Think Not | Matthew 5:17-20

Matthew 5:17-20 "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Jesus's Sermon has been addressed to disciples. If you look back at verses 1 and 2, they make it clear that disciples were His audience that day, and He is still speaking to disciples. Verses 3-12 were about the blessings for the disciples, verses 13-16 were about the nature of disciples—we are salt and light. Now we have reached a doctrinal section of His Sermon, where He wants to deal with how we think. Look how this section starts: "Think not."

What we think, especially about God, affects everything about us. It has been said that everyone is a theologian, and it's true. The word theology simply means "knowledge of God," and everyone has something they think about God. Even the atheist has opinions, and usually rather strong ones, about Him. The issue is we often have wrong ideas about Him—about who He is, what He wants, and how to achieve that. So as a disciple of Christ, the first issue that must be addressed is how you think. If you look to the end of this section of His Sermon in Matthew 5:48, it ends with: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." A section on thinking ends with being. That is always the case, and it is the principle found throughout the Bible—right doctrine always establishes right discipline, and that's what it means to be a disciple: to be in the discipline of Christ.

Before He deals with their wrong ideas about the Law of God, He first deals with their wrong ideas about the God of the Law. The common belief amongst the crowd that day would have been, "Keep the Law and God will be pleased," but this was a great misunderstanding about what the law was for, their inability to keep it, and why Christ came in the first place. If the Law could save a man, why did Jesus have to come? If men could save themselves by the keeping of the Law, why would Jesus come? Be sure you have this thinking right: He came to fulfill all the law because you could not.

"Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." There is only one whose righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, and His name is Jesus Christ. He fulfilled the law, every jot and tittle. The law was not destroyed by Him, but fulfilled!

My question for you this morning is: what do you think about Him? What do you think about yourself? Do you think by keeping the law you will see the kingdom of God? To that assumption these verses say, "Think not." Do you think your goodness will be considered at the entrance to heaven? "Think not." Do you think that Jesus came to partially fulfill the law and for you to finish up the rest? "Think not." To be a disciple of Christ you must realize that there is only one righteous—"Jesus Christ the righteous." He fulfilled the law, not by external displays of religion, but by a perfect love for God the Father and for men.