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Jesus’ View of
the Holy Scripture
(An Exposition of Matthew 5:17-19)
Prabhudas Koshy
Introduction
No Christian should hold on
to any view that contradicts what Jesus has taught. Today, there is much
confusion and contention among “Christian” teachers and leaders on the
subject of the infallibility and preservation of the Scripture. But as
committed Christians, we cannot afford to be confused or misled by false
views concerning the Scripture, especially when Christ has unequivocally
stated His view for us to hold on to. Jesus affirmed the infallibility and
preservation of the Scripture by saying: “Think not that I am come to
destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one
tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled...”
(Matthew 5:17-19). To understand Jesus’ teaching on the infallibility and
preservation of the Scripture, we shall study His words found in Matthew
5:17-19.
Matthew records these words
of Christ as part of the Sermon on the Mount. In verse 18, for the first
time in His sermon, Jesus used the authoritative and dogmatic formula “I
say unto you;” and He repeats it again in verse 20: “For I say unto you
...” This suggests to us that Jesus really expects our total attention on
the words that follow so that we may study them and observe them as
cardinal doctrine and practice. There should be no contention about these
explicit words of Jesus about the Scripture. His view about the Scripture,
expressed in Matthew 5:17-19, should be our view always.
It would be very helpful if
we can recollect the historical and scriptural background of the passage
under our consideration to get the real feel of its emphasis.
Historical and Scriptural Background
Historical Background:
Since John the Baptist introduced Christ to the world, the eyes of
everyone in Israel were upon Him. He appeared to be very different from
the scribes and Pharisees. He did not follow the prevailing theology of
His day and refused to identify Himself with any of the sects of His time.
He disregarded their traditions as well as their extraneous and legalistic
rules. As a friend of publicans and sinners, He proclaimed love and grace.
His meekness and humility made Him distinguishable from all other
religious teachers who were proud, boastful and hypocritical. He preached
forgiveness of sins and dispensed mercy. Consequently, the people and the
Jewish leaders wondered if He was destroying all the absolutes of the Old
Testament Scripture for some new teaching. Many were inclined to think
that He intended to subvert the authority of God's Word.
So Jesus came forward to
remove their doubts and said, in effect, “What you see and hear is nothing
new at all. I did not come to remove the Old Testament law but to
reiterate and fulfil it.” So His amazing manifesto is in direct harmony
with the Old Testament, though it was in direct confrontation with their
thinking. When the scribes and Pharisees were making the traditions
binding upon people, Jesus was talking about grace and mercy. But Jesus
told them that they had dragged the divine standard so low that it was
necessary to raise it again. Having a greater commitment to the law than
the most scrupulous scribe or Pharisee, Jesus proceeded to support the
unfailing and lasting authority of the Scripture.
Scriptural Context:
In Matthew 5:3-12, Jesus gives a list of the characteristics of a true
Christian. Then, in verses 13 and 16, He emphasised what a true believer
ought to be and how he should act. From verses 17 to 20, Jesus shows how
it is possible to be like what He taught us to be. Here He shows us how to
live out the Beatitudes and be the salt and light in a decaying and
darkened world; certainly not by lowering God's standard that is written,
but by striving to live in complete obedience to all that God has
revealed, even to the jot and tittle. This was, obviously, a shocking
appeal to the society of Jesus' day, which obeyed only what it wanted to.
Jesus introduces the key to
a righteous life as nothing else but keeping of God’s law. The only way to
have true righteousness is to go beyond the phoney externalism of the
scribes and Pharisees, to the inward righteousness that is only wrought by
the power and authority of God's Word. Therefore, when Jesus came, He did
not abolish the Old Testament but He reinforced it.
Jesus Adheres Himself to the Whole of the
Scripture
To understand how extensive
and emphatic Jesus' declaration of His view of the Scripture is, the words
He used must be carefully considered. First of all, what did Jesus mean
when He referred to the law or the prophets? The term “law” can be a
reference to the Ten Commandments or the first five books of Moses, or to
the whole Old Testament. But usually, the Jews used the word when they
were talking about the oral scribal traditions that they had been
receiving from various rabbis.
