Matthew 15

 15:1-20.  One major purpose of law is to restrain evil.  Like all law, the ten commandments don’t suffice to make one righteous (as the Sermon on the Mount shows), but only restrain outrageous actions, like murder and stealing.  The tenth commandment is the exception, for it speaks to inner motives of the heart, which is what made Paul realize he was a breaker of the covenant and thus the whole law (Ro.7:6-8), for the law is spiritual.

     Yet even though the letter of the law is only a lid on the seething pot of our fallen nature, God graciously says, “Do this and live”.  As applies to law as a restraint to evil, this is not a promise of righteousness, but a promise that the law is merciful, and will not execute you if you don’t cross this line.  The Pharisees believed that by moving the line in a little tighter with their strict traditions, they could be safe.  In this passage, Jesus shows them that adding to the law only creates legal sounding loopholes for sin to pop through, and they were in fact guilty of breaking even the letter of God’s law, and were condemned by it.  The truth did not please them (v.12).

     The literalism of the Pharisees affected even the disciples, so that Jesus found it necessary to explain even the simplest of parables (11,15-20).