The Exposition of Matthew 5:17-20
(Sermon on the Mount)
Questions to be answered in this study
- What was the first sermon Jesus preached as He entered His public ministry?
- How are the nine traits Jesus preached on in the Sermon on the Mount evidenced in a believer’s life?
- What is the point that we are not under the Old Testament law today?
- What did Jesus mean when, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets?”
- What evidence do we have today that we are not under the Law of Moses?
- What is the reason we are not under the law of Moses today?
- God requires perfect righteousness to enter heaven. How do we become perfectly righteous in God’s sight?
- How do we know that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God without errors?
- When the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the law, what did they mean?
- What was essentially was the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders about?
- According to the Bible, what is the only way anyone will ever go to heaven?
Introduction
We have been studying the first sermon that Jesus delivered near the first part of His public ministry, called “the Sermon on the Mount.” Up to this point, our study has included the first sixteen verses of Matthew chapter Five. In this section, Jesus gave the description of the citizen of the kingdom of heaven, which was opposite of the teachings of the Pharisees. Included in the Beatitudes are nine characteristics or attributes of a true believer. In these nine traits, we see humility, repentance, gentleness, purity, mercy, and a longing for righteousness.
These traits cannot be duplicated by the flesh; they are spiritual and evidenced in a believer’s life by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Through the process of sanctification, these traits are developed gradually daily. Our maturity in Christ is evidenced by becoming the salt and light of the world, as mentioned in Matthew 5, verses 13-16. The crowd that gathered on this day to hear Jesus preach the sermon on the mount was indoctrinated in the teachings of the Pharisees. Outwardly the Pharisees practiced a religion of keeping rules and laws but inwardly were dead and void of faith in Christ, the giver of life. Jesus unmasked the Pharisees and showed the fakes, counterfeits, and frauds they were. Nevertheless. It seemed impossible to break through to this crowd who had lived their entire life under the teachings of these false prophets. I have found that to be true by experience; it is almost impossible to reach members of cults who have been brainwash to believe false doctrine. Each of us needs to examine the things we have been taught against the Word of God to determine their accuracy.
In His sermon to these misinformed Jews, Jesus is calling into question everything they counted as truth. Jesus was not attempting to overturn the teachings of Moses concerning the feasts and temple service. He was the authority of God come to fulfill the Law and offer salvation through the grace of God, but for the most part, these hardened Jews were not ready to accept it. Jesus knew the condition of His listeners that day, so in this next section, He attempts to reassure the crowd of His intentions.
Matthew 5:17-20, “Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18For 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. 19Whosoever 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. 20For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
In verse 17, Jesus makes it clear that He had not come to put an end to the Law and the Prophets. Today some have misunderstood what Jesus said and have concluded that some or all of the Law is still valid and is effective for believers today. Being under Old Testament Law is ignoring the consistent teaching of the New Testament that Christians are no longer under the Law but live under the grace of God in this age. The point is that we are not saved by keeping the law. Of course, some law is carried over in the New Testament namely The Ten Commandments.
Let us first get a clear understanding of what Jesus said. He said in verse 17, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:” At the time of Jesus, the Jews only had the Old Testament, as we call it, but they never referred to it by that; they referred to it as “The Law and the Prophets,” or sometimes “Moses and the Prophets.” To paraphrase what Jesus said. “I came not to destroy the Word.” John 1:1 declares Jesus is the Word, so why would He want to destroy it.
Now that we know the context, can we base our view on these verses that believers today aren’t under the Law of Moses? Not hardly. We will have to go to the New Testament to prove that. Paul said in Romans 6:14-15, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the Law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the Law, but under grace? God forbid.” Once again, the point is, Jesus came to fulfill the Law by keeping it perfectly, something no one else could ever do before or since. Jesus was born under the Law, so He kept it, not breaking it in the slightest sense, keeping every jot and title. The law reflects God’s standards for righteousness, which no one was able to keep but Jesus. Jesus also fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Messiah. Other predictions, left unfulfilled, will be fulfilled at His second coming when He establishes His Kingdom.
By His death on the cross, Jesus paid God’s penalty for sin. Everyone fell short of God’s standard for going to heaven because, according to Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.” However, our sins were imputed to Him, who knew no sin, and His righteousness was assigned to us, who otherwise were morally unacceptable to God; What happens when we receive Jesus as Savior? Then when God looks upon us, He sees the righteousness assigned to us by Jesus, and then His standards for entering heaven have been fulfilled by the shed blood of His Son, Jesus. Verse 18 confirms the Word of God, its promises, its fulfillment and its entirety, every jot and every tittle, will stand for all eternity:
Matthew 5:18, “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.”
