Stress Test Devotional May 25
May 25, 2024
MATTHEW 5:17-20 | Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks 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 great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
MATTHEW 9:14-17 | Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
There are two mistakes that can be made in understanding Jesus’ relationship to the Torah. One is to think he came to set it aside or nullify it. The other is to believe he came to say exactly the same thing. The first mistake leads us to dismiss the Old Testament as irrelevant and passé, the other underestimates the authority and credibility of Jesus.
The Torah deserves our utmost respect—it was Jesus’ bible. He is a Jew and his life and teaching are incomprehensible apart from the story of God’s people in the Old Testament, apart from the law and the prophets. But with Jesus there is also something new and something greater.
What is your favorite Old Testament book?
What is your least favorite?
