In my journey through the Old Testament passages that Jesus teaches from I came to a passage in Matthew 5:19 that says "whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven." This one stopped me in my tracks because in Acts 10, Peter was told to eat 'unclean' foods although one of the commandments is to not eat unclean foods. So I found myself asking Jesus what he meant by that.
Galatians 3 and 4 were a huge help in understanding the relationship between the old and new covenants and their requirements. It vehemently points out that we are saved by faith and not by the law but it says that the law was a "guardian" to lead us to Jesus. This guardian did at least two things. It showed us what God's standard is and then it taught us that we can't do it! That leaves us in a terrible position from which we cry out "who will save me from the righteous judgment of God?" From that position we look for someone to save us and Jesus comes to us and says, "I fulfilled all of the righteous requirements of the law in your place." Whew!
So, does that just let us off the hook? In one way, yes and in another way, no. Yes, we are off the hook and do not have to fulfill the requirements of the law to be saved. Jesus did that for us and through faith in Him we participate in his perfection. But it also doesn't let us "off the hook" of the standard of God. As a matter of fact, in Matthew 5 Jesus shows us that the standard is higher. The standard is love.
Love says 'not only will I not murder someone, but I won't call someone names. In fact, I will seek reconciliation with my enemy as a higher priority than my religious acts.' Love says 'of course I wouldn't commit adultery against my spouse but I won't even allow my mind to go there. In fact, I take my personal holiness so seriously that I would pluck out my eye or cut off my hand rather than allow those parts of my body to lead me astray.' Love makes me a person of integrity so that I don't have to swear for people to believe me but I can just say 'yes' or 'no' and let that be that.
It is only as we are led by the Spirit of God that this kind of life changing love can flow through us. Our flesh sets itself against this kind of love and fights against it our whole life. Only through abiding in Jesus can we bear this fruit for "apart from him we can do nothing".(John 15:5)
