The secret to understanding any teaching is learning its origin and seeing the intent it conveys when it is revealed. In the teachings of Jesus, it’s clear that He is showing us how to look past the flesh and see into the Spirit. He is the Word manifested in the flesh, but He intends to teach us how to look at Him without judging after the flesh. He wants us to look at Him and see He is God’s eternal Word from the beginning. When we see Him this way, we see His true glory; the glory He had in the beginning. We see Him as God!
It’s amazing to have a man in the flesh come to us without sin. That’s a glory in itself, so it would be easy to get caught up in worshiping His life on the earth. But His manifestation was so much greater than that. Jesus was God, so His true intent was to reveal God to us. God is a mystery beyond understanding, so if we are going to know Him, we need the help of the man, Jesus. With His guidance, we will begin to regain our spiritual awareness, and our separation from Him in the flesh will lose its grip on us.
The God of Old.
The God of the Old Testament is often portrayed as someone other than Jesus. Some have seen the God of the old as a harsh ruler who creates rules to enslave people, and if those rules are broken, then an even harsher punishment is handed out. This narrative comes from a vengeful son who insists he was treated wrongly. But God had to put His son out of His house because of disobedience. God then locked the door, so he couldn’t get back in until He changed his ways. Of course, the young son doesn’t understand and doesn’t realize that he caused his punishment. Once evil desire got into his heart, he wanted to do things that deceitfully destroy his Fathers house and bring shame to the family name. You can’t destroy the safe zone that the Father provides and expect to stay there. In this case, the Father always gets the blame. That’s what people have done to God.
Like the first son Adam, so many people misunderstand God in the Old Testament because they are trying to relate to a Spirit through laws and commandments. This is impossible because the flesh is weak, and our evil heart often changes God’s narrative into something it’s not. Jesus came to help us understand God’s side of the story and what He wants from us.
One of the purposes of Jesus is to reconnect us to the God of the Old Testament so that we see Him in the light of who He is. That’s where Jesus shines. He entered into the story of God as a man to clarify to people that God is not who we’ve been led to believe He is. Jesus is the manifested image of God. When you look at Him, you see the Father; the same Father who put his son out is the same Father that wants him back.
Our perception of God is lost without Jesus, but it was Jesus who came to explain God.
If you have any background in the Bible, then you know that in the Old Testament, God gave His people commandments to live by. God is still known by this same perception today. These commandments were often called the law of God. They were given because people became lawless and didn’t know how to live good lives anymore. The law was a guide to the children of God and was supposed to help them learn the difference between good and evil. But people hate laws, so in turn, they hate God who made the laws. The commandments of God have always been good because they test you to see if you will do good instead of evil. Many have failed, and that’s why we need the help of Jesus, not only to keep God’s commandments but also to know which ones to keep.
The law of God failed for many because the people lived in the flesh, and the flesh was too weak to follow and obey God’s words. The heart of people is the problem. People’s hearts were continually evil, so they always wanted something different from God’s. These commandments were never expected to save anyone from death and hell, but they were given so that the people of God could learn good and evil and choose to do good from the heart rather than being commanded to do good. Because people loved having a form of righteousness over the real thing, the law became a way of life for many because the works of the flesh can perform it.
This way of thinking today has affected most people in some way or another. In many cases, God is known by the rules He requires us to live by instead of us knowing Him from the heart. We often know Him by what we are required to do instead of our love for Him. This way of thinking must be changed, but that’s why we now have Jesus; He will help us see the right way to obey God’s commandments.
Jesus and the law of God.
One of the most interesting things Jesus said was that he didn’t come to destroy or abolish the law but to fulfill it. What does that mean? If you follow what Jesus taught, you will see a clear pattern that stands out; Jesus saved the law, and He gave it a heart. That means He didn’t forsake it or get rid of it, but He made the law of God a work of the heart. He took the commandments of God and taught us how to live by them in the Spirit from the heart.
God was wise when He gave His people a law to live by. He knew it wouldn’t save them; instead, He used His commandments to show His people how defiled their hearts were. A great way for God to reveal the heart of someone is to put a law on them. When a person tries to obey the law, they will often fail and find out that they don’t want to be told what to do. Ultimately it will manifest what’s hidden in their heart real fast. (Just ask Adam what happened to him when he was given commandments.) We see this early on with kids; it’s the same principle. Tell a young kid no and see what happens.
Jesus wasn’t manifested in the flesh to boss people around with commandments; He was revealed to help us change the condition of our hearts. We see this in His teachings. Jesus was very spiritual and knew that living a spiritual life was the answer to living free from sin. To live a spiritual life, you have to have an honest heart. Without a heart that puts truth first, you can’t be spiritual. Jesus knew this and taught us how to get the right heart that will please God.
