jesus and the laws

esus Teaches about the Law / 5:17–20 / 51

God gave moral and ceremonial laws to help people love him with all their hearts and minds. By Jesus’ time, however, religious leaders had turned God’s laws into a confusing mass of rules. When Jesus talked about a new way to understand the law, he was trying to bring people back to its original purpose. Jesus did not speak against the law itself but against the abuses and excesses to which it had been subjected.

5:17 Jesus did not come as a rabbi with a brand new teaching; he came as the promised Messiah with a message heard from the beginning of time. “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to fulfill them.” Jesus completes and transcends the law. The Old Testament law is not rescinded but now must be reinterpreted and reapplied in light of Jesus. God does not change his mind. Jesus’ coming had been part of God’s plan from Creation (see Genesis 3:15).

5:18 Jesus used the words “I assure you” several times in his speaking. They signal that what he said next is of vital importance. In these words, Jesus ascribed the highest authority to God’s law. Not only did Jesus fulfill the law, but until heaven and earth disappear (meaning until the end of the age) the law will not change. Not the smallest detail, not the least stroke of a pen, will be set aside from God’s law. Jesus’ statement certifies the absolute authority of every word and letter of Scripture. Everything prophesied in God’s law will remain until its purpose is achieved. Everything will be accomplished.

5:19 Jesus will fulfill and accomplish the entire Law and the Prophets (5:17–18), so his followers must also keep even the smallest commandment included in the Law and the Prophets. In addition, if teachers influence others to break even the smallest law, they will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. Because the Law and the Prophets point forward to Jesus and his teaching, anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven. Those who treated any part of the law as “small,” and therefore breakable, would themselves be called “least” and, presumably, be excluded. Jesus explained to his disciples, the men who would be responsible to carry on his message, that they must live carefully and teach carefully, not taking God’s word lightly. Jesus’ followers must respect and obey God’s word if they want to accomplish great things for him.

5:20 Jesus expected his followers to obey God better than the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, a seemingly impossible task. The teachers of religious law were teachers and lawyers in Jewish courts. The Pharisees were exacting and scrupulous in their attempts to follow God’s law, as well as hundreds of traditional laws. How could Jesus reasonably call his followers to a greater righteousness than theirs?

Jesus was not placing impossible demands on his followers in order for them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus was speaking about the attitude of the heart. The Pharisees were content to obey the laws outwardly without humbly looking to God to change their hearts (or attitudes). Jesus was saying, therefore, that the quality of our righteousness should exceed that of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, who looked pious, but were far from the Kingdom of God. True followers of God know that they cannot do anything to become righteous enough to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, so they count on God to work his righteousness within them.¹

In the Sermon on the Mount we find the most in-depth exposition of the law of God of any in the New Testament. Here Jesus begins to set forth His understanding of the law over against the understanding of the scribes and the Pharisees. As we examine this, we will see how the best Jewish scholars were profoundly wrong in how they understood the Law and the Prophets. The scribes and Pharisees were highly educated and deeply dedicated to understanding and keeping the law. This serves as a warning for us. The Bible is clear enough for any Christian to understand its basic meaning; nevertheless, the Word of God in every generation becomes distorted and misunderstood. These distortions happen not because there is something wrong with the clarity of the Word of God but because there is something wrong with us. We come to the Bible with our minds clouded by sin. We must resist the temptation to read into the Bible something that is not there or to try to use the Bible, as Luther said, as a wax nose that we can twist to support our own biases and prejudices. Here our Lord undertakes an important warning about how we are to understand the law of God.

Law and Gospel

We are living in an age of unprecedented antinomianism. Antinomianism means literally “anti-law-ism.” It is the belief that the Old Testament law has no claim on the New Testament Christian because it has been supplanted by the greatness of the gospel.

Several years ago I was invited to give a conference in New York on the subject of the holiness of God. Following the first service of that event, the conference committee asked me to join them in prayer. I went to the home of one of the committee members with almost twenty others, and we gathered for prayer. Someone turned off the lights, and then they all got down on their knees and began to pray to their dead relatives, calling upon them to appear. When I questioned what was occurring, they explained that they were “in the Spirit,” so I said, “Do you realize that what you’re doing would have gotten you the death penalty in the Old Testament, that God said that that sort of thing is so offensive to Him that He would punish the whole nation if it were permitted?”

They replied, “We know that, but that’s the Old Testament. We are free from that now.”

