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My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!
Kerry Duke: Hi, I'm Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.
We're in a study of the Sermon on the Mount, and today we come to Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 through 20. Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. 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. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus talks about the Law and the Prophets. Now those are two of the main divisions of the Hebrew Old Testament—the Law and the Prophets. Now, this is a common Jewish title for the Scriptures. You see, at that time, nobody talked about the Old Testament because those Scriptures, those 39 books of the Old Testament, as we call it, were the only books they had at the time.
If you'd said something to a Jew in Jesus’ day about the Old Testament, he'd look at you as if you were saying something very strange. So, “the law and the prophets” is just a Jewish way of referring to the Old Testament. Jesus was born under the law of Moses. He lived under that law. He obeyed that law. But he came to change it.
He came to give a new law. But that doesn't mean that he undermined the purpose of that law. It doesn't mean that he changed the basic moral teachings of the Old Testament. And here in the Sermon on the Mount, early in this sermon, he says, “Do not think that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”
Some of you know your Bible well enough to know that there's a question that oftentimes comes up about this. Some people who don't believe the Bible say that there's a contradiction in the Bible because here Jesus said that he did not come to destroy the law and yet in Ephesians 2 verse 15 Paul said that Jesus abolished that law.
So how do we reconcile those two statements? Well, we need to look at what Jesus is saying here in His words, “Do not think that I am come to destroy the law. I did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.” In what sense did Jesus not come to destroy the law? Well here are some things to think about. If Jesus had not fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament, He would have destroyed what those prophets said.
Jesus did not come to destroy the law in the sense of not fulfilling its prophecies. The Old Testament foretold his life, his teaching, His miracles and the response of the people to him. It foretold His betrayal. It foretold his death. All of this would have been nullified if Jesus had not done these things.If Jesus had not fulfilled those prophecies, he would have destroyed everything that Isaiah wrote, everything that Ezekiel wrote, and all these Old Testament prophets said.
Secondly, Jesus would have destroyed the law if he had not delivered on its promises. The Old Testament promised a Messiah, it promised a kingdom, it promised a new system, and it promised, of course, hope for the world. Well, if Jesus had not set up his kingdom, then he would have destroyed what Daniel wrote in Daniel 2:44 when he said that the God of heaven would set up a kingdom which would stand forever. That's just one of the many passages in the Law of the Prophets that Jesus would have destroyed had He not fulfilled those passages.
And here's something else to think about. If you’ve studied your Bible quite a bit, you know that the Old Testament has a lot of types and foreshadows of the New Testament. The book in the New Testament that really explains that is the book of Hebrews. For instance, in the Old Testament, the tabernacle was a type. It was a foreshadow. It was a prerepresentation of the church. And the holy of holy place in that tabernacle represented heaven. You read about that in the book of Hebrews. That's just one example. But suppose Jesus had never established the church. Suppose he had never fulfilled those types and foreshadows.
That would have destroyed everything that those Old Testament passages talked about. You see, in the Old Testament, God was laying a foundation for good things to come in the New Testament with all of its types and foreshadows. So the Old Testament, as someone once said, is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. But again, if Jesus had not accomplished his mission, He would have destroyed everything that we're talking about.
Also, the Old Testament is a book that builds on what went before. It's constantly looking ahead, just as the New Testament looks ahead toward heaven. But the Old Testament is looking toward the king and his kingdom. As you read the Old Testament, you can't help but get the sense that the Old Testament is anticipating something, that it is looking forward to something. It is a forward-looking set of Scriptures. And the Jews knew that. That's why they were anticipating, that's why they were anxious for, the kingdom of God to come, even though they misunderstood the nature of that kingdom.
Now, suppose that Jesus had not fulfilled his mission. Suppose that Jesus had not established the kingdom that the Old Testament talks about. If He had not completed what they started by prophesying of these things, then He would have destroyed the work that they did.
