BibleProject | Sermon on the Mountنموونە

Jesus Fulfills the Law

Today, we’ll read a small passage with huge implications. In Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus makes the astounding claim that he has come to “fill full” the Torah and Prophets, which is his way of referring to the entire Hebrew Bible. Jesus is saying that in him, the story of the Hebrew Bible finds its completion.

Jesus also affirms that he takes every divine command seriously and encourages others to do the same. To Jesus, trusting God by following his instruction is crucial for life in the Kingdom of God.

Then, Jesus directly challenges the most common ways in his day of interpreting and following God’s law. Most assumed that the scribes and Pharisees were the top models of living righteously according to God’s law. But Jesus says true adherence to God’s law is about being more righteous than even the scribes and Pharisees. How can you be more righteous than the most righteous people around? What does Jesus mean?

To learn more, let’s watch episode 3, Jesus Fulfills the Law.

Video Reflection Questions:

1. How is the video’s description of righteousness similar to or different from the way you’ve typically understood it?
2. In your own words, how would you describe the Torah and the Prophets as presented in the video?
3. How might Jesus’ 1st-century audience have understood his claim that he was going to fulfill the story of the Hebrew Bible?
4. What does it mean to "do right by your neighbor"? What kinds of attitudes and actions are involved?

Let’s read Matthew 5:17-20. Below is the translation from the BibleProject Scholarship team, and we encourage you to read this passage in other translations as well.

17 Don’t suppose that I have come to do away with the Torah or the Prophets.

I have not come to do away with them but to fill them full.

18 Because, truly, I tell you:

until the sky and the land pass on,

not one dot or one squiggle will pass on from the Torah,

until all things have taken place.

19 Therefore, whoever undoes one of the least of these commands,

and then they teach people to do this,

that person will be called least in the kingdom of the skies.

And whoever does the commands,

and then teaches people to do this,

that person will be called great in the kingdom of the skies.

20 Because, truly, I tell you:

unless your doing-what-is-right far surpasses the scribes and Pharisees,

you won’t be entering into the kingdom of the skies.