Jesus was a reformer

JESUS WAS A REFORMER
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Matthew 5:17 Think not that I came to destroy the law
or the prophets:I came not to destroy, but to fulfil.—
Matthew 5:17.
GreatTexts of the Bible
A Conservative Reformer
Christ, the new Prophet and Teacher, has gone up upon the Mount and is
about to speak to the people. He is sitting down to preach. The villages will be
empty soon, for the news has gone abroad and greatexcitementhas seizedthe
people. What new thing will He tell them? What daring messageis this
Revolutionary about to give them? They throng the slopes;they hang upon
His words;there is the silence of a greatexpectationupon the multitude. And
Christ begins to preach. What is His subject? What is He saying?
Not a syllable about what they calledreligion, law, and Sabbath, and temple
worship, and fasts; simply the Beatitudes, the inner virtues of the heart, the
duty to show light. He moves the conscience ofthe people by bringing them
straight into the presence of their Father. He recalls them to the consciousness
of God, whom they are forgetting. His words move them as nothing had ever
moved them before. They feel for an instant the pressure and the nearness of
God Himself. At such a moment, in presence ofa higher religion, what to
them were law, and ceremonial, and priest? The murmur goes round that old
things have passedaway;it is a new world; awaywith remnants of exploded

superstition and bygone forms of worship! It is to meet this inarticulate
thought that Christ stops and says, “Think not that I came to destroy the law
or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfil.” There is to be entire
continuity with the past.
With absolute decisiveness He states the purpose of His coming. He knows the
meaning of His own work, which so few of us do, and it is safe to take His own
accountof what He intends, as we so seldom do. His opening declarationis
singularly composedofblended humility and majesty. Its humility lies in His
placing Himself, as it were, in line with previous messengers,and representing
Himself as carrying on the sequence of Divine revelation. It would not have
been humble for anybody but Him to say that, but it was so for Him. Its
majesty lies in His claim to “fulfil” all former utterances from God.
My love of, and trust in, our Lord, after I had seenHim in a vision, began to
grow, for my converse with Him was so continual. I saw that, though He was
God, He was man also;that He is not surprised at the frailties of men, that He
understands our miserable nature, liable to fall continually, because ofthe
first sin, for the reparation of which He had come. I could speak to Him as to
a friend, though He is my Lord.… O my Lord! O my King! who candescribe
Thy Majesty? It is impossible not to see that Thou art Thyself the great Ruler
of all, that the beholding of Thy Majestyfills men with awe. But I am filled
with greaterawe, O my Lord, when I considerThy humility, and the love
Thou hast for such as I am. We canconverse and speak with Thee about
everything wheneverwe will; and when we lose our first fear and awe at the
vision of Thy Majesty, we have a greaterdread of offending Thee,—not
arising out of the fear of punishment, O my Lord, for that is as nothing in
comparisonwith the loss of Thee!1 [Note: The Life of St. Teresa ofJesus
(trans. by D. Lewis), 367.]
I

Christ the Revolutionary
After the multitude had heard those wonderful teachings containedin the
Beatitudes, mostof which were new and startling, one might wellsuppose that
the question uppermost in every heart would be, Are those laws and
institutions which have lasted for two thousand years now to undergo
complete change—are theyto be supersededby those precepts which we have
now just heard propounded by this Great Teacher, who seems to be the
Founder of an entirely new law; for what JewishRabbi ever gave utterance to
such precepts as the proclaiming of blessedness to the poor in spirit, the meek,
the humble, the mourning, the persecuted? In the text the Saviour corrects
this view.
1. “Think not,” He says, “thatI came to destroy.” It is noticeable at once that
Christ uses a word for “destroy” which seems to be merely an echo of some
confusedpopular sayings about the Messiah. It is indeed not easyto state
clearly what is meant by destroying a law or a set of laws, still less easyto say
what would be the meaning of “destroying the prophets.” Laws may no doubt
be repealed, but it is not conceivable thatany clearheadedman anticipated
that the Messiahwould repealthe Ten Commandments, or was going to
forbid the Old Testamentto be read. Strictly speaking, this is the only rational
sense which attaches itselfto the words. It is probable that Christ was here
merely putting on one side a rough popular description of the rôle which He
was supposedto be going to play.
It is not obvious at first sight what Christ means by “fulfilling the law.” He
does not mean taking the written law as it stands, and literally obeying it.
That is what He condemns, not as wrong, but as wholly inadequate. He means
rather, starting with it as it stands, and bringing it on to completeness;
working out the spirit of it; getting at the comprehensive principles which

underlie the narrowness ofthat letter. These the Messiahsets forth as the
essenceofthe revelationmade by God through the Law and the Prophets.
Through them He has revealedHis will, and it is impossible that His Son
should attempt to pull down or undo this revelation of the Father’s will, or
that His will, in the smallestparticular, should fail of fulfilment. It is not the
Law or the Prophets that Jesus proposes to abolish, but the traditional
misinterpretations of these authorities. To destroy these misinterpretations is
to open the way for the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets; and He thus
substituted free development of spiritual characterfor servile obedience to
oppressive rules.1 [Note:A. Plummer.]
2. To destroy—that is the creed of the revolutionary. In the French
Revolution, Robespierre and his confederates went so far as to obliterate the
septennial division of time, insisting that the week should consistoften rather
than sevendays. New names were affixed to the days, to the streets, and to the
officials of the State. But it was not thus that Christ inaugurated His work. He
answeredthe thoughts of His age, saying, “Think not that I came to destroy.”
Every “jot and tittle” of the ancient code was dear to Him. Jesus was no
iconoclast.
3. Forthere is nothing to be gained by destruction. There are men who think
that the best means of heralding the new dawn is to fling a bomb into a crowd
of harmless people. There are those who believe, with Bakunin, that the only
way to regenerate society is to wipe it out by utter destruction, on the
supposition that a new and better order will surely be evolvedout of chaos. It
never has been so, and it never can be so. Such methods can only delay the
advance of progress. You can, indeed, castout devils by Beelzebub. You
cannot keepthem out; only angels cando that. “His kingdom shall not stand”;
for by fulfilment, not by destruction, the old passes into the new.

Carlyle could not reverence Voltaire, but he could not hate him. How could he
hate a man who had fought manfully againstinjustice in high places, and had
himself many a time in private done kind and generous actions?To Carlyle,
Voltaire was no apostle chargedwith any divine messageofpositive truth.
Even in his crusade againstwhat he believed to be false, Voltaire was not
animated with a high and noble indignation. He was simply an instrument of
destruction, enjoying his work with the pleasure of some mocking imp, yet
preparing the way for the tremendous conflagrationwhich was impending. In
the earlierpart of his careerCarlyle sympathized with and expectedmore
from the distinctive functions of revolution than he was able to do after longer
experience. “I thought,” he once said to me, “that it was the abolition of
rubbish. I find it has been only the kindling of a dunghill. The dry straw on
the outside burns off; but the huge damp rotting mass remains where it
was.”1[Note:J. A. Froude, Thomas Carlyle, 1795–1835, ii. 54.]
“Think not (comp. Matthew 3:9, Matthew 10:34) that I came to destroy the
law or the prophets.” Such an expressionimplies that Christ knew that there
was dangerof the Jews thinking so, and possibly that some had actually said
this of Him. The Pharisees wouldbe sure to sayit. He disregardedthe oral
tradition, which they held to be equal in authority to the written Law; and He
interpreted the written Law according to its spirit, and not, as they did,
according to the rigid letter. Above all, He spoke as if He Himself were an
authority, independent of the Law. Even some of His own followers may have
been perplexed, and have thought that He proposed to supersede the Law.
They might suppose “that it was the purpose of His mission simply to break
down restraints, to lift from men’s shoulders the duties which they felt as
burdens. The law was full of commandments; the Prophets were full of
rebukes and warnings. Might not the mild new Rabbi be welcomedas one
come to break down the Law and the Prophets, and so lead the way to less
exacting ways of life? This is the delusion which our Lord set Himself to
crush. The gospelofthe Kingdom was not a gospelof indulgence” (Hort,
Judaistic Christianity, 15). He was not a fanaticalrevolutionary, but a Divine
Restorerand Reformer.1 [Note:A. Plummer.]

II
Christ the Conserver
If Christ is not to destroythe law and the prophets, what then is He to do with
this old faith of the Jews? How is He to treat this partial, this imperfect, faith
which is alreadyon the ground? He may do either of two things. He may
destroy or He may preserve. With the most deliberate wisdomHe choosesone
method and rejects the other. To the conservative, Christcomes with
reassurance.
1. Nothing of the old that is valuable or strong shall be lost. Examine the new,
and we shall find the old at the heart of it. Study the channel where the new
current is running and we shall find the waterof the old channel there. That is
a very suggestive fact;it appears everywhere. Study the real forward
movement of thought and we shall find it true. There will always be petty
disturbances, offshoots here and there which have no reference to the real
advance of thought; they may cut loose from the old truth, but they are short-
lived and passing. In the main movements, down the main stream, the old is
never lost.
An American missionary in Japan, Dr. S. L. Gulick, writes thus: “The
Christian preacher should constantly take the ground that every good
teaching in the native faith is a gift of God the Fatherof all men, and is a
preparation for the coming of His fuller revelation in Jesus Christ. We should
show our real and deep respectfor the ‘heathen’ religions;we should take off
our hats at their shrines, as we expectthem to do in our churches. We should
ever insist that Christianity does not come to destroy anything that is goodor
true in the native faiths, but rather to stimulate, to strengthen, and fulfil it—to

give it life and real energy. The trouble with the native religions is not that
they possessno truth, but that the truth they have is so mixed up with folly
and superstition that it is lost; it has no power—no life-giving energy.”1 [Note:
World MissionaryConference,1910:Report of CommissionIV., 95.]
2. Nothing is to be remitted—no rule of purity, no necessityof righteousness.
How can it be, when we are brought, by entering this Kingdom, nearer to
God, who must be of purer eyes than to behold iniquity? No slackening ofthe
spiritual code is possible, is conceivable. To suppose this is to mistake all the
meaning of mercy, all the purpose of pardon. Let no one make such a
disastrous blunder. “Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets:
I came not to destroy, but to fulfil.”
“Think not that I will dispense with any of the rules of morality, prescribedby
Moses,and explained by the prophets,” is Blair’s rendering of this verse. “I
came not to destroy, but to fulfil” (both the law and the prophets): “To fulfil,”
that is, to render full obedience to those greatcommandments (see Matthew
5:19) which it is the pre-eminent aim of the Scriptures to inculcate and
enforce. Jesus came to render this full obedience in His own person, and also
to secure that it should be rendered increasingly, and ever increasingly, in the
persons of His disciples, the subjects of His Kingdom. It is this latter idea that
was prominently in His mind on the present occasion, as is evident from the
19th and 20th verses. He came, not to introduce licence and licentiousness into
His Kingdom, but to establishholiness. Some expositors suppose that the word
“fulfil” means to supplement or perfect; and they imagine that Christ is here
referring to His legislative authority. But such an interpretation of the term is
at variance with Matthew 5:18-19, and with its use in kindred passages, such
as Romans 13:8, Galatians 5:14. Theophylact, among other interpretations,
says that Christ fulfilled the law as a painter fills up the sketchof his picture.
But it is a different “full-filling” that is referred to. When commandments are
addressedto us, they present, as it were, empty vessels ofduty, which our
obedience is to “fill full.”2 [Note:J. Morison.]

