O'Donoghue MTh_Thesis-FinalCopy.pdf - South African Theological ...

application for God’s moral law in the life of the New Testament Church. In fact,Jesus is portrayed as fulfilling the law in its true sense. (Leske 1998:1257).Torah means the teaching of God (Leske 1998:1257). Teachings which wereestablished in a covenant relationship, the stipulations of which are the TenCommandments. The Torah was essential to teach God’s people how to live inrelationship with God and with each other.The SOM affirms the ongoing validity of the moral law; in the SOM Jesus unpacksthe pertinence of the Moral Law for His followers (Lioy 2004:189-193). The TenCommandments may be viewed as a summary of God’s moral law (p.6). Jesus, inthe SOM makes reference on several occasions to the Decalogue (pp.6-7). As Lioy(p.187) puts it “…the moral law of God and the nature of it’s absolute requirementsare of central importance to understanding the overall thrust of Jesus’ sermon.”Mosaic Law found in the Old Testament can be divided into three types of law allintended to serve their own specific purpose (Lioy 2004:17-18). The types of lawwould be political laws as related to Israel’s Theocracy, ceremonial laws, and God’smoral laws. The ceremonial laws pointed to Jesus who fulfilled the meaning of thelaws. Thus followers of Christ no longer have to obey them. God’s people no longerlive under a theocracy and so the political laws no longer need to be obeyed. It isGod’s moral laws that have pertinence and are expected to be obeyed by God’speople in all times.2.5.5 Matthew as a Gospel to all peopleJesus is portrayed as not only a Messiah to the Jewish nation, but to the gentileworld as well (Drane 2001: 206). This is made obvious by the non Jewish Magi who“pay homage” to Jesus at his birth, and by the great commission of Matthew 28which commands disciples to take Jesus’ message to all nations (p. 207). The pointis driven further by the command for disciples to be a light to the nations (Leske1998: 1253).The author of Matthew is not content to leave Jesus as an influential figure of the22