“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:17-20

There's long been a couple confusions about this portion of text and understanding of what is happening in the crowd helps clarify it somewhat.

One of the confusions is Messiah's reference to "Law and Prophets". Most have glazed over the prophets statement and focused on the Law. Because of a misunderstanding of what "under the law" means in Romans 10:4. Because of this misunderstanding, there's a struggle in this statement in what is going on. Some say that Messiah was under the law therefore He had to say this but this can't be further from the truth. His statements following this shows His above the Law. Others say the "fulfillment" means the Law is gone, contrary to His previous statement that He did not come to do away with the Law or the Prophets.

Whenever you see "Law and Prophets" together the speaker is talking about the Torah and Nevi'im. These are two of the three sections of the Tanakh, or Jewish Bible. Law / Torah / Instruction is the first five books of the Bible and the Prophets / Nevi'im is the books of prophecy, including the minor prophets. Now that we understand this, we see Messiah saying He did not come to do away with the Torah and Nevi'im and they will not pass away until the end. This likely did not clarify things for you so let's continue.

The American church typically has a pretty bad view of the Torah. Even if it's accepted that the Torah is not gone, some claim the "Old Testament" is no longer and will not even use it, the Torah is often viewed as this instructional book of rules. The fact is, the Torah is a beautiful piece of Love by the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. In Genesis 1, God created man in His image. We are supposed to reflect the image of God to the world but man fell and that reflection stopped. God established a people that would reflect that image and draw the gentile, the unsaved, into shade of His wing but His people looked upon the gentile as dogs and rejected them. The first five books of the Bible are a work of Love showing us how YHWH established a people and showed them, through instruction, how to reflect His image to the world to bring in the gentile. This was first accomplished through Abraham, who had a heart of God but didn't know him. Because the people of God failed to follow in the footsteps of Abraham's heart, the written law (Law of Moses) came 430 years later (Galatians 3:16-17). The purpose of the Torah is to show man how to live and shine in the image of God.

Understanding the Torah's purpose makes this book a much lovelier book to understand. How can we forsake this book?

The prophets are much of the same. The prophets are corrections to God's people for not shining in God's image and bringing in gentile to God's shade; and also prophecies of how He will bring a Messiah to show the path.

God made a covenant with Abraham and his seed. This covenant was paused due to transgression of that covenant as they were supposed to follow God and they failed to do so. Galatians 3:15-20 puts it like this.

Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. 19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. Galatians 3:15-20

Paul is telling us that the law given to Moses, 430 years after the covenant with Abraham, was because of continued transgression of the covenant. The covenant with Abraham is fulfilled through Messiah (Christ). This means what? As Y'shua stated in Matthew 5, He came to fulfill, or establish the covenant with Abraham that was paused. As detailed in the series of "New or Renewed?" the covenant made by Messiah is not NEW but a RENEWED covenant of Abraham. Hold on… don't turn me off just yet. This does not mean we start sacrifices. Think about all the language in the New Testament that we are grafted into THEIR vine (Romans 11:11-31) and how all of prophecy talks of how gentiles will come into the Hebrew kingdom, the kingdom set up by God. I encourage you to read the series on New or Renewed to see where this all went wrong.

When we look at the crowds who gathered for this "sermon", we start to feel what the Jewish disciples were feeling. These Jewish men were just like the Jews of old. They had problems with people not like them. They had problems with those in the crowd where were gentile, pagan, and even the high religious people. Messiah Y'shua had to start with a talk to them about how these people were intended to be in the kingdom from the beginning and they will bring them and be lied about and persecuted for it. He tells them how they are to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth; they are to reflect God's image to the world. Then He gets to this point.

In this point of Messiah's message He starts to explain how this is not a new concept. This is the Law and the Prophets. He did not come to abolish them, do away with them but to fulfill, establish, show how they were intended to work from the beginning. These will not pass away because they are the very instruction, examples, of how we reveal God's image to the world. Anyone who teaches against them is least in the kingdom of heaven.

Then, after all this, Messiah tells His disciples that their righteousness must surpass that of the pharisees and sadducees. This statement must had to confuse them but here's where we can bring in some presuppositions. We know the pharisees had their own law that meant more to them than Gods. We know they looked good on the outside but not on the inside. But, what I believe Messiah is pointing out at this point is the hatred the pharisees and sadducees had for those who were not like them. They looked at the gentiles as dogs, couldn't even say the name samaritan, and even looked down on other jews as if they were ignorant fools.

Messiah Y'shua did not come to do away with all that was written before, but to show us how to live in it. To show us how living in those old writings revealed the image of God to those around us so that none had to be lost sons and daughters. What a beautiful message we're being told.