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Under Construction, Week 5, Day 31

by David Joynt on September 10, 2019

Under Construction, Week 5, Day 31

MATTHEW 5:17| Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

The key to understanding the role of the Torah in our lives is in Verse 17.  Jesus “fulfills” the law.  This verse contains the Gospel.  Only Jesus accomplishes the true intention of the law, living a life of perfect obedience, without transgression.  His life shows us what the law really intends.  On the cross he carried the burden of our failure to live up to the laws’ demands, offering us access to God’s mercy and grace despite our inadequacy.  When we receive life from him our relationship to the law changes.  Filled with grace, trusting in mercy, we experience it as a guide to growth, rather than an arduous, impossible path to salvation.  “Fulfill” in this verse and in all other references to Jesus in Matthew, equals “accomplished.”

Memorize this verse.

Thank Jesus for fulfilling the human vocation.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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