Sunday message · That’s What He Said series
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Message Summary
In this message from That’s What He Said, the church’s sentence-by-sentence study of Matthew, Pastor Phillip Santillan takes up Matthew 5:17–20, where Jesus says he came not to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill them. Phil warns that the church is jumping off the deep end into heavy theology, and says it is fine to leave still wrestling with a passage, since meditating on God’s word is deeply spiritual.
First he explains what “the law and the prophets” means. The Hebrew Bible Jesus read holds the same books as our Old Testament in a different order: the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings, together called the Tanakh. Church fathers later regrouped them for easier reading, but the older order matters. After his resurrection, Jesus spoke of everything written about him in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms (Luke 24:44), and his phrase “from the blood of Abel to Zechariah” (Luke 11:49–51) spans the first and last murders in the Hebrew Bible.
Phil describes three kinds of Old Testament law: ceremonial laws for worship and sacrifice, civil laws governing Israel as a nation in a particular time and place, and moral laws such as the Ten Commandments. Jesus was not dismissing them; he told those who opposed him over the Sabbath that the Scriptures testify about him (John 5). Nor was he saying to keep following every Old Testament law. As one Bible scholar explains, they remain God’s authoritative word, but their role changes now that what they pointed to has come. In The King Jesus Gospel, Scot McKnight says the story of Israel is fulfilled in Jesus himself. Phil urges reading the Old Testament; without it, we may hold wrong ideas about Jesus.
Verses 18–20 call for a righteousness surpassing that of the scribes and Pharisees; in coming weeks, Jesus will confront the sinful heart, not just sinful actions. Phil’s main takeaway is that Jesus came not to get rid of the law but to close the gap between our unrighteousness and God’s holiness. Following the law can never forgive sin; God did what the law could not do by sending his Son (Romans 8:3–4), and Jesus has authority on earth to forgive sins (Mark 2). Nor can the law change a heart. God promised through Ezekiel a new heart and a new spirit, and our sin will be overcome not by more discipline but by more submission to Jesus. The law reveals our sin and our need for Jesus (Romans 3).
Being salt and light, then, flows from a changed heart, not religious effort, and surpassing righteousness means obeying everything Jesus teaches and helping others do the same. It comes as Paul describes in Philippians 3, counting everything as loss, even as refuse, compared with knowing Christ. Echoing the “That’s My King” video shown earlier, Phil asks, “Do you know him?” He closes with Isaiah’s call to seek the Lord while he may be found and turn to him, for he will forgive generously, warning that affluence can mask our need for God.
Questions about Jesus and the law
The Tanakh is the Hebrew Bible Jesus read: the same books as our Old Testament in a different order, grouped as the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings. His phrase “from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah” (Luke 11:51) spans the first and last murders in the Hebrew Bible, Pastor Phil notes. After his resurrection Jesus spoke of everything written about him “in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44).