Bird's-eye view
In this crucial section of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus anticipates the charge that His teaching on the kingdom somehow sets aside the Old Testament. He knows that a gospel of pure grace will always provoke the accusation of antinomianism, of lawlessness. So He meets it head on. He does not merely defend Himself against the charge, He turns the tables completely. He insists that His mission is not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them in every respect. He establishes the absolute permanence of God's Word, down to the smallest stroke of a pen. Then, having established the authority of the law, He proceeds to show that the self-righteous legalists, the scribes and Pharisees, are the true lawbreakers. He concludes with a thunderclap: to enter the kingdom, one's righteousness must exceed the showy, external righteousness of these very scribes and Pharisees. This sets the stage for the rest of the sermon, where He will expound the true and deeper meaning of the law, a meaning that cuts to the heart.
What we have here is a foundational statement on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. Christ is not a revolutionary trying to burn down the old house; He is the master architect who designed it and is now bringing it to its glorious completion. The continuity is absolute. The law given at Sinai is not discarded; it is brought to its intended climax in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the standard for kingdom citizens is not a lower, more relaxed standard, but a much higher one, a righteousness that comes from a transformed heart, a righteousness that only He can provide.
Outline
- 1. The King's Relationship to the Law (Matt 5:17-20)
- a. The Mission: Not Abolition but Fulfillment (Matt 5:17)
- b. The Permanence of the Law (Matt 5:18)
- c. The Standard for Greatness in the Kingdom (Matt 5:19)
- d. The Surpassing Righteousness Required (Matt 5:20)
Clause-by-Clause Commentary
v. 17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
Jesus begins by addressing a thought, a suspicion. "Do not think..." He knows the human heart, and He knows how His message of radical grace will be misconstrued. The phrase "the Law or the Prophets" is a standard way of referring to the entire Old Testament. He is saying, "Don't get the idea that I am here to tear down everything God has said up to this point." The temptation for men is always to pit grace against law, the New against the Old. But Jesus will have none of it. He states His purpose positively: He came to fulfill. This word "fulfill" is packed with meaning. It means to bring to its intended meaning, to fill up, to complete. Christ fulfills the law in multiple ways: He perfectly obeyed it, He bore its curse for our disobedience, He is the substance of its shadows and types, and He teaches its true, internal demand. He is the goal to which the entire Old Testament was pointing. Every sacrifice, every ceremony, every prophecy finds its 'yes' and 'amen' in Him.
v. 18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
To underscore the point, He makes one of the strongest statements on the authority and permanence of Scripture found anywhere in the Bible. "Truly I say to you" is His mark of solemn authority. The law's authority will outlast the present cosmos. Heaven and earth will be uncreated before one bit of God's Word fails. He uses two illustrations from Hebrew writing: the "smallest letter" (the yod) and the "stroke" (a tiny decorative mark on a letter). This is like saying, "not the dotting of an 'i' or the crossing of a 't'." The authority of God's Word extends to the minutest details. It is all inspired, all authoritative, all permanent. And it all stands "until all is accomplished." This refers to the consummation of all things in His redemptive work. The law is not set aside; it is established and brought to its ultimate goal in the finished work of Christ and the final judgment.
v. 19 “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Flowing directly from the law's permanence is our responsibility to it. Jesus establishes a hierarchy of greatness in His kingdom, and the measuring stick is one's attitude toward God's commandments. To "annul" means to loosen, to disregard, to treat as optional. Notice the two-fold action: what one does and what one teaches. Orthodoxy and orthopraxy go together. The one who disregards even the "least" of the commandments and encourages others to do so will have a low standing in the kingdom. He might be in the kingdom, by grace, but his rank will be low. This is a severe warning against any form of casual antinomianism. Conversely, the one who both practices and teaches the commandments will be called great. True greatness is not found in throwing off restraint, but in joyful submission to the will of God as revealed in His law. This is not legalism; this is the path of love, for as John tells us, "this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments" (1 John 5:3).
v. 20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
This is the punchline, and it must have landed like a ton of bricks on His hearers. The scribes and Pharisees were the religious superstars of the day. They were meticulous in their tithing, their fasting, their public prayers. Their righteousness was on full display for all to see. And Jesus says, "That's not good enough. You have to do better than that." This is not a call for more intense self-effort. It is a statement designed to drive us to despair of our own righteousness altogether. The righteousness of the Pharisees was external, hypocritical, and self-serving. It was a righteousness of the flesh. The righteousness God requires is a perfect righteousness, one that comes from the heart. It is a righteousness that we do not possess in ourselves. This verse is a signpost pointing directly to the gospel. The surpassing righteousness required for entrance into the kingdom is the righteousness of Christ Himself, imputed to us by faith. We must have a righteousness that is not our own. He is not raising the bar so we will try harder; He is raising the bar to a height that only He could clear, and then He clears it for us. The whole sermon that follows is an exposition of this true, internal, heart-level righteousness that God requires and provides in His Son.