Matthew 5:17-20 What Jesus Taught About the Old Testament

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? I don’t mean the first disciples, the ones who walked with Jesus for three years and saw him teach and do miracles. I mean, what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus today?

The first thing I must say is that to be a Christian is to be a disciple. There is no difference. If you are a Christian, your life will be one of following Jesus and learning from him. There are some who want to make a distinction between the two. They might say that when you first get saved, you become a Christian, you become a child of God, and your sins are forgiven—which is all true; however, they would say that becoming a disciple is something that is optional. It comes later. It’s for the really committed Christians. This distinction is a lie from Hell. Everyone who truly trusts in Jesus for salvation, everyone who is truly born again, everyone who has truly experienced forgiveness of sin, is a disciple of Jesus. We can see this in the Great Commission. Matthew 28:19-20 says, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” While the great commission certainly includes preaching the gospel so people can be saved, it isn’t only that. We haven’t fulfilled the great commission unless we are making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them everything Jesus said.

So, what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? It means to follow him, to learn from him, to love him, and to be ready to die for him. If you want to be a disciple of Jesus you must be baptized—just as Jesus commanded. And your life, from the moment you become a Christian, becomes one of learning to know and follow Jesus, and to have your mind conformed to his.

So, what does this have to do with Matthew 5:17-20? It is the reason why we are looking at this text. Matthew 5:17-20 is a passage where Jesus tells us how to think. We get excited about passages where Jesus performs a miracle. We are amazed at his power, and we are moved to worship him. We get excited about passages like last week that tell us what to do. The last text, Jesus told us that our good works are to be done so people will glorify God, and we are often doers, and we like it when he tells us something practical like that. Today’s passage is one we might not get so easily excited about. Here, Jesus tells us how to think. We often don’t like this. We think we do a pretty good job of thinking on our own—thank you very much—but Jesus challenges us at the level of our thinking. And we cannot ignore passages like this if we are going to make disciples. Jesus commanded to teach everything he commanded—and that means also how we are to think.

Specifically, in today’s passage, Jesus tells us what we are to think about the Old Testament. This is an important question. What are believers supposed to think about the Old Testament. Can we merely dispense with it as unimportant? Not according to what Jesus says here. Let’s read our text.

Matthew 5:17-20:

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 

19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

When Jesus came and taught, he was different from other teachers, and we know that he had several run-ins with the religious leaders of his day. He was accused of breaking the Sabbath and he was ridiculed because he ate with tax collectors and sinners. So you can figure, when he made this statement, “Do not think that I came to abolish the law and the prophets,” he was saying this because there were already people thinking it. He also says this for our benefit.

It has long been a temptation of Gentile Christians to dispense with the Old Testament. For instance, one of the early heretics condemned by the early Church within one hundred years of Jesus earthly ministry was Marcion, who rejected the entire Old Testament and cut out many passages from the New Testament because they were too Jewish. Ever since then, those who reject the Old Testament, whether explicitly or implicitly have been referred to as Marcionite.

Jesus tells us in this passage that he was not dispensing with the Law and the Prophets. When he says the “Law,” he isn’t talking about the moral law. He is not talking about the 10 Commandments. When he says “the Law and the Prophets,” he is naming two of the three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Law, or the Torah, is the first five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. When he says the “Law” it means a lot more than legal material. Sure, we see a lot of legal material in that later half of Exodus, in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, but we see a lot of other content as well. Genesis isn’t legal material at all. It is narrative. It tells the story of how God created human beings, how humans fell, how God promised to send a Messiah, how God chose Abraham to promised to bless him in order to bless all nations. Exodus tells us the story of God’s deliverance of his people from the bondage of slavery. The other books tell us much about how the people responded after they came out of Egypt—grumbling and complaining. This isn’t legal material, but it is included here when Jesus says he hasn’t come to abolish the Law.

