

in a court

oflaw,

so as to silence Him by

imprisonment

or

death, vs, 7,

Most particularly, if they could

catch Him in a violation

of

the

Sabbath, they had Him, because

Sabbath desecration was a capital

crime, Exodus 31:14-1 7,

The Work

o

the

Prophesied Cornerstone

Stumbling Block

Centuries earlier Isaiah had

prophesied of the MeSSiah, that

God would lay in

Zion C

stone,

a

tested stone, (a stone

that

would

test

men by their response

to

it),

a

costly

.

cornerstone

for

the

foundation,

firmly placed,

He who believes in

it

will not be disturbed, 28:16,

Earlier he had

prophesied of

this

stone

that

it

would

also

be

a

stone

to

strike and a

rock

to

stumble over, and a snare and a

trap for the inhabitants of

Jerusalem,

And many

will

stumble over them,

then

they will

fall

and

be

broken; they will even

be snared and caught,

8 4-15,

The Apostle Peter identifies Jesus

Christ as this cornerstone, a solid

foundation for life for all

who

come to

Him

in

faith,

I

Pet

2:4-7,

Peter also informs

us

that Christ

will also become a stone of

stumbling

and

a

rock

of offense to

all those

who

reject Him---- This

stone which the builders rejected,

this became the very

~ ~ ~ ; r e : ~ ~ ; : ~ ~ : : ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ h e n

people

stumble

over Christ in

unbelief,

it

is because they are

disobedient

to

the

Word,

and

to

this

they were

also appOinted

(by God),

2:8,

Jesus is in this incident acting

as

The Stone of stumbling,

i.e

the stone laid for the purpose

of

causing those who disbelieve to be

offended

and

to stumble over Him

into helL

He

appears to be

September,

1996

l THE COUNSEL

of

Cbalcedon l

S


3/7

maneuvering His enemies,

hardened

in

their unbelief, to

commit an act that would seal

their eternal doom. In seeking to

kill Christ, these Pharisees were

destroying themselves. In trying

to "break" Him,:they were

breaking themselves to pieces

upon Him. Their decision "points

forward to the Passion, but it also

contains the'seed of .

self-destruction. The rejection of

Jesus entails he rejection of life

and redemption and leaves men

prey to distress and death. This is

the bitter fruit of that

that Sabbath were scribes and

Pharisees, who were there

for

the

purpose of watching Him

closely,

to see i He healed on the Sabbath;

in

order

that they

might

find reason

to

accus

e Him:

vs.

7.

Jesus knew

that they were

pr

esent, AND,

more importantly,

as

Christ the

LORD

, He knew their hearts and

minds, and knew exactly what

they were up to, Lk. 6:8; jn .

2:24-25. Yet He in no way was

intimidated by their presence.

The Legalistic Traditions

of

the Pharisees

was an accepted prinCiple that

'any danger to life takes

precedence over

.the

Sabbath.;

scribes, however,

ha3.

..

..

:;:;

The

Public

Healing

of

the

Man

ith

the Withered

Hand

1,0I d.lI( < kll(,


4/7

After the man stood up before

ev

erybody, and before Jesus

healed him, Jesus said to the

scribes and Pharisees present: "I

ask

YOL(, is it

l

awful

011

the

Sabbath

to do

good,

or

to

do evil, to save a

life, or

to

destroy it?"

Tlte

Nature

of tlte

Question

In the

pa

ssage, we leam that

Jesus is verbally addressing a

specific question to thoughts in

the minds of his enemies before

they expressed those thoughts.

His point is like a dagger to their

hearts.

The Two-Edged Point

of

the

Question

The Only Two Kinds

of

Behavior:

Good

or Evil

"Good" in Greek denotes moral

excellence a

nd

moral superiOii t

y.

Behavior that is morally excellent

and morally superior adorn and

honor the Sabbath. "

Evil

"

behavior, i.e., base and immoral

thoughts and behavior disgraces

the Sabbath . Evil behavior is the

only altemative to good behavior.

Jesus knew there was no other

choice, no neutral ground ;

therefore, if good behavior, such

as hea ling the man with the

divinely-revealed,

and

therefore

inerrant, Sta

nd

ard of

good

and

evil is so perfect and so sufficient,

that it has never needed and Will

never need supplementation,

Deut.

4:1;

12:32. God

commands us in Proverbs

30

:6---"Do not add to His words lest

He

repr

ove

you,

an

d you

be

p1 Dved

a

liar.

The Relation of Good and

Life Evil and Death

Tlte Powerful Logic

of esus' Word

Tlte Lawfulness of DOing

Good

011

th

e Sabbath

Jesus' question was

reasonable and penetrating.