I countered, “What do you think has taken place in the history of redemption that would make something that was formerly so repugnant to God now pleasing in His sight?” Their wrong beliefs were the essence of antinomianism.

One of the chief criticisms of dispensationalism historically has been its tendency toward antinomianism. I once gave a critique of dispensationalism and afterward received a letter from a well-educated dispensationalist. He was upset that I had misled people by connecting dispensationalism with antinomianism. He told me that dispensationalists believe in the commandments of Jesus in the New Testament even though they reject the application of the Old Testament law to their lives today. I wrote him back and told that I could find no better a definition of antinomianism than the one he had described in his letter to me.

We struggle with the relationship between law and gospel. We know that one of the functions of the law of God is to expose our sin and show us our need for Christ, but then we think that after we come to Christ, the law no longer has any bearing upon us. We sing, “Free from the Law, O blessed condition, I can sin all I want and still have remission,” and forget that when Paul speaks of our being saved by grace, he says, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” (Rom. 6:1–2).

Beyond the law’s function of exposing our sin and driving us to the cross, it also reveals to us what is pleasing to God. The psalmist wrote, “Oh, how I love Your law!” (Ps. 119:97). If we love God, we must love His law. Our Lord said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). With all these controversies in our world today, we need to pay heed to what Jesus says.

The Law Fulfilled

He begins with a warning: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (v. 17). There is something here in the Greek that just cannot be carried over into the English. The Greek word for “law” is nomos, from which we get antinomianism. However, the word Jesus uses at the beginning of verse 17 is a portion of the verb nomizō, which means “to think or to suppose.” It has a stronger significance than the simple translation “Do not think.” Once when looking for a parking spot, I came across a sign that said, “Don’t even think about parking here.” It got the message across, and it conveys the force of what Jesus is saying here: “Do not let this kind of thinking ever enter your mind. Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law.” The verb there, kataluō, comes from the root word lyō, which means “to loose, to loosen, to destroy.” It was the word used in Greek culture when a building was demolished. Jesus was saying, “Do not think for a minute that I have come to demolish the law.”

Jesus says a great deal in the two sentences of verse 17. He reminds us that He has come. Elsewhere He tells us from whence He has come. The one who at the end of His life ascended into heaven is the one who first descended from heaven. Jesus also says here that one of the reasons He came was to fulfill the law of God. Certainly Jesus fulfills the function of the law by obeying it at every point. He also fulfills the teaching of the prophets by embodying all of the future predictions that they made. We know that both the law and the prophets point to the coming of Jesus, and when He came, that revelatory significance found its fulfillment. Many say, “Jesus didn’t come to demolish but to fulfill, so since it has been fulfilled, it has been demolished.” That is wrong, because the context makes clear that when Jesus speaks of fulfilling the law, not only does He fulfill it in every dimension in His perfect obedience, but He fulfills it without destroying it, as we will see in His exposition of the commandments.

“The Law and the Prophets” in verse 17 incorporates the whole of the Old Testament. In the law, the Pentateuch or the Torah, the Pharisees were able to find 613 specific laws, which they sought to explain and follow. In all probability, the full measure of those 613 laws was never kept by a single Pharisee, but in the fullness of their requirements they were kept perfectly by Jesus.

“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (v. 18). Often in the New Testament we find Jesus saying, “Truly I say to you …” In some cases we read, “Truly, truly I say to you …” The translation comes from the Hebrew word for “truth,” which in Aramaic is rendered by the term amēn. When the people of God say “amen” after the preacher preaches or after a prayer is made, they are saying, “That is true,” or, “So let it be.” Jesus, however, begins His pronouncements with the word “amen.” In doing so He is saying, “This truth that I am about to say to you is absolutely certain.” He introduces this segment of the sermon with that heavy language.

In recent times there has been a new attempt to undermine the full inerrancy of sacred Scripture. Some seminary professors have proposed a view called “limited inerrancy” in which only part of the Bible is inspired by God. The classic view of inspiration is plenary verbal inspiration, which holds that not only are the general concepts of the Bible inspired by God, but every word. On many occasions Jesus settled a controversy by an appeal to a single word. Jesus did not teach just verbal inspiration; He taught jot-and-tittle inspiration, down to the smallest letter. Here He says that the whole of creation may be removed, but not one jot or tittle of the law shall be removed till everything is fulfilled.

