The Living Law

Passage

Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon Summary

Accorsind to Jesus, Christians can't ignore God's law, nor can we use it to try to earn God's favor, but we still need a compelling moral vision for life. Jesus resolves this tension by personally fulfilling God's Law on multiple levels, which reframes the meaning of every commandment for us today. This enables us not only to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by grace, but to increasingly obey the heart of God's law, from the heart.

Discussion Questions

1. What stood out or stuck with you from the sermon?
2. What's your personal tendency: To ignore God's law, or to try to obey it legalistically?
3. The preacher gave some current examples of why we need the Bible's compelling moral vision. What other reasons might we need it?
4. Choose an Old Testament law that seems irrelevant or confusing to you. How might Jesus' fulfillment of that law change the way you interpret and apply it today?
5. Choose and Old Testament law that's clear but easy to ignore or downplay (like tithing and Sabbath). What's one concrete way you can seek to obey it from the heart?
6. Jesus summed up the Law in the Two Greatest Commandments. Why would we need more than those?
7. How does the eternal "reward" of increasing God's favor ("calling you great") motivate you to obey his law?

Resources Consulted:

• Africa Bible Commentary, ed. Tokunboh Adeyemo
• True to Our Native Land, ed. Bryan K. Blount
• The New Testament in Color, ed. Esau McCauley
• Matthew for Everyone, NT Wright
• The Message of Matthew,John Stott
• The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing: John Pennington
• The Sermon on the Mount: Sinclair Ferguson
• The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard
• Why Don’t We Read The Bible More? (article), by Ava Leigh
• How Intellectuals Found God (article), by Peter Savodnik

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