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“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” (Matthew 5:17, emphasis added). Jesus said this early in his Sermon on the Mount.1 He does this to lead into his reinterpretation of certain moral requirements of both the Law of Moses and the oral traditions handed down by the teachers of the Law in his day. So then why does Paul, who preached the good news about Jesus, say that Christ “has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances” (Ephesians 2:14-15, emphasis added)?
This supposed contradiction has led many to extreme ends of interpretation. They pit Christ and Paul against one another and force others to choose sides. Problematic legalism and hyper-grace movements both stem from choosing a side. This post is my effort to reconcile these two sources of divine truth and find the middle way. I believe we can honor both our Lord Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul, whom he directly commissioned to bring the gospel of the kingdom to the Gentiles, without whose ministry I might have never known the Lord to begin with, being a Gentile myself.
Two Different Abolitions
The first noteworthy observation here is the fact that, though English translators used the same word “abolish” in these two passages, Jesus and Paul use different Greek words. Jesus did not come to abolish (katalysai) the Law. But according to Paul, Jesus did abolish (katargēsas) the Law.
Katalysai essentially means “to dismantle or destroy.” Sometimes it refers to travelers lodging somewhere. This is figurative, based on the “dismantling” (or unpacking) of the supplies they had their animals carrying. In certain contexts, it means bringing something to an end. But even then, it comes with the image of tearing something down. Jesus uses the same word again to describe the future destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (Matthew 25:2). So Jesus says that he is not going to abolish the Law by tearing it down or dismantling it. Rather, he is fulfilling it.2
Paul’s word, katargēsas, means “to render inactive, to make of none effect, put away, do away with, or separate from.” So Paul communicated not that the Law is destroyed, but it is somehow inactive for believers.
This doesn’t exactly solve our problem, as both terms mean essentially to stop or put an end to something. That is why translation committees render them the same, because their meanings are quite similar. So, while it important to know the terms, it is more important to understand their use.
The New Covenant
To understand why Paul says what he says, we need to know the context. In Ephesians 2, Paul reminds believers in Christ of what when they have in the gospel. They were saved from their old ways “by grace through faith… not a result of works” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
In verses 11-13, Paul says, “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Circumcision: The (Former) Mark of God’s People
Prior to the Cross of Christ, the Israelites, God’s chosen people, carried the mark of circumcision. It served as a reminder to both the man and his wife of the covenant God made with his people. It was also the most foundational requirement for worshipping God in the Temple. An uncircumcised person was “unclean,” unfit to occupy sacred space.
He goes on to say that he was appointed by the Lord to reveal the “mystery of Christ” (Ephesians 3:4). This mystery is that “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6). Christ “has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14).
Paul’s point is that, because of what Jesus has done, God’s people are no longer just Israelites who follow the strict ceremonial requirements of the Torah for Temple worship, but also all those non-Israelites who bear the name of Christ. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, Gentiles who believe are just as much Israel as the physical descendants of Abraham who believe, circumcised or not.
They are both purified to worship God in his new Temple. Paul said, “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:19-21). That Temple is Jesus’ Body, the very people of God.3
Check out Five Views on Law and Gospel for a summary of the different ways theologians approach this subject!
The Law Remains
Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5 is his presenting himself as the new Lawgiver, the greater Moses. And he does this, not by saying the Law itself is irrelevant or doesn’t matter. Rather, he says, “I have not come to abolish the Law,” and that it is not going to go away “until heaven and earth pass away” and “until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18).
He continues in verses 19-20, “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.”
Following this, Jesus corrects the traditions of thes “scribes and Pharisees.” He corrects their flawed interpretations of the commandments around murder, adultery, divorce, retribution, and treatment of neighbors and enemies. The Jewish leaders manipulated the laws about these things to be the most beneficial for themselves. That is part of why Jesus makes these corrections. His point here is that those who would obey the Law rightly should obey it to the heart, not just find legal loopholes to get around its demands, like the Pharisees and their posse did.
In this sense, the moral demands Christ lays out here are still in full effect. It is still murderous to hold onto anger against our brothers. It is still adulterous to lust after people’s bodies. And it is still wrong to take vengeance for ourselves on those who harm us or take from us.
Fulfillment of the Law: Ethical and Ceremonial
In Matthew, fulfillment speaks to the way Christ reenacts the story of Israel without fault. This passage focuses on the spirit of the moral requirements of the Law. Jesus frequently raised the standard of righteousness beyond the written Law. However, Paul and the other apostolic teachers understood that this fulfillment was deeper than just him living right or mirroring prophecy; they saw Jesus meeting the requirements for us all to enter the Temple and worship God.
