What Did Jesus Teach?

Jesus did become the curse of the Law and the end of the Law unto all righteousness – so lets try and understand the righteousness that He was teaching and bringing to us. Was it something different from the Law? 

Some think that Jesus was a cool, laid-back Jewish hippie who was anti-order and against the establishment of His day. This is an incorrect view of Him. Make no mistake, Jesus was not against the established order, it was His idea in the first place and it was His mission to fulfill and restore that order back to His original intent. But He hated the hypocrisy that had created an intimidating and superior hierarchy that both manipulated and exploited the Mosaic Law for ego and market gain. By the way, He still hates it!

Hypocrisy is an interesting word, because there is no such word, nor concept, in Hebrew or Aramaic – the word is simply translated as godless. The Greek language uses the word hypocrisy (hypokrisis) which means play-acting, cowardness, dissembling or a counterfeit persona. However it is a amalgam of the Greek prefix hypo, meaning under, and the verb krinein, meaning to sift or decide. Its original meaning was the deficiency to sift or decide one’s own beliefs and feelings. It describes an individual who has not entered into the divisionary process to make decisions by their own conviction of truth – it is the state of heart that remains mixed and only “play-acts” their faith and beliefs -- when it suits them. Let’s look again and try to see what Jesus died to teach.

When Jesus presents the type and shadow truths from the Mosaic Law, He then compares it His Divine Nature and His Heavenly Kingdom, for example in His Sermon on the Mount:

 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, (Mosaic Law)‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ ‘But I say to you (Jesus’ Heavenly Kingdom) that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, (Mosaic Law) ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ‘But I say to you (Jesus’ Heavenly Kingdom) that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

 “Furthermore it has been said, (Mosaic Law) ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ ‘But I say to you (Jesus’ Heavenly Kingdom) that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. Matt 5:21-31

The Kingdom of God is a much, much higher code of order than the Mosaic order! The Old Testament judged us by our actions. The New Covenant, judges the desires, motives and intents of our hearts. Surely, we can see this is higher and that we will give an exact spiritual account! By the way, Jesus prefaced His comparison teaching by saying,

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. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of Heaven. Matt 5:17-20

Any mildly preceptive person listening to Jesus as He taught, probably thought and had inner chatter that sound something like this, "Hmm, either we are all going to hell in a basket or He is going to do something or maybe bring something new in the coming Kingdom of God that He keeps talking about...or, I don't know, it's just these blasted Romans that keeps us from freedom!" 

By definition, Biblical freedom is to be free from sin, and the world’s definition of freedom is to be free to sin. The cross paid for the penalty debt of sin, and made provision if we sin, but make no mistake, it did not make provision to sin – Jesus still hates sin and if we are His, so do we! The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of Conscience, lived out by the motive and intents of the heart.

…(for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.  Romans 2:13-15