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By the time of Jesus, however, the prophets's preaching of the law has itself become an excuse for human disobedience, in that the law as they understood and preached it can be fulfilled without a person's really being obedient -- insofar, namely, as one can fulfill the commandments formally without really submitting to God's demand for the whole person. Thus, while Jesus continues the prophetic preaching by interpreting the law as demanding, above all, moral obedience as over against some merely religious or ceremonial or cultic obedience, he also radicalizes the prophetic preaching along the lines indicated by the antitheses of the Sermon on the Mount. God's demand is not exhausted by the demand for justice but demands "radical obedience" of the whole person. By this same token, the demand for repentance as Jesus issues it is radicalized as is the promise of forgiveness, along the lines suggested by the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. In face of the radical demand of God's will, the only appropriate response is the kind of radical self-condemnation voiced by the publican and the kind of radical promise expressed by Jesus in the words, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other" (Lk 1918:14).

But for all of its radicalism, Jesus' proclamation is simply "pure Judaism, pure prophetism," because it is "proclamation of the law" and as such also proclamation of grace.

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