3. The Old Testamentis not as it were the scaffolding necessaryforthe
erectionof the Christian Church, needing to be taken down in order that the
full symmetry and beauty of the building may be seen, and only to be had
recourse to from time to time when repairs are needed. It is an integral part of
the structure. Ye are “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus himselfbeing the chief corner stone.” How could it be otherwise?
we ask with reverence. It was God who spoke “through the prophets,” it is
God who speaks “ina Son.” Every Divine word must be of eternalimport.
God’s truth does not vary; there is no mutability of purpose in the eternal
present of the Divine mind.
The Old Testamentleads us up to Christ, and Christ takes it and puts it back
into our hands as a completed whole. He bids us study it as “fulfilled in him,”
and “put ourselves to schoolwith every part of it.” The old lesson-bookis not
to be thrown away or kept as an archæologicalcuriosity;it is to be re-studied
in this fresh light of further knowledge.
The πλήρωσις of the law and the prophets is their fulfilment by the re-
establishment of their absolute meaning, so that now nothing more is wanting
to what they ought to be in accordance withthe Divine ideas which lie at the
foundation of their commands. It is the perfect development of their ideal
reality out of the positive form, in which the same is historically apprehended
and limited.… Luther wellsays:“Christ is speaking of the fulfilment, and so
deals with doctrines, in like manner as He calls ‘destroying’ a not acting with
works againstthe law, but a breaking off from the law with the doctrine.” The
fulfilling is “showing the right kernel and understanding, that they may learn
what the law is and desires to have.” The Apostle Paul workedquite in the
sense ofour passage;his writings are full of the fulfilment of the law in the
sense in which Christ means it; and his doctrine of its abrogationrefers only
to its validity for justification to the exclusionof faith. Paul did not advance
beyond this declaration, but he applied his right understanding boldly and

freely, and in so doing the breaking up of the old form by the new spirit could
not but necessarilybegin, as Jesus Himself clearly recognized (cf. Matthew
9:16; John 4:21; John 4:23 f.) and setforth to those who believed in His own
person and His completed righteousness.But even in this self-representation
of Christ the new principle is not severedfrom the Old Testamentpiety, but is
the highestfulfilment of the latter, its anti-typical consummation, its realized
ideal. Christianity itself is in so far a law.1 [Note:H. A. W. Meyer.]
III
Christ the Fulfiller
Continuity with the old is part of Christ’s teaching. He came to conserve. But
He came to do more than that—infinitely more than that. He came also to
fulfil. “To fulfil.” Do we not often limit the idea of “fulfilment” to what are
calledthe typical and prophetic parts of the Old Testament, and regardthe
fulfilment as just the counterpart of the type or prediction, as the reality of
which only the reflectionhad hitherto been visible? But “fulfilment” is far
more than this. It is the completion of what was before imperfect; it is the
realization of what was shadowy;it is the development of what was
rudimentary; it is the union and reconciliationof what was isolatedand
disconnected;it is the full growth from the antecedentgerm.
1. Christ fulfilled the law.—The law (νόμος)is not to be restricted here to the
Decalogue;it is to be takenin its more extended significationas denoting the
entire law. The moral law was an expressionof the mind of God, of God’s
moral nature—a revelation, or rather expansion, of the law of nature which
He originally wrote in the heart of man. Sin blinded men to such an extent
that it was necessaryto have the law promulgated; hence Godwrote it on two
tables of stone. And it stood as a public warning againstsin, and as a standard

of moral duty. It disclosedwants that it was incapable of satisfying, it
aggravatedthe evil it could not heal; and, compelling men to see their own
weakness,it taught them to look forward to One who would be capable of
fulfilling all its demands. This is the “fulfilling” of which Christ speaks, the
completion of that which for two thousand years had been imperfect and
ineffectual. “Christ fulfilled the law and the prophets,” says Bishop
Wordsworth, “by obedience, by accomplishment of types, ceremonies, rites,
and prophecies, and by explaining, spiritualizing, elevating, enlarging, and
perfecting the moral law, by writing it on the heart, and by giving grace to
obey it, as well as an example of obedience by taking awayits curse;and by
the doctrine of free justification by faith in Himself, which the law prefigured
and anticipated, but could not give.”
Let us look shortly at three main ways in which Christ fulfilled the law.
(1) Christ fulfilled the law by meeting its requirements.—Fromfirst to last the
life of our Lord was the fulfilment, in spirit and letter, of the ancient ritual. As
a son of the law, He obeyed the initial rite of Judaism on the eighth day after
birth, and there was no item of the law, even to the dots of the i’s or the
crossing ofthe t’s, which He omitted or slurred. He died for our sins
according to the Scriptures, and He rose againthe third day according to the
Scriptures. What could be only partially true of His Apostle was literally true
of the Lord: as touching the righteousness whichis of the law, He was found
blameless. Our Lord fulfilled the ceremoniallaw and fulfilled the moral law,
since He was Jesus Christ“the Righteous.” He honoured the law by His
obedience “evento death,” atoning for its breach and violation by mankind,
and giving, through His unknown sufferings an answerto its just dues and
demands, such as could not have been afforded though the whole race had
been mulcted to the uttermost farthing of penal consequences.His fulfilment,
therefore, was not for Himself alone, but as the secondAdam, the
representative man, and for us all.

(2) Christ fulfilled the law by spiritualizing it.—Were we to enter a room in
the early morning where a company were sitting or drowsing, with sickly hue,
by the dull glimmer of candles, which never had given a sufficient light, and
were now guttering, neglected, and burning down to the socket, we would not
think we were destroying the light by flinging open the casement, and letting
in the clearsunshine upon them. We would, on the contrary, feelthat by this
process alone couldthey get the full light which they needed. Now, much in
the same way the Lord Jesus came into the world, and found there, as it were,
the old seven-branchedcandlestick ofthe tabernacle still burning, though dim
and low, for it was not well trimmed in those neglectful years;found there the
old law of Moses, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, still recognized, though a
gooddeal obscuredby traditions; and what He did was to purify and
spiritualize the law. He opened upon it the windows of His spirit, illumining its
every part, showing its perfection and comprehensiveness. Otherteachers had
takenthe law, the law as it stood, and had so dealt with it as to present it in all
its bareness and outwardness, its narrowness andburdensomeness;Jesus
Christ took the same law, the law as it stood, but He so dealt with it as to
present it in all its fulness and inwardness, its breadth and goodness.
(3) Christ fulfilled the law by generalizing it.—He broke down all class
distinctions in morality. Heathenism divided mankind into two classes,the
learned and the ignorant, and betweenthese two it erecteda high partition
wall. These distinctions, though discountenancedin Jewishlaw, were admitted
in Jewishpractice. “This people who knowethnot the law are cursed.” Christ
boldly demolished the wall of partition built high and broad betweenthe
cultured and the illiterate. He enteredthe granary of Divine truth, took out
the goldengrain, and scatteredit broadcaston the face of the common earth.
The truths of the favoured few He made the common property of the
uncultured many. He alone of all His contemporaries orpredecessors
perceivedthe intrinsic worth and vast possibilities of the human soul.

Christ also broke down all national distinctions in morality. The intense
nationalism of the Jews in the time of the Saviour is proverbial; they
surrounded sea and land to make one proselyte. Insteadof trying to make
Judaism commensurate with the world, they tried to make the world
commensurate with Judaism. However, Jewishmorality here, as in every
other instance, was superior to contemporaneous paganmorality.
Notwithstanding its intense nationalism, Judaism always inculcated kindness
to strangers. “The strangerwithin thy gates”—the recurrence ofthat phrase
in the Mosaic ethics lifts them above all other ancientethics whatever. What
Moses onlybegan, Jesus Christ beautifully perfected. He made morality
absolutely human. It is no longerGreek under obligation to Greek, but man
under obligation to man. What the Greek poetonly momentarily conceived,
Jesus Christ has converted into a powerful element in modern civilization—“I
also am a man, and nothing human is foreignto me.”
Jesus felt Himself calledof God to a lot within the chosenpeople, because He
was Himself the culmination of the revelation made to them in the past. As
that revelationhad been through a specialnation, so it had to complete itself
there. That He Himself lived within the limits of Judaism was not a confession
that He was merely the crown of a national or racial faith, but rather the
vindication of the older religion as an inherent part of a world-revelation. It
was not the lowering of His messageto the particularism of the Jewish
religion, but the elevationof the latter into a universal significance first fully
revealedin Him. The problem which Jesus had to solve was not the
destruction of Judaism, but its consummation, the liberation of its spiritual
content from the restrictions of its form. That He should have indicated the
supersessionof Jewishprivilege is not at all unlikely; but manifestly this could
not be His usual or characteristic tone, if He were to implant in Jewishminds
the germs of His wider faith. He had largely to put Himself in their place, and
work through the forms of their thought. Primarily, therefore, His
universalism had to be implicit. He did not so much give them new religious
terms as fill the old terms with a new meaning and reference. Hence it was
only after He had at leastpartly accomplishedthis in the case ofa chosen
circle of followers, and attachedthem unalterably to Himself, that He spoke

