All will be fulfilled
The second major
statement by Jesus given in the exact same context
makes it even clearer
that Jesus did not come to destroy, rescind, nullify
or abrogate the law.
“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth
pass away, one jot or
tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is
fulfilled” (Matthew
5:18).
With these words,
Jesus likened the continuance of the law to the
permanence of heaven
and earth. He is saying that the law is immutable,
inviolable and
unchangeable and can only be fulfilled, never abrogated.
We should note that in
this verse a different Greek word is used for
“fulfilled”:
ginomai,
meaning “to become,”
“to come into existence” or
“to come to pass” (
Thayer’s,
Strong’s number 1096).
Until the ultimate
completion of God’s
plan to glorify humanity in His Kingdom comes
to pass—that is, as
long as there are still fleshly human beings—the
physical codification
of God’s law in Scripture is necessary. This, Jesus
explained, is as
certain as the continued existence of the universe.
His servants must keep the law
The third statement of
Jesus pronounces that our fate rests on our attitude toward and treatment of
God’s holy law. “Whoever therefore breaks
one of the least of
these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be
called least [by
those] in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and
teaches them, he shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 5:19. The “by those” is added
for clarification, since, as explained in other
passages, those who
persist in lawbreaking and teach others to break God’s
law will not
themselves be in the Kingdom at all.
Jesus makes it very
clear that those who follow Him and aspire to His
Kingdom have a
perpetual obligation to obey and uphold God’s law. He
is saying that we
cannot diminish from the law of God by even a jot or
tittle—the equivalent
of the crossing of a “t” or dotting of an “i.”
The value He places on
the commandments of God is also unmistakable
—as well as the high
esteem toward the law that He requires from all those
who teach in His name.
His disapproval falls on those who slight the least
of the law’s commands,
and His honor will be bestowed on those who teach
and obey the
commandments.
Since Jesus obeyed the
commandments of God, it follows that His servants, too, must keep the
commandments and teach others to do the same
(1 John 2:2-6). It is
in this way that the true ministers of Christ are to be
identified—by their
following the example He left them (John 13:15).
Must exceed the scribes and
Pharisees
With the next
statement in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus leaves
no doubt as to what He
meant in the previous three declarations. He
meant without question
for His disciples to obey God’s law—and He was
requiring them to obey
according to a standard that went
beyond
any
-
thing they’d heard
before. “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness
exceeds
the righteousness of
the scribes and Pharisees, you will by
no means enter the
kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
Who were the scribes
and Pharisees? The scribes were the most
renowned teachers of
the law—the interpreters of the law, the learned
men, the experts. The
Pharisees, a related group, were commonly viewed
as the most exemplary
models of Judaism. They formed a sect of Judaism that established a code of
morals and rituals more rigid than that
spelled out in the law
of Moses, basing much of their practices on years
of traditions. The
scribes and Pharisees were both highly strict and
highly respected in
Judaism (Acts 26:5).
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