The Sermon on the Mount Part 3
By Jonathan Mitchell
Mat. 5:15-18
15. "Likewise, people are not normally lighting a lamp and then placing it under the measuring bowl (or: a one-peck grain-measuring basket), but rather upon the lampstand - and it continues shining and giving light for all those within the house.
In Rev. 1:20, we are instructed by the risen Jesus,
"the seven lampstands are the seven covenant communities (or: summoned-forth congregations)."
It was the seven-branched lampstand that gave light to the holy place of the Temple (i.e., "the House"). The gathering of "called-out folks" (the ekklesia) is to be the Light of every community, and thus, of the world - the aggregate of mankind. The light was not meant to be cloistered, or hidden-away in some mystery cult. God's People, His Temple, was meant to Light the Way through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps. 23). They were meant to be a community of the Just One which would be a shining Light via their Path (Prov. 4:18).
16. "In this way, let the Light, which you folks possess (or: which has a source in you folks; or: which you people are), shine in front of the People (before the humans), so that people can see your fine works (or: the beautiful works that you are; the ideal acts which come from you folks) and they can give glory to (or: and [these deeds; or: these works of beauty] will bring a good reputation to, and a manifestation which incites praise for) your Father - the One in union with the atmospheres [that surround you folks] (or: within the midst of the heavens)!
Once again, we find Paul echoing Jesus, in Phi. 2:
13. for you see, God is the One habitually operating with inward activity, repeatedly working within, constantly causing function and progressively producing effects within, among and in union with you folks - both the [condition] to be habitually willing (intending; purposing; resolving) and the [situation] to be continuously effecting the action, repeatedly operating to cause function and habitually setting at work so as to produce - for the sake of and over the pleasing good form and the thinking of goodness in delightful imagination.
14. Be habitually doing (accomplishing; constructing; producing) all things apart from grumbling complaints (or: murmurings) and reasoned considerations (or: designing thoughts; divided reckonings unto the settlements of accounts; arguments which permeate the environment or go in every direction),
15. so that you folks may come to be blameless ones (those without defect), even unmixed (unblended; artless and sincere) children of God - unblemished (flawless) people in the midst of a crooked and distorted (as having been misshaped on the potter's wheel) generation (or: a twisted family which has been altered and turned in different ways so as to be dislocated), within which (or: among whom) you folks are continuously shining (giving light; or: appearing; made visible by light) as illuminators (sources of light; or: luminaries) within [the] dominating, ordered System (or: centered in a world of secular culture, religion, economics and government; or: in union with the aggregate of mankind), [for an allusion to Israel's history, cf Dan. 12:3]
Here, Paul informs us that it is God who is habitually operating within us, and we, within the midst of the domination systems of the world. Verses 14-15, here in Paul, echo Jesus, in vss. 9-12, along with vss. 14-16, above. Both are giving us the same essential teaching.
1 Pet. 2:12 offers us a correlating summation: to be,
17. "You folks should not infer from customary presumption or from established supposition that I came to loosen-down or demolish the Law (or: Torah) or the Prophets. I did not come to loosen-down or demolish, but to the contrary, to fulfill (or: fill up; make full; bring fullness),
The Law, or Torah, and the Prophets are the roots of the olive tree (Rom. 11:18), just as Christ is the rock-mass and foundation stone upon which the New Temple is being built. We neither cut out the roots, lest the Vine or tree would die, nor do we cast away the foundation Stone (1 Cor. 3:11), lest the Temple collapse. That said, we no longer live among the roots, in the soil, the unseen, but rather within the resurrection of the Seed-life as a part of the Vine (Jn. 15:1ff; 1 Cor. 15:36-38, 42-44), in the atmosphere above the soil. We do not function as the Foundation Stone, but are being built-upon It as the structure that rests upon the Foundation, as we grow up into the Head (Eph. 4:15-16). No, we do not cut off, or cast-away. Jesus came to fulfill, make full and bring the fullness of the Anointing to His New Creation, the Body of Christ. Part of the cup which the Father gave Him to drink (Jn. 18:11; Mat. 20:22) was
"The Death [which] was drunk down and swallowed into Victory (or: overcoming)!"[Isa. 25:8],
which included
"the sharp point and stinger of (or: the sting, thus, the injection from) the Death,"
which was
"the Sin (the mistake; the error; the failure)," and this included, "the power and ability of the Sin," which was, "the Law" (1 Cor. 15:54b-56).
