17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

Matthew 5:17 (NASB)

Law and Prophets

Jesus has just laid the foundation with the beatitudes which describe what followers of Christ should be like. Now he’s moving into the balance of the Sermon on Christian living / sermon on the mount. He mentions the Law and the Prophets but what is He referring to?

It’s basically what we know as the Old Testament (OT). “The books of the law, properly speaking, would comprise the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The prophets, in the two-fold division, would include the rest of the Old Testament. Although it may seem strange that poetic books such as Job or Proverbs would be included in the “prophets” category, it was common for the Jews to see any writer of Scripture as a prophet. Further, many of the psalms are clear messianic prophecies.” (gotquestions.org)

Abolish?

Why would they think He came to abolish the Law or the Prophets? Has He talked about them already in a way that indicates that? No, not really. Is there some expectation that the Messiah would abolish them? Again, no. It’s because He’s preparing them for what He’s about to talk about next. We will hear a series of, “You have heard that the ancients were told, … But I say to you”, which could sound like He’s abolishing. But as we’ll see, it’s not that at all.

Fulfill

Jesus doesn’t say, “I came to uphold or do or enforce the law.” He says He came to fulfill the law. Knowing now that the Law and Prophets are the whole OT, and knowing all the prophecies we have seen about the Messiah already in Matthew, we can understand exactly what Jesus means. The OT prophesied about Him and now He’s here. He’s the fulfillment of the prophecies. Yet He also upheld the law as well…but in the way they were originally intended as we’ll see soon.

RЯeflection

• It’s so interesting to read the Bible! All the different pieces fit together so perfectly. We see the OT prophecies fulfilled in Jesus. And we see Jesus fulfill the multiple roles of Priest, Prophet and King. We can wonder at how God could orchestrate all this into one coherent story, His-story.