Radical Disciples – A Remnant Revolution

Do you believe Jesus’ really came to abolish the Old Testament Laws?

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).
Perhaps the most widespread controversies about the teachings of Jesus concern His attitude toward the laws of God recorded in the Old Testament.

The approach of most churches and denominations regarding Jesus is that He brought a new teaching differing considerably from the instructions of the Old Testament. The common view is that the teachings of Christ in the New Testament annulled and replaced the teachings of the Old Testament. But do they?

It doesn’t ultimately matter what people say about Him. Nor does it really matter what interpretations they give of what He said. What truly matters is what He really said, and whether we’re going to believe and accept what He said.

Clear statement in the Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount is a good place to begin. Since this is the longest recorded statement of Jesus Christ’s teachings, we should expect to find in it His view toward the laws of God as recorded in the Old Testament. And indeed we do.

One of the reasons for some of Jesus’ statements in the Sermon on the Mount is that—because His teaching was so different from that of the Pharisees and Sadducees—some people believed His intention was to subvert the authority of God’s Word and substitute His own in its place.

But His real intention was to demonstrate that many of the things the Pharisees and Sadducees taught were contrary to the original teachings of the Torah (or Law) of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. Jesus refuted the erroneous ideas people had formed regarding Him with three emphatic declarations about the law. Let’s look at them.

“I did not come to destroy but to fulfill”

Jesus explains His view of the law very early in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).

So immediately we see that Jesus had no intention of destroying the law. He even tells us to not even think such a thing. Far from being antagonistic to the Old Testament Scriptures, He said He had come to fulfill “the Law and the Prophets” and proceeded to confirm their authority. “The Law and the Prophets” was a term commonly used for the Old Testament Scriptures (compare Matthew 7:12).

“The Law” referred to the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses in which God’s laws were written down. “The Prophets” referred not only to the writings of the biblical prophets, but also to the historical books of what came to be known as the Old Testament.

What did Jesus mean when He spoke of fulfilling the law?

Regrettably, the meaning of ” fulfilling the law” has been twisted by many who claim the name of Jesus but don’t really understand what He taught. They say that since Jesus said He would fulfill the law, we no longer need to keep it.

Another view of “fulfilling the law” is that Jesus “filled full” what was lacking in the law—that is, He completed it, partly canceling it and partly adding to it, forming what is sometimes referred to as “Christ’s law” or “New Testament teaching.”

The implication of this view is that the New Testament brought a change in the requirements for salvation and that the laws given in the Old Testament are obsolete. But do either of these views accurately reflect what Jesus meant?

Jesus’ view of fulfilling the law

The Greek word pleroo, translated “fulfill” in Matthew 5:17, means “to make full, to fill, to fill up . . . to fill to the full” or “to render full, i.e. to complete” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 2002, Strong’s number 4137).

In other words, Jesus said He came to complete the law and make it perfect. How? By showing the spiritual intent and application of God’s law. His meaning is clear from the remainder of the chapter, where He showed the spiritual intent of specific commandments.

Some distort the meaning of “fulfill” to have Jesus saying, “I did not come to destroy the law, but to end it by fulfilling it.” This is inconsistent with His own words. Through the remainder of the chapter, He showed that the spiritual intent of the law made it more broadly applicable, not that it was annulled or no longer necessary.

Jesus, by explaining, expanding and exemplifying God’s law, fulfilled a prophecy of the Messiah found in Isaiah 42:21: “The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will exalt the law, and make it honorable.” The Hebrew word gadal, translated “exalt” or “magnify” (KJV), literally means “to be or become great” (William Wilson, Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies, “Magnify”).

Jesus Christ did exactly that, showing the holy, spiritual intent, purpose and scope of God’s law through His teachings and manner of life. He met the law’s requirements by obeying it perfectly in thought and deed, both in the letter and in the intent of the heart.

All will be fulfilled

The second major statement given by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, in the exact same context, makes it even clearer that He did not come to destroy, rescind, nullify or abrogate the law: “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18).

With these words, Jesus likened the continuance of the law to the permanence of heaven and earth. He is saying that God’s spiritual laws are immutable, inviolable and indestructible. They can only be fulfilled, never abrogated.

We should note that in this verse a different Greek word is used for “fulfilled”: ginomai, meaning “to become, i.e. to come into existence . . . to come to pass, happen” or “to be made, done, finished” (Thayer’s, Strong’s number 1096).

Until the ultimate completion of God’s plan to glorify humanity in His Kingdom comes to pass—that is, as long as there are still fleshly human beings—the physical codification of God’s law in Scripture is necessary. This, Jesus explained, is as certain as the continued existence of the universe.

His servants must keep the law

The third statement of Jesus, quoted earlier in chapter 2, pronounces that our fate rests on our attitude toward and treatment of God’s holy law. Again, “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least [by those] in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great [by those] in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19).

The “by those” is added for clarification, since, as explained in other passages, those who persist in lawbreaking and teach others to break God’s law will not themselves be in the Kingdom at all.

Jesus makes it very clear that those who follow Him and aspire to His Kingdom have a perpetual obligation to obey and uphold God’s law. He is saying that we cannot diminish the law of God by even a jot or tittle—the equivalent in our modern alphabet of the crossing of a “t” or the dotting of an “i.”

The value He places on the commandments of God is also unmistakable—as well as the high esteem toward the law He requires from all those who teach in His name. His disapproval falls on those who slight the least of God’s commandments, and His honor will be bestowed on those who teach and obey God’s commandments.

Since Jesus obeyed the commandments of God, it follows that His servants, too, must keep the same commandments and teach others to do the same (1 John 2:2-6). It is in this way that the true ministers of Christ are to be identified—by their following the example He set for them ( John 13:15).

By Locoman8