It’s obvious that making the law a cheap game turns people away from Christ as the previous post stated. But how does a low view of the law turn people away? How does reducing the law into doable pieces turn people away?
What does Christ say? He has a high view of the law.
The Sermon on the Mount
Jesus does not boil down the law to pieces even smaller than the Pharisees. Instead, he teaches the full scope, and comprehensive purpose of the Ten Commandments. He exposits the law as it is intended to be understood, used, and applied.
Christ taught law in his Sermon so that we see more clearly the full requirements of the law. And, so that we have a better view of the magnificence of Christ’s gospel. He wants us to see the full scope of his perfect alien righteousness which is imputed to us in justification.
Nothing tells you that your righteousness is from another Person like the law, as taught by Christ Himself!
Christ’s exposition of the law powerfully drew His people to Himself.
The Pharisee’s version
Boiling down the law taught people that men could keep the law. Thus, their message of salvation contained a low view of the law. In teaching the possibility to keep the law on our own strength, one did not need to look to the Son of the gracious God. By no longer needing Christ’s perfect obedience for righteousness, they separated the law from the loving, gracious, and generous character of our covenant God.
Like Eve in the Garden, they stopped looking at the law as God’s perfect righteousness. And, since men could keep it, it wasn’t special, nor an expression of God’s loving character in their eyes. It wasn’t the declaration of God’s perfect will for His chosen people to show them His goodness and protection. Thus, it became a burdensome hoop to jump through to keep God happy.
And, the Pharisees taught the use of the law for a legalistic purpose. They taught obedience as a self-conscious attempt to do more than God requires, as though to merit extra credit. This is 200%ism, and is called supererogation. The Westminster Confession rightly rejects such legalism (WCF 16.4).
Since men could keep it, the law became a contract in their eyes as well. They taught that imperfect keeping was enough, ‘at least you are trying’. Though some soon asked ‘how much is enough?’ And so, putting those ideas about the law together, they made people turn away from Christ.
The beauty of impossibility
“Jesus’ exposition of the Ten Commandments [Sermon on the Mount], then, does not legalistically add to the requirements of the Commandments. Rather, Jesus helps us to see comprehensively the infinitely high standards of God’s moral law. Yes, the moral law in the Bible is impossible for us to keep. That impossibly high standard, then, points us to our “much more” need for an “abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness … through the one man Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17)”. ~Jacob Gerber in his post Beware the Leaven of the Pharisees.
“Christ showed that the Pharisees were partial in the law, and laid most stress upon the ritual part of it [they relaxed it into outwardly doable pieces]. But we must be universal, and not think it enough to give the church its tithe [outward obedience], but must give God our very hearts. Pharisees minded only the outside, but we must make conscience of inside godliness. They aimed at the praise and applause of men, but we must aim at acceptance with God. They were proud of what they did in religion, and trusted to it as a righteousness. But we, when we have done all, must deny ourselves, and say, ‘We are unprofitable servants’, and trust only to the righteousness of Christ; and thus, we may go beyond the scribes and Pharisees as Christ calls us to do”. ~Gerber (bold mine).
In conclusion
The Sermon on the Mount was indeed for believers; it is our wake-up call to look to Christ for righteousness.
By making the bar of obedience so low and attainable, the Pharisees render the righteousness of Christ null and unimportant. If the bar is indeed so low, what does the obedience of Jesus really accomplish in comparison to anyone else? The Pharisees lowered Christ’s perfect obedience, and its importance, in the eyes of the people.
The law does not exist for itself so that we can keep some minimized version of it in order to keep an austere deity happy. The law exists for Christ. By the law Jesus perfectly exercised his inherent righteousness, pleased the Father, and proved his human innocence. He wielded the law for our redemption. He wields it today by the Spirit as He uses the law, through the preaching, to sanctify us. This is the ‘running’ that Paul speaks of. Passages about running the race are here and here.
What it means for us
The law itself is not the problem.
In our sanctification, this means that God transforms us in ‘the whole man’ (WCF 13.2), teaching us to obey the spiritual demands of the law that reach all the way into ‘the understanding, will, affections, and all other powers of the soul; as well as words, works, and gestures’ (WLC 99.2). Sanctification does not only address the outward demands of the law, but rather transforms us even down to the desires of our souls. ~ Jacob Gerber. (emphasis mine)
By studying and meditating on the law, we attend the school of righteousness. To love God is to obey His law, John 14:15. This keeping is only possible by faith. We are sanctified by faith. By faith we are united to Christ, and in Him we do keep the law.
The law is not turning people away from Christ.
How the Pharisees (and the RPs) heard the law, understood it, viewed it, and explained it to others. That turned people away from Christ.
The Pharisees’ exposition of the law turned Christ’s people away from Him and His wondrous grace.
Bavinck
“Law and gospel should go together, as in the scriptures, so also in the preaching and teaching, in doctrine and in life. They are both indispensable and real constituent parts of the one complete word of God”, ~Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, Baker Book House PB 1977, pg. 411.
He goes on to say that law and gospel both comprise the will of God. There is a proper way to distinguish them, and it is not to pit them against each other.
“The Word and the Spirit, [fully and definitively united at Pentecost] work together in the service of Christ who is King of the church, and the Lord of the Spirit. And who is depicted for us in the Word, and is given us as our portion through the Spirt. “Truth [the law] and grace [the gospel] go together because Christ is full of both, John 1:14” ~Bavinck, pg. 413.
