THE DOCTRINE OF JESUS : The Law

Did Jesus have a right to His Doctrine or was He beside Himself?

Jesus taught His doctrine. It began in Matthew chapter five with the blessings and concluded with the parable of the wise man who built his house upon a rock. As it turns out, Jesus was building His own House, the “Church” upon “solid rock” — His doctrine.

Therefore, doctrine is important, and His Doctrine is the solid and most stable. Jesus ended his dissertation in chapter seven and concluded with the following: 

²⁸ And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine: ²⁹ For He taught them as One having authority, and not as the scribes. (Mat 7:28_29)

 Was that all His doctrine? Maybe not, but it was much of it.       

His doctrine was on the rewards from a new nature (the beatitudes), that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the blessed (5:10-12), the authority of His Name (5:11), the righteousness of the prophets (5:12), the importance of the substance of Jesus (5:13), truth (5:14), sharing the truth (5:15-16), the significance of the Law (5:17-18), the penalty for breaking the Law (5:19), the metrics of the Law (5-20), on justice (5:31-22), on reconciliation (5:23-24), on punishment (5:25), on payment (5:26), on the lust of the flesh (5:27-28), on self-control. 5:29-30), on the holiness of marriage (5:31-32), about proper speech and meekness (5:36-37), on goodwill (5:38-42), on love (5:43-44), about respect for God (5:45-46), on the brotherhood of Christ (5:47), and on Christian perfection (5:48).

The doctrine of Christ continues in chapter six and seven. For brevity, you get the idea!

The people realized that Jesus had just presented His doctrine! Foolishly, this morning I only realized that I had been studying the doctrine of Christ without realizing it! As such, I should always compare my doctrine to the sayings of Jesus, all of which together is the “Word” from the beginning.

The doctrine of Jesus was the Word that was spoken throughout the ages. The people there were more acute than me, so perhaps they realized that the prophets — Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, King David, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel, and the lesser prophets were speaking the Word given to them by pre-incarnate Jesus. Prophets were not only those who revealed the future but those who presented the Word of God by inspiration from the LORD GOD. Theirs was the “Doctrine of God” and their “Agent” was Yahweh.

So, what is doctrine? Didache in the Greek — “that which was taught,” in this case, by Jesus. His is the only true doctrine, and ours the “doctrine” as we understand it. Jesus spoke all the Words in those three chapters to present the truth to the people.

Those sayings are the metrics for Christian doctrine. For instance, if your doctrine is antinomianism — against the Law — then your doctrine is not the doctrine of Christ, but another doctrine. In other words, just as Jesus said that He hung for the Law, what was the Law that Jesus broke? He claimed to be God. He is God, and that is the truth, but the mob rationalized their punishment due Him, according to the Law.

Jesus, to them, was “beside Himself” (Mark 3:21).

The people who once thought His doctrine was the doctrine of Moses and were “astonished,” in the end thought that Jesus was crazy. Did Moses teach that crazy people should die? Not at all! They added to the Law to hang a “crazy” man on a tree. Jesus indicated that “they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). (Sounds much like the law of our land added onto to “hang” the former president, does it not?)

Jesus showed them! At His death, Jesus gave up the Ghost. He revealed to them that He was not crazy but was indeed “beside Himself!” Now, Jesus, sits on the throne of God as the right hand of the Father, demonstrating that He remains beside Himself!

“He taught them as one having authority.” His crucifixion and resurrection proved that He is God and had the Authority of God. The Doctrine of Jesus, therefore, is that His is the Doctrine of God.

Early on, they were “astonished” at His Authority. In the end, the astonishment went away and the brutishness in their hearts revealed itself. Those people who were so astonished at the Doctrine of Jesus killed Him, using the doctrine of Moses. Why? Because they failed to understand even Mosaic Doctrine — that it too was the Doctrine of Christ.

The people saw that Jesus was more than a scribe.

