We had some especially engaging discussions in Matthew 6, which begins in verse 1: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” We talked about how we should be giving, praying and fasting in a way such that we guard against doing it in a way so as to be seen by others.

How striking is the warning of Matthew 6. Yet daily I see pastors (and those who aspire to be pastors copying those chatty pastors) posting 140-character personal prayers. Are they not doing the social media equivalent of standing and praying “in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others” (Matthew 6:5)? So that they can be re-Tweeted or like-buttoned?

Why do those need to be on Twitter or Facebook? Is it so that they are seen by others?

Encouraging others to pray using social media is probably just fine. Using social media so that your prayers can be seen by others? I think Scripture counsels against that.

Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”

Don’t let that be you.

He is pretty much on the mark (more on that after the quote.) And it’s why in our sanctification, we look to Christ and not a checklist, because it’s not a checklist written on our hearts.

[W]e are just as emphatic that it does not mean that God inscribes a New Covenant list of rules on the heart of a Christian. We are skeptical of any attempt to create a new list to replace the old list. There is no New Covenant Decalogue. We disavow the way some NCT people use the term law of Christ. We do not think there is a concrete, unchanging, all-inclusive, revealed list of the specific laws of Christ any more than there was a concrete, unchanging, all-inclusive list of God’s moral law revealed at Sinai. Under the New Covenant, God puts “love God, love neighbor” into the heart of every person in Christ by the Spirit. There is a sense in which the commands to love God and love neighbor are as sufficient as a complete list would be.

– Reisinger, John G. In Defense of Jesus, the New Lawgiver. Frederick, MD: New Covenant Media, 2008. Print. p. 117–8.

I say “pretty much on the mark,” because it is the giving of the Holy Spirit to dwell in the heart of the believer that fulfills Jeremiah 31:31–34. The very nature of God — His love — in the Spirit of Christ is His law written on our hearts.

Thanks to Google books, it’s available as a free download.

And it is brilliant.

In a recent discussion on the role of law in the believer, I was reminded of some quotes from that book.

First, is the audacious statement of Matthew 5:17 in which Jesus declares Himself to be the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures:

It is, in other words, that all the law and all the prophets point to Him and will be fulfilled in Him down to the smallest detail. Everything that is in the law and the prophets culminates in Christ, and He is the fulfillment of them. It is the most stupendous claim that He ever made. (p. 163)

Is the Sermon on the Mount codification, or is it a description of the believer?  The “blessed are” statements of the Beatitudes are indicative in the Greek; they are descriptive of the new creature that is the believer.

About the Law — which Paul calls our pedagogue/tutor/guardian, Lloyd-Jones wrote:

The gospel of Jesus Christ does not treat us like that. It does not treat us as children. It is not another law, but something which gives us life. It lays down certain principles and asks us to apply them. Its essential teaching is that we are given a new outlook and understanding which we must apply with respect to every detail of our lives. That is why the Christian, in a sense, is a man who is always walking on a kind of knife edge. He has no set regulations; instead he applies this central principle to every situation that may arise. (p. 216)

Lloyd-Jones further explains:

What is of supreme importance is that we must always remember that the Sermon on the Mount is a description of character and not a code of ethics or morals. It is not to be regarded as law – a kind of new “Ten Commandments” or set of rules and regulations which are to be carried out by us – but rather as a description of what we Christians are meant to be, illustrated in certain particular respects. It is as if our Lord says, “Because you are what you are, this is how you will face the law and how you will live it.” (p. 21)

It is not a new set of letters (“For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 2 Corinthians 3:6 ESV).

Ultimately, the eternal standard of righteousness is Christ Himself, the revelation of and reflection of God, the perfect image (Greek eikon) of the Father. He is and always has been the righteousness that the Law pointed to. And He is the standard of our righteousness. No law has ever encompassed His holiness, the only standard that matters.  No law, no letters can encompass the righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees.  Only the living Torah, Christ whom the written Torah pointed to, is that righteousness.

Christ’s teaching, Paul’s exhortations, all point to being that which we as new creatures are recreated to be.