Verse 18 refutes those who contend that the Bible only contains the Word of God and is not without errors. Jesus’ statement in this verse upholds the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture. Every Word of the original manuscripts was precise as God intended. Every jot and every title Jesus said would be fulfilled. Jesus uses a Jewish Idiom to emphasize the truth of Go’s Word. The jot and tittle are the English words that represent the most miniature characteristics of the Hebrew language. If the Bible only contained the Word of God, how would we discern what was of God and what was not, and who could tell us the difference, the liberals?
Earlier, we spoke of the Oral Law that the scribes had passed down and the Pharisees had picked up, which eventually became inspired in the minds of the Jews. Jesus confirmed and was implying to the Pharisees that He had no interest in their oral Law indicating that they were not the inspired Word of God. The Pharisees referred to these rules as fences. They were intended to block anyone from breaking the Law. In doing so, they had misapplied the Law. For example, one of their laws forbade mixing dairy with meat. Mixing dairy and meat is a kosher requirement based on a verse in Exodus and again in Deuteronomy, where the Lord instructs Israel not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. Boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk was a practice of the idolatrous Canaanites, uniquely associated with Baal worship. So, God was protecting Israel from their practices which led to idolatry. This is why you can’t find a cheeseburger in Israel. Kosher was a rule that God did not intend. The scribes and Pharisees missed the spiritual intention of the Law, considering only the logistics of it. Therefore, many of the rules of the scribes and Pharisees had little or no relationship with the Law of Moses. When the scribes and Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Law, they were indicating their oral Law.
The conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders was essentially about the authority of Scripture versus the teachings of men. The Pharisees were substituting their Word for the true Scripture. Their claim was the Mishna was equal to the Bible, so they used it instead of the Bible. It infuriated the Pharisees that Jesus disregarded their teachings and referred to them as hypocrites. Jesus was very serious about keeping the Word of God, as we see in Verse 19:
Matthew 5:19, “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.”
I would hate to be one of those who teach false doctrine. According to Jesus, they are accountable before God and are the least in God’s kingdom. On the other hand, those whosoever correctly teach God’s Word will be the greatest in God’s kingdom. Some teach God’s Word and are true believers but do not understand Scripture and therefore teach it falsely. I’ve known some of them. To misapply the Word is an offense to our Lord and something Bible teachers should always try to avoid.
Jesus is our most excellent example. He possesses the most incredible honor because He obeyed everything God’s Word requires and taught it with all authority and without error. Neither did the Pharisees in Jesus’ day teach the Word, or did they keep it. Instead, they introduced a false gospel and lived by their own rules instead of the Word of God. Jesus points this out in verse 20:
Matthew 5:20, “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
It is a dangerous thing to place your hope in a man and his teachings. Many religions today have at the head of their faith a man instead of the Lord, just as the people to whom Jesus was preaching on this occasion. The Pharisees were their guides instead of God’s Word. They were brainwashed with their teachings, and were hard to move in any other direction. There are millions across the world in that same situation today. They have accepted the beliefs and teaching of false teachers and are blinded to the truth. In many cases, these people are sincere in their views. They may go to extremes like the Pharisees but are following artificial rules instead of the accurate Word of God. We must be careful, even though we believe the Word of God and know the right way, lest we become like the Pharisees because in knowing the truth, we are not abiding by it. Even when we think we are keeping the rules that we believe in, making us holy, we may be missing the mark by depending on what we do rather than what God wants to do in our lives through sanctification. Our love of God and our commitment to Him and His Word set us apart from the Pharisees.
Some think they can do their own thing and live as they want, conveniently forgetting their lusts or hatred of others, or selfish devotion to materialism and the things of the world and still go to heaven. That is the same as the way the Pharisees lived, and Jesus says unless our righteousness exceeds the Pharisees, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. According to the Bible, the only way anyone goes to heaven is to be perfect, like Jesus. That means each of us needs Jesus. We can never be perfect like Him. Therefore, we must receive His perfection through the new birth. We must believe in Him as the Apostle Paul did. “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless, I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day,” 2 Timothy 1:12-14.