What Does Jesus Christ Mean In Matthew 5:17?
What does the Lord mean by saying He did not come “to destroy the law or the prophets”? First of all, we need to understand the Lord Jesus used the word “destroy” in antithesis with fulfill. He did not employ the word “destroy” as an antithesis with perpetuate. Read it again: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). Fulfill is one thing; perpetuate, which many erroneously read into the passage, is another. But Christ emphatically said He came to fulfill the law. What is “the Law or the Prophets”? In the scriptures, “the law” is sometimes used to refer basically to the Ten Commandments. In Romans 7:7, Paul argues, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, ‘Thou shalt not covet.'” Evidently, the reference here is to the Decalogue (Exodus 20:17). Sometimes, the word “law” refers to the entire first five book
