Mount is that—because
His preaching 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 had taught all along were contrary to the original teachings of the
Torah 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 quickly after giving the beatitudes:
“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 not to 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.
We have discussed in
earlier chapters how Jesus fulfilled “the Prophets.” But 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 and the
law has no further obligation on His
followers.
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” . 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
application of the law made it even
more
difficult to
keep, 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
Lo r d 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. 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.
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