The Whole Law

Now Jesus comes to His conclusion: “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (v. 19). If you break or dismiss the slightest point of the law or teach others to do so, you will be least in God’s kingdom.

One time recently, I turned into a driveway without using my turn signal. My wife, who was seated next to me, pointed out that I had broken the law. I argued that this is a trivial issue, but she replied, rightly so, that it is not. How quick we are to dismiss what we think are the little things. Our Lord said that if we cannot be faithful in the little things, he cannot entrust to us the big things (Luke 16:11). Conversely, Jesus said whoever does the commandments shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

The opposite error to antinomianism is legalism. People who think they can get to heaven by obeying the law have deceived themselves. They become preoccupied with the law, which is what the Pharisees did. However, the corrective to that is not to dismiss the law. Jesus makes a weighty and frightening statement: “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (v. 20). It may seem that since the Pharisees were so corrupt that exceeding their righteousness would be easy. However, Jesus said to them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law” (Matt. 23:23). If the Pharisees found an extra piece of mint on the floor, they tithed a portion of it. If they found a coin on the street, they made sure to add a fraction of its worth to the collection plate.

Do you tithe? “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to make one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves” (Matt. 23:15). Would you go over land and sea for one convert? “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life” (John 5:39). The Pharisees and the scribes were diligent students of sacred Scripture. The Pharisees did all this, and yet they missed the kingdom.

Jesus is saying that we have to do all these things the Pharisees did and more. How can this be, since we possess the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to us? Without that we would perish, and maybe that is all Jesus is saying here. You have to achieve a higher righteousness than even the scribes and the Pharisees, or you will not get into heaven. However, I do not think that is what Jesus meant. Rather, He is saying that those who receive His righteousness must go beyond the scribes and the Pharisees. The Pharisees were so scrupulous about keeping the letter of the law that they missed the spirit. The antinomian way is to attempt to keep the spirit of the law and not bother with the letter. And what do we do? Well, what God really cares about is the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law. What God wants is people who keep the spirit and the letter of the law.

Many say we are not obligated to follow the Old Testament ceremonies, and in one sense that is true. However, even though we do not practice the ceremonies of Old Testament law, the principles of the ceremonies are still central to the worship of Christians. Some do not want to be bothered with the Old Testament, but the Old Testament is the autobiography of God. It is God’s revelation of who He is, what He plans, and what He commands from His people. We learn from the Old Testament what pleases God. That is why we must never throw away the Old Testament as if it were of no importance today.²

Matthew 5:17–19

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

“I am not coming to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. I am not seeking to weaken it, but to establish it.”

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:24–26

People think, “Well, I’m pretty good.”

“Oh?” says the Law. “Here’s your standard.”

And suddenly, as they read through the Law, they realize they’re sinners in need of a Savior.

Matthew 5:20 (a)

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.…

This statement would have shocked those who heard it because, according to a popular Jewish saying of the time, “If only two men made it into heaven, one would be a scribe, and the other a Pharisee.” The scribes were scholars who studied, interpreted, and commented endlessly upon the Law. The word “pharisee” literally means “separated one.” Numbering seven thousand, this company of men kept the minutest details of the Law.

We look at the scribes and Pharisees rather humorously today, but no one did then. They were the Billy Grahams, Chuck Swindolls, and Jack Hayfords—the spiritual giants of their day. And Jesus said even their righteousness wasn’t good enough.

Matthew 5:20 (b)

…ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

This is the key to the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is saying, “If you think you can make it into the kingdom without Me as your Savior, you’d better be awfully good. In fact, you’d better be perfect.”

So when people say, “I live by the Sermon on the Mount,” I say, “Oh? Good luck, because Jesus told us in that sermon to be perfect, that unless our righteousness exceeds that of even the most holy men, we will never enter the kingdom.”

The Sermon on the Mount, perhaps the most misunderstood passage in all Scripture, is meant to bring us to the realization that there is no way anyone can keep its lofty standards. It is meant to make everyone equally guilty. It is meant to drive us to Jesus.

And once it has driven us to Christ, the Sermon on the Mount directs us in Christ, causing us to pray, “Lord, I thank You that Your blood has cleansed me when I have failed. But the standard is now before me. Help me to live in Your kingdom mentality—in poverty of spirit and purity of heart; in mourning and meekness and mercy—through Your strength, for I have a long way to go.”

Our tendency is to compare ourselves with each other. That’s what the Pharisees did. Compared to everyone else, they might have thought they looked pretty good.

