Liam Hungate
Tonight continued the Redemption Series' look at God's Law, picking up where last week left off: the Law was never meant to save us, only to reveal what holiness looks like and show that we can't reach it on our own. Tonight moved into the New Testament to see how Jesus fulfills that Law. Like a boundary meant to protect and guide, the Law was never the final destination. It was always pointing toward something greater, and that something is Jesus.
Passages: Matthew 5-7; Mark 10; Luke 22
The Sermon on the Mount opens with Jesus going up a mountain to teach, the same phrase used in the Greek Old Testament every time Moses went up Mount Sinai into God's presence. Moses went up to receive the Law and deliver it to the people. Jesus goes up as God Himself, delivering the deeper meaning behind it, fulfilling Moses' own words in Deuteronomy 18:15 that God would raise up a prophet like him.
Just as the Law was never given to save Israel but to teach them how to live, the Sermon on the Mount isn't a plan for earning salvation. It's a picture of what life looks like under Jesus as King. In Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus says plainly that He came to fulfill the Law, not oppose it. The Greek word for fulfill means to bring something to its full, complete measure, exactly as it was always designed to be. Through Jesus, the Law moves from an external rulebook to something written on the heart.
The religious leaders of Jesus' day practiced legalism, strict obedience to the Law in an attempt to earn salvation through good works. It doesn't work, because none of us are obedient enough to get there on our own. Their righteousness was self-made, all external boxes checked, but Jesus said they were completely missing the point, because God has never been impressed by performance. He has always been after the heart. Legalism can make someone look right on the outside while leaving them empty within. Jesus isn't after a performance. He wants to transform a person from the inside so what comes out is real.
Matthew 6:1 reinforces this: righteousness isn't for other people to notice, it's for the Father. What looks private and unnoticed to others is fully visible to God.
Matthew 7:12 gives the Golden Rule, treating others the way we'd want to be treated, and Jesus says this sums up the Law and the Prophets, tying back to loving God and loving others. Matthew 7:13-14 then contrasts two paths. The wide path is crowded with people trying to be good enough, doing enough right things to outweigh the wrong, and it feels responsible because everyone else is doing the same. Jesus says it leads to destruction anyway. The narrow path isn't narrow because it's complicated. It's narrow because it requires humbling yourself enough to admit you can't do it on your own.
One way of putting it: imagine owing two million dollars you could never repay, and someone hands you a certified check covering every cent, no strings attached. The alternative is spending the rest of your life scraping together change, knowing you'll never make a dent. Trying to earn what God offers for free is choosing the second option. The chapter closes with the story of the wise and foolish builders (Matthew 7:24-27): obeying God builds a strong foundation, and ignoring Him leaves life unsteady.
In Mark 10, religious leaders tried to trap Jesus by asking about divorce. Jesus pointed them back to Moses but corrected how they were reading him, drawing out the difference between the letter of the Law, its exact wording, and the spirit of it, the deeper brokenness it was meant to address. Moses permitted divorce in cases of unfaithfulness because the Law had to account for human brokenness, but permitting something is not the same as commanding it.
The Law works like a mirror, not a cure. It shows the problem, a hard heart, selfishness, a lack of love, without being able to fix it. Mark 10:27 points to the only one who can: only God can fulfill the Law's commands perfectly. The Law exposes what only grace can heal.
Luke 22 moves into the New Covenant, made through Christ's own blood. His death was the final sacrifice required to pay for sin, fulfilling the Old Testament and the Law on our behalf. Communion was described as the public, ongoing reminder of that covenant.
The lesson drew a direct line between the two Passovers. At the first, blood on the doorposts caused death to pass over Israel's homes, and a nation of former slaves was formed. At the cross, Christ's blood causes death to pass over everyone covered by it, and a people is formed from all who receive that payment, bound to God through His Son. The Law required blood because sin requires payment. The New Covenant goes further, offering an inner transformation that cleans us from sin and brings us close to the Father. Jesus meets every requirement the Law demanded: He is the standard, He took on our inability, and He became the sacrifice.
These are the same questions the group wrestled with tonight. They are a good way to keep the conversation going at the dinner table.
A few easier openers if you want to start smaller: