Luke 16:14-17--The Law and the Kingdom of God

Luke 16:14-17
English Standard Version

The Law and the Kingdom of God
14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

​16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.

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We are going to understand yesterday's teaching a little better with the start of today's passage.  Again, the Pharisees were the audience that heard Jesus' words and they perceived that He was talking about them.  They are the ones that are lovers of money and also perceived themselves to be righteous--that is in right standing before God, yet Jesus just told them that they cannot love both God and money.  They revealed their own hearts when they grumbled against Him and ridiculed Him because they proved to all those around them that heard them that they did have divided hearts and were not fully serving God as they claimed they were.

Jesus responds to them telling them that God sees all and knows all and it does them no good to try to justify themselves before men when God has already declared them guilty.  What they are doing is an abomination before God, even if the other people seem to excuse them or even encourage them in this behavior.  What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right, nor does "might" make "right," to use a couple for phrases that most of us learned as children.  They will stand before the same Great White Throne judgment as everyone else who dies outside of Christ and God will not overlook their sin or give them special treatment because they were Jews or Pharisees or they were better than other people or they were students of the Law or anything else.  You can read more about that in Romans 2:12-16....all who are guilty under the Law and have not been forgiven by the one Way that has been provided through Jesus will face the same judgment (that was our sermon in church yesterday, and it ties in nicely here).

I'm not sure if the quote marks belong there in this next part or if it is Luke's summary and commentary.  Either way it was inspired by the Holy Spirit.  The text then tells us that the Jewish people had the Law and the Prophets (and God gave some of the Prophets to the neighboring nations as well as He even called them to repentance like when He sent Jonah to Nineveh) so that they might cease doing what was unrighteous and might learn how to become righteous before God.  No one becomes righteous before God by doing, that is how we know we are unrighteous, because our actions violate God's Law.  However, there had to be a payment or penalty for violation of the Law which we ourselves could not pay, because the wages of sin was death--we see that from the very beginning in Genesis 3 where God told Adam and Eve, "in the day you eat of it [the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil], you will surely die."  We've talked about how God's promise was a double death that says "dying, you will surely die."  They immediately died spiritually and their bodies died progressively.  They tried to cover themselves when they realized they were naked and were ashamed by sowing fig leaves together, but these coverings that they made for themselves (like us trying to atone for our evil by covering it up with good works) was inadequate and God had to kill an animal and cover them with animal skins.  There had to be a blood sacrifice for their sin and guilt and shame to be covered.

Now John the Baptist and Jesus come telling the people that the kingdom of God is here and among them because He is both the King and the Kingdom.  It is not a kingdom of this world, but the kingdom of God and His Christ.  This is the moment all the Law and the Prophets pointed to, and those who knew they were sinners in need of atonement were rushing to John for the baptism of repentance and to Jesus who was telling them that by faith their sins could be forgiven and they could be made new and clean on the inside if He willed it, and that He would give them not death, but eternal life that was infinite in both quantity and quality (abundant life, not just eternal life).  However, there was only one Way and one Gate that everyone was supposed to be enter through.  For there no other name under heave by which men must be saved, and everyone who comes in by any other way other than the door is a thief or a robber that is there to try to take what does not belong to them.  If they rightfully possesses the eternal life they were trying to grasp onto, then they would enter the right way, just like if you own the house, you have the key to the front door and you don't look for a window to crawl through whether it was open or you try to break it.

The people were looking for a King like David that would be a military leader and would overthrow all their enemies and would give them peace and prosperity.  They missed pretty much everything that the Law and the Prophets tried to teach them about how their greatest enemy was sin and that someone or something innocent had to die in place of the one that was guilty.  We see this in the Law with the animal sacrifices made for atonement and we see it in Isaiah where there is prophecy of the Suffering Servant who would die to both make men holy and set them free.  This was not the kind of gospel that the religious elites were looking for because it means that those who reject this penal substitutionary atonement and did not transfer their sins onto that sacrifice are still under God's condemnation, wrath, and judgment.  We can choose to stand before God condemned by the Law if we want and we will all be found guilty, or we can transfer our sins to Christ and have His righteousness transferred to us so that we will stand before His Judgment Seat and will be declared holy, righteous, and without blemish because that His nature that we will be clothed in.  "He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of Christ."  That is great news if you are willing to admit that you are a sinner in need of repentance and salvation, but if you are like the Pharisees depending on your own good works to save you then you are like Adam and Eve in the Garden trying to make your own coverings of fig leaves that will never make adequate atonement (that is coverings) for your sin and shame, nor will they prevent that wages of sin, which is death--both physical and spiritual.

In Jesus' statement that is is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one jot or tittle (that is the smallest parts) of the Law to pass away, Jesus is saying that God cannot and will not overlook violation of the Law.  He would not be a good Judge if He did that.  See how the LORD announces Himself to Moses when He walks before Moses and Moses bows down to worship Him:


Exodus 34:6-7
English Standard Version​
6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

We cannot forget all the the Law and the Prophets teach us because God is the same yesterday, today , and forever.  There is not a "God of the Old Testament" and a "God of the New Testament" nor was there one way of salvation by works in the Old Testament and a different way of salvation by grace through faith in the New Testament--the same God has been giving the message of the same gospel from Genesis to Revelation.  "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."  It is impossible for God's nature to change, and it is impossible for the gospel of Jesus Christ to change.  There is no other way and no other gospel.  We must come to Jesus, the Lamb of God, by faith and lay all our sins and guilt and shame on Him so that His death can be in our place and He can make penal substitutionary atonement for us so that we who were dead in our trespasses (accidental violations of the Law) and iniquities (intentional violations of the Law) might be declare righteous and made alive through the power of His resurrection.  Any gospel which does not include repentance, blood atonement, the bodily death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, or His return to judge both the living and the dead now that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him is not the real gospel.  Yes, part of the good news is that God will not let the wicked go unpunished, because if God let all the wicked go unpunished then there was no reason for Jesus to die.  It only makes sense if the wrath we deserve was poured out on Him so that the blessings only He deserved could be poured out on us.