Jesus said, “Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose” (Matthew 5:17). But even though the scripture says that He fulfilled the law, most Christians are still trying to fulfill law, or rather the “does and don’ts” created by our own ‘understanding’ and the community around us. The ‘does and don’ts’ vary from community to community, some focus on what you should or shouldn’t wear, eat, do, say, or think but one thing remains the same… people are FOCUSING on the ‘does and don’ts’ instead of on God. Not even Jesus fulfilled the law by focusing on how to best fulfill the law, but by focusing on His Father in heaven.

In John 8:28-29 Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." Jesus was saying, “I don’t make up anything on my own. I don’t live by ‘should’ or ‘should nots’ I do what I see my Father is already doing.”

Paul said explained that he had ceased trying to figure out that he was doing right or wrong when he said “I do not even examine myself” (1 Cor 4:3). He also didn’t focus on his mistakes or places of lack but said, “one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:13-14). Paul didn’t focus on right and wrong or good and evil, He just looked to God and focused on God and knowing Him better.

Trying to live under the constraints of “the law” (does and don’ts) is like trying to win a high jump competition. My fellow competitor jumps a certain height (holiness, works for God, etc.) and now I have to jump that same height to prove myself. The bar keeps getting raised until one competitor succeeds and everyone else disqualifies themselves by hitting the bar. So the result of the competition is that one person wins (and becomes boastful) and everyone else loses (and feels ashamed). So it is with the law… we hear about others’ feats for God, moral rectitude or spiritual experience and our hearts become burdened because we feel like we have to live up to what others have achieved.  But God never asked us to compare ourselves with each other. He just asked to seek His face. Ephesians 2:14-16 gives a great description of this high-jump competition we’re trying to live up to…

Eph 2:14-16  “For He is [Himself] our peace (our bond of unity and harmony). He has made us both [Jew and Gentile] one [body], and has broken down (destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us,   By abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the enmity [caused by] the Law with its decrees and ordinances [which He annulled]; that He from the two might create in Himself one new man [one new quality of humanity out of the two], so making peace.  And [He designed] to reconcile to God both [Jew and Gentile, united] in a single body by means of His cross, thereby killing the mutual enmity and bringing the feud to an end.”

The Jews in Jesus day thought themselves to be superior to the rest of the world because they had the law. Even though they couldn’t fulfill the law their hearts became proud because they were God’s chosen people. The Jews were ‘setting the bar.’ So animosity (or enmity) arose, as the scripture says, between Jew and gentile. But then Jesus came along and fulfilled the law and abolished the enmity (animosity created between the two groups due to competition that the law creates).

Even within the Christian community this enmity still exists wherever people are still striving to fulfill the law (does and don’ts). We create standards or live under the constraints of standards that others have set for us to achieve (just like the high jump bar). And all it does is create enmity and competition to see who can be the most holy. What we don’t realize is that there is no longer a high jump bar because Jesus ended the competition once and for all. He established perfection and made His perfection available by grace through faith and the indwelling of the Spirit.

“For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.  Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:10-11)

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