The Law 5

Today I'm reading John 5: 16-18 ‘So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.’ And 5:45-47 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

Tonight at the conference I’m attending the speaker was an Egyptian seminary professor from Cairo. And he spoke about the centrality of God’s Word in our global mission efforts. Not just reading it or talking about it, but living it, especially in countries like Egypt where Christians are often a persecuted minority. And he spoke about the treatment Jesus received from the religious experts of his day, and how Jesus responded to them by relying on the Old Testament to prove he was the Messiah. In the John passage Jesus says, “[Moses] wrote of me.”

Could you defend that statement? Could you go into the first five books of the Bible and show people how Moses taught about the coming Messiah? Jesus said it’s there – enough proof that it should have been transparent to these ancient Torah experts. But they didn’t see it. Maybe that truth will motivate you to spend some time in the study of the Pentateuch. It points to Jesus.

In the Gospel account of the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus goes up a mountain with Peter, James and John, and God pours out a special blessing on Jesus as he anticipates going to Jerusalem and facing the cross. Not only is Jesus’ visage transformed but the disciples witness this:, “Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.” (Matthew 17:3). The significance of these two men is that they represent the main two divisions of the Jewish Scriptures: the Law and the Prophets. It’s a way of saying that both of them give testimony and authenticity to the Messianic claims of Jesus. But what is most significant is what God the Father says at the end of the story. God says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (17:5).

Listen to him. More important than listening to Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the Prophets) is listening to Jesus. Because Jesus is the conclusion to both and summarizes both. He is the Living Word of God, the Word made flesh. So let all you study of scripture lead you closer to him.

Jeff