After all, the scribes and

Pharisees were the very

Only ~

the

Creator

may

define

what

is

good

.

and what is evil in His

In Moses-like fashion,

Je

sus

asks His audience, 1 ask

you , is it law

ful on

the

Sa

bbath to

do good, or

to

do evil, to save a life, or to

destroy it?'" Remember

the challenge of Moses to

his

audi

ence, centuries

earlier: See, I have set

ereation and He has done

s o i n m s L a w W o r d ~ .

people who were always

claiming that THEY knew

what was lawful and what was not

in ev

ery

instance, according to

their traditions. Let them

no

w

give their expert opinion with

reference

to

this question. The

answer should be obvious to any

child. Is it lawful to do

go

od, to

be generous, kind and helpful to

other people on the Sabbath? Or

is the .Sabbath a day for doing evil

things, such as being stingy,

selfish, unkind, hateful and

murderou

s?

Does not the Law of

the Ole Testament require doing

good everyday of the week, both

With reference to God---in loving,

serving, worshipping and pleasing

Him, and

Wi

th reference

to

other

human beings---in delivering

them from slavery, loving, feeding

and clothing them? What about

the specific commands of Isaiah

56:6 and 58:6-1

4?

Tlte "Doing of Good

On tlte Sabbath

Withered hand, was forbidden

on

the Sa

bb

ath, then only evil

behavior, such as alloWing the

man to continue to suffer when

you have the power to heal him, is

possible. Not to do a morally

excellent deed is ALREADY to do

an

immoral deed.

Tlte Standard By W1,ich

Good

and Evil are Detennined

Only God, the Creator , m

ay

define what is good and what is

evil in His creation; and He has

done so in His Law-Word, Psalm

19, 119. Without that revealed

Word , (the Bible), man has no

way or means of determining the

difference between good and evil,

Rom. 3:20; 7:7f. Imagine what a

dark , dange rous and degenerate

world this wou

ld be if God

had

not revealed the difference

between good and evil to us in the

Bible In fact, the Bible as the

.

before you

today

life and

prospe

li

ty,

and

deatlt and

adversity; in that I

command you

today to love the Lord your God to

walk

in His ways and

to keep

His

commandments

and

His statutes

and

His jud

gm

ents , tha t you may

liv

e

and

multiply...

But

if

you

r he

art

turns away

and you wi/lnot obey

..

.1

declare to you today

that yo

u shall

surely pelish. - -- ...r have

se

t before

you life and death, the blessi

ng

and

the curse.

So choose life in

o

rder

that

yo

u

may

live,

yo

u

and yo

ur

descendants, by loving

the Lord

your

God, by obeying

His voice,

and by

holdingfast to Hi

m;

for

this is

your

life ... ,"- Deuteronomy 30: 15-20.

The logic ofJesus' statement is

powerful---healing

on

the Sabbath

is doing good

and

doing go

od

is

saving a life; therefore, healing On

the Sabbath is lawful, right

and

pleasing to G

od

. But it is

mor

e

than

th

at.

J ~ s

would heal

people, not just because He

wanted them to feel better,

bu

t n

September 1996 t THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon t 7


5/7

order to manifest the meaning of

His saving miSsion to earth: to

transfer people from the sphere of

death to the sphere of life.

The Devastating Indictment

ofPharisaic Religion

The Life-Destroying NatUre of

Pharisaic e i t g i ~ n

The Failure o/the Religion of the

Pharisees Manifested In Their

View

of

th",

Sabbath

The Manufacture of Man"Made

Law

In Addition to the Bible

The Pharisees' big mistake was

their refusal to

boW

to total ,

exclusive, inclusive and final

authority of Biblical

Law

. They

added thousands of man-made

laws to Biblical LaW, zealously

counting obedience to their laws

as important as obeyirtg Biblical

La

w. In

fact

, they believed that

The Failure of the Pharisees to

UnderstaniUhe Purpose

ofGod 's Law

As

we have seen above, the

original purpose of God's law is to

guard, promote arid enhance life.

The

laws of the scribes and

Pharisees restric.ted and perverted

life.

They were impediments to

the full joy ofliving and to full

usefulness,

as

the prohibition to

heal the man with the withered

hand would be had it been obeyed

byJesus.

Not healing the man on

the

Sabbath was doing evil and doing

evil is destroyirtg

life;

' herefore ,

Pharisaic religion, which forbids

obedience to God's

Law

and

which divorces the Uving God

from His

Law,

is evil and In their concern

for

legal

destl"\1ctive to life. It separates r ~ = = = = = = = = = = = = = ~ detail, (to their

man from God and from life in

, he original purpose of

traditions--JCMIII), they had

Him .