When Jesus says the “Prophets,” he also has more in mind that what we usually think of. When we think of the prophets, we often think of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and others. However, there are two parts to the Prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures. What we often think of as the prophets are the Later Prophets. These prophets were writing prophets and what we have is the many things that they wrote down. The other prophets are called the Former Prophets. These books include Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, and Kings. We usually call these the Historical Books, but the Jews understood these as prophets. When we read these books, we aren’t just getting a history lesson on the nation of Israel. We have stories which the prophets have written to get their point across. In the Former Prophets, we see the continuation of the Messianic seed. God’s promise to David that he would have a son to sit on his throne forever, the continuing line of kings that make up part of the genealogy of Jesus, and the eventual end of that dynasty when the king was taken to Babylon in chains. The Later prophets then prophesied showing how God would be faithful in spite of his judgement on his people. These prophets preached that a root of Jesse, and a Branch of David would spring forth from the stump of the tree that was cut down.

So Jesus says that he did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. How does Jesus fulfill the Law and the Prophets? He was the one that they testify to. From Genesis 3 and the promise of the seed, to the Son of David, to Immanuel who was prophesied by Isaiah, the Law and the Prophets testify to Jesus. And this is what he told those who opposed him during his earthly ministry. In John 5:39-40, Jesus said to the Jews who were trying to kill him for breaking the Sabbath and calling himself the Son of God, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

These opponents of Jesus thought they would find life when the searched the Scriptures—and they were right. However, they missed it completely. They thought they would find life by meticulously obeying the rules, and they missed the point that no one can do that. They missed the point that the only one who ever could was who the Old Testament pointed to and he was in their midst.

Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets because he was the seed foretold to Adam and Eve; he was the blessing of Abraham, and he was the Son of David. He also fulfilled the Law and the Prophets because he was the only one who could ever keep all of the law perfectly. He also fulfilled the law because the ceremonies and the sacrifices all pointed to him. The sacrifice of an unblemished lamb to take away the sins of the people pointed forward to the Perfect Lamb of God who would give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus didn’t abolish the Law, he fulfilled it because it all testified to him.

Jesus believed that every word of Scripture was important and that it would never become obsolete. In verse 18 he said, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” In this passage he echoes Psalm 119 from the passage we heard read earlier. “Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.” When he said that not one iota or a dot would pass away, he was saying that not one letter, not even the smallest little part of a letter would pass away. This is why I believe in using a literal translation for use in Bible study. I have no problem using paraphrases devotionally or for explanation when something is difficult, but for serious study of the Bible, if you want to know what the Bible says use something as literal as you can handle. “

In verse 19, Jesus treats how we are to treat the commandments, the moral law. He basically says that it is still in force. We are not to toy with God’s law. We are not to say, “well, that was a long time ago, but we are enlightened modern people and we no better now.” No! To set aside even the smallest, least important commands from Scripture and say that it doesn’t matter any more, and to teach others to go along with you will make you the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But, notice something, it doesn’t say they won’t be in the Kingdom, but that they will be the least. There may be things that we are wrong about, and just because we are wrong about how we are to apply certain Scriptures to today will not keep us from entering the Kingdom.

On the other hand, the one who does and teaches the commandments will be called great. There is reward in obedience to God’s law and in teaching others to do the same.

But lest we get proud and think that we have arrived, Jesus gives us verse 20. “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” These are the words of Jesus. He says unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees we won’t even get into the Kingdom. This is true. Because we don’t get into heaven based on our own righteousness. The Scribes and the Pharisees were not bad people. They studied the Scriptures. They were model citizens. They were the kind of people you would trust to leave your kids with. When Jesus makes this statement, he wasn’t saying this about a group of sinners. He was saying it about the most righteous people anyone could think of.

You think you are a good person? It won’t get you to heaven. Don’t trust in being a good person. You won’t ever be better than the scribes and Pharisees on your own. What Jesus does through the next several passages is he shows how good people have all broken the law. You think you have kept the commandment not to commit adultery. Do you lust in your heart? You think you have kept the commandment not to murder. Have you called your brother a fool? Jesus shows us in these texts that it is impossible to keep the law perfectly. We need something else to go to heaven. We need Jesus’ righteousness.

When you trust in Christ for forgiveness of sins, he gives you his righteousness. He not only wipes away all your sins so that you have a clean slate, but he then counts his righteousness to you. So how can you go to heaven? How can you have a righteousness that is better than the scribes and Pharisees? Not by keeping the law yourself. You won’t get very far that way. The only way to have a righteousness that is good enough for the Kingdom is to trust in Christ and He counts his righteousness to you.