openly and frequently of the largerissues of His gospel, and the ingathering of
the “nations.” Jesussaw that if He were to conserve the eternal element in the
Jewishreligion, He must work within its lines. He broke, indeed, with the
existing authorities, but only because He maintained that they misrepresented
it. The principle on which He acted, as regards both the teaching of His
ministry and the subsequent development of His Church, was to sow germinal
truths which could come to maturity only through the reactionof individual
thought, and the enlarging of experience. Therefore,while He did not leave
the disciples wholly without plain announcements of the universality of His
mission, He did not so emphasize this as to impair their confidence in the
unity and continuity of the old and the new faiths.1 [Note: D. W. Forrest, The
Christ of History and of Experience, 418.]
2. Christ fulfilled the prophets.—We are familiar with the idea of the
“fulfilment” of prophecy, though that idea is often unduly limited. Prophecy is
not “inverted history”: it was not a reflectionbeforehand by which men could
foreknow what was to come: it was but as the seedout of which plant and
flowerand fruit were to be developed. Prophecykept men’s eyes fixed upon
the future; it createda sense ofneed, it stirred deep and earnestlongings;it
stimulated hope. And then the fulfilment gathered into one unimagined reality
all the various lines of thought and longing and hope, in a completeness far
transcending all anticipation. The fulfilment could not have been conjectured
from the prophecy, but it answers to it, and shows the working of the one
Divine purpose, unhasting, unresting, to its final goalof man’s redemption.
The prophets’ greatteachings were all centred round the figure of the
Delivererof the future. There were three things concerning the personand
work of this Messiahupon which they laid specialemphasis.
(1) The Messiahwas to be humble in the circumstances ofHis life.—His
birthplace, His lowly outward condition, His having no visible grandeur to

attract the world’s eye, had all been noted by the pen of inspiration. If He had
been born in any other place than Bethlehem, if He had appeared as a rich
Prince insteadof being the son of a poor family, there would have been reason
to say that the words of Scripture were againstHim; for it was prophesied
regarding Him, “Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be
ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
Christian religion beginneth not at the highest, as other religions do, but at the
lowest. It will have us to climb up by Jacob’s ladder, whereupon God Himself
leaneth, whose feet touch the very earth, hard by the head of Jacob. Run
straight to the manger, and embrace this Infant, the Virgin’s little babe, in
thine arms; and behold Him as He was born, nursed, grew up, was conversant
amongstmen; teaching; dying; rising again; ascending up above all the
heavens, and having power overall things. This sight and contemplation will
keepthee in the right way, that thou mayest follow whither Christ hath gone.1
[Note:Luther, Commentary on the Galatians, 102.]
(2) But the Messiahwas to be greatin His person.—He was to be of high
origin, though He was to take up a lowly position on earth. It was said of Him
by one of the prophets, His “goings forth have been from of old, from
everlasting.” Thesewords intimated that He who was afterwards to appear in
human nature for the deliverance of His people had lived from the beginning,
from eternity. The prophet Isaiah had also saidwith reference to Him, “Unto
us a child is born, unto us a sonis given: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince
of Peace.”
The Jews took greatoffence, we read, because Jesus, being a man, called
Himself the Son of God. But did not the Scriptures, which they professedto
follow, speak of the Messiahas both Godand man? If He had claimed less He

would not have been the Delivererpromised to their fathers. And were the
actions of Jesus inconsistentwith His high claim? When He gave sight to the
blind, and hearing to the deaf, and speechto the dumb, and life to the dead by
a word, did He not show that He indeed was whatthe prophet Isaiahhad said
the MessiahatHis coming should be, “The Mighty God”?1 [Note:G. S.
Smith, Victory Over Sin and Death, 21.]
(3) He was also to accomplisha matchless work.—He was to bruise the head
of the serpent; or, as this first announcement is explained againand againin
the prophecies which follow, and particularly in the prophecies of Daniel, He
was “to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make
reconciliationfor iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness.”He was
to take awaythe sins of men which separatedthem from God, to put an end to
the commissionof sin, and to bring in the reign of righteousness for ever. He
was in consequence calledby the prophets in other places “the Lord our
righteousness.”Jesus declaredwhenHe was upon the earth that this was to be
the greatpurpose of His mission. “The Son of man,” He said, “came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” He
came to take awayall burdens and all troubles by taking awaysin, which is
the cause ofthem all. “Come unto me,” He said, “all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And with reference to all that come
unto Him, He says, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,
neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.”
In St. Paul, Christ is the Delivererfrom sins in the past; He is the Defender
againstsins in the future. God’s love in Christ is emphatically that which
delivers the wretched man, beaten in all his endeavours to free himself from
the body of this death of sin: it is that which has done through Christ what the
law could not do, enabled the righteousness ofthe law to be fulfilled in His
redeemed. Over St. Paul’s mind there ever seems to be resting the shadow of
the memory of the past; he remembers how wrong he once went, what a
terrible mistake he made. And he remembers how, not by any reflection, not

by any study of his own, but by the direct influence of Christ Himself, he first
learned how fearfully wrong he was. Hence throughout his life there is present
to him a sense ofhis own weakness.Yet while these thoughts sometimes come
across him, and make him more eagerlywatchful over all that he does,
nothing can shake his firm persuasionthat “neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Jesus Christour Lord.” To him Christ is emphatically
the powerwhich wipes out the past, and which upholds the soul, the power
which alone canpreserve us blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness, who shall one day
“change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,
according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto
himself.”1 [Note: Archbishop Temple.]
A Conservative Reformer
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Christ's Treatment Of The Old Testament
Matthew 5:17, 18
W.F. Adeney
Here we see the attitude of our Lord towards the Old Testament. He did not
come to destroy the ancientteaching, but to fulfil it. Christ's words show two
positions - a negative and a positive.

I. THE OLD TESTAMENTHAS A PLACE IN THE CHRISTIAN
ECONOMY. The grounds on which this is establishedare worthy of
consideration.
1. Its origin. The Old Testamentwas inspired by God. It records his words
spokento Moses andthe prophets. Words of Godare not to be lightly set
aside, howeverancient they may be.
2. Its truth. Although it is only a preliminary revelation, it.is not the less a real
revelation. The truth it contains is partial, and represents an early stage in the
development of Divine ideas among men; yet all truth has an eternal element
in it which we may discoverwhen we strip off the husk of its temporary form.
3. Its moral character. The Old Testamentis a grand testimony to
righteousness. We cannever dispense with the Ten Commandments. The
stern protests of the prophets againstnational sin stand goodto-day as the
utterances of an undying conscience.
4. Its spiritual life. It is difficult for a Christian to getbeyond the devotional
spirit of the Psalms. Private piety is revealedin the Old Testamentso as to be
the example and stimulus for all ages.
II. THE OLD TESTAMENTIS NOT A SUFFICIENT REVELATION. It was
defective by omission. It could not contain all truth, because whenit was
written the Jews were not capable of receiving all truth. Its limitations are
those of an early stage ofrevelation. These are not reasons forcondemning
and repudiating the book. The child is not to be blamed because he is not a
man. The adult man cannotafford to neglectthe child even on his own
account, for the child is a prophet from whom much may be learnt. Still, it
cannot be denied that he lacks the man's largerwisdom and more enduring
strength. The law of righteousness is not sufficient for us. It cannotcreate
goodness.Its directions are formal and external. The deeper, more spiritual
righteousness canonly be realizedwhen the Law is written on the heart, and
this is done, as Jeremiahpredicted, only under the new covenant(Jeremiah
31:33).

III. CHRIST FILLS UP THE DEFICIENCIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
REVELATION. In this sense he fulfils it. He does not only fulfil prophecy by
doing what is therein predicted, but he makes the whole revelationof God
perfect by filling up the lacunae that appear in the Old Testament.
1. By leading from the letter to the spirit. The Law is not perfectedtill its
inner meaning is discoveredand its living spirit brought forth.
2. By exhibiting in life what the Old Testamentreveals in word. The Law had
never been perfectly kept till Christ came. Then he was absolutelyfaithful to
it, and thus he satisfiedits claims.
3. By giving men power to keepthe Law. Not in the letter, which is
superfluous, but in the spirit, which is essential.
4. By including the inferior older revelation in his new and most perfect
revelation. The acorndisappears that the oak may be seen; but it is not
destroyed, it is only developed, and its glorificationis accomplishedby the
largergrowth which abolishes its own peculiar form and structure. - W.F.A.

Biblical Illustrator
But to fulfil.
Matthew 5:17
The moral law eternal and immutable
W. Kemp.
I. NEGATIVELY — that Christ did not come to destroy the law or the
prophets. This may be illustrated as follows.
1. If the cause be immutably good, the operation and effects must be the same;
especiallyif the cause be infinitely wise;all this is evident from the Word of
God. If any persons declare that the moral law is altered, to be consistent, they
must also suppose that the Divine nature is altered.
2. The law of God is perfect, the ceremoniallaw was imperfect. The moral law
being perfect, the impress of the Divine image, it cannotbe done away.
II. THE GREAT END THAT OUR LORD HAD IN VIEW WITH RESPECT
TO THE MORAL LAW — "to fulfil." He undertakes this important work
with the greatestcheerfulness, lie was obedient to the moral law in His
childhood. Sufferings were necessaryas wellas active obedience. Our Lord set
forth the spirituality of the moral law, and could not after that setabout to
destroy it.
(W. Kemp.)
Jesus Christ the moral legislator
J. C. Jones.
I. lie fulfilled the law by spiritualizing it.
II. He fulfilled the law by developing it.
III. He fulfilled the law by generalising it and making it universal.

1. Breaking downclass distinctions.
2. He abolished national distinctions in morality.
3. He abolished sexdistinctions in morality.
(J. C. Jones.)
The mission of Christ in relation to the moral law
T. Baron., G. S. Barrett.
I. TO EXPOUND ITS SPIRITUALITY.
II. TO EMBODYITS PRINCIPLES.
III. TO HONOUR ITS BREACH.
1. It had been brokenin the practice of man, and He. came to atone for it.
2. It had been brokenin the estimation of man, and He came to show him its
glory.
IV. To SECURE ITS FULFILMENT.
1. By the presentationof a sufficient motive.
2. By the impartation of Divine power.
(T. Baron.)
I. The greatness ofthe assumption here made by Christ. Christ accepts the
prophecies of the Old Testamentas Divine, and points to Himself as their
fulfilment.
II. These words of Jesus revealthe historicalcontinuity of Christianity.
III. These words teachus the permanent authority of the moral principles of
the Jewishlaw. Nothing that is moral can be destroyed. We do not need the
light of stars when the sun has risen; but the stars are shining still.

(G. S. Barrett.)
Christ's relation to the law
W. G. Barrett.
I. Mark the POSITION our Saviour occupied, as forming a key to the whole
of the Sermon on the Mount.
II. The MEANING of these words.
1. Christ fulfilled the law in His teaching. He completedit.
2. Christ fulfilled the law by His own personal, unbroken obedience.
3. Christ fulfilled the law by. His sufferings and death.
(W. G. Barrett.)
Positive religion
D. Swing.
I. In a critical age, that has so many errors to be destroyed, reasonacquires a
destructive habit; againstthis habit one must guard, lest, instead of being a
light to guide us, reasonbecomes only mildew to blight a world once beautiful.
II. The soul grows great, useful, and happy, not by what it denies, but by what
it cordially affirms and loves.
III. Should you not all seek union with some positive, active, trusting Church?
Let the Church you seek be broad, but not broad in its destructiveness, but in
its soul, hopes, and charity; not broad by the absence ofGod, but by His
infinite presence;not broad like the Sahara, in its treeless, birdless, dewless
sands; not broad like the Arctic Sea, in perpetual silence and ice, but broad
like an infinite paradise, full of all verdure, fruits, music, industry, happiness,
and worship; wide enough for all to come.