"There

i a way that seems forgotten

the

mercy and grace

right

to a man, but the end .

God's law is

t

guard,

shown by God to man when

thereofis the

way

of death.

promote nd

enhance life,

He made provision

for

the

Proverbs 8:36 makes dear that Sabbath. In the name of piety

disobedience to God's law not

I ;;; I

hey had become insensitive

only manifests hatred for God, i t unless a person obeyed Biblical both to the purposes of God and

is self-injuring and suicidal. Law according to scribal tradition, to the sufferings of men. jesus'

The Expose

By

Jesus of the he was not obeying God at all. anger was tempered by a godly

Blood-Thirstiness oj . Scribal tradition was the final sorrow

for

men who could no

the Pharisees interpreter of the Bible. t was for longer rejoice itl the tbkens of

them the standard by which the God's goodness o men. When

Jesus' question pierced His bl Jesus restored the man's hand He

. Bi e is to be understood and

enemies to the heart. "He exposed demonstrated what it means 'to do

h

f

h

applied. They refused to believe

t e perversity

0

t e critics even good' and

'to

preserve

ll

e

'on

the. the fundamental truth of the

more uneqUivocally; for not only Sabbath. Moreover, He provided

did He ask whether it was Bible : there s no Law abo

ve

God a sign of. he true observance and

d

h bb

h

d

and His Word. All human

permitte on t e sa at to 0 joy of the Sabbath. As Lord of the

d

. d t

r

but h

Is

traditions are to be tested and

goo an

0

save we, e a

0

Sabbath Jesus delivers both the

added, 'or to do harm and to weighed by the Word of God, not Sabbath and man from a state of

destroy it?' --- Nevertheless this vice versa.

To

place the religious

doing harm and destroying

was

traditions of men on par with the

exactly what these enemies were infallible Word of God is the

right now engaged in "- idolatrous attempt of man to set

Hendriksen. The scribes and himself up as God.

Pharisees who

we

re spyirtg on

Jesus not only rejects all

jesus in order to find a "legal" way

to kill Him, were particularly the man-made Sabbath regulations,

destroyers of life, i.e., Jesus' life. (and all man-made laws not

What

is

indeed unlawful on the rooted in His Word), He

goes

Sabbath is to attempt to slay an even farther and says that holding

innocent person, as the Pharisees to such traditions amounts to

and scribes were engaged in doing "neglecting the commandment of

by watchingjesus with murderous God and "invalidating the word of

intent. - Geldenhuys God," Mark 7:8-13.

8 l H E COUNSEL of Chalcedon September, 1996

distress. -

Lane

The Failure of

the

Pharisees to

Recognize the Dignity of Man

In the Image of God

According to Matthew

12:11-12, Jesus enforced His

point with an illustration of a

sheep that had fallen into a pit on

the Sabbath,

'lYhieh

the owner

would certainly rescue although it

was the Sabbath, and he would do

so legally. Then He asked, Of

how much more value then is a

man

than

a sheep "


6/7

By this question, Jesus was

exposing the fallacy of Pharisaism

that they thus knew of no work

of mercy for suffering man on the

Sabbath although they would

inconsistently work to save a

sheep on the Sabbath, for they did

not like to lose a sheep. But some

other

MAN

they would treat

heartlessly; his suffering meant no

Joss

to them. - Lenski. They had

forgotten, inexcusably, that the

Sabbath was made for man, and

not man for the Sabbath.

The

Failure o

the Pharisees

to

Believe

In the True

Identity ofJesus

, From the Pharisaic point.of

v ~ w Jesus' word and action totally

undennined their interpretation of

the

Law

, their piety and their

actions. Jesus was not merely

another scribe who advocated an

independent opinion; He

constituted a threat to true

religion and ancestral tradition.

Lane. But, their most fatal failure

was their failure to submit to the

sovereign authority of the One

before them,

the

Lord

of

the

Sabbath," Who was Jehovah

incarnate visiting earth to give

Sabbath-rest and true Sabbath-life

to all who believed in Him and

submiued to His authoritative

Word. He is Wisdom Incarnate

who says: Counsel

is mine and

sound wisdom; am

understanding,

power is mine. By me

kings

reign ....

--- I

love

those who love me; and

those

who

diligently seel

1996 Issue 7 - Sermon on Luke 5:33-39 - The Lord of the Sabbath and Biblical Law - Counsel of...

Documents

Transcript of 1996 Issue 7 - Sermon on Luke 5:33-39 - The Lord of the Sabbath and Biblical Law - Counsel of...