One day after a wedding, I walked out to greet some of the people, and there was a guy who was over seven feet tall. He was huge! I had forgotten how big a seven-footer really is! When I’m around toddlers, I’m pretty big. But when I was around this guy, I was a runt! So, too, compared to the standards Jesus presented, the Pharisees were spiritual runts just like everyone else. That is why this sermon would have been so shocking.

5:17, 18 I did not come to destroy: Jesus disclaimed the Pharisees’ charge that He was nullifying the Law. The Law was both temporary (Gal. 3:19; Eph. 2:15; Heb. 7:12) and eternal (Matt. 5:18; Rom. 3:31; 8:4). As a covenant system with Israel, it ended at the Cross when the temple veil was rent and a new priesthood was established; as a set of spiritual and moral principles, it is eternal. Fulfill (pleroo) means to fill out, expand, or complete, not to bring to an end (teleo). A great deal has been written on how Christ fulfilled the OT (Gal. 3:15–18). He did this in several ways: (1) He obeyed it perfectly and taught its correct meaning (compare vv. 19, 20); (2) He will one day fulfill all of the OT types and prophecies; and (3) He provided a way of salvation that meets all OT requirements and demands (Rom. 3:21, 31). one jot or one tittle: This statement by Christ provides us with one of the strongest affirmations in the Bible of the inerrancy of Scripture. The jot (Heb. yod) refers to the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the tittle (Gk. keraia) refers to a minuscule distinguishing mark at the end of another Hebrew letter. God’s revelation as written by the authors of Scripture has absolutely no falsity even to the smallest detail. It is absolutely trustworthy.

5:19, 20 The righteousness of the scribes and pharisees was essentially external and activity oriented. Christ says God demands more than this, which must have shaken the disciples since the seemingly meticulous righteous deeds of the Pharisees and teachers of the law were viewed as far above that of the average person. In reality, though, the only righteousness that satisfies God’s standard is faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21, 22). Christ’s words are also a “declaration of war” against the cherished legalistic system of the Pharisees. Not only will good works, as taught by the Pharisees, not make someone great in heaven, but also the legalism could not get them into heaven.³

17. Having laid the foundation of the message in the summary statements of the Beatitudes’ Jesus now proceeds to show the superiority of His message to that of the law of Moses. He makes it clear that He had not … come to destroy the law. That is, the New Testament gospel is not contrary nor contradictory to the Old Testament law; rather it is the ultimate fulfillment of the spiritual intention of the law. Where the law had degenerated into legalism by the Pharisees, Jesus now takes the law beyond mere outward observance to the inner spiritual intention of God. For He had come to fulfill the law and its fullest implications. In his earthly life Jesus accomplished this by meeting its strictest demands and going beyond its mere outward requirements. As our Saviour, Jesus not only bore our sins, but He has also established a perfect righteousness which is given to us as a gift of God. Our sin was thus imputed to Him and His righteousness was imputed to us (cf. J. Murray, The Imputation of Adam’s Sin).

18. Verily I say is a unique form used by Jesus throughout His preaching to draw attention to the authority of His message. Verily means truly, certainly, or amen. It is used as a designation of authoritative teaching. One jot or one tittle refers to the minutest marks and letters of the Hebrew alphabet. He explained that even the smallest statement in the law must be fulfilled. A jot is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, called yodh. It functions as a “Y” in English and looks similar to an apostrophe. A tittle is a small projection on the edge of certain Hebrew letters to distinguish them from one another. For example, the Hebrew “D” differs from the “R” only by the use of the tittle.

19. Because of the seriousness of the law, Jesus emphasized the importance of keeping even its smallest details. However, in the ultimate plan of God, the law was not to become an extra burden on the souls of men. Rather than pointing the way to salvation, the law convinced men of the need of the Saviour. Therefore, whoever shall teach men so but shall not live what he teaches, he shall be made least in the kingdom of heaven. It is interesting to note that a person may be saved and a member of the kingdom of heaven, yet be hypocritical in his attitude toward the law. But whosoever shall do and teach the principles and precepts of the law shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. This simply means that God will reward the faithfulness and effectiveness of our lives and there will be varying degrees of blessing and reward in the kingdom.

