Matthew 5:17–18. “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. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

Jesus Christ did not just appear on the scene as a savior in isolation from history, as it were. Rather he is the one of whom Moses and the prophets wrote. He is the one toward whom history has been moving, and he is the one from whom history has been moving.

A main question in this text on which many differ is, what is the meaning of this word fulfill?

Jesus has not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. He has not come as an iconoclast simply to crush them and smash them and say they aren’t important, but what does it mean to say that he came to fulfill them?

If prophecy is predictive prophecy, then to fulfill it means it comes to pass or to bring it to pass, but to speak of fulfilling law means to do what the law prescribes.

Some think that the verb “fulfill” must mean “I have not come to abolish the Law but to maintain it or preserve or keep it.” They suggest all of the laws of the Old Testament and were demanding that they be practiced, as well as following Jesus as the Messiah.

The difficulty with this sort of thing is that elsewhere in the Synoptic Gospels, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus specifically abrogates, for example, the food laws. He specifically abrogates them, and other stuff. So it can scarcely mean confirm in the sense of make fixed exactly as all the laws of the Old Testament stand or something like that. Jesus is introducing at least some modifications. Jesus does introduce some changes to the food laws in Matthew 15:1–20 (cf. Mark 7:1–23)

For example, where in Christianity is the sacrificial law of the Old Testament?

Where is that penal law, which prescribes death by stoning to the persistently impenitent rebellious son? So what does Jesus mean?

Jesus says, in effect, that he has not come to abolish the Law, but to do something quite different: to bring to pass all that the Law predicted. Such fulfillment will go on until everything predicted by the Law is accomplished, to the very end of the age (5:18). All of this presupposes; that the Law has a predictive function; that Jesus does show the true meaning of the Law and Prophets, not in some abstract sense, but in their prophetic fulfillment, the true direction in which they point; and that Jesus interprets his own mission as prophetic fulfillment of the promises inherent in the Law and the Prophets.

He does not think of himself of someone who destroys all that has come before and starts over, nor as someone who simply maintains the antecedent tradition. Rather, all previous revelation points to him, and he brings its expectations to pass.

Because this is a problem, Christian theology for many centuries has differentiated between moral law, ceremonial law, and civil law, and, according to this thinking, the moral law of God is the same in the Old Testament and in the New and it is this Jesus here confirms and deepens. The civil law, that which had to do with the nation of Israel, has passed. God’s people are not now located, as it were, in a race but rather under the umbrella of the whole kingdom of God’s sovereign rule, and it is international.

Similarly, not only the civil law is gone but the ceremonial law in like fashion. Jesus is the sacrifice, who died to pay for the sins of men, so all the sacrificial system of the Old Testament that pointed to him is forever gone.

Understanding the Law and the Prophets

Matthew 11:13 tells us that the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and from that time the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing.

Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

These verses change the whole picture. Now, it’s no longer a question of trying to see how law is fulfilled as opposed to how prophecy is fulfilled, but rather Prophets and Law both prophesy. Both Law and Prophets point forward, both have a prophetic ministry.

For example, the epistle to the Hebrews makes much of this. It says again and again that the sacrificial system of the Old Testament pointed forward to Jesus. Aaron’s priesthood pointed forward to Jesus as the High Priest. The old covenant pointed forward to the new covenant. So under this view, which is enunciated in Matthew 11, both the Law and the Prophets prophesy concerning the age to come.

Therefore, when Jesus says here that he did not come to abolish but to fulfill, he fulfills in the
sense that they point to him and he is their fulfillment.

He is the fulfillment of the prophecies embraced by both the Law and the Prophets. In verse 18, “I tell you the truth” is an emphatic utterance. The expression until heaven and earth disappear is a very strong common Jewish idiom in the first century, and it means never under any circumstances until. These things will not disappear until every stroke, every element of the Law, is accomplished.

What does this mean?

Does this mean at the end of the age or does this mean until all the law is obeyed?

If the Law and the Prophets prophesy until Jesus, what it means is that they will in no way be set aside in any way, shape, or form until everything they predict of Christ comes to pass. From his first coming right through until his second coming, the kingdom stretches out, and all will come to pass.

Therefore, the validity and continuity of the Law and the Prophets from the Old Testament are in terms of their fulfillment, their introduction, their outworking in Jesus. Whatever is prophetic, in a sense, is provisional. When the thing prophesied comes, the prophecy itself goes. Whatever is prophetic is by nature, in a sense, provisional. So the Law and the Prophets are not abolished. They have pointed to and do point to Jesus Christ and all that he is and does until the end of the age.

Since he has come, they have pointed to him, and now he is, in a sense, over them as their fulfillment.

This brings us to the next two verses. “Anyone who breaks 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 practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” 5;19

These commands are Jesus’ commands, the commands Jesus is about to enunciate. Because these things have pointed to him, therefore, whoever breaks these commands about to be enunciated will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

The very context of verse 19 is about being in Jesus’ kingdom, being part of this new group of disciples under His lordship. It is not talking about the Old Testament Law.

Jesus elsewhere in this gospel speaks of his commandments.

In the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus says the church is to teach all the disciples “whatever I have commanded you.” So also it is here his commands that are in view. So then, verse 19 does not tell us how to enter the kingdom. That was told to us in verse 3, Poverty of spirit, the deepest form of repentance. And verse 19 tells us how those in the kingdom are ranked, and this has to do in large measure with obedience to Jesus’ commandments.

Obedience continues in verse 20 where it speaks of the need for a surpassing righteousness to enter the kingdom. It is no longer a question of simply obeying rules, the rules of the Pharisees and scribes. Rather, what is in view is all the righteousness described in the ensuing verses. In other words, the Old Testament pointed to Jesus, and now Jesus, the King himself, introduces the kingdom of God, and those who follow him stand under his authority, moving away from past history in the other direction.

This theme comes out again and again in the following verses. It appears now that by another avenue, we are at the true place of purity, within us, those characteristics described in the Beatitudes. This is really what is described at length in the rest of the chapter.

Some people picture Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount as a sort of easy, sentimental, romantic view of righteousness as opposed to the rigors of the Law, but the more you study these verses in context, the more you see how rigorous the demands of Jesus are. They are far more rigorous than anything the Pharisees ever set up.

The righteousness that is demanded of the children of God is not simply conforming to prescribed and accepted rules. It demands that commitment of heart and life, love and affection, adoration and devotion, a loyalty, that has already been introduced in the Beatitudes.