Love God With All Your Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength Series

He made clear that, although He was the Messiah and God’s own Son, He was not preaching and teaching anything that obviated the law of Moses or any other part of Scripture.

But because Jesus’ teaching of Scripture was so utterly contrary to theirs, which for centuries had been encrusted by thousands of humanly-devised rabbinical interpretations, the Pharisees were convinced that Jesus must be teaching a message He considered to be greater than that of Moses.

Over the years, the rabbis had supposedly determined that, just as there were 613 separate letters in the Hebrew text of the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, in the book of Numbers, there were also 613 separate laws in the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses. Such letterism, as it is sometimes called, was extremely popular and was considered to be a valuable exegetical tool for interpreting Scripture. The rabbis had divided those 613 laws into affirmative and negative groups, holding that there were 248 affirmative laws, one for every part of the human body, as they supposed, and 365 negative laws, one for each day of the year. The laws were also divided into heavy and light, the heavy ones being absolutely binding and the light ones less binding.

In the first Century, there had never been unanimity, however, as to which laws were heavy and which were light, and the rabbis and scribes spent countless hours proudly debating the merits of their particular divisions and the ranking of laws within the divisions.

It was a question disputed among the critics in the law. Some would have the law of circumcision to be the great commandment, others the law of the sabbath, others the law of sacrifices, according as they severally stood affected, and spent their zeal; now they would try what Christ said to this question, hoping to incense the people against him, if he should not answer according to the vulgar opinion; and if he should magnify one commandment, they would reflect on him as vilifying the rest.

It was evidence to that effect that they now hoped Jesus would disclose, because to contradict Moses was to contradict God and be guilty of heresy. Their purpose was to expose Him as an apostate and thereby turn the people against Him.

• Are we really that far from this in our own minds? How do you consider homosexuality compared to adultery? How do you consider theft compared to gossip?

• Ladies and Gentlemen, we are the modern day Scribes and Pharisees. We place some sins as being unforgivable and yet sweep others away as just being common.

• Jesus is here today to say that God’s law is binding today. To love Him with all your Heart, Soul, Mind and Strength means neither elevating it about forgiveness nor thinking it is just not that bad.

• That’s why we are looking at the Way of the Master to show how the law of God is both relevant today and exposing the common myth that everyone is basically good.

God’s holiness demands that the offence of sin be atoned for. The work of Jesus is the atonement of sin for those who desire that atonement.