As observed above, Paul said that Jews and Gentiles alike access the Father as his temple. The book of Hebrews emphasizes this, showing how the death of Christ fulfills the requirement of blood that purifies us. “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:13-14).
Due to the Cross, and the outpouring of the Spirit, those laws about the purification of the flesh are not “destroyed.” But they are “nullified,” because Christ has fulfilled once and for all those requirements which distinguish the people of God from the formerly “unclean” foreigners. He circumcises our hearts through baptism (Colossians 2:11-12). We participate in his once-for-all, flesh-and-blood sacrifice when we eat Holy Communion (1 Corinthians 10:16). He gives us rest from our striving who believe in him, himself becoming our Sabbath (Hebrews 4:1-10).
Food Laws and Other Obscure Commandments
A common sentiment from young Christians when probed by skeptics about why they still eat shellfish or wear mixed clothing is, “That’s Old Testament, so we don’t have to follow it anymore.” Other’s, like apologist Frank Turek, say the only laws we must obey are those repeated in the New Testament. And neither of these perspectives is entirely wrong, but they don’t address the reason for the change.
The reason is not based on a division of books or an arbitrary list of commands which God decided were irrelevant in the new covenant. Rather, the reason for the nullification of laws about food, clothing and crop mixture, tattoos, touching dead bodies, and many other things, is because in Christ, we are permanently made clean by the Cross.
These things were not sins in a moral sense. For instance, touching a dead body made someone unclean, but it was a necessary part of life at times. So God made sacrificial provisions to restore cleanness. The same thing is true for women’s menstrual cycles. When these rites took place, worshippers could again enter the Temple. But now, no physical or fleshly thing can make us unclean, and no nationality is considered unclean in Christ.
Christ removed those laws which kept us from accessing God in our uncleanness by fulfilling them for us. In this sense, he did abolish the Law. After telling Peter in a vision to eat unclean animals, Jesus said, “What God has made clean, do not call common” (Acts 10:15). And this he said about Gentiles, those of us who were once unclean by our nations of origin. Now we are clean forever who believe in Jesus.
The Law of Love
Although this is the facet of fulfillment that receives the most attention, it is necessary to this discussion to address the commands about love. Very soon, in Matthew 5, Jesus will teach us to love our enemies. And later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives what we moderns call the Golden Rule: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12).
Jesus echoes this to his apostles on the night of his betrayal: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:12-14).
And Paul himself echoes this in Galatians 6:2: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (emphasis added). So in Paul’s mind, Jesus did away with the old way of the Law of Moses and instituted his own law. He is even clearer on this point in Galatians 5:6 when he says that “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”
See, how we live still matters. The legalist wants you bound to specific Jewish feast days and circumcision and Sabbaths and other Israelite distinctives. While the hyper-grace crowd would say we don’t have to avoid sins that God condemns. But Christ and Paul, whom he sent, both agree that we are to obey Christ by loving our neighbors and enemies alike. We are to be compelled by love (2 Corinthians 5:14).
Check out A Love Worth Giving by Max Lucado!
The Greatest Commandment
Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is to love our neighbors. And this is what remains of the Law for the follower of Christ. Everything else falls under this.
The reason adultery and lust is wrong is because it is a failure to love God and others. The reason homosexuality is wrong is because it is a failure to love God and others. Murder is a failure to love God and others. Idolatry, thievery, false testimony, abuse, slavery, and oppression are failures to love God and others. Everything Paul and the other apostles condemn in the New Testament falls into this category. And everything they say to do falls into loving God and others. Jesus does abolish (fulfill) the law of purification, and yet he doesn’t abolish (destroy) the law of love.
So I encourage you to step away from those traditions that emphasize the physical purification rules of the Mosaic Law above the work of Christ. And also separate from those traditions that ignore the ethical requirements of the Law that Christ empowers us to fulfill in love.
May you learn to love like Jesus and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Footnotes
- For the first post in our Sermon on the Mount Series, check out Blessed Are the Humble: The Beatitudes in Psalms and Proverbs ↩︎
- For more on Christ fulfilling the Law and Prophets, check out Galilee and the Great Light: A Messianic Prophecy in Matthew. ↩︎
- For more on the Church as the New Temple, check out Spirit and Truth: Where You Worship Matters. ↩︎