20. Because of the necessity of righteousness as a requirement to enter heaven, Jesus then declared that except their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees they could not enter heaven. The significance of this is seen in the fact that the Jews of Jesus’ day considered these people to be the most religious in all Israel. However, their religion was merely an outward show of self-righteousness. What the Saviour demands is a kind of righteousness that is so godly that it cannot be the product of human effort but must be the gift of God. This righteousness Christ would establish in His life and death would be made available as God’s free gift. This is the righteousness that would exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.⁴

How True Righteousness Comes (Matt. 5:17–20)

Certainly after the crowd heard our Lord’s description of the kind of person God blesses, they said to themselves, “But we could never attain that kind of character. How can we have this righteousness? Where does it come from?” They wondered how His teaching related to what they had been taught all their lives. What about Moses and the Law?

In the Law of Moses, God certainly revealed His standards for holy living. The Pharisees defended the Law and sought to obey it. But Jesus said that the true righteousness that pleases God must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees—and to the common people, the scribes and Pharisees were the holiest men in the community! If they had not attained, what hope was there for anybody else?

Jesus explained His own attitude toward the Law by describing three possible relationships.

We can seek to destroy the Law (v. 17a). The Pharisees thought Jesus was doing this. To begin with, His authority did not come from any of the recognized leaders or schools. Instead of teaching “from authorities” as did the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus taught with authority.

Not only in His authority, but also in His activity, Jesus seemed to defy the Law. He deliberately healed people on the Sabbath Day and paid no attention to the traditions of the Pharisees. Our Lord’s associations also seemed contrary to the Law, for He was the friend of publicans and sinners.

Yet, it was the Pharisees who were destroying the Law! By their traditions, they robbed the people of the Word of God; and by their hypocritical lives, they disobeyed the very Law that they claimed to protect. The Pharisees thought they were conserving God’s Word, when in reality they were preserving God’s Word: embalming it so that it no longer had life! Their rejection of Christ when He came to earth proved that the inner truth of the Law had not penetrated their hearts.

Jesus made it clear that He had come to honor the Law and help God’s people love it, learn it, and live it. He would not accept the artificial righteousness of the religious leaders. Their righteousness was only an external masquerade. Their religion was a dead ritual, not a living relationship. It was artificial; it did not reproduce itself in others in a living way. It made them proud, not humble; it led to bondage, not liberty.

We can seek to fulfill the Law (v. 17b). Jesus Christ fulfilled God’s Law in every area of His life. He fulfilled it in His birth because He was “made under the Law” (Gal. 4:4). Every prescribed ritual for a Jewish boy was performed on Him by His parents. He certainly fulfilled the Law in His life, for nobody was ever able to accuse Him of sin. While He did not submit to the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees, He always did what God commanded in the Law. The Father was “well pleased” with His Son (Matt. 3:17; 17:5).

Jesus also fulfilled the Law in His teaching. It was this that brought Him into conflict with the religious leaders. When He began His ministry, Jesus found the Living Word of God encrusted with man-made traditions and interpretations. He broke away this thick crust of “religion” and brought the people back to God’s Word. Then, He opened the Word to them in a new and living way—they were accustomed to the “letter” of the Law and not the inner “kernel” of life.

But it was in His death and resurrection that Jesus especially fulfilled the Law. He bore the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:13). He fulfilled the Old Testament types and ceremonies so that they no longer are required of the people of God (see Heb. 9–10). He set aside the Old Covenant and brought in the New Covenant.

Jesus did not destroy the Law by fighting it; He destroyed it by fulfilling it! Perhaps an illustration will make this clear. If I have an acorn, I can destroy it in one of two ways. I can put it on a rock and smash it to bits with a hammer. Or, I can plant it in the ground and let it fulfill itself by becoming an oak tree.

When Jesus died, He rent the veil of the temple and opened the way into the holiest (Heb. 10:19). He broke down the wall that separated the Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:11–13). Because the Law was fulfilled in Christ, we no longer need temples made with hands (Acts 7:48ff) or religious rituals (Col. 2:10–13).

How can we fulfill the Law? By yielding to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to work in our lives (Rom. 8:1–3). The Holy Spirit enables us to experience the “righteousness of the law” in daily life. This does not mean we live sinlessly perfect lives, but it does mean that Christ lives out His life through us by the power of His Spirit (Gal. 2:20).

When we read the Beatitudes, we see the perfect character of Jesus Christ. While Jesus never had to mourn over His sins, since He was sinless, He was still a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). He never had to hunger and thirst after righteousness since He was the holy Son of God, but He did delight in the Father’s will and find His satisfaction in doing it (John 4:34). The only way we can experience the righteousness of the Beatitudes is through the power of Christ.

