Filling Up the Law
Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. Matt. 5:17, RSV.
With this verse Jesus has come to the third section of His great sermon in which He sets out the principles of His kingdom at the beginning of His earthly ministry. The first section dealt with a Christian's character in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12), and the second treated a Christian's influence (verses 13-16). Verses 17-48 highlight a Christian's righteousness (verse 20) and how it must be superior to that taught by the religious leaders of Jesus' day.
The preamble to His discussion appears in verses 17-20, with verse 17 indicating that Jesus had not come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them. The first thing to note about that verse is that the law and the prophets were the Bible of Jesus' day, what we call the Old Testament.
His teaching that He did not seek to destroy the law but to fulfill it has confused a lot of people. In spite of His plain words, they still read it to mean that He did away with God's law.
But "fulfill" does not mean to do away with--rather to fill full, to fill it up, to full-fill. We can interpret the word "fulfill" in at least three ways: (1) Jesus obeyed the requirements of the Old Testament law through His obedient life, (2) He fulfilled the predictive elements of the Old Testament, and (3) He brought out the full meaning of the Jewish Scriptures through His teachings. In one sense Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament in all three ways, but in the context in verses 21-48 we find Jesus filling out the meaning of the law.
Thus starting in verse 21, Jesus focuses on several Jewish teachings, beginning with the sixth and seventh commandments of the Decalogue. He prefaces each of His six teachings with "You have heard that it was said" and then goes on to explain the depth and breadth of the law or practice and its deeper meaning.
That is how Jesus is fulfilling the law. He is endowing it with meaning. As Ellen White puts it, "His mission was to 'magnify the law, and make it honorable' Isaiah 42:21. He was to show the spiritual nature of the law, to present its far reaching principles and to make plain its eternal obligation" (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 49). In the process, He helps us come to grips with the spirit of the law--the spirit of love, which makes lawkeeping and obedient Christians.
Lord, help me today to listen to what the Master has to say.
Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. Matt. 5:17, RSV.
With this verse Jesus has come to the third section of His great sermon in which He sets out the principles of His kingdom at the beginning of His earthly ministry. The first section dealt with a Christian's character in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12), and the second treated a Christian's influence (verses 13-16). Verses 17-48 highlight a Christian's righteousness (verse 20) and how it must be superior to that taught by the religious leaders of Jesus' day.
The preamble to His discussion appears in verses 17-20, with verse 17 indicating that Jesus had not come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them. The first thing to note about that verse is that the law and the prophets were the Bible of Jesus' day, what we call the Old Testament.
His teaching that He did not seek to destroy the law but to fulfill it has confused a lot of people. In spite of His plain words, they still read it to mean that He did away with God's law.
But "fulfill" does not mean to do away with--rather to fill full, to fill it up, to full-fill. We can interpret the word "fulfill" in at least three ways: (1) Jesus obeyed the requirements of the Old Testament law through His obedient life, (2) He fulfilled the predictive elements of the Old Testament, and (3) He brought out the full meaning of the Jewish Scriptures through His teachings. In one sense Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament in all three ways, but in the context in verses 21-48 we find Jesus filling out the meaning of the law.
Thus starting in verse 21, Jesus focuses on several Jewish teachings, beginning with the sixth and seventh commandments of the Decalogue. He prefaces each of His six teachings with "You have heard that it was said" and then goes on to explain the depth and breadth of the law or practice and its deeper meaning.
That is how Jesus is fulfilling the law. He is endowing it with meaning. As Ellen White puts it, "His mission was to 'magnify the law, and make it honorable' Isaiah 42:21. He was to show the spiritual nature of the law, to present its far reaching principles and to make plain its eternal obligation" (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 49). In the process, He helps us come to grips with the spirit of the law--the spirit of love, which makes lawkeeping and obedient Christians.
Lord, help me today to listen to what the Master has to say.
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