(D. Swing.)
Destructionthe law of increase
Beecher.
Christ certainly did come to destroythe law and the prophets — the outside of
them. He knew perfectly well, if He had foresight, that they would be, as they
have largely been, swept away;but He said, "Thatwhich these externalities
include — the kernel, the heart — I came to fulfil. It was not the morality and
spirituality for the sake ofwhich Mosesand the prophets had written that
were to be destroyed. Even a crab knows enoughonce a year to get rid of its
shell in order to have a biggerone: it is the sectarythat does not know it! Men
think, if you disturb beliefs, creeds, institutions, customs, methods, manners,
that of course you disturb all they contain; but Christ said, "No;the very way
to fulfil these things is to give them a chance to open a larger way." h bud
must be destroyed if you are going to have a flower. The flowermust be
destroyedif you are going to have a seed. The seedmust die if you are going to
have the same thing a hundred-fold increased.
(Beecher.)
Law tends to enlarge itself
Beecher., Hacket.
So all institutions that carry in themselves, not merely external procedure, but
methods of truth, justice, and righteousness, must of necessity, if they follow
the ages,dig their own graves. A law that canlast a thousand years is a law
that is inefficacious. A law that is active, influential, fruitful, destroys itself. It
is not large enough. It produces a state of things among men which requires
that the law itself should have a largerexpressionand a different application.
(Beecher.)As a painter laying fresh colours upon an old picture.
(Hacket.)

STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
Think not that I am come to destroy the law - Do not imagine that I am come
to violate the law καταλυσαι, from κατα, andλυω, I loose, violate, or dissolve -
I am not come to make the law of none effect - to dissolve the connection
which subsists betweenits severalparts, or the obligation men are under to
have their lives regulatedby its moral precepts;nor am I come to dissolve the
connecting reference it has to the goodthings promised. But I am come,
πληρωσαι, to complete - to perfect its connectionand reference, to accomplish
every thing shadowedforth in the Mosaic ritual, to fill up its greatdesign; and
to give grace to all my followers, πληρωσαι, to fill up, or complete, every
moral duty. In a word, Christ completedthe law:
1st. In itself, it was only the shadow, the typical representation, of goodthings
to come; and he added to it that which was necessaryto make it perfect, His
Own Sacrifice, without which it could neither satisfy God, nor sanctify men.
2dly. He completed it in himself by submitting to its types with an exact
obedience, and verifying them by his death upon the cross.
3dly. He completes this law, and the sayings of his prophets, in his members,
by giving them grace to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and
strength, and their neighbor as themselves;for this is all the law and the
prophets.

It is worthy of observation, that the word ‫רמג‬ gamar, among the rabbins,
signifies not only to fulfill, but also to teach; and, consequently, we may infer
that our Lord intimated, that the law and the prophets were still to be taught
or inculcated by him and his disciples; and this he and they have done in the
most pointed manner. See the Gospels andepistles;and see especiallythis
sermon on the mount, the Epistle of James, and the Epistle to the Hebrews.
And this meaning of the word gives the clearsense of the apostle's words,
Colossians 1:25. WhereofI am made a minister, πληρωσαι τον λογοντου
Θεου, to fulfill the word of God, i.e. to teachthe doctrine of God.
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
Think not that I am come … - Our Saviour was just entering on his work. It
was important for him to state what he came to do. By his setting up to be a
teacherin opposition to the scribes and Pharisees,some might charge him
with an intention to destroy their law, and to abolish the customs of the
nation. He therefore told them that he did not come for that end, but really to
fulfill or accomplishwhat was in the law and the prophets.
To destroy - To abrogate;to deny their divine authority; to setpeople free
from the obligationto obey them. “The law.” The five books ofMoses called
the law. See the notes at Luke 24:44.
The Prophets - The books which the prophets wrote. These two divisions here
seemto comprehend the Old Testament, and Jesus says that he came not to do
awayor destroy the authority of the Old Testament.
But to fulfil - To complete the design; to fill up what was predicted; to
accomplishwhat was intended in them. The word “fulfill” also means
sometimes “to teach” or “to inculcate,” Colossians 1:25. The law of Moses
containedmany sacrificesand rites which were designedto shadow forth the
Messiah. See the notes at Hebrews 9. These were fulfilled when he came and
offered himself a sacrifice to God,
“A sacrifice of nobler name.

And richer blood than they.”
The prophets contained many predictions respecting his coming and death.
These were all to be fulfilled and fully accomplishedby his life and his
sufferings.
The Biblical Illustrator
Matthew 5:17
But to fulfil.
The moral law eternal and immutable
I. Negatively-thatChrist did not come to destroy the law or the prophets. This
may be illustrated as follows.
1. If the cause be immutably good, the operation and effects must be the same;
especiallyif the cause be infinitely wise;all this is evident from the Word of
God. If any persons declare that the moral law is altered, to be consistent, they
must also suppose that the Divine nature is altered.
2. The law of God is perfect, the ceremoniallaw was imperfect. The moral law
being perfect, the impress of the Divine image, it cannotbe done away.
II. The greatend that our lord had in view with respectto the moral law-“to
fulfil.” He undertakes this important work with the greatestcheerfulness, lie
was obedient to the moral law in His childhood. Sufferings were necessaryas
well as active obedience. Our Lord setforth the spirituality of the moral law,
and could not after that setabout to destroyit. (W. Kemp.)
Jesus Christ the moral legislator
I. lie fulfilled the law by spiritualizing it.

II. He fulfilled the law by developing it.
III. He fulfilled the law by generalising it and making it universal.
1. Breaking downclass distinctions.
2. He abolished national distinctions in morality.
3. He abolished sexdistinctions in morality. (J. C. Jones.)
The mission of Christ in relation to the moral law.
I. To expound its spirituality.
II. To embody its principles.
III. To honour its breach.
1. It had been brokenin the practice of man, and He came to atone for it.
2. It had been brokenin the estimation of man, and He came to show him its
glory.
IV. To secure its fulfilment.
1. By the presentationof a sufficient motive.
2. By the impartation of Divine power. (T. Baron.)

I. The greatness ofthe assumption here made by Christ. Christ accepts the
prophecies of the Old Testamentas Divine, and points to Himself as their
fulfilment.
II. These words of Jesus revealthe historicalcontinuity of Christianity.
III. These words teachus the permanent authority of the moral principles of
the Jewishlaw. Nothing that is moral can be destroyed. We do not need the
light of stars when the sun has risen; but the stars are shining still. (G. S.
Barrett.)
Christ’s relation to the law
I. Mark the position our Saviour occupied, as forming a key to the whole of
the Sermonon the Mount.
II. The meaning of these words.
1. Christ fulfilled the law in His teaching. He completedit.
2. Christ fulfilled the law by His own personal, unbroken obedience.
3. Christ fulfilled the law by. His sufferings and death. (W. G. Barrett.)
Positive religion
I. In a critical age, that has so many errors to be destroyed, reasonacquires a
destructive habit; againstthis habit one must guard, lest, instead of being a
light to guide us, reasonbecomes only mildew to blight a world once beautiful.

II. The soul grows great, useful, and happy, not by what it denies, but by what
it cordially affirms and loves.
III. Should you not all seek union with some positive, active, trusting Church?
Let the Church you seek be broad, but not broad in its destructiveness, but in
its soul, hopes, and charity; not broad by the absence ofGod, but by His
infinite presence;not broad like the Sahara, in its treeless, birdless, dewless
sands; not broad like the Arctic Sea, in perpetual silence and ice, but broad
like an infinite paradise, full of all verdure, fruits, music, industry, happiness,
and worship; wide enough for all to come. (D. Swing.)
Destructionthe law of increase
Christ certainly did come to destroythe law and the prophets-the outside of
them. He knew perfectly well, if He had foresight, that they would be, as they
have largely been, swept away;but He said, “Thatwhich these externalities
include-the kernel, the heart-I came to fulfil. It was not the morality and
spirituality for the sake ofwhich Mosesand the prophets had written that
were to be destroyed. Even a crab knows enoughonce a year to get rid of its
shell in order to have a biggerone: it is the sectarythat does not know it! Men
think, if you disturb beliefs, creeds, institutions, customs, methods, manners,
that of course you disturb all they contain; but Christ said, “No;the very way
to fulfil these things is to give them a chance to open a larger way.” h bud
must be destroyed if you are going to have a flower. The flowermust be
destroyedif you are going to have a seed. The seedmust die if you are going to
have the same thing a hundred-fold increased. (Beecher.)
Law tends to enlarge itself
So all institutions that carry in themselves, not merely external procedure, but
methods of truth, justice, and righteousness, must of necessity, if they follow
the ages,dig their own graves. A law that canlast a thousand years is a law
that is inefficacious. A law that is active, influential, fruitful, destroys itself. It
is not large enough. It produces a state of things among men which requires

that the law itself should have a largerexpressionand a different application.
(Beecher.)
As a painter laying fresh colours upon an old picture. (Hacket.)
Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible
Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to
destroy but to fulfill.
Of course, this touched on the greatdifficulty. The Jewishnation had long
held the Law of Mosesin the utmost respectand honor. Any change in the
status of their law was sure to be receivedunfavorably by them. Therefore,
Christ quite early in his ministry took pains to spell out for them his true and
proper relationship to the Law of Moses.Nevertheless, the difference in
"fulfilling" and "destroying" the Law of Moses wasaboutthe same as the
difference between"paying off" a promissory note and "repudiating" it. In
either case, it is effectively removed. Christ took the law out of the way
(Colossians2:14-16);and yet he did so, not by violating it, but by fulfilling it!
Christ fulfilled the law (1) by his own unswerving obedience to it, (2) by his
exactmanifestation as its promised Messiah, and(3) by enlarging and
expanding its teachings, lifting them to a higher and purer level, and by
bringing all the Old Testamentteachings to perfection in the perfectLaw of
Liberty.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets,.... From verse 3
to the 10th inclusive, our Lord seems chiefly to respectthe whole body of his
true disciples and followers;from thence, to the 16th inclusive, he addresses
the disciples, whom he had calledto be ministers of the word; and in this
"verse", to the end of his discourse, he applies himself to the whole multitude
in general;many of whom might be ready to imagine, that by the light of the

