17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 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. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5: 17-20
Matthew 5: 17
What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.
21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
Children of God
23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3: 17-24
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets - The law was never intended to save, yet many of the Scribes and Pharisees felt that they were justified by or through the law. Scribes came from both the conservative group (Pharisees) and the liberal group (Sadducees). The term Scribe was also used to describe people who were in civil types of jobs like notaries. We will discuss them more later, but Jesus will be accused by such, claiming that He was in transgression of the law. The law here is the books of Moses, the ten commandments (moral), the ceremonial laws which regarded the temple laws (sacrificial), festivals and dietary laws. There was also what Christians refer to as the judicial law, which is in essence an extension, application of the moral law. So Christ's address of this is important because men still get this wrong today, and in Paul's day they often twisted his doctrines of justification by faith in order to teach antinomianism, which means against the law. The Prophets are the other books of the OT and when we say the law and the Prophets, we are referring to all of Holy Scripture. Prophets like Isaiah and Micah foretold the coming of Messiah. All of the prophets were reformers, in that they preached repentance, calling the people back to the law, to hold up the word of God and see that they fell short, turn from their sin and ask forgiveness. There were probably as many of them back then as there are people now who would like to put the law aside based upon the direction of the culture, but Jesus answers all that. He didn't come to abolish but to fulfill, the problem was not with the law, but with us, our cultures, and it all stems from a fallen nature and corrupt heart.
1) Moral Law - as in the 10 Commandments (only the keeping of the Sabbath is not commanded in the NT)
2) Ceremonial Law - as seen in the shadows and types in the Tabernacle, the Jewish sacrificial system, the Feast days
3) Civil Law - the judicial laws that governed the nation of Israel in the OT - e.g., the cities of refuge, stoning for certain offenses, etc Precept Austin
Charles Simeon - To have just sentiments on religion is a matter of incalculable importance. Whilst we are mistaken respecting any fundamental truths, we not only lose the benefit and comfort of those truths, but are in danger of rejecting them when proposed to our consideration, and enlisting ourselves amongst the avowed enemies of the Gospel. The Jews were almost universally expecting a temporal Messiah. Hence, when our blessed Lord appeared in such mean circumstances, and inculcated doctrines so opposite to their carnal expectations, the people thought either that he was an impostor who deceived them, or that he was come to subvert and destroy all that had been delivered to them by their forefathers. Our blessed Lord anticipated and obviated their objections: “Think not,” says he, “that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” (Read the entire sermon - Matthew 5:17-18 The Law and the Prophets Confirmed by Christ)
…15Consider also that our Lord’s patience brings salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom God gave him. 16He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17Therefore, beloved, since you already know these things, be on your guard so that you will not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure standing.… 2 Peter 3: 15-17
…30since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law. Romans 3: 30-31
To fulfill them - He fulfills the moral law by keeping it, by being what we were not, and He later sums it up when asked the question what is the greatest law: He answers "to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and to love thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus lives this out by seeking to do the will of the Father, to fulfill all righteousness, and by caring for the sick, the poor, and offering Himself up as the only perfect and infinitely righteous sacrifice for sin.
He fulfills the ceremonial law in becoming that sacrifice. Every bull, goat and dove ever slain upon the altar of the Tabernacle pointed to Christ. And remember, at His death, this was fulfilled, for the veil in the temple was rent in two. He accomplished the ceremonial law and since the destruction of the temple in 70 A. D. these ceremonies can no longer be practiced. The temple represented Christ.