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (Mt. 17:5 ESV)

The Spirit of Christ, indwelling the believer and informing him in His word is not a set of rules. Looking at God’s law merely as rules to follow inherently misses the heart and focuses on the external. What the Law pointed to was fulfilled in Him and in is being fulfilled in us. While it is shrouded in this body of death now, it is realized fully in glory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScUc4imMAe0

One recent BT book I enjoyed reading and continue to reference is James Hamilton’s God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: a Biblical Theology.

This snippet summarizes the preservation of a remnant through their return from exile — a return that leaves them understanding that something, Someone, else is yet to come.

The story line of the prophets is straightforward. The people of Israel enter the land promised them by God. In doing so, they are like a new Adam in a new Eden. Their task is to rule over the earth and subdue it, but they fare no better than Adam did. The initial conquest under Joshua is subverted by the Canaanization of Israel in Judges, and then the nation rejects Yahweh for a king like all the other nations. Having removed Saul, Yahweh mercifully raises up David and promises that his seed will rule. Solomon builds the temple, but then he worships the gods of his many wives. The nation is rent ausnder. Israel falls to Assyria, Judah to Babylon.

Along the way, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve call the kings, priests and people to repentance. They also prophesy that Yahweh will redeem his people after the exile. Just as he brought his people out of Egypt, he will bring them back from all the lands in which he scattered them. Just as he shook heaven and earth at Sinai, he will once again shake heavens and earth, and once again enter into a covenant with Israel, and the people will know Yahweh. … Through the judgment of exile, Yahweh will purge his people, bring them to final salvation and his glory will be the centerpiece of praise, as it is the center of biblical theology.

Hamilton, James M. God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: a Biblical Theology. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010. Print. p. 267

Entering God’s Rest: listen here

From E. J. Young’s three-volume Isaiah commentary, Vol. 3, pages 120–1, on Isaiah 42:6:

The language is striking, for the servant is actually identified as a covenant.  A covenant, however, in this instance is not a pact or agreement between two equal parties. From the parallel word light (i.e. salvation), we learn that it is actually a divine bestowal of Grace. God sovereignly bestows to man His blessings of salvation and it is this sovereign dispensation that is called a covenant.

That the servant is identified with the covenant of course involves the idea of his being the one through whom the covenant is mediated, but the expression implies more. In form it is similar to our Lord’s “I am the resurrection and the life,” or the phrase in 49:6, “to be my salvation.” To say that the servant is a covenant is to say that all the blessings of the covenant have their root and origin in, and are dispensed by him. … Moses was a mediator of a covenant but the servant is the covenant. In New Testament terms, this means that they to whom God sovereignly bestows the grace of salvation receive the servant Himself.

On one hand, there are those in what has been called the “Classic NCT” camp who would like to shut down any discussion of what is the nature of the Law of Christ. So-called Classic NCT wants to find a new set of statutes in the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. I’m among those who would respond that Jesus did not come to die for sin, rise from the grave and ascend to the Father only to bind people to a more stringent law, but that He came as the One with all authority to free us to walk in the light, live without fear, and love without limit. Christ is the enfleshment of the law.

Furthermore, He gave us His Spirit to dwell in us as the fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:33ff and Ezekiel 36:25ff; the Holy Spirit is Himself the promise fulfilled.

(Pastor Todd Braye has summarized this argument well in a recent outline at Christ My Covenant, Five Reasons Why I Object to Classic NCT’s Definition of the Law of Christ.)

I’m convinced that this understanding lays great groundwork for the pioneering thought and study that has preceded us. Unfortunately, instead of opening up dialog, it has caused those who advocate this understanding to be made targets by some of those who champion so-called Classic NCT.

Certainly discussion and critique of any view should be welcomed. But putting people outside of the camp should not be tolerated.

Similarly, another assault has been made — unnecessarily — on those in NCT who hold to a premillennial view, suggesting that they should not be part of NCT. I’m not a premillennarian myself, but I see no need to push people out of the discussion who are.

This movement is too new and its foundations still are being constructed. It is sinful to ostracize those working to grow the movement and build its foundations. And it is most egregious to see those who have themselves been ostracized take part in it.