Gospel, he was giving his disciples instructions to spreadin the world, he was
going to set aside, as useless, the law of Moses,orthe prophets, the
interpreters of it, and commentators upon it. Christ knew the thoughts of
their hearts, that they had takenup such prejudices in their minds against
him; wherefore he says, "think not"; he was sensible whatobjections they
were forming, and what an improvement they would make of them againsthis
being the Messiah, andtherefore prevents them, saying,
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. By "the law" is meant the moral law, as
appears from the whole discourse following:this he came not to "destroy", or
loose men's obligations to, as a rule of walk and conversation, but "to fulfil"
it; which he did doctrinally, by setting it forth fully, and giving the true sense
and meaning of it; and practically, by yielding perfect obedience to all its
commands, whereby he became "the end", the fulfilling end of it. By "the
prophets" are meant the writings of the prophets, in which they illustrated
and explained the law of Moses;urged the duties of it; encouragedmen
thereunto by promises;and directed the people to the Messiah, and to an
expectationof the blessings ofgrace by him: all which explanations, promises,
and prophecies, were so far from being made void by Christ, that they receive
their full accomplishmentin him. The JewsF20pretend that these words of
Christ are contrary to the religion and faith of his followers, who assert, that
the law of Moses is abolished; which is easily refuted, by observing the exact
agreementbetweenChrist and the Apostle Paul, Romans 3:31 and whenever
he, or any other of the apostles, speaks ofthe abrogationof the law, it is to be
understood of the ceremoniallaw, which in course ceasedby being fulfilled; or
if of the moral law, not of the matter, but of the ministry of it. This passageof
Christ is cited in the TalmudF21, after this manner:
"it is written in it, i.e. in the Gospel, "IAven", neither to diminish from the
law of Moses amI come, "but", or "nor" (for in the Amsterdam edition they
have inserted ‫אלו‬ betweentwo hooks), to add to the law of Moses amI come.'
Which, with their last correction, though not a just citation, yet tolerably well
expresses the sense;but a most blasphemous characteris affixed to Christ,
when they call him "Aven"; which signifies "iniquity" itself, and seems to be a
wilful corruption of the word "Amen", which begins the next "verse".

Geneva Study Bible
3 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come
to destroy, but g to fulfil.
(3) Christ did not come to bring any new way of righteousness and salvation
into the world, but indeed to fulfil that which was shadowedby the figures of
the Law, by delivering men through grace from the curse of the Law: and
moreoverto teachthe true use of obedience which the Law appointed, and to
engrave in our hearts the powerfor obedience.
(g) That the prophecies may be accomplished.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Matthew 5:17-48. Identity of these principles with those of the ancient
economy;in contrastwith the reigning traditional teaching.
Exposition of Principles (Matthew 5:17-20).
Think not that I am come — that I came.
to destroy the law, or the prophets — that is, “the authority and principles of
the Old Testament.” (On the phrase, see Matthew 7:12; Matthew 22:40;Luke
16:16;Acts 13:15). This generalway of taking the phrase is much better than
understanding “the law” and “the prophets” separately, and inquiring, as
many goodcritics do, in what sense our Lord could be supposedto meditate
the subversionof each. To the various classesofHis hearers, who might view
such supposedabrogationof the law and the prophets with very different
feelings, our Lord‘s announcement would, in effect, be such as this - “Ye who
tremble at the word of the Lord, fear not that I am going to sweepthe
foundation from under your feet: Ye restless andrevolutionary spirits, hope

not that I am going to head any revolutionary movement: And ye who
hypocritically affectgreatreverence for the law and the prophets, pretend not
to find anything in My teaching derogatoryto God‘s living oracles.”
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil — Not to subvert, abrogate, orannul,
but to establishthe law and the prophets - to unfold them, to embody them in
living form, and to enshrine them in the reverence, affection, and characterof
men, am I come.
John Lightfoot's Commentary on the Gospels
17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not
come to destroy, but to fulfil.
[Think not that I am come to destroy the law, &c.]I. It was the opinion of the
nation concerning the Messias, thathe would bring in a new law, but not at all
to the prejudice or damage of Mosesand the prophets: but that he would
advance the Mosaic law to the very highestpitch, and would fulfil those things
that were foretold by the prophets, and that according to the letter, even to
the greatestpomp.
II. The scribes and Pharisees,therefore, snatchan occasionofcavilling
againstChrist; and readily objectedthat he was not the true Messias, because
he abolished the doctrines of the traditions which they obtruded upon the
people for Moses andthe prophets.
III. He meets with this prejudice here and so onwards by many arguments, as
namely, 1. That he abolishednot the law when he abolished traditions; for
therefore he came that he might fulfil the law. 2. That he asserts, that"not one
iota shall perish from the law." 3. That he brought in an observationof the
law much more pure and excellentthan the Pharisaicalobservationofit was:
which he confirms even to the end of the chapter, explaining the law
according to its genuine and spiritual sense.
People's New Testament

Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets. The preceding
verses were so opposedto the teachings ofthe scribes and Pharisees thatsome
might assertthat he was a destroyerof the law. He replies that he has not
come to destroy it, but to fulfil. He does not saythat he has come to perpetuate
it.
To fulfil. To complete its purpose. He was the end of the law. It was a
"schoolmasterto bring us to Christ" (Galatians 3:24), but "afterfaith is come
we are no longer under the schoolmaster."
Robertson's WordPictures in the New Testament
I came not to destroy, but to fulfil (ουκ ηλτονκαταλυσαι αλλα πληρωσαι —
ouk ēlthon katalusaialla plērōsai). The verb “destroy” means to “loosen
down” as of a house or tent (2 Corinthians 5:1). Fulfil is to fill full. This Jesus
did to the ceremonial law which pointed to him and the moral law he kept.
“He came to fill the law, to revealthe full depth of meaning that it was
intended to hold” (McNeile).
Vincent's Word Studies
To destroy ( καταλῦσαι )
Lit., to loosendown, dissolve;Wyc., undo.
Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come
to destroy, but to fulfil.

Think not — Do not imagine, fear, hope, that I am come - Like your teachers,
to destroy the law or the prophets.
I am not come to destroy — The moral law, but to fulfil - To establish,
illustrate, and explain its highest meaning, both by my life and doctrine.
The Fourfold Gospel
Think not that I came to destroy the law1 or the prophets2: I came not to
destroy, but to fulfil3.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. (A mountain plateau not far from
Capernaum.) D. RELATION OF MESSIANIC TEACHING TO OLD
TESTAMENTAND TRADITIONAL TEACHING. Matthew 5:17-48;Luke
6:27-30,32-36
Think not that I came to destroy the law. This verse constitutes a preface to
the sectionofthe sermon which follows it. It is intended to prevent a
misconstructionof what he was about to day. "Destroy" is here used in
antithesis, not with perpetuate, but with fulfill. To destroy the law would be
more than to abrogate it, for it was both a systemof statutes designedfor the
ends of government, and a systemof types foreshadowing the kingdom of
Christ. To destroyit, therefore, would be both to abrogate its statutes and
prevent the fulfillment of its types. The former, Jesus eventually did; the
latter, he did not.
Or the prophets. As regards the prophets, the only way to destroy them would
be to prevent the fulfillment of the predictions contained in them.
I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. Instead of coming to destroy either the law
or the prophets, Jesus came to fulfill all the types of the former, and
(eventually) all the unfulfilled predictions of the latter. He fulfills them partly
in his own person, and partly by his administration of the affairs of his

kingdom. The latter part of the process is still going on, and will be until the
end of the world.
Abbott's Illustrated New Testament
The law and the prophets; the religious system revealedin the books of the
Old Testament.--Butto fulfil. The Savior fulfilled the law of Moses, in respect
to its moral requirements, by bringing out clearly to view, and strongly
enforcing, their spiritual meaning and intents; and, in respectto its
ceremonialprovisions, by accomplishing, in his own person, the greatreality
which these rites and ceremonies were intended to prefigure. Thus, by his
instructions and example on the one hand, and by his sufferings and death on
the other, all was fulfilled.
Calvin's Commentary on the Bible
Matthew 5:17.Think not. With regard to the perfection of his life, Christ
might justly have maintained that he came to fulfill the law: but here he treats
of doctrine, not of life. As he afterwards exclaimed, that “the kingdom of God
is come, ” (Matthew 12:28,) and raised the minds of men with unusual
expectation, and even admitted disciples by baptism, it is probable, that the
minds of many were in a state of suspense and doubt, and were eagerly
inquiring, what was the designof that novelty. Christ, therefore, now declares,
that his doctrine is so far from being at variance with the law, that it agrees
perfectly with the law and the prophets, and not only so, but brings the
complete fulfillment of them.
There appear to have been chiefly two reasons,which induced him to declare
this agreementbetweenthe law and the Gospel. As soonas any new method of
teaching makes its appearance, the body of the people immediately look upon
it, as if everything were to be overturned. Now the preaching of the Gospel, as
I mentioned a little ago, tended to raise the expectation, that the Church

would assume a totally different form from what had previously belongedto
it. They thought that the ancient and accustomedgovernmentwas to be
abolished. This opinion, in many respects, was verydangerous. Devout
worshippers of God would never have embraced the Gospel, if it had been a
revolt from the law; while light and turbulent spirits would eagerlyhave
seizedon an occasionofferedto them for entirely overthrowing the state of
religion: for we know in what insolent freaks rashpeople are ready to indulge
when there is any thing new.
Besides, Christsaw that the greaterpart of the Jews, thoughthey professedto
believe the Law, were profane and degenerate.The condition of the people
was so decayed, every thing was filled with so many corruptions, and the
negligence ormalice of the priests had so completely extinguished the pure
light of doctrine, that there no longer remained any reverence for the Law.
But if a new kind of doctrine had been introduced, which would destroy the
authority of the Law and the Prophets, religion would have sustaineda
dreadful injury. This appears to be the first reason, why Christ declaredthat
he had not come to destroy the Law. Indeed, the context makes this
abundantly clear:for he immediately adds, by way of confirmation, that it is
impossible for even one point of the Law to fail, — and pronounces a curse on
those teachers who do not faithfully labor to maintain its authority.
The secondreasonwas, to refute the wickedslanderwhich, he knew was
brought againsthim by the ignorant and unlearned. This charge, it is evident,
had been fastenedon his doctrine by the scribes:for he proceeds immediately
to direct his discourse againstthem. We must keepin mind the objectwhich
Christ had in view. While he invites and exhorts the Jews to receive the
Gospel, he still retains them in obedience to the Law; and, on the other hand,
he boldly refutes the base reproaches and slanders, by which his enemies
labored to make his preaching infamous or suspected.
If we intend to reform affairs which are in a state of disorder, we must always
exercise suchprudence and moderation, as will convince the people, that we
do not oppose the eternal Word of God, or introduce any novelty that is
contrary to Scripture. We must take care, that no suspicionof such
contrariety shall injure the faith of the godly, and that rash men shall not be