…3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.… Romans 8: 3-5
In regard to the moral aspect of the Law, the Holman NT Commentary writes that…
Two pivotal passages (Jeremiah 31:31, 32, 33, 34; Ezekiel 36:26, 27) explain how, under the New Covenant, the same law (the very character of God) is not to be an external standard, but its values are to become an intrinsic part of newly recreated people. In a way, Jesus was teaching something that was not yet completely possible for people to follow. It is good to say, "People should move from external obedience to an obedience motivated by the law written upon the heart." But this is an impossibility until the heart is transformed and the very person of God himself, along with his righteous character as expressed in the law, comes to abide in one's heart. What Jesus taught would become a reality in the lives of God's people after his death sealed the new covenant and made possible the promised internal transformation. (Weber, Stuart, Max E. Anders, Ed: Holman New Testament Commentary: Matthew)
John Newton the converted slave trader wrote that "Ignorance of the nature and design of the law is at the bottom of most of our religious mistakes." - Precept Austin
…14But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” 15“Let it be so now,” Jesus replied. “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way.” Then John permitted Him. 16As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him.… Matthew 3: 14-16
…4But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”… Galatians 4: 4-6
…16Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. 17These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ. 18Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you with speculation about what he has seen. Such a person is puffed up without basis by his unspiritual mind.… Colossians 2: 16-18
3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, Hebrews 10: 3-12
Ay, but that is not all. The law has to be fulfilled in us personally in a spiritual and gospel sense.
“Well,” say you, “but how can that be?”
I reply in the words of our apostle:
“What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,” Christ has done and is doing by the Holy Spirit, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” (see notes Romans 8:3; 8:4)
Regeneration (discussion) is a work by which the law is fulfilled; for when a man is born again there is placed in him a new nature, which loves the law of God and is perfectly conformed thereto. The new nature which God implants in every believer at the time he is born again is incapable of sin: it cannot sin, for it is born of God. That new nature is the offspring of the eternal Father, and the Spirit of God dwells in it, and with it, and strengthens it. It is light, it is purity, it is according to the Scripture the
“living and incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever.” (see note 1 Peter 1:23)
If incorruptible, it is sinless, for sin is corruption, and corrupts everything that it touches. The apostle Paul, when describing his inward conflicts, showed that he himself, his real and best self, did keep the law, for he says,
He consented to the law that it was good, which showed that he was on the side of the law, and though sin that dwelt in his members led him into transgression, yet his new nature did not allow it, but hated and loathed it, and cried out against it as one in bondage. The newborn soul delights in the law of the Lord, and there is within it a quenchless life which aspires after absolute perfection, and will never rest till it pays to God perfect obedience and comes to be like God himself.
This which is begun in regeneration is continued and grows till it ultimately arrives at absolute perfection. That will be seen in the world to come; and oh, what a fulfillment of the law will be there! The law will admit no man to heaven till he is perfectly conformed to it, but every believer shall be in that perfect condition. Our nature shall be refined from all its dross and be as pure gold. It will be our delight in heaven to be holy. There will be nothing about us then to kick against a single commandment. We shall there know in our own hearts the glory and excellency of’ the divine will, and our will shall run in the same channel. We shall not imagine that the precepts are rigorous; they will be our own will as truly as they are God’s will. Nothing which God has commanded, however much of self-denial it requires now, will require any self-denial from us then. Holiness will be our element, our delight. Our nature will be entirely conformed to the nature and mind of God as to holiness and goodness, and then the law will be fulfilled in us, and we shall stand before God, having washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and at the same time being ourselves without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Then shall the law of the Lord have eternal honor from our immortal being. Oh. how we shall rejoice in it! We delight in it after the inward man now, but then we shall delight in it as to our risen bodies which shall be charmed to be instruments of righteousness unto God for ever and ever. No appetite of those risen bodies, no want and no necessity of them shall then lead the soul astray, but our whole body, soul, and spirit shall be perfectly conformed unto the Divine mind. Let us long and pant for this. We shall never attain it except by believing in Jesus. Perfect holiness will never be reached by the works of the law, for works cannot change the nature, but by faith in Jesus, and the blessed work of his Holy Spirit, we shall have it, and then I believe it will be among our songs of glory that heaven and earth pass away, but the word of God and the law of God shall stand fast for ever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen. (For his full exposition read The Perpetuity of the Law) - C. H. Spurgeon
A really excellent sermon on Matthew 5:17 by John Macarthur:
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