Matthew 5:17-20
The Law Fulfilled
Read the passage
Matthew 5:17-20 · 4 verses
Read the passage
Matthew 5:17-20 · 4 verses
Matthew 5:17-20
17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
19Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Some in the crowd must have wondered whether this new teacher — who spoke with such authority, who upended convention, who attracted fishermen and tax-collectors — had come to tear down the old order. Jesus answers the suspicion head-on. He has not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets; He has come to bring them to their fullest, truest meaning — to be the point toward which every sacrifice and statute was always pointing. And then the warning: the righteousness He requires must run deeper than anything the scribes and Pharisees, with all their meticulous counting of commandments, have managed to produce.