The scribes had no official authority; they only wrote down what those who had authority said. What the scribes were thinking should not have been significant. They were as much as pencils or keyboard keys are in modern times. This keyboard can only record what someone else thinks. That’s all that the scribes had the authority to do. They wrote the thoughts of other people. They were recorders of words much like in the present times.

Jesus spoke the Word of God. His was the Voice of God. Those who wrote what He said, were mere “scribes.” So, what is written is the inspired Word of God and not the words of the writers. The Doctrine of Jesus is His doctrine, not the doctrine of Matthew. Matthew had the “sense of association” but knew the “sense of Agency” — from whom it came. That sense of Agency is Divine Inspiration.

On the other hand, the scribes, after repetition, knew scripture even better than the priests. The priests had authority, but the scribes would reveal to them the Law as they understood it. It was by repetition, not inspiration, that they knew the Law. They repeated their version of the truth so much that it became the truth. The priests would often digress to them for the truth.

That false inspiration exists even to this day. As George Orwell said, “62,400 repetitions make one truth.” Whatever the scribes would tell the priests, after so many times, became the truth. The people, at the conclusion of Jesus speaking were astonished. They received the truth the first time, and Jesus did not converse with anyone to ensure that it was the truth.

Imagine a priest; when asked a question, they would whisper to the scribe, “Is that the Law and where is it written?” After a short judgment by the scribe, the priest would repeat the conclusions of the scribe. The scribe became the Law; he was the “sense of agency” and whatever he wrote or said became the Law.

Even the friends of Jesus said that he was “beside himself, which could mean “crazy.” Soon the scribes showed up. “The scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casts He out devils’” (Mark 3:22).

His friends thought that He might be crazy, but they deferred to the authority that the scribes had assumed with their vast knowledge; they judged: No, this man is not beside Himself for he is Satan. The scribes had become the Law and they had decided that Jesus had Satan in Him. Note that they never judged Judas with that condemnation, and he indeed had Satan in him!

Why did Judas hang himself on a tree? He knew that he had Satan within him.

Why was Jesus hanged on a tree? He was accused of having Satan in him. He was the “witch of Salem,” that the law would “burn at the stake.” (Josephus wrote of the crucifixion of Jesus as a “holocaust” — a burnt offering.)

The “lawyer” scribes had given the final word. Of course, the final Word was from the lips of Jesus, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus was admitting the truth of what his friends really thought; that indeed He was beside Himself. Not that He was sitting beside God, but according to Josephus, the saying, “the right hand of friendship” meant that each king had the authority of another and all of them the authority of Caesar. That He was beside Himself was a colloquial expression. His friends knew that Jesus had the Authority of God, and certainly would not think of Jesus as crazy!

The scribes may have understood, because of their bountiful knowledge, that Jesus was beside himself, but that His Authority came not from God, but from Beelzebub; that He sat at the right hand of Satan and his authority came from the Wicked One. That was what the scribes judged, even though they had no authority to judge! Furthermore, the people had been conditioned to believe that the “lawyers” had the right to judge because of their history of doing just that.

Did his friends really believe that Jesus was crazy or just not Himself that day, or did they realize, as His friends, that Jesus was God? We may never know what they thought, but we do know that when Jesus died, He revealed His Holy Ghost of God and when they saw that, Jesus revealed that He was beside Himself!

Now, so do many people. They ignore the Law, or Doctrine, that Jesus taught at that time, but because of God’s grace, they ignore the “Doctrine of Jesus” — the revelation of the Law.

Did Jesus end His speech by saying, “Those things are optional?” Not so, He expressed the Will of God and testified to it personally. Those who would obey those things would obtain God’s “Estate” in Heaven that the crucifixion probated “for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mat 5:10). Those who disregard the Doctrine of God lose their reward and their portion of God’s Estate will be denied them, not even a room that God has prepared for them in His mansion! (John 14:2).

(picture credit; Seeking the Lord; "All Hail King Jesus")