Everything Jesus said and did puts the focus back on the heart. That’s why the inward man is so important for us to understand.
The first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself. All of the law hinges on these two commandments. That means that all the laws of the Old Testament can be fulfilled by love with these two commandments. (Thank you, Jesus, you made my life so much easier.) Get your heart right, love the Lord, and you will live for God all the days of your life. (If you want to know how to escape the spirit of the world, love God with all your heart, and you will not be its slave any longer.) Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The truth of who you are comes from the heart, and your witness of Jesus from the heart testifies who you are and what you believe. Jesus was a genuine witness of God because His heart was pure and filled with Godly desires. When He spoke, it was real, and that’s why it was so easy for Him to be spiritual. What was in His heart became natural for Him when He lived His life. What an example He was.
Matthew 5
Jesus had some amazing teachings. In Matthew 5, we find the beginning of what most people call the “Sermon on the Mount.” Jesus begins by teaching about the blessed ones and what their rewards are. All of which show a people of God who live in righteousness with a pure heart. These examples illustrate what He is about to show us concerning the law. Jesus loved the law, but He knew there was only one way to fulfill it; be spiritual and live by faith from the heart. He then teaches that you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. These are clear examples of people who have a heart after God.
After that, He begins to teach about subjects of the law and shows us how He thinks about what God gave His people to live by. (This is where the heart of this teaching is at.) Jesus begins to teach that the law of God must be kept and fulfilled, but how? I think you already know the answer; your love keeps it for God. He even goes on to say that whoever teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, or you will never enter the kingdom.
How does your righteousness exceed those who live by the law of God according to the flesh? When you live by the law of faith according to the Spirit of God with a pure heart. Then you will exceed the Pharisees who try to fulfill the law of God by doing them through the works in the flesh.
After this, Jesus addresses six different subjects of the law and teaches us how to live by them. I encourage you to take some time and read Matthew 5 for yourself to get the entire teachings of what Jesus said. I will summarize them for you here. To start, let’s list our six subjects.
Anger
Lust
Divorce
Oaths or promises
Retaliation
Loving your enemies
To teach these six subjects of the law, Jesus used a simple principle. He divided the subjects into what the law said compared to how He teaches them.
It was said of old… (the words of the law).
But I say to you… (the words of Jesus).
When showing His mindset on these subjects, He reveals to us how to live by these commandments from the heart. He first states what the old law has said, and then He shows us God’s intent when He gave His people the law. Notice the difference in each subject.
Anger
You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.”
But I say to you that “everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.”
Lust
You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.”
But I say to you that “everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Divorce
It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.”
But I say to you that “everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Oaths
Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.”
But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
Retaliation
You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
Love Your Enemies
You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
You will notice right away that Jesus is going after the heart. It’s the intent that is hidden in your heart that is the real problem. If the law is perceived through the flesh, it is only used as a tactic for obedience rather than faith. When laws are not done from the heart, they will manifest as disobedience; even if you obey them, they are only a work of the flesh. Jesus taught us how to connect our heart to our obedience so that it’s not a work of the flesh but done by faith and love.
Jesus didn’t throw out the law; He uses the law of God to reveal the heart and judge you according to the Spirit and not the flesh. For example, it’s not just murder you have to consider; it’s also the anger in your heart. Anger leads to violence, and violence leads to murder. They are the same thing. Jesus reveals that you may never murder someone in the flesh but may be angry against your brother and sin against God from the heart. Likewise, with lust, it’s not the act of adultery that is the sin; it’s the lust that’s in the heart that sins against God.
At the end of the day, it’s your heart that will be judged. The part of you that only God can see. All of your actions come from your heart, so if you’re going to be a spiritual people of God, then you need a spiritual heart that knows God and loves to please Him and keep all of His sayings.
Look inward.
When you are disobedient, judging yourself by your actions is easy. But at that point, it may be too late because once you manifest something, it is out in the open, and you can’t take it back. Spiritual people who live by faith don’t wait for their hearts to manifest themselves before they take action to repent. In faith, you repent when Christ reveals that you have sin in your heart, not after you commit the act. This is true salvation. When your heart is saved, your actions are saved as well.
Under the law, you are judged when you manifest your sin, but under faith, you are judged according to your heart.
These are profound teachings that Jesus is giving us. If understood correctly, they will change how you think about God’s law and the manifestations you walk in. They will put the focus where it was always supposed to be; on the heart and its consciousness.
Stay tuned; much more teaching will come to the heart in the weeks ahead. God bless you all, and if you took the extra time to finish this teaching, I pray God does great work in your heart. Why? Because it’s the honest heart, the good ground, that brings forth fruit. Luke 8:15.