One Unfolding Plot

By Richard Burbidge    7th March 2004    0 responses
Part of the series

Matthew 5:17-20   Expand passage

'"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. 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. 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. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."'

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When I was a teenager, I remember that my local church once ran a Saturday morning study entitled ‘A Walk through the Old Testament’. Also whilst I was a teenager, the Gideon’s Society handed out copies of the New Testament to everybody in our school. Now in essence, whilst these two things were fine and good things to do, they both showed a slight misunderstanding in the way that the Old and New Testaments of the bible work together. By focusing on merely one or the other, they implied that they both stand alone.

Well as we look at Matthew 5:17-20 we will see that Jesus, rather than treating the Old and New Testaments as separate entities, unites the two showing us one God, with one unfolding plot in his word.

As we move into verses 17 to 20 of Matthew chapter 5, Jesus continues to teach about the kingdom of heaven. He has be doing so since the Sermon on the Mount began (chapter 5, verse 1), referring to it in verses 3 and 11, and he now mentions the kingdom three times in verses 19 and 20.

And at this stage, at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, two questions would have been at the forefront of his Jewish listeners minds. How does this Jesus relate to the law and the prophets (God’s revelation of himself this far)? And how does this ‘Kingdom of heaven’ which Jesus is preaching compare to the law and the prophets?

And Jesus’ aim in these four verses is to answer these two questions. Thus they serve as the end of the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount, clearing the ground for the next three chapters of Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom.

How does Jesus relate to the law and the prophets?(v17,18)

Jesus answers this first question by explaining that he has a very high view of the law and the prophets. He has not come to abolish the law and the prophets but he acknowledges their relevance even to the smallest degree. Not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law.

This then leaves us with the question; why don’t the people of the new kingdom (i.e. Christians) have to keep every cultic ritual of the law and the prophets? Why, for example, have the food laws been abolished? Or why don’t we have to offer the annual Day of Atonement sacrifices?

The answer lies in what Jesus means when he says that he has come to fulfil the law and the prophets. In fulfilling them, they find their completion in him.

Jesus fulfils the law and the prophets in three ways:

1. Predictive prophecy.

Jesus fulfils the prophets in a predictive sense. The prophets spoke about him, telling us who he is, where he would come, and what he would do (cf Micah 5:2).

2. Moral demands.

Jesus fulfils the law by meeting its moral demands. The Law of Moses demanded absolute moral perfection. Israel could not meet the moral demands of the law, but Jesus did (cf 1 Peter 2:22).

3. Substance.

Jesus fulfils the law and the prophets in that he is the substance of which they talk about. The law and the prophets gave shadows of the good things to come, the realities, however, being found in Jesus (cf Hebrews 10:1).

So when Jesus says that not a dot, not an iota will pass from the law until it is all accomplished, he is saying that not a dot will pass until he has fulfilled the law and the prophets in the ways shown above. They are not being abolished, but rather being fulfilled in him.

How does the Kingdom of Heaven compare to the law and the prophets? (v19,20)

So as the law and the prophets are fulfilled in Jesus, he now brings in the Kingdom of Heaven. And in verse 19 Jesus shows us what is required now, in this new Kingdom of Heaven.

V19: Therefore (because I am the fulfilment of the law and as such bring in the Kingdom of Heaven), whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments (these new commandments), will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them (these new commandments) will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

The commandments Jesus is talking about in verse 19 are the commandments of the Kingdom of Heaven. And precisely because he has fulfilled the law and the prophets and brought in the Kingdom of Heaven, whoever relaxes these ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ commandments will be called least in this kingdom, and whoever does them and teaches them will be called great. What are these commandments of the kingdom of heaven? They are found in the surrounding verses, in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 to 7).

And in verse 20 Jesus shows us that this new kingdom expects a righteousness that is unheard of. A righteousness that exceeds even that of the scribes and the Pharisees. The scribes and the Pharisees were famous for their pious law keeping and strict observations. They calculated that the law contained exactly 248 commandments and 365 prohibitions, and aspired to keeping them all!

Surely no-one can do this. Surely no-one can exceed this ‘super’ pharisaic righteousness. And surely this can’t be a condition for entering the kingdom of heaven, for if it is, who on earth will be able to enter?

But this is exactly what Jesus expects:

v20: For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is saying that his hearers need to meet the commandments of the kingdom of heaven, or they will never be able to enter.

Jesus’ hearers would have recognised their spiritual bankruptcy. They would have known, as we should, that they could never produce the righteousness required for the kingdom of heaven. Read the commandments in the rest of chapter 5. Can you keep all of these? I know that I certainly cannot.

So the question we are left with is how can anyone enter the kingdom of heaven? How can anyone be righteous enough to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

Well praise God, for it’s only by Jesus’ righteousness that anyone can enter the kingdom of heaven. He is the only one who can keep the commandments of the kingdom of heaven and it’s his righteousness, attributed to us at his death on the cross, which gains us access into the Kingdom of Heaven.

That’s why immediately after Jesus dies in chapter 27, verse 50, the temple curtain (verse 51) which symbolised mans inability to access God is torn in two, showing the access now made possible by his death.

We cannot produce the righteousness required by Jesus for entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. But through his death, his own righteousness is made ours, and is there for any who would believe. What a great thing to praise God for this lent!

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