5 daily readings · Rick Closius

Can You Keep God's Law? - Matthew 5:17-20

Matthew 5:17-20

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Monday · Monday, December 1, 2025

They Gave the Law to the Lawman

"“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

Matthew 5:17 · ESV

Rick introduced himself with a detail worth keeping. He is a ruling elder in this denomination, he serves alongside Pastor Kent on ministerial credentialing — and as a fun fact, he has been a deputy sheriff for the last thirty years. He mentioned it because it amused him that Pastor James and Pastor Kent handed the *law* portion of the Sermon on the Mount to the man who has spent his whole career enforcing law. Those new to the Reformed tradition, he said, might think that was a coincidence. Those informed by the Westminster Confession know that God's eternal decree leaves nothing to chance. And the text he was given contains the sentence that reframes everything: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Not abolish. Fulfill. Jesus is not the end of God's law — he is its point, the thing it was always driving toward.

Reflect

Do you think of God's law as something Jesus cancelled or something he completed? How does the difference change how you read the Old Testament?

Pray

Lord Jesus, you did not come to abolish but to fulfill. Teach me to read every command as pointing to you rather than as a system you finally set aside. Amen.

Tuesday · Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Not an Iota, Not a Dot

"For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished."

Matthew 5:18 · ESV

Rick said this passage crowns Scripture with four things: preeminence, permanence, pertinence, and purpose. Today, permanence. "Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished." The iota was the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet. The dot was the little stroke that distinguished one Hebrew letter from another — the equivalent of the tail that makes a Q out of an O. Jesus is saying that the least significant pen-mark in Scripture will outlast the universe. God's law is immutable, Rick said, because he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It is not a document that ages out. It is not subject to revision by a later, more enlightened generation — including ours, which is quite sure it is the more enlightened one. That is either oppressive or it is the most stable ground available, depending entirely on whether the God behind it is good. And he is.

Reflect

Where are you quietly hoping some part of God's Word has aged out? What would it mean to treat it as more permanent than the universe?

Pray

Father, your Word will outlast heaven and earth, and I have treated parts of it as negotiable. Give me reverence for the whole of it, including the parts I find hardest. Amen.

Wednesday · Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Whoever Does and Teaches

"Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 5:19 · ESV

"Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great." Two verbs, in that order: does, and teaches. There is a particular temptation for anyone who talks about the faith — and that is more of us than we think, since every parent, friend and neighbour teaches somebody something. The temptation is to make the teaching the substitute for the doing. To have a good position on a command instead of obeying it. Jesus puts *does* first. You cannot teach past where you live, not honestly. And notice how small the stakes appear: the *least* of these commandments. It is not the great crises of conscience that erode us, usually. It is deciding on our own authority that some small thing does not really apply, and then explaining that to someone else with a shrug. Small relaxations, taught onward, become the next generation's assumptions.

Reflect

What small command have you quietly decided does not really apply to you? Who has learned that from watching you?

Pray

Lord, I have taught people things by shrugging at them. Forgive me. Let me do before I teach, and let the small commands matter to me because they matter to you. Amen.

Thursday · Thursday, December 4, 2025

Unless Your Righteousness Exceeds

"For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 5:20 · ESV

Here is the sentence that should stop the room. "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Understand who those men were. Not hypocrites in their own estimation — the most rigorous, disciplined, scrupulous keepers of the law in that entire society. They tithed their spice racks. They built fences around commandments so they would not accidentally get near breaking one. And Jesus says you need *more* righteousness than that. If that is a challenge to try harder, it is hopeless. Nobody out-Pharisees a Pharisee. Which means it is not a challenge to try harder. It is a door closing, deliberately, so that you will look for another one. Rick said the law is *purposed* — designed to lead sinners to Christ. This is that design working exactly as intended. The righteousness that exceeds theirs is not one you generate. It is one you are given.

Reflect

Have you been trying to out-perform the Pharisees, or have you given up on producing your own righteousness? What does the difference feel like?

Pray

Father, if the standard is more than the most disciplined man alive could manage, then I need a righteousness that is not mine. Thank you that Jesus is exactly that. Amen.

Friday · Friday, December 5, 2025

Not a Righteousness of My Own

"and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—"

Philippians 3:9 · ESV

Paul had the résumé. Circumcised the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to righteousness under the law blameless. By the standard of Matthew 5:20, if anyone was going to clear the bar by effort, it was him. And he counted the whole thing as loss — so that he might be found in Christ, "not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith." That is the answer to the week. Rick told the congregation why we need the divine law in the first place: because we are sinners, wired for folly, even the best of us. The law is preeminent, permanent, pertinent — and purposed to drive us to Christ. So can you keep God's law? No. Not one day of it, not to the standard Jesus just described. But Jesus did. Perfectly. And what he earned he hands over to people who stop trying to earn it. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him.

Reflect

What righteousness of your own are you still holding on to? What would it take to count it as loss?

Pray

Lord Jesus, I have nothing of my own worth presenting to God. You kept the law I could not keep and you give me your record instead of mine. Let me be found in you. Amen.

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