CHAPTER #19

Matthew’s Cohesive Argument

that Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Messiah

The Messiah: The Fulfillment of the Moral and Ceremonial Law Walking in Bodily Form, on Earth and in Heaven

The Accolades of a Reformer during “The Time of Reformation”

“Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” – Isaiah 53:1

“At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” – Matthew 11:25-27

“The Time of Reformation” is a time wherein the Law is fulfilled and not destroyed, though it is fulfilled in the most unexpected ways to an unbelieving public from whom it was hidden (Matt. 11:25-27). The truth is, if Jesus Christ was not God manifested in human flesh – the embodiment and fulfillment of the Moral and Ceremonial Law – the various miracles which He did would have been law-breaking according to scripture. If, and only if, Jesus Christ was not God… He was breaking the Law. In other words, if, and only if, Jesus Christ was not the embodied fulfillment of the Ceremonial Law, the Man from whom proceeds all the virtue and substance which the shadows of the Old Testament typologically represented, then the law-breaking deeds or miracles that He performed would have been law-breaking miracles! Albeit, in truth, Jesus Christ was a more glorious fulfillment of Old Testament salvation! He was a more effectual Savior than what Old Testament salvation provided as means of redemption for the sin and ceremonial problem of man. But because Jesus Christ forgave, cleansed, and saved by an ulterior means besides what the letter of the Law explicitly offered via shadows (the Jews being blinded to prophecy and shadow-to-reality fulfillments of the Law), the once-born Jews rejected him with “scriptural arguments”. The Jews were able to incriminate the Lord Jesus on substantial grounds according to scripture if in fact Jesus Christ was just a regular Jew… but He wasn’t. Since the Jews were unbelieving that Jesus Christ was GOD, they were bent upon a seemingly justifiable zeal which was supported by scripture, so it appeared (according to the wisdom and prudence of the unbelievers; i.e. “the wise and prudent”), and thereby they were able to estrange the mind of the common people who were intimidated by the oppressive exercise of their authority (an authority which monopolized the means of salvation in Old Testament terms: “the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that He was the Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue”-John9:22). Albeit, an unprecedented Man performing an unprecedented salvation (physically and spiritually) necessitates an unprecedented behavior from the salvation-enriched followers of Jesus, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jn. 14:6).

The Ceremonial Law-fulfillment of His Touch!

As Jesus Christ went about Israel doing good, it became apparent that this Man was a body into which all sin would be imputed and absolved, from which all righteousness would be imputed and imparted to others…

Jesus Christ was extolled as supreme in greatness by the greatest prophet (Lk. 3:16), and twice, by the voice of God the Father booming from Heaven, to the end that He would be recognized and obeyed above all other prophets: especially by his closest rivals to Jewish fame, Moses and Elijah (Matt. 17:3-5, John 1:17, 5:45)! Think of it, my reader! The Lord Jesus was rejoiced over and admired by Abraham (John 8:56-58), the Father of our Faith! The Lord Jesus was seen by King David and, by confession, worshiped (Lk. 20:41-44, Acts 2:29-36, Lk. 6:3-5,)! The Lord Jesus was wiser than Solomon (Matt. 12:42, Lk. 11:31), Lord over the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8, Mark. 2:28, Lk. 6:5), a greater prophet and sign than Jonah (Matt. 12:39-41), and, furthermore, He was alive from everlasting (Heb. 1:1-2)! This being the case, the Lord Jesus was salvation in a Person… and to brush by Him was a life-changing event! As the multitudes encountered Jesus Christ as He traveled to and fro, they experienced salvation physically and spiritually! The energy of salvation seemed to explode from His very being! Those who followed-on in near proximity were filled with a continual awe and wonder at the past, at the present, with holy anticipation of the near future. As long as Jesus Christ did abide among the 1^st century multitudes, all who were in near proximity to His Person did experience waves of salvation rolling over their physical and spiritual frames (Luke 5:34-35; see also John 17:6, 12)! - They all, being quickened by the power of His spoken word (John 6:63, 68, 15:3, 18:6, Acts 9:4, 22:7), healed by the present-tense ability He possessed to create mankind from the dust (i.e. eyes from clay in John 9:6 & Gen. 2:7), made-alive by the life-giving wind of His breath (Gen. 2:7, Job 33:4, Ezek. 37:9, John 20:22), ceremonially cleansed by the Law-fulfillment of His touch (Mk. 6:56, Matt. 14:36), embraced in salvation by the shadow of His bodily frame (Ps. 91:1, John 13:23, Mark 10:13-16, Isa. 40:11, Acts 5:15), were shocked by the magnetism of His unprecedented Person and Work (Mark 7:37, 11:18, Lk. 4:32, 5:9, John 1:29, 36, 7:46, John 17:6, 12)! “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25)! As Jesus Christ went about Israel doing good, it became apparent that this Man was a body into which all sin would be imputed and absolved, from which all righteousness would be imputed and imparted to others.

