People who struggle with the Bible tend to come in two groups. Skeptics, who seek facts, and cynics, who seek faults.(1)

It is interesting that those same people were present in Jesus’ day; Jesus himself tended to show mercy and patience with the former group, and have no patience at all with the latter.

As it relates to the law, there are a few interesting apparent contradictions that I came across recently that I think are worth discussing, in the spirit of engaging a skeptic who seeks the facts and the knowledge of God in his or her life.

– Jesus forbids an oath because it procedes from evil, but he himself takes an oath.

– He says that a man who calls his brother a fool is in danger of hell-fire, but he himself calls the Pharisees and scribes fools.

– Jesus commands the disciples to turn the other check, but he himself (acc. to John 18:23) protests when someone slaps him on the face during his trial.

These examples, which I list from a section of H. Ridderbos’ Coming of the Kingdom, are proof of at least five things about Jesus’ teaching. Here’s the list:

1. Jesus consistently distinguishes between less significant and “weighter” matters of the law (compare Matthew 23:23)

2. Jesus consistently dismisses the inadequate interpretation of the law by the Scribes and Pharisees, both when they go beyond the law (as in the Sabbath debates), try to get around the law (as in the Corban controversy), or when they fail to live up to the law (as with their interpretation of adultery).

3. Where the interpretation of the law seems to be exclusively concerned with outward behavior, Jesus refers to the disposition of the heart and makes an effort to get to the root of the matter.

4. When the lawyers seem to be focused on only one narrow application, Jesus may give a broader application, one that fits more in line with the whole of God’s commandments.

5. When the leaders are focused on microscopic obedience, or interpretations (or perversions) of the law, Jesus gets back to the original intent of Moses.

But in every case, with his use of the law, Jesus is always trying to place man in the presence of a Holy God, coram deo.

Such a relationship demands humility, for no law can enable us to grasp the vast and unmeasurable character of our Creator and Redeemer. The law, if anything, helps us to discover THAT fact.

So, these seeming contradictions I’ve listed above are in fact proof that Jesus loves the law (he’s not afraid to take oaths, as allowed for in the law; he’s not adverse to calling out false prophets, which the law allows for, nor is he against justice in trials, which the law also allows for).

Jesus never sets the law aside. But neither does he endorse the interpretations given to the law by the teachers of that day.

Most importantly, Jesus understands that as to the moral law, He has come to stand in the place of sinners and absorb their curse (becoming sin) on the cross that His people might become “the righteousness of God” in Christ, by faith.

Thank you Jesus for being obedient to the law.

(1) thanks to JR Briggs for this helpful distinction.

Phil Henry is a Teaching Elder in the PCA. He lives lives in Sewell NJ and is a church planter with the Presbyterian Church in America and with Acts 29. Be blogs at Meditations on Jesus and our world where this article was first posted; it is used with his permission.