emboldened by a pretense of novelty. In short, we must endeavorto oppose a
profane contempt of the Word of God, and to prevent religion from being
despisedby the ignorant. The defense which Christ makes, to free his doctrine
from slanders, ought to encourage us, if we are now exposedto the same
calumnies. That crime was chargedagainstPaul, that he was an apostate from
the law of God, (Acts 21:21) and we need not, therefore, wonder, if the Papists
endeavor, in the same manner, to render us odious. Following the example of
Christ, we ought to clearourselves from false accusations, and, at the same
time, to profess the truth freely, though it may expose us to unjust reproaches.
I am not come to destroy. God had, indeed, promised a new covenantat the
coming of Christ; but had, at the same time, showed, that it would not be
different from the first, but that, on the contrary, its designwas, to give a
perpetual sanction to the covenant, which he had made from the beginning,
with his own people.
“I will write my law, (says he,) in their hearts,
and I will remember their iniquities no more,”
(Jeremiah 31:33.)(383)
By these words he is so far from departing from the former covenant, that, on
the contrary, he declares, thatit will be confirmed and ratified, when it shall
be succeededby the new. This is also the meaning of Christ’s words, when he
says, that he came to fulfill the law: for he actually fulfilled it, by quickening,
with his Spirit, the dead letter, and then exhibiting, in reality, what had
hitherto appearedonly in figures.
With respectto doctrine, we must not imagine that the coming of Christ has
freed us from the authority of the law: for it is the eternal rule of a devout and
holy life, and must, therefore, be as unchangeable, as the justice of God, which
it embraced, is constantand uniform. With respectto ceremonies, there is
some appearance ofa change having takenplace;but it was only the use of
them that was abolished, for their meaning was more fully confirmed. The
coming of Christ has takennothing away even from ceremonies,but, on the
contrary, confirms them by exhibiting the truth of shadows:for, when we see

their full effect, we acknowledge thatthey are not vain or useless. Letus
therefore learn to maintain inviolable this sacredtie betweenthe law and the
Gospel, which many improperly attempt to break. For it contributes not a
little to confirm the authority of the Gospel, whenwe learn, that it is nothing
else than a fulfillment of the law; so that both, with one consent, declare God
to be their Author.
Scofield's ReferenceNotes
I am not come to destroy
Christ's relation to the law of Mosesmay be thus summarized:
(1) He was made under the law Galatians 4:4.
(2) He lived in perfect obedience to the law John 8:46; Matthew 17:5; 1 Peter
2:21-23.
(3) he was a minister of the law to the Jews, clearing it from rabbinical
sophistries, enforcing it in all its pitiless severityupon those who professedto
obey it (e.g.)Luke 10:25-37 but confirming the promises made to the fathers
under the Mosaic CovenantRomans 15:8.
(4) He fulfilled the types of the law by His holy life and sacrificialdeath
Hebrews 9:11-26.
(5) He bore, vicariously, the curse of the law that the Abrahamic Covenant
might avail all who believe Galatians 3:13; Galatians 3:14.
(6) He brought out by His redemption all who believe from the place of
servants under the law into the place of sons Galatians 4:1-7.
(7) He mediated by His blood the New Covenant of assurance andgrace in
which all believers stand Romans 5:2; Hebrews 8:6-13 so establishing the "law
of Christ" Galatians 6:2 with its precepts of higher exaltation made possible
by the indwelling Spirit.

John Trapp Complete Commentary
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not
come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Ver. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law]As the Pharisees
slanderedhim only to bring him into hatred with the people; and as to this
day they maliciously traduce him in their writings. Rabbi Maimonides, in his
Mishna, hath a whole chapter concerning the punishment of the false prophet,
that teacheththat he came to destroy the law. Calumniare audacter: aliquid
saltem adhaerebit, said Machiavel. A depraver, saith Plato, is mus nominis; a
devil, saith Paul, 2 Timothy 3:3. It is the property of defamations to leave a
kind of lower estimation, many times, even where they are not believed.
I am not come to destroy] Gr. to loose, dissolve, oruntie the law ( καταλυσαι),
as those rebels, Psalms 2:3, sought to do, but with ill success. Forit tieth and
hampereth men with an Aut faciendum, aut patiendum, either you must have
the direction of the law, or the correction;either do it, or die for it. Thus the
"law is a schoolmaster,"Galatians3:24, and such a one as that which Livy
and Florus speak of in Italy, that brought forth his scholars to Hannibal, who
had he not been more merciful than otherwise, they had all perished. The
comfort is, that it is a schoolmasterto Christ, who became bond to the law to
redeem us that were under the law, from the rigour, bondage, irritation, and
condemnation thereof. So that the use that now we have of it is only to be as
Paul’s sister’s son, to show us our danger, and to send us to the chief Captain
of our salvation, who came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it.
But to fulfil it] To complete and accomplishit ( πληρωσαι), for he fulfilled all
righteousness, andfinished the work that was given him to do, John 17:4. A
new commandment also gave be unto us, that we love one another; which love
is the complement of the law and the supplement of the gospel. Besides,
"Christ is the end of the law to every one that believeth," and commandeth us
no more than he causethus to do, Romans 10:4; Ezekiel18:31;yea, he doth all

his works in us, and for us, saith the Church, Isaiah26:12. Thus Christ still
fulfils the law in his people; into whose hearts he putteth a disposition
answerable to the outward law in all things, as in the wax is the same
impression that was upon the seal. This is calledthe "law of the mind,"
Romans 7:25, and answereththe law of God without, as lead answers the
mould, as tally answerethtally, as indenture indenture, Hebrews 8:8-10 cf. 2
Corinthians 3:2-3, Romans 6:17.
The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann
Christ Confirms and Expounds the Law of Moses.
Goodworks Jesus has just urged. He now proceeds to give a definition of good
works from the Law. He makes clearHis position with regard to the Law:
v. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the prophets. I am not
come to destroy, but to fulfill.
The teaching of the Kingdom, the Gospelwhich He came to proclaim, is a
doctrine radically different from the teaching of Moses. Butit does not
invalidate the demands of the moral law as taught by Moses, it does not
substitute a new moral law. Jesus rather emphasizes its proper
understanding, and for that reasontakes greatpains to explain its spiritual
content. He wants to fulfill, to bring out fully, the real import, to counteract
the influence of the shallow, superficialexplanation then in common use; and
then to render a perfectobedience to the Law. He who might abrogate all its
demands, who has power to modify any of its injunctions, places Himself
under the Law, Gal_4:4, and, by fulfilling its every letter, cancels the law of
the letter. And He fulfills the prophets. Whatever, in the revelationof the Old
Testament, is type and prophecy, finds its completion, its realizationin Christ
the Redeemer, Col_2:17.

Sermon Bible Commentary
Matthew 5:17
I. A fulfiller and a destroyer. Let us first clearly understand the difference. (1)
Look at it in nature. What is the truly majestic power of the earth? Surely not
destruction. There are such forces, but the thought about the world which
made those forces seemthe venerable and admirable forces, the forces to
which men's worship and admiration ought to be given, would be horrible. It
is the forces offulfilment, the forces which are always crowding every process
forward to its full activity, crowding every being and structure out to its
completestrealizationof itself—the forces of constructionand growth: these
are the real vital forces ofthe world. (2) Go farther on, and think of what man
does to his fellowmen. Your child, your scholar, your servant: you may fulfil
him or you may destroy him. There are some men who call out the best of
their brethren everywhere. There are men in history whose whole work has
been of this sort. There are other men whose whole mission is to destroy. The
things which they destroy are bad and ought to be destroyed, but none the less
the issue of the work of such men is for disheartening and not for
encouragement. (3)Fulfilment of itself involves destruction. The fulfilment of
the goodinvolves the destruction of the bad.
II. Note how the method of fulfilment, as distinct from the method of
destruction, is, and always has been, distinctively the method of the Christian
faith. Christianity from the beginning adopted the method of fulfilment for its
own propagation. Christ comes to give us Divine enthusiasms, celestiallove.
But it is not as strange unnatural things that He would give them. It is as the
legitimate possessions ofour human nature, as the possessionswhich,
unconscious, undeveloped, are ours already. The kingliness of nature which
the human side of the Incarnation declaredto be man's possible life, the
Divine side of the Incarnation makes to be the actuallife of every man who
really enters into its power.
Phillips Brooks, TwentySermons, p. 210.

References:Matthew 5:17.—J. C. Jones, Studies in St. Matthew, p. 111;C.
Morris, Preacher's Lantern, vol. iii., p. 688;R. Lee, Sermons, p. 388;J. M.
Wilson, Anglican Pulpit of Today, p. 356;S. A. Brooke,Christ in Modern
Life, p. 31; G. S. Barrett, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p.
8; S. Macnaughten, RealReligionand RealLife, p. 221;H. Wonnacott,
Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 94. Matthew 5:17-19.—Parker, Inner Life
of Christ, vol. i., p. 166;J. OswaldDykes, The Manifesto of the King, p. 52;H.
W. Beecher, ChristianWorld Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 280. Matthew 5:17-20.—W.
Gresley, ParochialSermons, p. 147;J. OswaldDykes, The Laws of the
Kingdom, p. 3; Ibid., The Manifesto of the King, p. 203. Matthew 5:18.—
Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1660.
Expository Notes with PracticalObservations onthe New Testament
Our Saviour here informs his followers, Thathe had no designto abrogate
any part of the moral law, or to loose mankind from the leastmeasure of their
duty either towards God or man, but that he came to fulfil it:
1. By yielding a personalobedience to it.
2. By giving a fuller and stricterinterpretation of it, than the Pharisesswere
wont to give; for they taught, that the law did only reachto the outward man,
and restrain outward actions.
As if Christ had said, "Though I preacha more specialdoctrine than is
containedeven in the letter of the moral law, yet think not that I am come to
destroy and dissolve the obligation of that law, for I came to fulfil the types
and predictions of the prophets, and to give you the full sense and spiritual
import of the moral law."
Greek TestamentCriticalExegeticalCommentary
17. ἦλθον] Observe how our Lord, through the whole sermon, sets forth
Himself, in his proceeding forth from God, as the true ἐρχόμενος.