That was how the Law was fulfilled - it came to its full end and it bore its fruit, as Paul instructs us in Gal. 4:
5. to the end that He could (or: would) buy out (release by purchase; redeem; reclaim [from slavery]) those under [the] Law - so that WE could and would receive and take away into possession the placing in the condition of a son (or: the deposit of the Son; the setting in place which is the Son; the constituting as a son; the placing in the Son). [cf Rom. 8:3-4; Jn. 3:16]
6. Now, because we exist being (are presently and continuously) sons, God at once sends forth (or: at one point sent off from out of [His] midst) His Son's Spirit (or: the Breath-effect, which is His Son) as an emissary into the midst of our hearts, repeatedly crying out (habitually calling out or exclaiming in an inarticulate cry; even: screaming, shrieking [verb also means: croak, as a bird]), "Abba (Aramaic: = Dad, or, Daddy!), O Father!"
7. So that, you are (you exist being) no longer a slave, but rather, a son, and since a son, also an heir (a possessor and an enjoyer of the distributed allotment) through (or: through means of) God [other MSS: God's heir through Christ].
Paul explained the Law's purpose, and end, in Gal. 3:
23. So before the [time, or, event for] the Faithful One to come (or: prior to the coming of this faith, trust, assurance, conviction and loyalty), we were being continuously restrained, confined and held in custody under the watch of a guard, being folks constantly encircled, enclosed, shut up and locked together by and under Law, with a view to, aimed at, and moving into the midst of, the Faithfulness (or: the Act of Trust) being about to be unveiled (or: revealed; disclosed),
24. so that, consequently, the Law (= Torah) had come to be (had been birthed into existence), and continued being, our supervising guardian and attending, custodial escort unto, with a view to, and [pointing] into Christ, to the end that we could (or: would) be delivered by the Just Act and then rightwised to be in the new covenant of right relationships with justice and fairness that characterize the liberty in the Way pointed out, from out of Faithfulness (or: an act of loyalty, trust and faith).
25. So now with the coming of the Faithful One, we no longer continuously exist (or: are) under [the] supervising guardian or an attending escort [comment: = the Law; Torah]! 26. For you folks are all [i.e., Jew and non-Jew; male and female; slave and freeman] God's sons, through the faithfulness located and resident within Christ Jesus.
He did not "loosen-down or demolish." He did not "relax" the former covenant, but rather brought it to its goal, as Paul informs us,
"for you see, Christ [is] an end of Law (or: for Christ [is] Law's goal and destiny; for [the] Anointing [is] termination from [the Torah]; for Christ [was the] final act of [the] Law) [leading] into the Way pointed out in fair and equitable dealings, and rightwised [covenant] relationships of justice in eschatological liberation, to, for and in everyone habitually trusting and believing (or: because Christ [entering] into the pointed-out Way - in everyone normally exercising faith with conviction, and with each person remaining loyal - [is; brings] Law's climax)" (Rom. 10:4).
Once the goal of the Law (Christ) was produced, we read that,
"the original things (the beginning [situations]; the archaic and primitive [arrangements]) passed by (or: went to the side). Consider! New, essentially different things have come into existence (have occurred and been birthed; or: It has become new things that are essentially different from what was habitual, before; or: He has been birthed and now exists being ONES of a different kind, character and quality)" (2 Cor. 5:17b).
