matthew 5

Read Matthew 5 at Bible Gateway.

The most controversial passage in today's chapter is this one:

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 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. 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. 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.” Mat 5:17-20

The traditional church teaching is that with the resurrection of Jesus, He fulfilled the Law, therefore since all has been fulfilled, we can ignore this passage now, and it is no longer required of us to do the commandments in the Law. So let us look at this a little more critically.

Jesus did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets (verse 17). The Law (Torah) is full of foreshadows which illustrate and point to the Messiah. Many commandments are commanded because they illustrate the Messiah. The one we talked about a few days ago, about being purified in a mikvah, is a good example. According to Torah, one must wash with living water (be immersed in a mikvah) when one has touched a dead body. Of course there are physical health reasons of why this is a good idea.

But also, this commandment illustrates that when one has been in contact with DEATH, one must be made clean from it by being purified in living water! We have all been in contact with death, through our natural father Adam, and we all need to made clean by the living water which only Jesus can give (John 4:10).

Likewise, the Prophets are full of prophecies which proclaim the Messiah. So when Jesus says, “I came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets,” He is in essence saying, “I am He to whom the Law and the Prophets point!”

The meaning of this verse is NOT that Jesus kept the Law so now the rest of us can ignore it! If that was the meaning, then it would contradict verse 17. For in verse 17, not only does Jesus say He did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but He also verifies the permanency (for now) of the Law by saying that the smallest letter shall not pass from the Law until heaven and earth pass away.

Heaven and earth have not passed away yet, so according to Jesus' own word, the Torah will not pass away until all that has been written in the Law and the Prophets has been fulfilled. All that has been written in the Law and the Prophets has not been fulfilled: Jesus has not yet returned for example. So the Law, i.e., God's definition of what is righteous conduct and what is sinful conduct, is still in effect.

Now there is a portion of the Law which Jesus has fulfilled: that is the law concerning animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus fulfilled that law when He died on the cross, and became the sacrifice for sin, once for all. God reiterated that this law was fulfilled, by allowing the Temple, the only lawful place for the animal sacrifices to be performed, to be destroyed and not rebuilt after the resurrection of Jesus.

How do we know what law has already been fulfilled and what law still remains? This is the purpose of the book of Hebrews, to explain that question to the Church, and we will get to that book eventually.

As we progress through the Gospels and Acts and the Epistles, I will point out passages where Jesus and the apostles reiterate that the Law was still in effect for believers in Yeshua Messiah.

Beginning in verse 21 of Mat 5, Jesus begins a teaching on the meaning and obedience of the Ten Commandments. The Commandments can be divided in half, the first five having to do with righteousness toward God, and the second five having to do with righteousness toward one's fellow man. This division is inferred also by the teaching of Jesus, that the greatest commandment is to love God, and that the second which is like it, is to love one's neighbor (Mat 22:34-40). The first five commandments teach us what loving God looks like, in summary form, and the second five teach us what loving our neighbor looks like, in summary form. Jesus begins His teaching in the middle, with the Commandments having to do with men, beginning with the first of them, Do not commit murder.

(The commandment is not, Do not kill. It is, Do not commit murder. There are instances in Torah where killing another person is commanded, for example when a capital offense has been committed. If the command was, Do not kill, then the Torah would be contradicting itself, and that, we know, God does not do. We have to continue searching in our understanding until the Scriptures harmonize, because the Scriptures are true, and truth cannot contradict itself and remain true. If we have an understanding that puts Scripture in contradiction with other Scripture, then our understanding is faulty somewhere, and we need to keep digging until the Scripture harmonizes. By the way, understanding that the commandment is Do not commit murder, and not, Do not kill, should answer the question for the Church, on whether God allows His people to serve in the military (YES) and whether capital punishment for certain crimes is moral (YES).)

Essentially, what Jesus teaches us in the rest of chapter 5, is that outward obedience to the Commandments is not enough - it is not obedience, if the HEART is not on board. Obedience is a matter of the heart, and not of just doing or not doing the commanded thing. Not only is Jesus NOT teaching that the Law has been abolished, but He just raised the bar of what constitutes obedience to the Law to a very much higher standard.

The final verse of chapter 5 summarizes His point: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” A person cannot read Jesus' actual words and believe that He taught that obedience to the Law is now a thing of the past -- it is just the opposite. His standard is perfect obedience.

We have all fallen short of the glory of God and His standard, perfect obedience. He has extended grace and forgiveness toward us and our violations of Torah. Therefore let us rejoice, and seek not to despise His grace, but out of love express our gratitude by obeying Him from the HEART, as He desires, which can only happen by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and with fire. And let us extend grace toward the flaws in our fellow human beings. :)