τὸν ν. ἢ τοὺς προφ] It is a question whether our Lord includes the prophecies,
properly so called, in His meaning here. I think not: for no person professing
himself to be the Messiahwouldbe thought to contradict the prophecies, but
to fulfil them. Neither, it appears, does He here allude to the sacrificialand
typical parts of the law, but to the moral parts of both the law and the
prophets; which indeed he proceeds to cite and particularize. If howeverwe
prefer to include both ceremonial and moral in this assertion, we may
understand it in its more generalsense, as applying, beyond the instances here
given, to His typical fulfilment of the law, which could not as yet be unfolded.
Thus Augustine: ‘Hæc præcepta sunt morum; illa sacramenta sunt
promissorum: hæc implentur per adjuvantem gratiam, illa per redditam
veritatem, utraque per Christum, et illam semper gratiam donantem, nunc
etiam revelantem, et hanc veritatem tunc promittentem, nunc exhibentem.’
Contra Faust(43)xix. 18, vol. viii. Much unnecessaryquestionhas been raised
(see Thol. Bergpred. edn. 3, p. 132 f.) respecting the ἤ, whether or not it can
have the sense ofκαί. It is simply the disjunctive conjunction necessaryin
order to apply the καταλῦσαι to eachseverally, which would naturally be
replacedby the copulative, where an affirmative assertionrespecting the same
two things is made.
πληρῶσαι implies more than the mere fulfilling: see reff., where the word has
the sense offilling out or expanding; i.e. here, giving a deeperand holier sense
to—fulfilling in the spirit, which is nobler than the letter. Theophylact
compares the ancient law to a sketch, whichthe painter οὐ καταλύει, ἀλλʼ
ἀναπληροῖ … τοῦ νόμου γὰρτὰ τέλη τῶν ἁμαρτημάτωνκωλύοντος,ὁ χριστὸς
καὶ τὰς ἀρχὰς ἐκώλυσεν. Euthym(44) in loc. ἐπεὶ ὁ χριστὸς οὔτε ἐξ ἱερατικῆς
φυλῆς ἐτύγχανενὤν, καὶ ἅπερ ἔμελλεν εἰσηγεῖσθαι προσθήκη τις ἦν, οὐ μὴν
ἐλαττοῦσα ἀλλʼ ἐπιτείνουσα τὴν ἀρετήν· προειδὼς ἀμφότερα ταῦταμέλλοντα
αὐτοὺς ταράττειν, πρὶνἢ τοὺς θαυμαστοὺςἐκείνους ἐγγράψαι νόμους,
ἐκβάλλει τὸ μέλλον αὐτῶν ὑφορμεῖντῇ διανοίᾳ. τί δὲ ἦν τὸ ὑφορμοῦνκαὶ
ἀντικροῦον;ἐνόμιζοναὐτὸνταῦτα λέγοντα ἐπʼ ἀνχιρέσει τῶν παλαιῶν
νομίμωνποιεῖν. ταύτηντοίνυν ἰᾶται τὴν ὑπόνοιαν. Chrysost. Hom. xvi. 1, p.
203. See a history of the exegesis ofthe word in Thol. edn. 3, p. 135. The
gnostic Marcioncharacteristicallyenoughmaintained that the Judaizing
Christians had altered this verse, and that it originally stood,— τί δοκεῖτε, ὅτι

ἦλθον πληρῶσαι τὸν νόμονἢ τοὺς προφήτας;ἦλθον καταλῦσαι, ἀλλʼοὐ
πληρῶσαι.
Heinrich Meyer's Critical and ExegeticalCommentaryon the New Testament
Matthew 5:17.(399)A connectionwith what precedes is not to be artificially
sought out. Jesus breaks offand introduces the new sectionwithout any
intermediate remarks, which corresponds, preciselyto its pre-eminent
importance (for He shows how the Christian δικαιοσύνη, having its root in
that of the Old Testament, is its consummation). On μὴ νομίς. ὅτι ἠλθ., comp.
Matthew 10:34.
ἤ] never stands for καί (see Winer, p. 410 [E. T. 549 f.]; comp. on 1
Corinthians 11:27), but is always distinctive. Here, to abrogate the one or the
other. I have to abrogate neither that nor this. The νόμος is the divine institute
of the law, which has its originaldocument in the Pentateuch. The further Old
Testamentrevelation, in so far as its final aim is the Messiahand His work, is
representedby οἱ προφῆται, who make up its principal part; accordingly, ὁ
νό΄ος and οἱ προφῆται summarily denote the whole Old Testamentrevelation
(comp. Luke 16:6), partly as a living divine economy, as here; partly as
γραφή, as in Luke 24:27; Acts 24:14;Acts 28:23; Romans 3:21. Moreover, in
the expressiontow τοὺς προφήτας we are not to think of their predictions as
such (the Greek Fathers, Augustine, Beza, Calovius, and others; also Tholuck,
Neander, Harnaek, Bleek, Lechler, Schegg, andothers), as nobody could
imagine that their abrogationwas to be expectedfrom the Messiah, but, as the
connectionwith νόμος shows (and comp. Matthew 7:12, Matthew 22:40; Luke
16:29), and as is in keeping with the manner in which the idea is carried out in
the following verses, their contents as commands, in which respectthe
prophets have carried on the development of the law in an ethical manner
(Ritschl, altkath. Kirche, p. 36 f.). In νόμος, however, to think merely of the
moral law is erroneous, as it always signifies the entire law, and the distinction
betweenthe ritualistic, civil, and moral law is modern; comp. on Romans
3:20. If, afterwards, sentences are givenfrom the moral law, yet these are only
quotations by way of illustration from the whole, from which, however, the

moral precepts very naturally suggestedthemselves forquotations, because
the idea of righteousness is before the mind. He has fulfilled the entire law,
and in so doing has not destroyedthe slightestprovision of the ritualistic or
civil code, so far as its generalmoral idea is concerned, but precisely
everything which the law prescribes is raised to an ideal, of which the old legal
commands are only στοιχεῖα. Theophylactwellillustrates the matter by the
instance of a silhouette, which the painter οὐ καταλύει, but carries out to
completion, ἀναπληροῖ.
καταλῦσαι]oftenemployed by classicalwriters to denote the dissolution of
existing constitutions (specially also of the abrogationof laws, Isocr. p. 129 E
Polyb. iii. 8. 2), which are thereby rendered non-existent and invalid; comp. 2
Maccabees2:22;John 7:23; also νό΄ον καταργεῖν, Romans 3:31;ἀθετεῖν,
Hebrews 10:28; Galatians 3:15.
The πλήρωσις of the law and the prophets is their fulfilment by the re-
establishment of their absolute meaning, so that now nothing more is wanting
to what they ought to be in accordance withthe divine ideas which lie at the
foundation of their commands. It is the perfect development of their ideal
reality out of the positive form, in which the same is historically apprehended
and limited. So substantially, Luther, Calvin (comp. before them Chrysostom;
he, however, introduces what is incongruous), Lightfoot, Hammond, Paulus,
Gratz, de Wette, Olshausen, Ritschl, Ewald, Weiss, Hilgenfeld; likewise
Schleiermacher, L. J. p. 314 ff., and others. Comp. Tholuck (who, however,
brings togetherthe too varying elements of different explanations), also
Kahnis, Dogmat. I, p. 474, who understands it as the development of what is
not completedinto something higher, which preserves the substance of the
lower. This explanation, which makes absolute the righteousness enjoinedand
setforth in the law and the prophets, is converted into a certainty by the two
verses that follow. The matter is representedby πληρ. as a making complete
(John 15:11; 2 Corinthians 10:6), in opposition to καταλῦσαι, whichexpresses
the not allowing the thing to remain. Others (Bretschneider, Fritzsche): facere
quae de Messia pre-scripta sunt; others (Käuffer, B. Crusius, Bleek, Lechler,
Weizsäcker, afterBeza, Eisner, Vorst, Wolf, and many older interpreters):
legi satisfacere,as in Romans 13:8, where, in reference to the prophets, πληρ.
is takenin the common sense of the fulfilment of the prophecies (see specially,

Euth. Zigabenus, Calovius, and Bleek), but thereby introducing a reference
which is not merely opposedto the context(see Matthew 5:18 f.), but also an
unendurable twofold reference of πληρ.(400)Luther well says:“Christ is
speaking ofthe fulfilment, and so deals with doctrines, in like manner as He
calls ‘destroying’ a not acting with works againstthe law, but a breaking off
from the law with the doctrine.” The fulfilling is “showing the right kernel
and understanding, that they may learn what the law is and desires to have.”
I did not come to destroy, but to fulfil; the objectis understood of itself, but
the declarationdelivered in this generalwayis more solemnwithout the
addition of the pronoun.
REMARK.
The Apostle Paul workedquite in the sense of our passage;his writings are
full of the fulfilment of the law in the sense in which Christ means it; and his
doctrine of its abrogationrefers only to its validity for justification to the
exclusionof faith. It is without any ground, therefore, that this passage, and
especiallyMatthew 5:18 f., have been regardedby Baur (neutest. Theol. p. 55)
as Judaistic, and supposednot to have proceededin this form from Jesus,
whom, rather in opposition to the higher standpoint alreadygained by Him,
(Schenkel), the Apostle Matthew has apprehended and edited in so Judaistic a
manner (Köstlin, p. 55 f.), or the supposedMatthew has made to speak in so
anti-Pauline a way (Gfrörer, h. Sage, II. p. 84); according to Hilgenfeld, in his
Zeitschr. 1867, p. 374, Matthew 5:17 is indeed original, but in accordance with
the view of the Hebrew gospel;Matthew 5:18 f., however, is an anti-Pauline
addition; Weizsäckerseesin Matthew 5:19 only an interpolation; but
Schenkelfinds in Matthew 5:18 f. the proud assertionof the Pharisee, not
Jesus’ownconviction. Paul did not advance beyond this declaration(comp.
Planck in d. theol. Jahrb. 1847, p. 268 ff.), but he applied his right
understanding boldly and freely, and in so doing the breaking up of the old
form by the new spirit could not but necessarilybegin, as Jesus Himself
clearly recognised(comp. Matthew 9:16; John 4:21; John 4:23 f.) and set
forth to those who believed in His own person and His completed
righteousness (comp. Ritschl). But even in this self-representationofChrist
the new principle is not severed from the O. T. piety, but is the highest