We can seek to do and teach the Law (v. 19). This does not mean we major on the Old Testament and ignore the New! Second Corinthians 3 makes it clear that ours is a ministry of the New Covenant. But there is a proper ministry of the Law (1 Tim. 1:9ff) that is not contrary to the glorious message of God’s grace. Jesus wants us to know more of the righteousness of God, obey it, and share it with others. The moral law of God has not changed. Nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament epistles and commanded to believers. (The exception is the Sabbath commandment, which was given as a sign to Israel, see Neh. 9:14.)

We do not obey an external Law because of fear. No, believers today obey an internal Law and live because of love. The Holy Spirit teaches us the Word and enables us to obey. Sin is still sin, and God still punishes sin. In fact, we in this present age are more responsible because we have been taught and given more!⁵

RELATIONSHIP OF THE SUBJECTS OF THE KINGDOM TO LAW

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil [Matt. 5:17].

Remember that part of the Mosaic Law was the ceremonial law. Christ was the sacrifice for the sins of the world, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. Christ came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill the Law. He fulfilled it in that He kept it during His earthly life. And the standard which was set before man He was able to attain, and now He is able to make over to you and me (and every believer) His own righteousness. God’s standards have not changed, but you and I cannot attain them in our own strength. We need help; we need a Savior. We do need mercy, and we obtain mercy when we come to Christ.

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled [Matt. 5:18].

I hope you don’t misinterpret what I am saying in this section which we call the Sermon on the Mount. I am not saying that we are free to break the Mosaic Law. The fact of the matter is that the Law is still a standard. It reveals to me that I cannot measure up to God’s standard. This drives me to the Cross of Christ. The only way I can fulfill the Law is by accepting the only One who could fulfill it—Jesus Christ.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven [Matt. 5:19].

You cannot break the commandments and get by with it. But you cannot keep them in your own strength. The only way you can keep them is to come to Jesus Christ for salvation, power, and strength. The commandments are not a way of salvation but a means to show you the way to salvation through the acceptance of the work of Jesus Christ.

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven [Matt. 5:20].

It is very important to see His point right here. The Pharisees had a high degree of righteousness according to the Law, but that was not acceptable. How can you and I surpass their righteousness? It is impossible in our own efforts. We need Christ to do it for us.⁶

Jesus introduces a basic element of hermeneutics, biblical interpretation. While affirming the continuing relevance and authority of the Old Testament Scriptures, He introduces a new level of interpretation. Jesus Himself is the fulfillment of the revelation or self-disclosure of God. He says that He did not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them; that is, to make their meaning full, or complete (plērōsai). Throughout the sermon we discover what it means for Jesus to “fill full” the meaning of Scripture. While the whole Bible is the Word of God written, inspired by the Spirit and an infallible rule for faith and practice, our task still remains to understand and interpret it in a manner consistent with its own claims. To do so means that we recognize the nature of God’s unfolding revelation and see its fulfillment in Christ. From this perspective we do not see the Bible as a “flat book,” but rather, we recognize levels between the Testaments. All that the Old Testament says about God is revealed more clearly in Christ. The Bible is God’s Word written and Jesus Christ is God’s Word personified, actualized, for “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”(John 1:14, kjv).

Significantly, Jesus identifies His teaching with the Old Testament Scriptures and affirms their timeless authority. He calls us to faithfulness to even the least of God’s commandments; yet he avoids a legalism that focuses on the letter of the Law in the fashion of the scribes and Pharisees. Rather, He calls the disciple to the spirit of the Law. Paul speaks of our new life in the Spirit as one in which “the righteousness of the law [is] fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:4, kjv). Jesus made clear early in His message that He is interpreting the spirit of Scripture, that is, revealing its basic intent. For example, we have Jesus’ interpretation of the Sabbath in the words, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27, kjv). As such, the Scripture is an authority that will not pass away without all being fulfilled.

In the Jewish community the standard of God was laid down for all time in the Torah, the Law of God. Schools of interpretation had hedged in the Law, with safeguards against infringement. In Jesus’ day the debate was between two such schools: those of Hillel and of Shammai. There were 613 commandments, rules, traditions, and examples without number, which made the Law a confusing exercise for the mind and a burden for the conscience.