Now when Jesus said, “Think
not that I am come to destroy the law…,” He was not talking about the
traditions of men. By using the definite article “the law,” the multitude
should have understood that Jesus was talking about the law of God. But
how do we know whether Jesus was referring to the Ten Commandments or the
Pentateuch or the whole Old Testament? Verse 17 settles it, when it says:
“the law, or the prophets.” In the Gospel of Matthew, “the law and the
prophets” is used four times (Matthew 5:17; 7:12; 11:13; 22:40), with
reference to the whole of the Old Testament. Therefore, we can confidently
say that “the law” in this passage in Matthew 5 refers to the whole Old
Testament.
Interestingly, in 5:17 “the
law” and “prophets” are not connected by the conjunction “and” (Greek
kai) as in the other three places mentioned above. Here instead of
kai, Matthew uses the adversative “or” (Greek e). Lenski comments: The
“adversative” divides the Old Testament into two parts: “The law” or
Pentateuch; “the prophets” or all the rest of the Old Testament. In other
words, the word “or” implies that the attitude taken by Christ is the same
towards both. Thus, Jesus most emphatically proclaims His full adherence
to the whole of the Old Testament.
Another term that stresses
His total adherence to the Scripture is “fulfil,” when He said: “I am not
come to destroy, but to fulfil” (5:17). Now the question before us is – In
what way did Christ fulfil “the law” and “the prophets?” Many commentators
argue that Christ fulfilled the law and the prophets in two different
ways. The prophets are fulfilled in a predictive fashion: what they
predict comes to pass and is thereby fulfilled. The law, some say, is
fulfilled by confirming the law in its deeper meaning while others say
Jesus fulfilled the law by dying on the cross, thus satisfying the demands
of the law against all who would believe in Him. Though these ideas are
established elsewhere in the New Testament, the emphasis that Matthew
conveys is more extensive. Elsewhere, Matthew records Jesus as saying,
“For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John” (Matthew 11:13).
Not only do the prophets prophesy, but the law also prophesies. In other
words, the entire Old Testament has a prophetic function and Jesus came to
fulfil the Old Testament. In Matthew 5:17, therefore, we must rid
ourselves of conceptions of fulfilment which are too narrow. Jesus
fulfilled the entire Old Testament – the law and the prophets, in many
ways. Because they point towards Him, He had certainly not come to abolish
them, but rather, to fulfil them in a rich diversity of ways. In summary,
we can say that Jesus’ life and ministry were not in opposition to the Old
Testament, but in fulfilment of all that it says.
Jesus Affirms that Every Letter of the Scripture
will be Preserved
Thus, after declaring His
total adherence to the Scripture, He states His view of the Scripture:
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one
tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (verse
18). As we noticed before, “the law” in this verse also refers to the
entire Old Testament. It would be unwarranted if we say “the law” refers
only to the legal requirements, especially when we study verse 18 in the
light of verse 17. Thus, referring to the entire Old Testament, He wishes
to make a strong assertion when He says, “For verily I say unto you.” The
word “verily” is a translation of the Greek term “amen” which is a
transliteration of the Hebrew word for “truth.” Therefore, it generally
identifies something true, faithful or absolute. This expression, thus,
explains to us how highly Jesus regards the Scripture, and how important
the following statement is of His view of the Scripture - “Till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till
all be fulfilled.”
Jesus then tells us how long
the Scripture will continue to be unerring and authoritative - “till
heaven and earth pass.” In other words, Jesus was emphasizing the relative
imperishability of God's Word, by saying that it would be here even when
the universe passed out of its present existence.
Then He continues to express
His view in the most exhaustive way by saying, “one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” A “jot” (or
yodh) refers to the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is
very similar to an apostrophe. A “tittle” is an appendage or portion of
the letter, a mark by which one letter is distinguished from another. So
what Jesus is saying is that not even the tiniest Hebrew letter shall pass
from this law until all would be fulfilled.