Matthew’s message of the Gospel is very clear! Jesus Christ, who cleansed Lepers by touch (Matt. 8:1-4) does also cleanse Gentiles by keeping company with them (Matt. 8:5-13)! He who has power to heal all sicknesses and diseases by touch (Matt. 8:14-17) and unloose the otherwise doomed-to-die demon possessed individuals who roam the countryside (Matt. 8:14-17), is able to do so because He has chosen to lay down His life as a sin-offering before God the Father on behalf of the Israelites among whom He traversed (Matt. 8:19-20). He, having superior royalty and holiness above all orders of consecration which were before Him (Matt. 8:21-22), began a ministry which would, in its consummation, fully reconcile man to God via the formerly un-Touch-able arena of redemption established in Heaven (Matt. 8:21-22, Heb. 9:23-28). Therefore Jesus, knowing from whence He came and whither He was going (John 3:13, 3:31, 8:14), had the ability to pacify the plagues of God’s wrath with stand-alone authority (Matt. 8:23-27). Naturally, also, He could cleanse and expel all uncleanness from a people or Land with a single word, uncleanness which whelmed like a tempestuous storm of threatening destruction (Matt. 8:28-34)… and this He did!

Just as Jesus Christ had power to forgive sins on earth (Matt. 9:1-8), He had power to cleanse a formerly unclean company of sinners and publicans (Matt. 9:9-13). Jesus Christ was the lived-out law-fulfillment of every Old Testament operation of redemption in a superior form, shadow-to-reality (Matt. 9:14-17)! Therefore He had power to cleanse the dead and those defiled by running issues by a single touch (Matt. 9:18-26)! Shockingly, and furthermore, Jesus imputed this power into ambassadorial messengers so that they did, similar to Christ, walk-out in law-fulfillments of New Testament cleansing power to express the Man and message of salvation before lost multitudes (Matt. 9:35-10:31)! And when and if a City or people rejects Jesus Christ or His endowed messengers, the Lord was able to denounce those places as territorially unclean and territorially doomed (Matt. 10:9-31)! In such a mission which wields such superior powers of redemption as the aforementioned examples, the prerogative supersedes that of familial obligations (Matt. 10:32-42). Jesus Christ was the Man to whom all the curse of sin was imputed… thus the Man and His followers embrace the cross (Matt. 10:32-42, Deut. 21:23)! And as Jesus lived to embrace, absorb, and absolve the curse of sin and uncleanness, He embraced the unclean of society so as to make them clean (Matt. 11:1-19)! Albeit those who rejected His open-armed embrace did consequentially become unclean (Matt. 11:20-30), despite their observance of Old Testament operations of cleansing and redemption. Because of this... conflicts arose between the Clean Man and the unclean people, conflicts in which Jesus maintained the testimony of His greatness and superiority over any Old Testament situation (Matt. 12:1-8). As Jesus maintained this testimony with all authority and power, the Jews were driven in the madness of their folly to plot the murder of their own Messiah (Matt. 12:15-21). Jesus Christ, knowing this, did not fight against it… He surrendered to it (Matt. 12:15-21)! He had power to, thereby, accomplish a virtuous justification on behalf of cursed humanity (Matt. 12:22-45) - becoming a curse for them! Thus Jesus did welcome death and thereby win the Gentile world (Matt. 12:38-42), begin a new Family lineage of salvation in Abraham which included transformed and newly born Gentiles-into-Israelites (Matt. 12:38-42, 46-50, Gal. 3:29)! And, shockingly, the Lord Jesus abandoned Jerusalem, the Jews, and Judaism to resume their former regiment which existed before His arrival with a 7-fold increase of demonic tyranny among them (Matt. 12:43-45)! Hereby and henceforth there began a Gentile World-Kingdom of the Jewish Messiah which is mysteriously spreading throughout the world up to this time right now, to suddenly spring forth into physical power at the end of time (Matthew 13)!