INSTRUCTIONS
Read verses and consider questions. You may want to write your thoughts and answers down (Some space is made available here, but you may want to use additional sheets). These are difficult verses, so do not be discouraged by any lack of understanding. View it as an invitation to delve deeper, reflect longer and seek more strongly and more often counsel and wisdom from God on these verses through prayer. In your study, you may want to use a concordance, read commentaries or discuss with a brother or sister.
THESE ARE LEE BRADSHAW’S 7 RULES FOR STUDYING THAT I’VE ADOPTED AS GUIDELINES FOR ALL MY STUDIES
1) DON’T ADD ANYTHING
2) DON’T SUBTRACT ANYTHING
3) BE CONSISTENT IN APPLICATION
4) CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT
5) KNOW WHAT WORDS MEAN (ENGLISH & GREEK & HEBREW)
6) THE BIBLE MUST AGREE WITH ITSELF
7) BE A BEREAN
8) And one I added – ATTITUDE: Have the attitude of a student / disciple. Someone who knows everything cannot be taught anything
START
1) READ HARD SAYING TEXT
Luke 16:16-17 16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.”
First, let’s just look at this passage and make sure we understand what the text is saying on the surface
A) WHEN?
There are 2 ‘TIME’ words / phrases in this passage, can you spot them?
Read again and notice the words highlighted:
16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.”
John is described here as being the fulcrum (pivot point) between 2 periods of time, the time of the ‘Law & Prophets’ and ‘since then’.
B) WHAT? (Verse 16)
The ‘Law & the Prophets’ can be interpreted as the actual books of the Old Testament or the teachings of those books. Jesus uses the phrase ‘Law & Prophets’ on several occasions, read the following examples:
Matt 5:17
Matt 7:12
Matt 22:40
The ‘good news‘ (aka gospel) is the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 15:3-6 (just one example)
The ‘Kingdom of God‘ is what Christ taught was near and also taught what it was like in a series of ‘Kingdom parables’, read the following examples.
John 3:3-5
Luke 10:9
Mark 1:15
2 Pet 1:10-11
Not at this time, but for a deeper study read many of the ‘Kingdom Parables’ (The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”)
Matthew Chapter 13
Matt 18:23-35
Matt 20:1-16
Matt 22:1-14
Matt 25:1-13
Matt 25:14-30
Mark 4:26-29
Mark 4:30-32
B con’t)
WHAT? (Verse 17)
The ‘Heaven and Earth’ is what God created in the Beginning, Genesis 1:1 Jesus uses this phrase ‘Heaven and Earth’ several times, read the following examples:
Gen 1:1
Mark 13:31
Matt 24:35
Matt 28:18
Rev 21:1
The ‘Law‘ refers to the Mosaic Law that was given through Moses to the people on Mt. Sinai. Read the following verses:
John 1:17
Gal 3:19
Matt 5:17
C) WHO
The John in this passage refers to John the Baptist. Read the following verses:
Mal 4:5-6
Mark 9:11-12
Matt 17:9-13
Everyone refers to everyone.
2) RE-READ HARD SAYING TEXT
Luke 16:16-17 16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.”
QUESTION Jesus mentions the Law in both verses, he states the ‘Law’ was ‘until John’ but then says, in contrast, in the next verse, ‘it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void’. Jesus goes even further in Matt 5:17 teaching us that the Law has not been abolished. How do you reconcile these two statements?
QUESTION To whom was the teaching of the Law & Prophets given?
Answer: Romans 3:1-2
QUESTION To whom was the teaching of Gospel directed?
Answer: Romans 1:16, Mark 16:15
QUESTION What is the literal meaning of the word ‘gospel’ in the original Greek?
Answer: Good News
QUESTION In Matt 5:18 Jesus says, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. What does this tell you about the importance of the Law? What does this say to you about Jesus’ regard for the Law?
QUESTION What comfort or lesson you can apply in your daily walk do you take from these verses?
My thoughts…
I believe there is a word in Luke 16:16 that is implied but not stated overtly, the word ‘governed’. The Law & the Prophets ‘governed‘ until John the Baptist and the preaching of the Good News. Until then people hoped for the Messiah but had not seen Him. Now that the Messiah has come, preached the Gospel and established a new covenant with His blood, a superior covenant, one with better promises (Read Hebrews 8:6), we have protection from the consequences of the Law (Read Gal 3:13-14). Take note that Jesus did not eliminate the Law he gave us (Christians) protection from the ‘curse of the Law’. The curse of the Law is death (Read Romans 6:23)
I take comfort from the fact that these verses, as so many others, show that God is in control. He states what will happen. He knows all, foresees all and is working all things for the good of those who believe in Him. Despite the fact we are walking through a fallen world with all it’s problems, and we experience highs and lows, joy and pain, gain and loss, we do so knowing we are held in His hand, being guided by Him for His good purposes, toward the goal of eternal life with Him in heaven.
On the phrase, ‘…everyone forces his way into it’ (Kingdom of God), I am going to sort of punt…it is quite a difficult passage and looking into it will, at least for a good while, leave you dizzy with more questions than answers. At this time, I am going to just leave a portion of a commentary on the subject that I found useful, which I have not added to, but simply copied and pasted. I put it here for your consumption, not to reach a conclusion, but to better understand and appreciate the difficulties surrounding truly understanding the meaning Jesus is trying to convey. (See below)
Portion of a commentary by David C. Grabbe on Luke 16:17
Part of the difficulty in understanding the meaning of these verses stems from the fact that the pivotal Greek words are rare, which means we cannot examine their usage in other places in the Bible to understand how they should be used here. In addition, the preconceptions and biases of the translators influence the way they render passages. But it is vital to understand what Jesus Christ is saying here, so it is worth the effort to more thoroughly examine His words.
In Matthew 11:12, the Greek word translated as “suffers violence” (biazo; Strong’s #971) is used in only one other place, as we will see. The word rendered as “the violent” (biastes; Strong’s #973), a closely related word, is used nowhere else in the Bible. The verse revolves around these words, but their narrow biblical usage limits our technical understanding.
In Luke 16:16 (“the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it”), the Greek word translated as “pressing” in the New King James is the same word translated as “suffers violence” in Matthew 11:12 (biazo). In secular usage, this word means “to use force on; to use power; to behave violently; to assault; to afflict; to oppress; or to constrain.” The translation “suffers violence” in Matthew 11:12 springs easily from this meaning, but “pressing into” in Luke 16:16 obscures it. “Pressing” is a weak translation, suggesting a group of people squeezing together to get in the doors of an amusement park. We must keep in mind that it is the same verb translated as “suffers violence.”
To briefly summarize these two verses, then, everyone is pressing into the Kingdom, the Kingdom suffers violence, and violent people take it by force. But this raises some questions: What sort of violence is indicated? Who are the violent people? How do they take the Kingdom by force? We will see that understanding these verses begins with a more complete understanding of the Kingdom of God.