fulfilment of the latter, its anti-typical consummation, its realized ideal.
Christianity itself is in so far a law. Comp. Wittichen, p. 328;Holtzmann, p:
457 f.; Weizsäcker, p. 348 f.; see also on Romans 3:27; Galatians 6:2; 1
Corinthians 9:21.
Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament
Matthew 5:17. ΄ὴ νομίσητε, Do not think) An elliptical mode of speechby
Metonomy of the Consequent.(182)Do not think, fear, hope, that I am a
teacherlike those teachers to whom you have been accustomed, and that I,
like them, shall setaside the law. He who thinks the former, thinks also the
latter.— ἦλθον, I have come)Our Lord, therefore, existed before He came
upon earth, which is implied also in ch. Matthew 8:10, by εὖρον, I have
found.— καταλῦσαι,to destroy, to abrogate)To the compound verb,
καταλύειν, to unloose or dissolve, is opposedπληροῦν, to fulfil; to the simple
verb λύειν, to loose, combinedwith διδάσκειν, to teach, is opposedποιεῖν, to
do, or perform, joined with the same verb διδάσκειν:from which the relative
force of the words appears; those are said of the whole law, these of the
separate precepts. καταλύειν, to unloose, and λύειν, to loose, both signify to
render void.(183)— τὸννόμον ἤ τοὺς προφήτας, the law or the prophets)
Many of the Jews esteemedthe prophets less than the law. They are joined
also in ch. Matthew 7:12.— πληρῶσαι, to fulfil) By My deeds and words, to
effectthat all things should be fulfilled which the law requires. See the
conclusionof the next verse.(184)The Rabbins acknowledgethat it is a sign of
the Messiahto fulfil the whole law.
Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
There are so many adversaries,Jews,papists, Socinians, Anabaptists,
Antinomians, &c., that make their advantages ofthis text, for the establishing
their severalerrors, that it would require a volume to vindicate it from their
severalexceptions;those who desire satisfactionmay read Spanhemius Dub.
Evang. 12.3. The plain sense of the text is this: It would have been a great

cavil, with the Jews especially, (who had a greatreverence for the law), if
either our Saviour’s enemies amongstthem could have persuaded people that
Christ came to destroy the law and the prophets, or his own hearers had
entertained from his discourse any such apprehensions. Our Saviour
designing, in his following discourse, to give a more full and strict
interpretation of the law than had been given by the Pharisees andother
Jewishdoctors, prefacesthat discourse with a protestationagainsthis coming
to destroy the law, and averring that he came
to fulfil it. It is manifest, by his following discourse, that he principally spake
of the moral law, though he also fulfilled the ceremoniallaw, he being the
Antitype in whom all the types of that had their complement, and real
fulfilling and accomplishment. Saith he, I am not come to destroyand put an
end to the moral law. I am come to fulfil it: not to fill it up, as papists and
Socinians contend, adding any new precept to it; but by yielding myself a
personalobedience to it, by giving a fuller and stricter interpretation of it
than you have formerly had, and by taking the curse of it (so far as
concernethmy disciples) upon myself, and giving a just satisfactionto Divine
justice for it. The greatestobjectionurgedagainstChrist destroying part of
the law, and adding new precepts to the moral law, is that about the change of
the sabbath; but this is none, if we considerthat the moral law required no
more than one day of sevento be kept as a day of holy rest, not this or that
particular day; for the particular day, the Jews learnedit from the ceremonial
law, as Christians learn theirs from Christ’s and the apostles’practice. Noris
it any objectionagainstthis, that the seventh day from the creationis
mentioned in the law, to those who know how to distinguish betweenthe
precept and the argument; the seventh from the creationis not in the precept,
but in the argument, Forin six days, & c. Now there is nothing more ordinary
than to have arguments of a particular temporary concernmentused to
enforce precepts of an eternal obligation, where the precepts were first given
to that particular people, as to whom those arguments were of force, an
instance of which is in the first commandment, as well as in this: as, on the
other side, arguments of universal force are oft annexed to precepts, which
had but a particular obligation upon a particular people for a time. Thus in

the ceremoniallaw, we often find it is an argument to enforce many
ceremonialprecepts, ForI am the Lord thy God.
Justin Edwards' Family Bible New Testament
Destroythe law; set aside either the principles or the moral precepts of the
Old Testament.
To fulfil; rightly to explain the nature and perfectly to enforce the precepts of
the moral law, as wellas perfectly to obey them in his own person, bear the
curse which was prefigured in the ceremoniallaw, and thus fulfil the
predictions of the prophets concerning the Messiah. Christ came not to make
void the moral law as a rule of action, but to establishit, and give it practical
efficacyover the hearts and lives of men, by leading them to love and obey it.
Cambridge Greek Testamentfor Schools andColleges
17. οὐκ ἦλθον καταλῦσαι κ.τ.λ. ‘I came not to destroy’, a divine captatio
which would instantly soothe the possible fear that Christ was a καταλυτὴς
τοῦ νόμου. For the word cp. Polyb. III. 2, καταλύσαντα τοὺς νόμους εἰς
μοναρχίανπεριστῆσαι τὸ πολίτευμα τῶνΚαρχηδονίων.
Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
II. CHRISTIAN PIETY DISTINGUISHED FROM JUDAISM, Matthew 5:17
to Matthew 6:19.
The Saviour next proceeds to show the relations in which his GOSPELstands
to the previous dispensation, as being the fulfilment and confirmation of true
Judaism, and the reformation of degenerate Judaism.
1. Christianity the completion of pure Judaism, Matthew 5:17-20.
17. Think not — The crowds who came to the greatgathering at the Mount
had their thoughts. What will this great Jesus do? Will he destroy the law by

letting all commandment go, and fulfil the prophets by a greatand glorious
kingdom? Or will he wholly destroy Moses, andset the Old Testamentat
naught? Our Lord gives them a powerful think not. Believe not, O ye people,
whateverI may say of your elders as false interpreters, that I for a moment
disparage Moses. Think it not, whatever your false shepherds may hereafter
charge againstme. Northink ye, my disciples, who are to preachmy
doctrines, that while ye must rend away the false interpretations of the
doctors, ye must overthrow the foundations laid by God’s ancient word.
It is remarked by Alford that rationalism generallycommences by doubting
the Old Testament. Paleyhad said before him, that infidels generally
endeavour to wound the New Testamentthrough the Old. Indeed, in the
secondcentury a half Christian, Marcion, endeavoured wholly to abandon the
Old Testament, and retain Christianity wholly separate. And as these words
of Christ were in his way, he altered the text and made it read, “What think
ye? That I have come to fulfil the law or the prophets? I have come to destroy,
but not to fulfil.”
I am come — Not I am born. He is the greatComer. He has come for a work,
and what that work is he will now pronounce. By so doing he answers the
question, Art thou He that should come?
The law, or the prophets — The Law and the Prophets was a customary
phrase for the whole Old Testament. See Matthew 7:12;Matthew 11:13;
Matthew 22:40. But the Law and the Prophets are here viewed not as merely
separate books ofthe Old Testament. Law, as God’s commandment, and
prophecy, as God’s promises or threatenings for the future, are blended in the
whole Old Testament. The law Christ fulfils not only by his own obedience
and atonement, but by perfecting its obedience in his saints, and executing its
penalty upon the impenitent. The prophecies he fulfils not only in his ownlife
and sufferings, but in the establishment, glory, and perpetuity of his kingdom.
The law, as requiring the Mosaic ritual and the Jewishstate, was fully
accomplished, and both ceasedat the required time. So that Christ does not
require any obedience to the peculiarities of the Old Testamentin the New.
On the other hand, the Old Testamentremains divinely sanctionedby Christ

as the first volume to the New. Its law was God’s law; its prophets were God’s
prophets. So that no one can strike at one Testamentwithout striking at the
other.
Destroythe law… but to fulfil — The ceremoniallaw, consisting of types and
shadows, wouldbe fulfilled in the Anti-type, Christ. The moral law, which
requires man to do right, and only right, and which is mainly embodied in the
Decalogue, is perpetual. Prophets — They are not destroyed, but their
authority is forever establishedby the fulfilment of all their predictions.
Christianity, therefore, is not the destruction, but the completion of
Mosaicism. A greaterthan Moses carries the work of Moses to an honourable
consummation.
PeterPett's Commentary on the Bible
“Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets,
I came not to destroy, but to fulfil.
This dramatic statement canbe viewedin a number of ways (although the list
is by no means exhaustive).
As an emphatic statement, stressedby a denying of the negative, that His
coming into the world was in order in Himself to totally fulfil all that was
pointed to by both the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 1:23; Matthew 2:15;
Matthew 2:23; Matthew 4:15; Matthew 8:17; Matthew 12:17-21). Thus by it
Jesus is seenas saying preciselywhat Matthew is declaring in his Gospel, that
He has come as the fulfilment of all that the Scriptures have lookedforward to
(see Matthew 10:34-36;Matthew 11:3-5;Matthew 12:40; Matthew 16:21;
Matthew 20:28; Matthew 21:42;Matthew 22:42-45;Matthew 26:24; Matthew
26:54;Matthew 26:56;and for example Luke 10:23-24;Luke 22:37; Luke
24:27;John 5:45-46). His is a building up not a pulling down.
As a statement that He has come to fulfil all that was demanded by the Law
and the Prophets in order to prepare Himself to be the perfect sacrifice
without blemish (1 Peter1:19), and/or in order that He might be the fully

‘innocent’ One Who was fit to die on behalf of the guilty (Matthew 20:28;
Matthew 26:28; see Isaiah53:9 and compare 1 Peter2:22.)
As a generalstatement of His attitude to the Law and the Prophets, prior to
considering it in some detail in what follows, so that no one might be in any
doubt of His support for and commitment to, the Law and the Prophets. The
first part of His statementbeing thus seenas a negative which is intended to
underline the secondpart. (‘Far from coming to destroy the Law, He is
saying, I have come to fulfil it’).
As an introductory statement to what is to follow, as He moves on to explain
what being a light to the world will involve, the contrastnot suggesting that
anyone has said otherwise, but simply being in order to doubly emphasise that
His purpose in coming was for the purpose of bringing about the fulfilment of
the Law and the Prophets in the way in which He will now speak of them, and
not to setthem aside, even though at first glance it might seemthat He is
doing otherwise.
As a generalwarning, which was not specificallyconnectedwith what has
gone before, that they were not to take what He was about to sayin Matthew
5:21 onwards as an attempt to destroy the Law, but rather as a means of
seeking to achieve its fulfilment
As indicating that by describing His disciples as the light of the world He is
not suggesting for one moment that the Law and the Prophets are not also be
seenas the light of the world as believed by many Jews (considerPsalms 19:8;
Psalms 43:3; Psalms 119:105;Psalms 119:130;Proverbs 6:23; Isaiah8:20),
and assuring them and others that it is actually by following the light of the
Law in the light of their new experience of God that they will themselves be
the light of the world. Thus Jesus may be seenas assuring them that He is not
by His previous description of His disciples annulling the Law. Indeed, as He
will go on to point out, He wants all to know that He requires them to treat the
Law so seriouslythat they embrace every lastbit of it.
As combating suggestionsthat had arisen, or might arise, that He was seeking
to destroy the Law of Moses andthe prophetic interpretations of it. For in
attacking the oral Law built up by the Scribes around the Law of Moses He

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