The schoolmaster gracefully retires.
What did our Lord mean in Matthew 5:17-20 when He said He had not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it? The reader will do well to realize that this is no simple question. In two sentences (v.17), the Saviour summarizes the relationship between the whole of the Old Testament and His messianic ministry. This passage has been so diversely used by every group in Christendom, that one writer said of it, “Matthew 5:17- 20 is an exegetical minefield!”
While this article will not address controversial issues connected to this passage (e.g. whether or not the Law continues as a rule of life for the believer), it will help the reader understand what it meant for Christ to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. But, before doing so, we give seven thoughts for those wishing to study Matthew 5:17-20 themselves.
1. Our Lord says He came to fulfill “the Law and the Prophets” not just the Law. More than the Law is in view here. This wording is one way of referring to the whole of the Old Testament.
2. The contrast is not between “destroying” and “upholding” the Law but between “destroying” and “fulfilling.” Our Lord did not come to merely obey the Law (as taught by the rabbis) and leave it untouched. Nor did Christ come to abolish or revoke it, as some feared as they listened to the Sermon on the Mount. He came to fulfill it.
3. Contrary to many who use this passage to prove that the Law is forever binding on the believer (because it will not pass away until the earth does), this passage does state the one condition under which a law or prophecy might “pass away”: when it is fulfilled.
4. The word “fulfill” ending verse 17 is pleroo- (to realize, accomplish, fulfill) whereas “fulfill” at the end of verse 18 is ginomai (to come to pass, take place).
5. Not all of the prophecies of the prophets have “come to pass” or been “fulfilled” by the Lord yet, thus some still remain in force for those to whom they were spoken.
6. Fulfillment of the Law does not imply that Law-related portions of Scripture are to be ignored or neglected. All Scripture is profitable (2 Tim. 3:16) and, thus, the Law—like every portion of God’s Word—is richly profitable for study. The entire book of Hebrews illustrates this point.
7. To say that the Law is fulfilled is by no means to say the believer is free to live lawlessly. Part of the meaning of the fulfillment of the Law is the fact that it has been overshadowed or swallowed up by the higher standard given to the believer in the words and works of Christ throughout the New Testament. The believer has left his childhood guardian (Gal. 4:1-11) and embarked on a mature walk after Christ (Rom. 7:4-7; 1 Cor. 2:6-11). Now let us consider some of the ways that Christ fulfilled the Law.
Christ fulfilled the Law and the Prophets prophetically
This is perhaps the simplest of all aspects of fulfillment. The prophets wrote of things to come. Christ fulfilled them. Today, a reader can easily find a website or book indexing the hundreds of messianic prophecies our Lord fulfilled in His birth, ministry, and death. Matthew’s gospel alone provides several examples. (See Matthew 1:22; 2:15, 17, 23;
Christ fulfilled the Law personally
As one born under the Law (Gal. 4:4), our Lord obeyed it perfectly. He did not need to offer sacrifices for Himself (Heb. 7:27). The Pharisees could not convict Him of sin (Jn. 8:46). False witnesses were needed to put Him to death (Mk. 14:55- 57). Positively, Christ was all that Adam should have been and more. The Father bore testimony of our Lord’s character from heaven itself (Mt. 3:17; 17:5). In Christ, the earth finally saw a Man who loved the Lord God with all His heart, soul, strength, and mind, and His neighbor as Himself (Mt. 22:40). Watching the Lord obey the Law was a matter of watching righteousness blossom, rather than watching sin being repressed.
Christ fulfilled the Law doctrinally
Our Lord did not advocate abandonment of the Law and good works. Rather, He taught the true meaning of the Law in contrast to the externals and traditions of the Pharisees. He stripped the Law of the teachings of men (“ye have heard it was said by them of old”) and brought out the truth, mercy, and justice intended by its divine author (“but I say unto you”). Study Matthew 5-7. When, in the course of Israel’s history, the Law was not taught properly by the Levites, God raised up prophets to call Israel back into obedience to it. Moses promised that a great prophet would come to teach the Law rightly (Deut. 18:15-18). Our Saviour was that coming prophet (Jn. 6:14). He fulfilled the law in His perfect teaching of it (e.g. Mt. 12:3, 5; 19:4; 22:31; Mk. 12:10; Lk. 10:25f) and even pushed beyond it (compare Matthew 22:39 to John 13:34).
Christ fulfilled the Law typically
Our Lord was the reality from which the majority of types, shadows, and illustrations in the Law and the Prophets took their pattern (Lk. 24:27; Jn. 5:46). Hebrews 10:1 tells us the Law itself was a shadow. The furniture of the tabernacle, the sacrifices of Leviticus 1-7, and the feast days of Leviticus 23 (to name but a few examples) correspond to His person and work. We see illustrations of Christ in Isaac, Joseph, Joshua, Boaz, David, etc.
Christ fulfilled the Law dispensationally
The Law had a beginning at Sinai and an ending at the coming of Christ. Noah and Abraham did not live by the Law given to Moses, neither do we. The Law was clearly temporary, bridging the gap between the giving of the promises and the Seed who would fulfill them (Gal. 3:17-26). In the interim, the Law provided knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20), knowledge of God (Ps. 119), a pattern for holy living among sinful nations, and a national path to blessing for Israel (Deut. 27-28). It provided repeated, temporary covering of individual sins (Heb. 9:25; 10:1), external purification (Heb. 9:13), but no lasting internal solution. Just as training wheels have fulfilled their purpose once a child can ride without them, so the Law had fulfilled its purpose once Christ came. Training wheels do not become evil once their purpose is fulfilled. They are simply removed. The basic principle of not leaning too far to the left or to the right is just as true for Olympic racers as it is for children in the driveway. But the skilled rider has a greater principle than training wheels to prevent his falling over.
Christ fulfilled the law judicially
Due to “the weakness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3- 4), the Law routinely condemned with a curse anyone trying to live under it (Gal. 3:10). Our Lord dealt with the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:13; Jas. 2:10) by doing what the Law could not: dealing with our guilt, sin in the flesh, and our dead spiritual state. Christ became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13b), enabling God to nail our bill of guilt and debt to Christ’s cross (Col. 2:14). Sin and guilt being permanently taken away (Heb. 10:11b-12, 17, 18; Rom. 5:18; 8:1), Christ tore open the veil (pictured in the Law) separating man from God (Lk. 23:45; Heb. 10:17-22), and we were reconciled to God. The death brought about by the Law (Rom. 7:9-12) was replaced by everlasting life (2 Tim. 1:10; Gal. 3:21; Rom. 5:21; 6:23). In the end, it was Christ who brought life and quieted the Law’s cries against us.
In Christ, we see the perfect fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.