In Matthew 5:17 Jesus states that He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. How does Jesus accomplish this?

Many claim that Jesus’ declaration that He didn’t come to “abolish the Law” but to “fulfill it” means that He did not overturn the Law before its purpose was accomplished but instead brought its purpose to fulfillment, thereby bringing an end to the Old Covenant with its myriad of laws, commandments, statutes, and judgments. He then inaugurated the New Covenant with its new “Law of Christ,” which supersedes and replaces the laws of the previous covenant.

Others, however, claim that Jesus “fulfilled” the Law by raising Old Testament standards to a new and higher level, and that all the commandments, statutes, and judgments of the Law of Moses remain in effect for the followers of the Messiah.

But do either of these views truly capture the meaning of Jesus’ mission statement regarding the Law? What, precisely, did Jesus mean when He said that He came to “fulfill” the Law?

Jesus’ teaching on this subject is found in Matthew 5:17–20:

“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. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus did not say that all the commandments, statutes, and judgments of the Mosaic Law would remain in force “until all is accomplished.” Rather, He said that not a dot or an iota would pass from “the Law”—the Torah, or Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible)—until all is accomplished. This simply means that the Torah would remain an authoritative source of divine revelation “until heaven and earth pass away.”

The phrase “the Law and the Prophets” was a common Jewish expression meaning the Holy Scriptures. Jesus came to “fulfill” the Scriptures, not “abolish them.” One of Matthew’s major themes is to show how Jesus, as the prophesied Messiah, fulfilled the Scriptures. He presents Jesus as the Prophet like Moses, the new David, and the true Israel. He shows that even scriptural passages on Israel’s history point to Jesus. Several times, he cites an event in the life of Jesus and points out that the event “fulfilled” a particular prophecy of Scripture. Jesus, then, was speaking of the prophetic features of the Law and the Prophets—the Scriptures—when He declared that He came to “fulfill them.” The prophetic features include both direct predictions and types and shadows of the Messiah and His redemptive work.

Since Jesus fulfills the Scriptures, “these commandments”—all the commandments  of  Scripture,  including  civil  and  ceremonial  laws,  the  Ten Commandments, laws concerning the tabernacle and priesthood, ritual purification, clean and unclean meats, circumcision, consecration of the firstborn, Sabbaths, festivals, and tithes—must now be understood in light of the life, works, teachings, and mission of Jesus (the “Christ-event,” for short).

The book of Acts and New Testament epistles show how the Christ-event affects the Mosaic Law. The New Testament reveals that Christ is the new High Priest (Hebrews 4:15), an office forbidden to Him under the Mosaic Law (7:14). His blood, not the blood of goats and bulls, is the blood of sanctification (9:12). Christ carries out His priestly ministry in the heavenly tabernacle (8:2), not an earthly holy place. The covenant He mediates is a New Covenant, vastly superior to the Mosaic Covenant with its types and shadows (8:6–12; 10:1). And His “circumcision”—the cutting of His flesh (His death)—enables the true worshiper to enter the Holy Place and approach the heavenly altar with confidence (Colossians 2:11; Hebrews 10:19–22).

But Jesus “fulfills” the Law in another way, as well. The Christ-event had a positive effect on the universal and permanent features of the Old Testament Law—the commands to love God with all one’s being and one’s neighbor as oneself, which summarize the Ten Commandments, or Ten “Words” (teachings). As the “Prophet like Moses,” Jesus brought to light the original and true meaning and intent of God’s commandments while exposing the erroneous traditions the scribes and Pharisees had attached to them.

And now, with the full restoration of the universal moral law, and with the shadows of the Mosaic Covenant having been replaced by the realities to which they pointed, the High Priest of the heavenly sanctuary and Mediator of the new and superior Covenant calls for nothing less than radical holiness—righteousness that “exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.”