But here's something that is especially important to remember if we're going to understand Matthew chapter 5. And that is that Jesus did not come to do away with or destroy the basic moral principles of the Old Testament. These things have not changed, they do not change, they cannot change, and this is what Jesus is about to talk about for the rest of chapter five.
There are some things in Matthew chapter five that sometimes strike us as unusual. This is where Jesus talks about turning the other cheek. This is where Jesus talks about plucking out your eye. This is where Jesus talks about swearing and divorce and many other things. We cannot understand what he's talking about there unless we understand this point that Jesus did not come to destroy or do away with what the Old Testament said about these basic morals. He did not come to destroy what the law said about love. He did not come to destroy what the law said about faith, or obedience, or mercy. He did not come to destroy what the Old Testament taught about murder, or lying, or adultery, or stealing. He didn't come to change any of that. He came to fulfill that.
Look at Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 again. “Do not think that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill.” So what's the opposite of destroying? It is fulfilling. Jesus came to bring to pass, that is, to fulfill, all that the Old Testament prophets foretold.
For instance, He was born in Bethlehem. He was despised and rejected by men. He was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, and there are many other prophecies in the Old Testament. He came to establish the kingdom. Mark chapter 9 verse 1 talks about that. Matthew 16 verse 19 says the same. If Jesus had not died on the cross, He would have destroyed everything that the prophets wrote. But the New Testament completes the types and the prophecies of the Old Testament. What does he mean in verse 18 when he says, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled”? Well, when h”e says till heaven and earth pass, He's saying in a sense, you might as well expect the sky to fall and the earth to fall out from under you as to think that any one of these laws will fail to be fulfilled.
You say, well, what does he mean by the jot and the tittle? Well, Jesus was referring to the Aramaic, which is similar to the original Hebrew that the Old Testament was written in. And the word jot here is from the Hebrew word yod. Now, that's just a real small letter in the Hebrew alphabet. It's the smallest one. It's just a little mark that looks like the way that it's written today—an apostrophe. The word tittle is from a word which means a horn or a projection or a hook. It's a part of a letter. It's a small line or projection of a letter, especially in the Hebrew, that distinguishes one letter from another.
There are some Hebrew letters that look very similar. And the only way you can tell the difference is the way that the lines come to a point or a little projection or a hook that extends out from it. This means the jot and the tittle mean that even the least little thing in the law will not pass until it is fulfilled, until it is completed or perfected in the New Testament.
The Jews would be under the Old Testament until it was abolished by Jesus Christ. That means every washing, every sacrifice, the Sabbath law, all the feast days, the tithing law, and everything else under that law. Now, notice in verse 18 that he says, “For verily I say to you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
They will remain in force until they're fulfilled. And when they are fulfilled, the New Testament will take their place. Let's look at a few verses in the New Testament that explain this for us. I'm going to Luke chapter 24, verse 44. These are some of the last things that Jesus says to his disciples before He ascended up to heaven.
In Luke chapter 24, verse 44, the Bible says, “He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me.” In John chapter 1 verse 29, the Bible says, “The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him and says, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.”
The Bible says in John chapter 1 verse 45, “Philip finds Nathanael and says to him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Jesus did not come to undermine, to destroy the foundation that those prophets laid. He did not come to destroy all the work that they did.
He came to fulfill what they had prophesied of. Now let's turn to the epistles because Paul and other writers talk about the fact that the Old Testament was done away because it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In Galatians chapter 3, beginning in verse 24, the Bible says, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” Now, the schoolmaster there was more of a guardian. He was more of a supervisor, a superintendent, somebody that watched after that child until that child become of age. And that analogy actually goes into chapter 4 all the way down through verse 6.
And then in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 15, Paul says these words: “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain or two one new man, so making peace.” Now the two that He's talking about here, in the context, are the Jews and the Gentiles.
