Matthew 5:17-18 "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. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Christ said that only he who wills to do the will of the Father in heaven will know whether his teaching is from God. Understand, only he who does the will, who is in earnest about it, who stakes his life on it. God is known only by those who venture, just as all great things in life are seen only when we are obedient and downright serious about them and not when we look at them from the easy chair of speculation and noncommittal curiosity. And something more: don’t think you will get by with a little philosophy like ‘do right and fear no man’. Your talisman doesn’t trouble you at this point at all; it’s far from exercising even a bit of moral control over you. But with Christ the first thing you will be shown is that never in a thousand years will you be able to stand up before God.
At first Christ is always very disturbing. You are dealing with the God who leads men into hell and out again. You are a nice, easygoing worldling (you don’t mind my saying this straight out?) and you have settled down comfortably in your world-view. You are really convinced that you have not settled down in hell. But if you are in earnest with Christ, you will have to give up your comfort and peace of mind, not because you are supposed to become a nervous worrier, but because it is a false, delusive peace, which you keep propping up with the power of suggestion and your little magic devices. But God loves the brokenhearted and the poor in spirit who have no illusions about their won wretchedness as they stand before the face of God. As long as you have not met God as one who opposes you, you haven’t met him at all…You have already gained a great deal in at least coming to the point where you realize that these things you are waking and standing on are only tottering makeshifts and that beneath you lies an abyss.
The thing in this conversation which seems to me to be important for the understanding of our texts is this: that at the very beginning and as a kind of introduction to discipleship, Christ makes us feel the implacable severity of the law and thus leads us to death.
Life Can Begin Again by Helmut Thielicke, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963, pg.39.
