To Fulfill the Law

Today’s Passage: Matthew 5:17-20

Jesus is still teaching the crowd on the mountain. He has just called His people salt and light. Now He turns to a question some of them must have been asking quietly. Had He come to throw out the old Scriptures and start something new? His answer sets the ground for everything He is about to say.

As you read, hold this: Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it, and only His righteousness is enough.

Matthew 5:17-18 (BSB)

¹⁷ 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 I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

The people knew God had given the Law long ago through Moses. Some may have wondered if Jesus came to sweep it all away. He tells them plainly that He did not. He came to fill (πληρόω) plēroō, pronounced play-ROH-oh. Strong's G4137, to fill completely, fulfill. It means to fill something all the way up, like filling a cup to the brim. Jesus does not erase the Law. He lives out every part of it perfectly and becomes everything it pointed toward. it full, to bring it to the very place it was always pointing. Not one tiny mark of God’s Word will be lost. Every promise in it will come true in Him.

Matthew 5:19 (BSB)

¹⁹ So then, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do likewise will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

God’s commands are not small things to brush aside. The one who honors them, and helps others honor them too, is called great in God’s kingdom. Jesus holds God’s Word in the highest place. He wants us to hold it there with Him.

Matthew 5:20 (BSB)

²⁰ For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The scribes and Pharisees were known as the most careful rule-keepers of all. So this sounds impossible. How could anyone be more righteous than they were? That is exactly the point. Jesus is not asking for more rules kept better. He is pointing past our own effort to a goodness we cannot earn. It is the perfect righteousness Jesus Himself has, given to everyone who trusts Him. His righteousness, not ours, opens the kingdom door.

Jesus honors every word God ever spoke, and then He does what we never could. He keeps it all perfectly and gives us the credit. That is why we come to Him with empty hands and leave with everything we need.

Personal Application

1. Where are you trying to earn God’s approval by being good enough on your own?

2. What would change today if you rested in Christ’s righteousness instead of your own?

Decision of the day: Name one way you have been trying to prove yourself to God. Set it down in prayer, and thank Him that Jesus already fulfilled the Law in your place.

Pray to Close

The central truth: Jesus did not come to abolish God’s Law but to fill it full, and only His righteousness is enough to bring us in.

Praise: praise Jesus for keeping God’s Word perfectly, doing what none of us could do.

Confess: confess any way you have leaned on your own goodness instead of His.

Ask: ask God to clothe you in the righteousness of Christ and let you rest there today.