{"id":348,"date":"2014-08-20T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=348"},"modified":"2014-07-29T20:54:37","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T20:54:37","slug":"matthew-517-20-the-fulfillment-of-the-law-theological-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-517-20-the-fulfillment-of-the-law-theological-commentary.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 5:17-20; The Fulfillment of the Law (Theological Commentary)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the time when Jesus walked the Earth, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were regarded by Jewish society as easily the most righteous of all people. They spent day and night studying and codifying Scripture for themselves and others (much like today&#8217;s pastors, theologians and Bible Study Nerds&#8230;!). Yet Jesus demanded even <em>more<\/em>, declaring that \u201cUnless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So if the Pharisees were the best, yet still not good enough, how can anyone measure up? Theologian R.T. Kendall offers helpful insight into what it means to have a \u201csurpassing righteousness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>First, Pharisaical righteousness \u201cis surpassed by an <em>imputed<\/em> righteousness. Jesus fulfilled the Law as our substitute. Therefore, the moment you and I transfer trust\u2026to what Jesus has done on our behalf, the very righteousness of Jesus Christ is put to our credit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSecond, one surpasses the piety of the Pharisees by an <em>implanted<\/em> righteousness. This means that the Holy Spirit imparts the Word into our hearts\u2026the promise of the Holy Spirit who indwells us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Third, Pharisees are outdone by the means of \u201c<em>internal<\/em> righteousness. The Pharisees had only external righteousness\u2026But Jesus has an internal righteousness in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fourth, surpassing the Pharisees is accomplished by \u201can <em>integrated<\/em> righteousness. It is something that affects the whole person\u2019s life\u2014not just in public, but in private. Not only before men, but before God\u2026This integrated righteousness gives an ever-increasing awareness of the Holy Spirit\u2014an experience that was alien to a Pharisee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[SOM, 108-109]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the time when Jesus walked the Earth, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were regarded by Jewish society as easily the most righteous of all people. They spent day and night studying and codifying Scripture for themselves and others (much like today&#8217;s pastors, theologians and Bible Study Nerds&#8230;!). Yet Jesus demanded even more,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14],"tags":[16,97,119,128],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matthew","category-theologicalcommentary","tag-jesus","tag-pharisees","tag-r-t-kendall","tag-righteousness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 5:17-20; The Fulfillment of the Law (Theological Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-517-20-the-fulfillment-of-the-law-theological-commentary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 5:17-20; The Fulfillment of the Law (Theological Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the time when Jesus walked the Earth, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were regarded by Jewish society as easily the most righteous of all people. They spent day and night studying and codifying Scripture for themselves and others (much like today&#8217;s pastors, theologians and Bible Study Nerds&#8230;!). 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They spent day and night studying and codifying Scripture for themselves and others (much like today&#8217;s pastors, theologians and Bible Study Nerds&#8230;!). Yet Jesus demanded even more,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-517-20-the-fulfillment-of-the-law-theological-commentary.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-08-20T12:00:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-29T20:54:37+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-517-20-the-fulfillment-of-the-law-theological-commentary.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-517-20-the-fulfillment-of-the-law-theological-commentary.html","name":"Matthew 5:17-20; The Fulfillment of the Law (Theological Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-08-20T12:00:35+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-29T20:54:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-517-20-the-fulfillment-of-the-law-theological-commentary.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-517-20-the-fulfillment-of-the-law-theological-commentary.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-517-20-the-fulfillment-of-the-law-theological-commentary.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 5:17-20; The Fulfillment of the Law (Theological Commentary)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}