What had separated the Jews and the Gentiles? Well, that was the law of Moses. Because the law of Moses was for the Jews; it was not for the Gentiles. In verse 14 of Ephesians 2, he said that it was the middle wall, “the middle wall of partition between us,” between the Jews and the Gentiles. But He says that He abolished that middle wall of partition, which He identifies as this law of commandments, that is, the law of Moses.
Now, one of the plainest passages in the Bible on this point is the book of Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter two, and I'm going to be reading beginning in verse 12. There the Bible says that we are “buried with him in baptism wherein also you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised Him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has He quickened” [or made alive] “together with Him, having forgiven you all your trespasses.” Now notice verse 14. When Jesus died on the cross Here's what happened. He was “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.”
What is this handwriting of ordinances that Paul's talking about here? We oftentimes say that the Bible is its own best commentary. The Bible is its own best interpreter. And that's true here, because all you have to do is just to keep reading. Let's see in verse 15: “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”
Now listen to verse 16: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.” Those are all observances in the law of Moses. Those are all Old Testament rituals. First of all, meat, that is, meat offerings. And then drink, that is, drink offerings that they would make at the temple.
And then he talks about three different kinds of ceremonies or observances of the Jewish people. First of all, he talks about a holy day. Then he talks about the new moon. Then he talks about the Sabbath days. A holy day here refers to one of the annual feasts of the Jews. There were three: Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of the Tabernacles.
The new moon referred to a monthly celebration. Every month, the Jews would observe this ritual. And then the Sabbath day was a weekly observance. Now, if you go through the Old Testament, if you just get, let's say, a concordance, and you look up these words—holy day, new moon, and Sabbath days, you're going to find that they are coupled together, that they are joined together throughout the Old Testament to refer to the yearly, the monthly, and the weekly observances of the Jews.
Now this is important because when you get to the last one here, it mentions the Sabbath days. Most Bible readers today, of any kind of church, will look at the first two and say, “Okay, the holy days, that would be the annual feast, and the new moon, we don't celebrate that today.”
But then there are some who say that the Sabbath day is still binding today. There are those that tell us that we ought to, that we have a divine obligation to, observe the Sabbath today. Now, just read this in the context. In verse 14, the Bible says that Jesus blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and that He nailed it to the cross. He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. Now, if Jesus took this handwriting and all these ordinances out of the way, if He nailed them to the cross, that means they are no longer binding. That means they are no longer alive in their active force.
And He gives you examples of that in verse 16. He says, you're not under the meat offerings anymore. You're not under the law that says you have to offer drink offerings at the temple. You're not under the law that says you have to observe these holy days, these new moon celebrations or the Sabbath days. If the holy days were annual, if the new moon celebrations were monthly, then the Sabbath day here is the weekly Sabbath under the old law.
And all these things, Paul says, were taken out of the way and nailed to the cross. So when anyone says today that the Sabbath law is still binding, that we're not supposed to worship on the first day of the week, we're supposed to worship on the Sabbath day, he is directly going against what Paul says here.
Paul said in verse 16, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.” When he says don't let anybody judge you he means don't let anybody judge you by this Old Testament standard. Don't let anybody bind that on you. Don't let anybody condemn you because you're not practicing those Old Testament observances because they have been taken out of the way and nailed to the cross.
Now read with me verses 16 and 17 together. He says, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.” Now that is exactly what we were talking about just a few minutes ago. These Old Testament observances were temporary. They were shadows of better things to come. And those better things to come are in the New Testament. That again is why it's very important to read the book of Hebrews, because in the book of Hebrews, the writer constantly uses the word better. In the New Testament, we have better things.
So, yes, the Sabbath was a law for the Jews. The Bible plainly says that it was given to the Israelite people in Deuteronomy chapter 5. But most people listening to my voice are not Jews. You're not Israelites. If you're a Gentile, you were never under that law. Even when Jesus was on the earth, Gentiles were not under the law of the Sabbath.
