Gamera

From a wonderful cite: http://net.metadynamics.com/JesusOnInerrancy.asp

On Murder


The Old Testament law regarding murder is summarized below, in the following quotations from Exodus:

And God spake all these words, saying, ".... Thou shalt not kill."

Exodus 20:13 KJV

And God spoke all these words: ".... You shall not murder."

Exodus 20:13 NIV

Then the LORD said to Moses, ".... These are the laws you are to set
before them: .... Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate. But if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death."

Exodus 21:12-14 NIV

Immediately after His introductory proclamation, Jesus began his lesson on the Law and the Prophets with the following discussion of murder:

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca', is answerable to the Sanhedrin.
But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.


Matthew 5:21-22 NIV

In this, the first of Christ's lessons regarding the Law and the Prophets, Jesus provides the deeper meaning of the law against murder: that anger is at the root of murder and many other related sins, and anger is what endangers us to hell fire. Jesus does not find error in the old law, but he completes it, by teaching us that we must control our anger and seek to live in harmony with our neighbors to serve the Kingdom of God.

The Old Testament law prohibits murder, but makes no reference to the dangers of anger. Jesus teaches us that anger is the root cause of murder and many other sins (including assault), and warns us that uncontrolled anger leads to hell fire. So immediately following his introductory proclamation regarding the Law and the Prophets, Jesus taught us that the Old Testament law was incomplete.

Gamera

On Adultery

Next in The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turned his attention to the subject of adultery. The Old Testament law concerning adultery is summarized below in a passage from Leviticus. The Old Testament claims the law is based on a direct communication from God.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ".... And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death."

Leviticus 20:10 KJV [emphasis mine]



In The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus again makes the law fuller, by extending the prohibition to its cause: an adulterous heart.


You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart....

Jesus, Matthew 5:27-28 NSRV


By demonstrating a fuller context for the law, Jesus clarifies the message he gave in Matthew 5:17; he came to make the law fuller, not to fulfill prophecy. Still, one might argue that this is not an error in the old law, merely a clarification.

Beyond this clarification, Jesus is again confronted with the laws concerning adultery in the book of John. Here he subtly disputes the law, indicating that it is not God’s will that the woman ‘surely be put to death’:


They said to him,

‘Teacher, this woman was caught in
the very act of committing adultery.

Now in the law Moses commanded us

to stone such women.

Now what do you say?’

…. He straightened up and said to them,

‘Let anyone among you who is without sin

be the first to throw a stone….’


John 8:3-7 NSRV

The narrative goes on to show that Jesus does not condemn the woman, showing that the law demanding her condemnation and death was not God’s will, and was in error.



Jesus straightened up and asked her,
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”


“No one, sir,” she said.



“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared.

“Go now and leave your life of sin.”

John 8:10-11 NIV

One might argue that somehow the will of God changed over time as a result of humankind’s failures. This is the sort of confused doctrine that results from the insistence that the Old Testament is inerrant. God, and therefore Jesus, knew the hearts of men from the beginning of Creation, so His message here couldn’t be any clearer:

I. The Old Testament said God commands us to surely put adulterers and adulteresses to death. Jesus demonstrated that the punishment for adultery proscribed by the Old Testament law is not God’s will; Jesus showed us that mercy is God's true will. Jesus showed us that the Old Testament is in error.

Gamera

On Divorce
The next topic Jesus addressed in The Sermon on the Mount was divorce. Though Jesus only subtly corrected the laws concerning adultery, his corrections to the Old Testament law concerning divorce were fundamental. Deuteronomy states:

When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it comes to pass that she finds no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

Deuteronomy 24:1 KJV

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees with the law concerning divorce:

Some Pharisees came and tested him [Jesus] by asking,
“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”


“What did Moses command you?” he [Jesus] replied.


They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”


“It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one.

Therefore what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”



Jesus, Mark 10:6-9 Hybrid KJV/NIV [emphasis mine]

Jesus here says that the law was written by Moses, not by the Father, and claims that it is simply wrong. This is a critical revelation, because Jesus is attesting that many remarks attributed to the Father in the Old Testament are not from the Father at all, but are simply the laws of men.

Again, Jesus directly opposed the Old Testament law in The Sermon on the Mount:

It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.” But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Jesus, Matthew 5:31-32 NSRV

II. The Old Testament says that a man can divorce his wife over minor issues; Jesus said, “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
Jesus taught us that the Old Testament is in error.

Gamera

On Oaths

Next, Jesus taught us about the taking of oaths. The Old Testament instructed people to make oaths in the name of the LORD, and to obey them out of fear:

Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: .... You must fear the LORD your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name.

Deuteronomy 6:13 KJV

However, Jesus, in The Sermon on the Mount, instructed us to be truthful in our hearts. Jesus stated that by making vows before God, we show disrespect to him in an attempt to establish credibility for our sinful selves.

Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.”

But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one [self].

