This is part one of Written on the Heart, an eight-part series on how a Christian lives with the law of the Old Testament under the New Covenant. We start with the sentence Jesus said so nobody would misunderstand Him, and which a great many of us still misunderstand.
Most Christians have a reading plan that dies somewhere in Leviticus. Genesis has stories. Exodus has plagues and a sea parting. Then the book turns into instructions for burnt offerings, mildew in the walls of a house, and what to do with a lizard that falls into a clay pot, and the bookmark stays put for the rest of the year.
Underneath the boredom is a real question. What is a Christian supposed to do with the law of Moses? We do not sacrifice goats. We eat shrimp. Most of us worship on Sunday, not Saturday. And yet we post the Ten Commandments on courthouse walls and quote Leviticus 19:18 as if it were written yesterday. If you have ever felt that the church picks and chooses, the critics of the faith have noticed it too.
So we are going to take eight weeks and work it through from the Bible itself, beginning where Jesus addressed the question head on.
Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 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 5:17-20 (NKJV)
Somebody Was Already Thinking It
Notice how Jesus opens. Do not think. He says that because He knew people would think it. He taught with an authority that did not lean on the rabbis, and before long He would touch lepers, eat with tax collectors, and heal on the Sabbath. To a careful observer it would look like a man getting ready to throw the old book out. Jesus heads that conclusion off first.
The word He denies is kataluo (καταλύω), Strong’s G2647. It is built from kata, down, and luo, to loosen. To loosen something down until it comes apart. Matthew uses the same word later for the stones of the temple, not one left on another that will not be thrown down (Matthew 24:2). It is demolition language. Jesus is saying He did not come with a sledgehammer to knock down what Moses built.
But He did not come to simply leave it standing as it was either. He came to fulfill it.
The Word That Holds the Passage Together
Fulfill is pleroo (πληρόω), Strong’s G4137. Its basic picture is filling something up. Nets get filled with fish. A house gets filled with the smell of perfume. Time gets filled until it runs out. From there the word stretches to completing a task, accomplishing a purpose, and bringing a promise to its intended end.
And here is the thing we should not miss. Matthew has already used this word over and over before we ever reach chapter five. The virgin conceives so that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet (1:22). The family flees to Egypt so that it might be fulfilled, Out of Egypt I called My Son (2:15). Jesus settles in Capernaum so that it might be fulfilled what Isaiah said (4:14). Every time, the Old Testament is pointing forward, and Jesus is the thing it was pointing at.
So when Jesus says He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, Matthew’s readers would hear more than keep. They would hear that the whole of the Old Testament, its commands as well as its predictions, was leaning forward toward Him, and that in Him it arrives where it was going. Jesus said as much after the resurrection.
These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.
Luke 24:44 (NKJV)
Concerning Me. The law of Moses was about Him.
Three Ways Jesus Fills the Law
Bible teachers have debated the exact sense of fulfill in Matthew 5:17 for a long time, and good scholars land in slightly different places. I think the best answer is that Jesus fills the law in at least three ways at once, and the rest of the New Testament bears each of them out.
He fills it by obeying it. Jesus was born under the law (Galatians 4:4), was circumcised the eighth day, went up to Jerusalem for the feasts, and told the cleansed leper to show himself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded. He never sinned against a single command of God. Every other Israelite stood before the law as a debtor. Jesus stood before it as the only man who ever paid it in full, and that perfect obedience is part of what is credited to those who trust Him.
He fills it by bringing its shadows to their substance. The lambs, the priests, the altar, and the holy days were all pictures drawn in advance of something God was going to do. When Jesus offers Himself once for all, the sacrifices have reached the thing they were about. That is fulfillment in the same sense as the prophecies in Matthew 1 and 2. We will spend all of part five on this.
He fills it by giving its full meaning. Read on into the rest of the chapter. You have heard that it was said, You shall not murder, but I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment (5:21-22). You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (5:27-28). Jesus is not loosening the command. He is filling it to the brim. The law was always reaching for the heart, and Jesus pulls the reach all the way through.
Not One Jot
Then comes the line that makes people nervous. Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
Jot is iota (ἰῶτα), Strong’s G2503, the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet, standing in for the Hebrew yod, the smallest letter of the Hebrew one. Tittle is keraia (κεραία), Strong’s G2762, a little horn. It names the tiny stroke or hook that distinguishes one Hebrew letter from another that looks almost like it. We would say the dot over an i or the cross on a t.
