Bible Synapse
Did Jesus uphold the law of Moses, or was it set aside for his followers?
Hard question · Salvation and the Christian life · raised by 4 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Jesus came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it; not a jot or tittle will pass until all is fulfilled.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
The law and the prophets were until John; yet it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail.
The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
Christ abolished in his flesh the law of commandments in ordinances that divided Jew and Gentile, making the two one.
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Believers have died to the law through Christ and are delivered from it, to serve in newness of spirit.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
If the Galatians are circumcised Christ will profit them nothing; those justified by the law are fallen from grace.
Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
The objection
Jesus says he came not to destroy the law, that not a jot or tittle will pass from it, and that whoever breaks the least commandment will be least in the kingdom. Yet Luke records him saying “The law and the prophets were until John”, Paul says Christ abolished “the law of commandments contained in ordinances”, and Paul warns Gentile Christians that if they are circumcised Christ will profit them nothing. Did the law stand, or was it set aside?
The answer
Jesus said, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). The law and the prophets pointed forward to him, and he brings them to their goal: “till all be fulfilled” (5:18). Fulfilment does not mean that every rule applies in the same way afterwards. The sacrifices are fulfilled in his death (Hebrews 10:1-14), the food laws by his teaching that food does not defile (Mark 7:19), and the law’s moral demand is deepened, not loosened, in the verses that follow (Matthew 5:21-48). Luke shows that the two sayings belong together. Straight after “The law and the prophets were until John” comes “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:16-17). The age in which God spoke through the law and the prophets ended with John; the law’s authority as God’s word does not.
Paul says the same from the other side: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31). Christ is “the end of the law for righteousness” (Romans 10:4), its goal, so that no one is put right with God by keeping it. What he abolished in Ephesians 2:15 is “the law of commandments contained in ordinances”, the legal decrees that walled Jew off from Gentile, so that the two could become one people. In Galatians 5 Paul opposes circumcision taken up as a way of being justified: “whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (5:4). Believers are “delivered from the law” as a covenant (Romans 7:6), yet they are “under the law to Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:21), and love fulfils the law (Romans 13:8-10).
Other answers Christians give
Moral, ceremonial and civil law
The Reformed tradition (for example the Westminster Confession, chapter 19) divides the law into moral, ceremonial and civil parts. The ceremonial laws are fulfilled in Christ, the civil laws expired with Israel’s state, and the moral law, summed up in the Ten Commandments, still binds.
The law of Christ
Others, including many Baptists and dispensationalists, hold that the whole Mosaic covenant ended with Christ, and that Christians follow ‘the law of Christ’ (Galatians 6:2), which restates much of the moral law.
Jewish believers and the law
Some Messianic Jewish believers hold that Jewish followers of Jesus should still keep the law of Moses, as the believers in Jerusalem did (Acts 21:20-24), while Gentile believers are free of it (Acts 15).
Still open
How the law of Moses applies to Christians is debated among Christians. All agree that no one is justified by keeping it and that its moral teaching shows God’s will; they differ on how its commands should be divided and applied today.
From the classic commentators
But to fulfil - To complete the design; to fill up what was predicted; to accomplish what was intended in them.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Matthew 5, at Bible Hub
now this Christ abolished, ‘in his flesh’, or by it; not by his incarnation, but by the sacrifice of his flesh, or human nature, and that as in union with his divine nature; but not until he had fulfilled it in himselfJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Ephesians 2 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub
Sources
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Matthew 5, at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Ephesians 2, at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Matthew 5, at Bible Hub