Christ was teaching something like a Sunday School Class there on the side of a mountain somewhere up on Galilee – perhaps overlooking the Sea of Tiberias or the waters of the Jordan River. The mountain is not named nor have any of my favorite commentators tried to say which one that it was. In what might have been a beautiful place, the disciples might have been prone to distraction, but they weren’t; they were quite focused on the Saviour, and what He was saying.
As we have seen, the Lord’s dissertation began with the character of those children of God. Then in verse 13 He briefly stated one aspect of their ministry – their purpose in the world. “Ye are the salt of the earth….. Ye are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Now He begins to tie those two things together – the Christian’s character and his responsibility. In verse 20 He calls that connection “your righteousness” – Christian righteousness. Twice before, the Lord has referred to this righteousness. Verse 6 – “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” And verse 10 – “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” Apparently the Lord wants this righteousness to be a major part of our lives. Now He begins to explain how this righteousness should be expressed.
This paragraph is important not only for its teachings about righteousness, but also because once again it points out some of the interesting relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Verses 17-18 show us Christ and the Old Testament law, and verses 19-20 deal with some of the Christian’s relationship to that law. Tonight we will deal only with Christ and the law.
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Christ Jesus came not to destroy, abrogate, nullify, ameliorate, or change the law in any way. He didn’t take His scissors, cutting up the only scriptures which the disciples knew at that time. He not only didn’t destroy the first Testament, He didn’t remove or erase any part of it.
Doesn’t the abrupt way in which verse 17 is stated suggest that this is what some people were thinking? “People are saying that I am telling you to cast aside the old Word of God for some new revelation. That is not the case.” Perhaps the Sabbath controversy had already begun. It seemed to many, especially to the Pharisees, that Christ was breaking the laws about the Sabbath. He was traveling on the Sabbath, eventually healing on the Sabbath, and gleaning food on the Sabbath. But what He was doing was in no way breaking the original command. Also, the authority with which Jesus taught caused great consternation in some people. He didn’t constantly quote one rabbi or another trying to give authority to what He was saying. He said, “verily, verily I say unto you,” with emphasis on the person pronoun – the divine pronoun – “I.” The people were asking themselves if what Christ was teaching wasn’t something new. “Are these the words of Moses, expressed in modern day language or is this man abrogating Moses?” People are still wondering and arguing about that yet today. There are many pastors who refuse to preach from the Old Testament for various reasons. One is, they say, because it no longer has any divine authority – it is yesterday’s religious rubbish. There is “rubbish” here all right – that kind of attitude and theology is garbage. The Old Testament is as true today as it has ever been true.
By the way, there are two important doctrines revealed here, which are extra to the Lord’s purpose.
The by-ways and interrupts in the Bible are often just as important as the first purpose of any passage. For example, notice that Christ Jesus came into this world with a purpose. While it might be argued that some of us were surprises to our parents – that we were accidental blessings – the argument is faulty as far as the divine purpose of God is concerned. The “coming” was with a very special objective, particularly ordained from before the foundation of the world. “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” The eternal Son of God became incarnate in order to carry out a particular decree of God – the salvation of God’s elect.
The second by-path reminds us that the Word of God is eternal. “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Robertson’s Word Pictures explains this verse by saying – “Not an iota, not a comma” (Moffatt), “not the smallest letter, not a particle” (Weymouth), shall pass away before everything is fulfulled. The iota is the smallest Greek vowel, which Matthew here uses to represent the Hebrew yod (jot), the smallest Hebrew letter. “Tittle” is from the Latin titulus which came to mean the stroke above an abbreviated word, then any small (grammatical) mark.” Here our Lord says the Word of God will not pass away until it all be fulfilled. Elsewhere He more clearly teaches that the Word of God – His word – will NEVER be done away. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Isaiah declares, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Peter may have been thinking primarily about salvation, but he mentions the eternality of the Word. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
The relatively common word “fulfil” means to “fill full.” It is used in secular writings to talk about filling up and leveling – like repairing pot holes. Do you remember after the feeding of the five thousand, that twelve baskets were filled with the leftovers? The baskets fulfilled their purpose – they were filled full. A couple of times this word is translated – “to complete.” “And ye are complete (filled full) in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete (completely full) in all the will of God.” Christ Jesus came into the world with the special purpose of fulfilling and completing the law. He came to complete what the law could not accomplish – the salvation of the sinner. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” Would anyone like to guess whether or not the word “fulfilled” in Romans 8:4 is related to the word “fulfilled” here in Matthew 5?
The Old Testament contains a lot of doctrinal teaching. The Jewish word “Torah” – usually translated “law” literally means “revealed instruction.” The Old Testament instructs us about the Lord though the law, the prophecies and the histories. But by its very nature, as perfect as it was, it could not do everything. It could not do the impossible, like save the soul which has already broken that law. And it could not completely reveal all that we need to know about its Author – Jehovah. The Lord is so vast, so immense, that the few pages of the Old Testament do not touch the hem of His garment. On the other hand – on the new hand – as Jesus said to one of His disciples – “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” The purpose of the Old Testament was to reveal the holy God, and in the process to reveal our utter unholiness. But the remedy for that unholiness, and the means for fellowship with the holy God is seen more in Christ than in Genesis or even in Isaiah.
Of course, the Old Testament also contains many predictive prophecies. A great deal of it looked forward toward the days of the Messiah, and now here He stood before the disciples. The first words of Jesus’ ministry are found in Mark 1:15, and they contain the word “fulfilled.” And of course the high point of Jesus coming was the cross, where our salvation was purchased. Many of the Old Testament prophecies spoke about Calvary and God’s salvation of His people.
The Old Testament also contains a great many ethical precepts and moral laws. Many of these, if the Jews understood them at all, were often rejected or not obeyed. But Christ Jesus fulfilled them, first by being born under the Star of David, and then He fully obeyed every last detail of the law. “He did no sin, neither was there any guile found in His mouth.” Not only did Christ obey God’s law, but He taught and explained them as no one else had ever done. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
As I have suggested there are a lot of people who hate the Old Testament, and preachers who ignore it.
For one reason or another, there are millions of Bibles printed without the Old Testament. The rejection of the Old Testament is a part of the new morality under which we live sadly today. It is seen in rampant homosexuality, adultery and fornication, and the abolition of capital punishment – the abolition of punishment generally. So many foolish people talk about the God of wrath who ruled the Old Testament in contrast to the God of love found in the New Testament.
These people have misinterpreted Paul’s words in Romans 10:4. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” The clear meaning, as revealed by the rest of that chapter is – The coming of Christ, culminating in the death of Christ, should forever destroy any thought that righteousness can come through our personal obedience to the law. Acceptance by God, fellowship and salvation from sin before God, is not through obedience to the moral law, but through the death of Christ, who was sacrificed like a lamb, according to the principles of the law. He came to satisfy the demands that the law makes against us. He came to make a propitiation possible and to reconcile us to the Holy God. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”