There are so many things that are wrong with that idea, and I want to look at one more. That is Romans chapter 7 [Romans chapter 7 in verses 1 through 3]. Paul uses the illustration of a woman married to a man. And the Bible says that if her husband dies, she is at liberty to be married to someone else. And the Bible says in Romans 7 verse 4, “Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law.” You've become dead to the law just like this woman's husband has died and she's no longer married to him. He says you are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that you should be married to another spiritually. Now, you're not wedded to, you're not married to the law of Moses. You are married to another, and that is Jesus Christ and His law.
“Even to him who is raised from the dead,” Paul says. So, notice what he says down in verse 7. He says, “What shall we say then?” This is Romans 7, verse 7. “Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Now, the reason that I'm bringing that up is because sometimes we're told, “But wait a minute, the Sabbath law was one of the Ten Commandments, and you're surely not saying that the Ten Commandments were done away with.” Well, in Romans chapter 7, Paul quotes one of the Ten Commandments. He says in Romans 7 verse 7, “I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet.” That's number 10 of the Ten Commandments. So he refers to that section of the Old Testament as the law. Now, what did he say about that law? In verse 4, just three verses before that, he said, “You are become dead to the law.” You are become dead to that law. And that, according to Romans 7 verse 4 and verse 7, includes the Ten Commandments.
You might say, “Well, are you saying then that since we don't have to keep the Sabbath, which was part of the Ten Commandments, then we don't have to keep what the Ten Commandments say about honoring God and not taking His name in vain, about what it says concerning murder and stealing and adultery and so forth?”
Well, obviously not. Those things are wrong and they always have been wrong. As a matter of fact, idolatry was wrong before the law was given at Sinai in Exodus 20. So was murder, so was adultery, so was lying, so was stealing. And not only that, but the New Testament condemns those things as well. But when it comes to the Sabbath, which was a specific religious observance, not a basic moral principle, the Bible plainly shows in Colossians that that law about the Sabbath has been rescinded. It has been nailed to the cross. Again, Colossians 2:14-17 and Romans 7, verses 4-7 plainly show that that was a temporary law given to the Jewish people and not to Gentiles at all.
Now let's go back to Matthew chapter 5 because we're about to lay a very important foundation for everything that we're going to look at in Matthew chapter 5 from this point on. Let's look at these verses again [Matthew chapter 5 verse 19]. After He says, I didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets—that is, the Old Testament—I came to fulfill them; therefore He says in verse 19, “Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments” [He's talking about the law of Moses, and he says that if a man breaks one of the least of these] and he “teaches men so.”
This is very important to remember. Notice that in verse 19. “Whoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments.” And that doesn't mean just one time like everybody does. But this is something that a person is doing as a habit. He's doing this because he has chosen not to do this as a rule in his life. He's breaking one of the least of these commandments and he's teaching other people this. Now the question is this. Who were the primary religious teachers of the day? Who are the ones that Jesus has so much controversy with? The scribes and the Pharisees—that’s right. Now, Jesus said that any man who looks at the Old Testament and says, “Well, that one's not important and so we don't have to do that commandment” is breaking the least of the commandments in that sense. And then he's telling other people you don't have to do it either. He is teaching other people that they don't have to keep the law of God. Jesus said you don't have that right because until these things in the Old Testament are fulfilled, they are binding.
And when did Paul say that happened? It happened when Jesus died on the cross. He nailed it to the cross. Colossians chapter 2 verse 14. So he says that a man who does this, that is, that breaks one of these least commandments, that teaches other people the same, he will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.
“But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” because Jesus is going to show that these things are fulfilled in the New Testament. And He says you have to do them, you have to teach them. Then He warns in verse 20 [and this is where it's very important to notice what the context here is. Again, when you come down to verse 21, and you read throughout the rest of this chapter, He is going to give six examples of how the scribes and Pharisees mistaught the Old Testament. This is very important]. In verse 20, he says, “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
To an average Jew in Jesus day, those words probably would have been shocking because they would have thought, “Well, how can a man be more righteous than the scribes and the Pharisees?” These people I'm talking about [the Jews in Jesus day] looked upon the scribes and the Pharisees as the great religious leaders of the day. They were the Bible scholars. In Matthew chapter 23 verses 5 through 11, Jesus talks about how that these scribes and Pharisees would parade themselves and seek the glory of men. They loved this kind of attention. And Jesus says, your righteousness has to exceed their righteousness or you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.