When the Jews referred to the Law, they meant either the Ten Commandments or the first five books of the Old Testament, or, by referring to “the Law and the Prophets,” they meant the whole of Old Testament Scripture, or they meant the Oral Law. The Oral or Scribal Law was the most common in Jesus’ day. Jesus cut through the traditions and legalistic interpretations and disclosed the broad principles of the Law from which he interpreted its basic intent. This intent was not to focus on the righteousness of the Law but on the need for righteousness with God. Paul says that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:4, kjv). He does not say that Christ is the end of the Law, as is often misquoted, for the Law still serves to show us our sin, our sinfulness, and to show us our need of the Savior (Rom. 7). But the Law is no more than a pointer, a reminder of our need for the righteousness of God. To answer this need, Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness. He is the “end” to which the Law pointed.⁷

5:17 Do not think … abolish the Law or the Prophets. Jesus was neither giving a new law nor modifying the old, but rather explaining the true significance of the moral content of Moses’ law and the rest of the OT. “The Law and the Prophets” speaks of the entirety of the OT Scriptures, not the rabbinical interpretations of them. fulfill. This speaks of fulfillment in the same sense that prophecy is fulfilled. Christ was indicating that He is the fulfillment of the law in all its aspects. He fulfilled the moral law by keeping it perfectly. He fulfilled the ceremonial law by being the embodiment of everything the law’s types and symbols pointed to. And He fulfilled the judicial law by personifying God’s perfect justice (cf. 12:18, 20).

5:18 until heaven and earth pass away … until all is accomplished. Here Christ was affirming the utter inerrancy and absolute authority of the OT as the Word of God—down to the smallest stroke or letter. Again (see note on v. 17), this suggests that the NT should not be seen as supplanting and abrogating the OT, but as fulfilling and explicating it. For example, all the ceremonial requirements of the Mosaic law were fulfilled in Christ and are no longer to be observed by Christians (Col 2:16, 17). Yet not the smallest letter or stroke is thereby erased; the underlying truths of those Scriptures remain—and in fact the mysteries behind them are now revealed in the brighter light of the gospel. smallest letter or stroke. The phrase “smallest letter” refers to the smallest Heb. letter, the yohd, which is a meager stroke of the pen, like an accent mark or an apostrophe. The “stroke” is a tiny extension on a Heb. letter, like the serif in modern typefaces.

5:19 shall be called least … shall be called great. The consequence of practicing or teaching disobedience of any of God’s Word is to be called least in the kingdom of heaven (see note on Jas 2:10). Determining rank in the kingdom of heaven is entirely God’s prerogative (cf. Mt 20:23), and Jesus declares that He will hold those in lowest esteem who hold His Word in low esteem. There is no impunity for believers who disobey, discredit, or belittle God’s law (see note on 2Co 5:10). That Jesus does not refer to loss of salvation is clear from the fact that, though offenders will be called least, they will still be in the kingdom of heaven. The positive result is that whoever keeps and teaches God’s Word, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Here again Jesus mentions the two aspects of doing and teaching. Kingdom citizens are to uphold every part of God’s law both in their living and in their teaching.

5:20 unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. On the one hand, Jesus was calling His disciples to a deeper, more radical holiness than that of the Pharisees. Pharisaism had a tendency to soften the law’s demands by focusing only on external obedience. In the verses that follow, Jesus unpacks the full moral significance of the law, and shows that the righteousness the law calls for actually involves an internal conformity to the spirit of the law, rather than mere external compliance to the letter. will not enter the kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, this sets up an impossible barrier to works-salvation. Scripture teaches repeatedly that sinners are capable of nothing but a flawed and imperfect righteousness (e.g., Is 64:6). Therefore the only righteousness by which sinners may be justified is the perfect righteousness of God that is imputed to those who believe (Ge 15:6; Ro 4:5).⁸

1 Barton, B., Comfort, P., Osborne, G., Taylor, L. K., & Veerman, D. (2001). Life Application New Testament Commentary (pp. 25–26). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.

2 Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (pp. 101–106). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

3 Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (Mt 5:17–20). Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.

4 Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M. (Eds.). (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (pp. 1886–1887). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

5 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 22–23). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

6 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels (Matthew 1-13) (electronic ed., Vol. 34, pp. 78–80). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

7 Augsburger, M. S., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1982). Matthew (Vol. 24, p. 18). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

8 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Mt 5:17–20). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.