Jesus is making the strongest possible claim for the authority of the Old Testament. Not a pen stroke of it is negotiable or disposable. That should settle once and for all whether a Christian is free to treat the Old Testament as a less inspired, less Christian part of the Bible. We are not. Every letter of Leviticus is the word of God.
But notice the two time markers. Till heaven and earth pass away. Till all is fulfilled. The first tells us how permanent the law’s authority is. The second tells us the law is headed somewhere. Nothing will drop out of it before it reaches its goal, and Jesus has just told us He is the goal. So the question for a Christian reading Leviticus is never whether a law still matters. Every one of them matters. The question is how this law has been fulfilled in Christ, and what it now looks like for me to honor it in Him.
That is exactly why the New Testament can say both that we establish the law through faith (Romans 3:31) and that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). The end in that verse is telos (τέλος), Strong’s G5056, the point aimed at, the finish line a runner aims at. The law ran toward Christ. It did not run past Him.
A Righteousness That Exceeds
The passage ends with a sentence that must have landed like a dropped plate. Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Righteousness here is dikaiosune (δικαιοσύνη), Strong’s G1343, being right with God and living in a way that matches. The Pharisees were the most careful law-keepers in Israel. They tithed their kitchen herbs. If they could not get in, who could?
The answer cannot be more rules, because nobody was going to out-rule a Pharisee. The rest of the Sermon on the Mount shows us what kind of righteousness Jesus means. It goes deeper than theirs, down to anger and lust and the motives behind giving and praying. It is righteousness of the heart. And the rest of the New Testament tells us where that kind of righteousness comes from. It is first a gift, the righteousness of God credited to the one who believes. And then it is a work of the Spirit, God putting His law in our minds and writing it on our hearts, which is the promise we will open in part three.
We should feel the weight of this, all of us. Most of us know more about the outside of obedience than the inside. We know how to look like people who keep the law. Jesus is not impressed by the outside. He came to fill the law, and He intends to fill us.
| Word | Original | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| kataluo | καταλύω | G2647 | To loosen down, tear down, demolish. Used of the temple stones in Matthew 24:2 |
| pleroo | πληρόω | G4137 | To fill, to complete, to bring to its intended end. Matthew’s word for prophecy reaching its goal |
| iota | ἰῶτα | G2503 | Jot. The smallest letter, put for the least part of the law |
| keraia | κεραία | G2762 | Tittle. A little horn, the small stroke that tells one Hebrew letter from another |
| dikaiosune | δικαιοσύνη | G1343 | Righteousness. Being right with God and living in a way that matches |
Where We Go From Here
For this week, the assignment is small and specific. Find the place in your Bible where your reading plan last died. For many of us it is Leviticus 1. Put the bookmark back there. Then before you read it, read Matthew 5:17-20 again and pray a short, honest prayer. Lord Jesus, You said this is about You. Show me where. Then read one chapter, slowly, and write down one thing it tells you about the God who gave it. Just one. You are not trying to master Leviticus yet. You are learning to read it with the right person in view.
Discussion Questions
- Before reading this post, how would you have answered someone who said Christians pick and choose which Old Testament laws to follow?
- Read Matthew 1:22, 2:15, and 4:14. How does Matthew’s use of fulfill earlier in the book shape the way you hear it in 5:17?
- Which of the three ways Jesus fills the law (obeying it, bringing its shadows to substance, giving its full meaning) is newest to you?
- Read Matthew 5:21-48. Where does Jesus press a command deeper than you have usually taken it?
- What would change in your Bible reading if you believed every jot and tittle of the Old Testament was really about Christ?
Going Deeper
Read the whole of Matthew 5 in one sitting and mark every place Jesus says, But I say to you. Then read Luke 24:13-49, the walk to Emmaus and the evening that followed, and notice what Jesus did with the Law of Moses and the Prophets when He wanted two discouraged disciples to understand the cross. If you want to see how the Old Testament reveals the character of the God who gave the law, the earlier study The Loving, Gracious, and Forgiving God of the Old Testament gathers the key passages. Next time, Paul asks the question we are all asking. What purpose then does the law serve?
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