So what was their righteousness? What kind of religion did they actually practice? This is what you're going to see from this point on in the Sermon on the Mount. It is a contrast. Jesus is saying you cannot follow these scribes and Pharisees in their teaching and in their life. You have to listen to what the Bible actually says in the Old Testament Scriptures.
So, beginning in Matthew chapter 5, verse 21, and going throughout the whole chapter, Jesus exposes the picking and choosing kind of religion of these scribes and Pharisees. That's the first thing that He talks about. In verse 21, He gives the first of six examples of how the scribes and Pharisees would pick out parts of the Old Testament and they would omit other parts of the Old Testament.
For instance, He said in verse 21 it's wrong to murder. The scribes and Pharisees taught that and Jesus said there's no problem with that. However, Jesus said, there's more to it. It's wrong to hate. It's wrong to have contempt in your heart for your fellow man. That's what he says in verses 22 through 26. So the scribes and Pharisees were big on teaching against murder, but they were short on teaching against hate. Jesus said you have to respect and you have to obey all that the Bible says about that.
In verse 27 and 28, he gives the example of adultery. He says to the people that they had heard, that is, they had heard from the Scribes and Pharisees, that it's wrong to commit adultery. And they were right on that point. But Jesus says there's more to it. And the Scribes and Pharisees evidently were not talking about this as much. And that was the lust in the heart that He's talking about in verse 28.
So he goes on and talks about divorce in that vein of thought. He talks about swearing in verses 33 through 37. He talks about retaliation in verses 38 through 42, and then He talks about loving your neighbor and He said you have heard that you are to hate your enemy. Again, that came from the scribes and Pharisees. That did not come from the Bible. So, in Matthew chapter 5, 21 through 48, Jesus gives all these examples of picking and choosing. That's the kind of righteousness that these scribes and Pharisees had. Jesus said I didn't come to remove, I didn't come to destroy what the Old Testament said about these basic moral principles. I came to fulfill them.
But this contrast between the kind of righteousness that we're supposed to have and the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is brought out also in chapter six, because in chapter six verses one through 18, you have what I would call the show-off religion of the scribes and the Pharisees. They wanted to be seen. That is a good description of everything that these scribes and Pharisees were about. When they gave money to people, when they helped people, they wanted to be praised. When they prayed, they prayed in public and they wanted to be seen. When they fasted, they wanted people to know about it.
That's what Matthew six verses one through 18 is about. Then beginning in verse 19, he talks about our attitude toward money. Well, the Bible says in Luke chapter 16 verse 14 and 15 that the Pharisees were covetous people. This is a strong contrast between the way that we're supposed to live and the way that these scribes and Pharisees were teaching and living.
Then, in Matthew chapter 7, verses 1 through 5, He says, “Do not judge, that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged, and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why do you behold the mote that is in your brother's eye, but you do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? Or how will you say to your brother, Let me pull out the mote that is in your eye, and behold, a beam is in your own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.” If there's anybody that that describes, it would be the mindset of the scribes and the Pharisees.
So to understand the Sermon on the Mount, you need to keep in mind who Jesus is talking to. We say that one of the simple rules of Bible interpretation is to remember, of course, who's doing the speaking and to whom is he speaking. Jesus is talking to these Jews. They were well aware of these scribes and Pharisees.
And so what we've looked at today in Matthew 5, verses 17 through 20 is very important. It lays the foundation for what you read in the Sermon on the Mount that follows. And one of the reasons that people misinterpret and misapply some of the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount is because they overlook these verses that we spent time with today: Matthew 5, 17 through 20.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs.
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