Jesus, Matthew 5:34-37 NSRV

III. The Old Testament told us to make oaths to the LORD; Jesus taught us not to make oaths to the LORD, but to be truthful in our hearts. Jesus taught us that the Old Testament is in error.

Dark Virtue

Gamera, what, exactly, is your definition of fulfill?

Because, to quote a certain Spaniard, "I don't think that word means what you think it means".


Keep in mind the context here. If Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law, why would he say in the next breath, to complete it? Abolish means to end the observance or effect of.

v17 uses the word pleroo for fulfill. One of the definitions of pleroo is, "to cause God's will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be" (from blueletterbible.com)

So reading these verses IN CONTEXT, Jesus said not to think that the came to end the observance of the Law or the Prophets, but to make sure God's will & His laws are obeyed as they should be.

There's a huge difference there.

FatherMithras

Dude, no offense, but post one thing at a time. If you post all that stuff how are we supposed to address it all without taking hours?

Storm

I'm not clear on what you're getting at here. Did Jesus overturn the prohibition on murder and say don't get angry? Or is the law still active with some additional info? I'm asking because you of the title of the thread.

By the way, murder can happen without anger. Sometimes someone just wants another removed from a situation.

Gamera

He changed the definition of the commandment. The commandment says you shall not kill. Killing is a physical act. Jesus says even if you are angry at another, it's equivalent to killing and will be judge by God as if it were an act of murder. Clearly Jesus's standard for violating the commandment is quite different from the OT standard.

Gamera

I don't think there is much difference as to the practice of Christianity.

The Greek word he uses means to complete. Jesus completed the Law in the sense that his sacrifice made it obsolete and useless. It had served its purpose, which was to show people that they could not earn righteousness by following the law and they needed a savior.

Now, the Law is still in effect for those who reject faith and want to rely on it. However, they will fail to follow the law and hence be judged. But by definition this is not Christianity. So for all intents and purposes, for followers of Christ, the Law is in fact abolished. Hence:

Romans 7:4 - Likewise, my
brethren, you have died to the law
through the body of Christ, so that
you may belong to another, to him
who has been raised from the dead
in order that we may bear fruit for
God.

Romans 7:6 - But now we are
discharged from the law, dead to
that which held us captive, so that
we serve not under the old written
code but in the new life of the Spirit.

Galatians 2:19 - For I through the
law died to the law, that I might live
to God.

Galatians 3:10 - For all who rely
on works of the law are under a
curse; for it is written, "Cursed be
every one who does not abide by all
things written in the book of the law,
and do them."

Galatians 3:23 - Now before
faith came, we were confined under
the law, kept under restraint until
faith should be revealed

Galatians 5:4 - You are severed
from Christ, you who would be
justified by the law; you have fallen
away from grace.

Galatians 5:18 - But if you are
led by the Spirit you are not under
the law.

Ephesians 2:15 - by abolishing
in his flesh the law of
commandments and ordinances,
that he might create in himself one
new man in place of the two, so
making peace,

Hebrews 7:12 -
For when there
is a change in the priesthood, there
is necessarily a change in the law
as well.

Hebrews 10:1 - For since the
law has but a shadow of the good
things to come instead of the true
form of these realities, it can never,
by the same sacrifices which are
continually offered year after year,
make perfect those who draw near

James 1:25 - But he who looks
into the perfect law, the law of
liberty, and perseveres, being no
hearer that forgets but a doer that
acts, he shall be blessed in his
doing.

James 2:10 - For whoever keeps
the whole law but fails in one point
has become guilty of all of it.

Gamera

By the way, here is metadynamic's interest discussion of fulfilling the law.

Jesus testified that God’s inspiration permeated the Law and the Prophets, and in The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaimed:



Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Matthew 5:17-18 NKJV [emphasis mine]

The word fulfill seems to suggest that Jesus came to fulfill prophecy, but as we look back at the Greek root word, plhrwsai (plerosai, Strong’s Index 4137 pleroo, related to pleroma), translated as fulfill in the above passage, we see that Jesus’ meaning in this passage is not so clear. Strong’s Index lists all of the following translations as possible meanings for the last word in the passage:



Literally to make replete/complete, i.e. (literally) to cram (a net), level up (a hollow), or (figuratively) to furnish (or imbue, diffuse, influence), satisfy, execute (an office), finish (a period or task), verify (or coincide with a prediction), etc.:--accomplish, X after, (be) complete, end, expire, fill (up), fulfill, (be, make) full (come), fully preach, perfect, supply.


When we study the rest of the context of his message that this proclamation introduced in The Sermon on the Mount, we discover that Jesus meant that he would restore, complete and fulfill the Law and the Prophets; He would provide their full and correct meaning and eliminate the errors in their current understanding (Restore the Truth); He would add teachings to them to complete them (Complete the Path); and He would serve as a perfect example of how to live by them (Fulfill the Law; Provide the Light).

It is only this restored and completed Law that Jesus proclaims will never perish and that he wants us to take as our foundation of rock.