Walter Brueggemann has pointed out that the central theme of the Torah was PROMISE (The Creative Word, Canon as a Model for Biblical Education, Fortress Press, 1982 p 32). Jesus came to fulfill the Promise (e.g., Gal. 3:13-29),
"to the end that the Good Word (the Blessing; Good Logos, Word of goodness, ease and well-being) pertaining to Abraham (belonging to and possessed by Abraham; from, and whose intermediary source is, Abraham) could within Jesus Christ suddenly birth Itself (or: may from Itself, within Anointed Jesus, at once come into being [and be dispersed]) into the multitudes (the nations; the ethnic groups; the Gentiles), so that we [note: "we" = the new "one" mankind; cf Eph. 2:11-16] could receive the Spirit's PROMISE through the Faithfulness [of Christ]
(or: to the end that we [all] may take in hand the Promise from the Breath-effect, through faith and trust; or: in order that we [Jew and Gentile] can lay hold of and receive the Promise - which is the Spirit - through that loyalty; [cf Isa. 44:3])" (Gal. 3:14).
Jesus told His disciples that they would receive
"the Father's promise (or: the promise pertaining to, and from, the Father; or, as a genitive of apposition: the promise which is the Father)" (Acts 1:4).
A further explanation of this is given in Heb. 8:4-13. There, it is explained that the things of the Law were "an example (underlying copy; the effect of something shown from under) and by (or: in; with) a shadow of the fully heavenly people... in accord with the pattern" (vs. 5). But Christ, the fruit, has produced
"a superior (stronger and better) arrangement (covenant; settlement; disposition) which has been instituted (set by custom; legally [= by/as Torah] established) upon superior (stronger and better) promises" (vs. 6b).
In this new arrangement (covenant), the Lord is
"progressively giving My Laws into their thought (into that which goes through their mind; into their perception and comprehension), and I shall progressively imprint them (write or inscribe marks) upon their hearts" (vs. 10b), so that "everyone (all) shall progressively perceive and thus understand and be acquainted with [Him]"
(vs. 11b). This passage ends with:
"In thus to be saying 'new: different in kind and quality,' He has made the first (or: former) 'old,' and that [which is] progressively growing old (or: obsolete) and decrepit (failing of age; ageing into decay), [is] near its disappearing (vanishing away)" - vs. 13.
Then, in Heb. 10:9, it explains:
"He is habitually (or: progressively; or: presently) taking back up the first, so that He could make the second to stand (or: that He may place and establish the second)."
18. "for assuredly (or: amen; it is so), I am here saying to you people, until the heaven and the earth (or: the sky and the Land) could ever go by and pass away, not one iota (smallest Greek letter) or one horn-like projection (diacritical mark, such as an accent or breathing mark, or part of a Heb. letter; a serif; = the smallest detail) can by any means pass away from the Law [= Torah] - UNTIL all things can birth themselves (or: should occur; may happen)!
Well, what are the "all things" to which He refers, in the final clause of this verse? Luke informs us:
"because these are days of executing justice (or: from deciding the case, with a view to the maintenance of right: whether vindication or retribution) - of bringing about what is fair and right and of establishing what accords with the Way pointed out - with a view to have fulfilled ALL the things having been written (or: for ALL that is written to be fulfilled)!" (Lu. 21:22)
That verse follows Jesus speaking of Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, which was a prophecy about the destruction of the temple, in AD 70. So, here in vs. 18, Jesus is saying that the Law would not pass away UNTIL all "the things having been written" should occur. Recall 2 Cor. 5:17, cited above: the primitive arrangements (the Law) had passed on by, and the NEW had been birthed.
Let us consider Jesus' words in Lu. 16:
17. "Still, it continues being easier (or: Now it is less trouble and work) for the sky or atmosphere and the land (or: the heaven and the earth) to pass on by or go to the side, than for one horn-like projection (diacritical mark, such as an accent or breathing mark, or part of a Hebrew letter; a serif; = the smallest detail) of the Law to fall.
Without branching out into a study on the topic, we will simply suggest that the phrase, "the heaven and the earth (or: the sky and the Land)," were terms that meant "the temple (God's home) and the people," or "the two-tiered social/political structure" within which those of 1st century Palestine lived: the ruling class, and those who were ruled. That heaven and that earth would pass-away in AD 70.
Jonathan
To be continued...
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