If God does not preserve
every letter of the Scripture, then the truth of God’s Word would be lost.
The purity and authority of the whole Scripture are dependent on every
section of the Scripture, every book, every chapter, every word, and every
letter. Even the smallest letter or a portion of a letter cannot be lost,
if the authority and infallibility of the Scripture have to remain
unaffected all through time. The Lord Jesus assures us that His Word will
be preserved true to every letter. We may have difficulty in understanding
how the Lord could speak of absolutely perfect preservation of the
Scripture in its originals, when there were cases of scribal errors in
manuscripts. Though scribal errors have occurred in some copies, the Lord
promises to keep His Word free from all such human errors for His people
to believe and obey.
Today, we have no need to
approach the Scripture with doubt. It is divinely preserved from all
impurity. Through the history of the church, we can see how God
providentially guided godly men not only to determine the books of the
canon of the Scripture, but also to recognise the exact original words of
those books for an obedient life. In the Hebrew and Greek texts underlying
the King James Bible, we have these perfectly preserved texts through the
ages, recognised by godly men during the days of the Reformation, and
continued to be used by the church for the past 400 years approximately. A
perfectly preserved Bible to the end of times – that is what the Lord
Jesus promised in Matthew 5:18, and that is what we have today.
Jesus Warns us not to Disregard even the Least
Commandment of the Scripture
Because every letter of the
Scripture will be preserved to the end of days, Jesus warns us about
setting aside or disannulling any portion of the Scripture. “Whosoever
therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men
so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever
shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of
heaven” (verse 19). The word “therefore” takes our attention backward, and
gives us one reason why we should not disregard the Scripture. The reason
is, as we found earlier, that God’s Word is imperishable.
Then Jesus forewarns us of
the consequences, if we disregard even a smallest portion of His Word –
“Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and
shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of
heaven.” The word “break” (Greek luo) means “to loose, release,
nullify or destroy.” Therefore, the idea conveyed is if anyone releases
himself from an obligation to obey or to teach exactly what it says, even
the least of it, he will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.
This suggests that such men will face the Lord’s judgment for unbelief and
loss of reward.
Another significant phrase
that should be noticed is “these commandments.” The expression “these
commandments” must be understood within the context since any expressed
antecedent for the term “these” is absent. In the previous verses, Jesus
referred to the whole Old Testament and claimed that He came not to
destroy but to fulfil them. Since Jesus is the fulfilment of “the law” and
“the prophets” (or the whole Old Testament points to Him), our
responsibility is not only to obey the commandments of the Old Testament
but also His teachings as found in the New Testament. We must also take
heed of the words of the New Testament writers for they were written as
inspired by His Spirit.
Conclusion
In this passage, we have
seen how our Lord promises to preserve all the letters of His Word that
His people may have an infallible, everlasting Scripture. As disciples of
Jesus, we must also hold the same view of the Scripture, which Jesus
proclaimed. To doubt the perfect preservation of the Bible, as many have
done, is to simply deny Jesus’ promise. That would also mean to drift away
from the perfect standard of righteousness. The message the Lord gives in
Matthew 5:17-19 is: Fulfil God's law, and do not break even the least of
His commandments, because His Word is pre-eminent, permanent and pertinent
till the end of days. All Christians must affirm their allegiance to the
Word of God. If anyone, therefore, questions its perfect preservation,
infallibility and authority, he cannot be considered a faithful Christian,
let alone a faithful Bible teacher. Dear reader, it is time for us to take
heed of our Saviour's words more than ever before, and uphold His perfect
Word by believing, obeying and proclaiming all of its words.
Rev Prabhudas Koshy is the
pastor of Gethsemane Bible-Presbyterian Church.
- Published in
Bible Witness, Vol 2 Issue 4 (October - December 2002)
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