WE come now to what may be described as the introduction Jesus gives us to the rest of the sermon on the mount. In the previous verses Jesus has described what we are as Christians, and that we must reflect this character in the way we live - we must act as salt and light in society, and live in such a way that the light of the life of Christ in us shines forth in our living. Now he introduces the rest of the sermon where he gives in detail the sort of life we should be living. In these verses before us he gives us an overall view, and this overall view can be summed up by the word righteousness. The Christian, if he or she has real life according to the Beatitudes, and is truly shining in the world so that this life is seen, then the life which is being portrayed is one of righteousness.

In these verses firstly Jesus tells us that this righteousness is entirely in line with the teaching of the law and the prophets, and that he was in no way teaching anything that contradicted this teaching. Then he tells us that the teaching of the religious leaders amongst the Jews, the Scribes and the Pharisees, was not in harmony with the teaching of the law and the prophets. There are many things here that we need to consider so our meditation on these verses will cover more than one meditation.

Jesus burst on to the religious and social life of his time with catastrophic force. Here was a teacher who taught with authority, but his teaching was so different to the approved teachers of the day, the Scribes and the Pharisees. The problem was compounded because Jesus had had not instruction from the approved teachers of the day, and on top of this he was not a Pharisee or a Scribe, and so should not have been teaching at all. On top of this, his way of life was so different. He was ready to talk and associate with the tax collectors and sinners, and was not afraid to be seen doing this. In contrast the Scribes and Pharisees would have nothing to do with these people. Questions were being asked concerning whether he was overthrowing the teaching of the law and the prophets, and denying the spiritual heritage of the Jews. Also Jesus was not afraid to criticise the teaching of the approved teachers.

We may well say that things are different now. The problems presented by the way the Scribes and Pharisees interpreted the law and the prophets does not exist today. But is this in fact true? There is always the tendency for the evils seen in the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees to resurrect in every generation. In the church today this is being seen; and the people like the tax collectors and sinners of Jesus time are being treated today in exactly the same way in our generation by the approved teachers and leaders in the church, and the reason is the same which is that the teaching of the �law and the prophets� is being taught in a wrong and unjustified way.

The Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus day were very religious people, and lived highly moral lives and kept the rules of their religion very well indeed as they expounded the law and the prophets. The Apostle Paul could describe his life as a Pharisees before he met Christ as being perfect as to the righteous according to the law. Yet they fell far short of true righteousness. The same is a great danger today. This is why the teaching in the sermon on the mount is so relevant and urgent.

When Jesus speaks of the Law and the Prophets what is he referring to? There can be no doubt what his meaning is! The law and the prophets refer to the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures. The law covers all the law given by God to Moses, the moral law represented by the ten commandments. the judicial law represented by the rules and regulations laid down to govern the life of Israel, and the sacrificial and ceremonial law which governed the worship of Israel. The prophets refer to all the teaching of the Old Testament given by God�s representatives all down the history of Israel.

There is a feeling amongst many that the Old Testament is superseded by the New Testament, and that now the church and Christians live by the New Testament and the Old has become obsolete. This in fact is not true. Jesus tells us here that he did not come to abolish any part of the Old Testament, but rather to fulfil it. In fact he tells us that nothing in the Old Testament can be abolished. He tells us that not one smallest part, (one smallest letter or least stroke of a pen), can be taken away from the Old Testament, and to do so is a serious offence before God, and having serious consequences.

In fact the Old and the New Testaments speak the same message and contain the same Gospel. The Gospel of Christ is latent in the Old Testament and plain in the New, but the fulness of the Gospel is spoken in both. The Old Testament tells us how we can be saved from our sin in just the same way as the New Testament. Christ is preached as the one and only Saviour in the Old Testament as in the New Testament. In the Old Testament the moral law reveals sin, the judicial law curbs the sin in mankind, and the ceremonial and sacrificial law points us to Christ as our sacrifice for sin. The prophets preached Christ clearly and constantly, exposed sin and called people to repentance.

Jesus sets his seal in these verses, and specially in verse 18, on the whole of the Old Testament being the revealed and unalterable revelation of God. And he held and taught that the Old Testament was accepted by him as such, and could not be criticised or altered or rejected. Jesus plainly taught that to marginalise or take away or deny the Old Testament in any way was to deny the true revelation of God. Jesus frequently quoted the Old Testament to support his teaching, to correct the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees, and to show how it taught us about himself and foretold his coming and why he came.

It is true to say that without the Old Testament we can not properly understand the New. For example the epistle to the Hebrews can�t be understood without the revelation given to us in the Old Testament. This is why when the Bible was put together by the church, the Holy Spirit made it plain that both the Old and the New Testaments comprised the whole Bible - the true and inspired revelation of God.