Any corporation, organization, club, or society must have rules set in place to properly govern its members. And all good policies, procedures, laws, standards, or rules of conduct must have a reference point in order to have validity and reason for compliance.
For those who consider themselves part of the family of God, we are told in verses 19 and 20, that our reference point is the Law of God. It holds us accountable to Him AND gives us no credit for our attempts to fulfill the law. All our attempts to do what the law requires only reveal our weakness to accomplish it. We have zero power within us to comply fully with the standards set by the Holy God. His law is the real truth teller.
Yet, separate from the law, the righteousness of God has been given to us by faith. In a way, the law and my God-declared righteousness both require a faith. Either a faith in myself to fulfill the law, which I cannot, or a faith in the giver of the law. A dichotomy that can only be understood and reconciled from the reference point of God Himself since He is “the author and perfecter of our faith.”
Where the law brings justification of punishment because we cannot do what it requires, it also brings justification of restoration because what we cannot do is fulfilled in Jesus. He is the One determined from before the creation of the world to be our Savior. The One who knows the depths to which our obedience must go.
Jesus’ life requires us to understand that His ability to “surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees” is more than a checklist of rules. To realize that though the hidden parts of our life contain hate, lust, deceit, greed, prejudice, pride, laziness, worry, a lukewarm heart; “filthy rags,” it has all been covered by the One who held the power to obey every law, jot and tittle.
There really is power in the name of Jesus.
FOR REFLECTION:
- How has the truth of verses 23-24 revealed itself in your life?
- What difference does this passage make in how you live out your faith?
by Jennifer Dreger
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