The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany is February 5, 2023.

Readings for Year A can be found here.

The Gospel is as follows (emphases mine):

Matthew 5:13-20

5:13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.

5:15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

5:18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

5:19 Therefore, whoever breaks 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.

5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur (as specified below).

This post is long, as our Lord’s teaching is so rich in content.

Readings from the Sermon on the Mount continue. Last week’s, Matthew 5:1-12, were about the Beatitudes.

Jesus ended that portion of His sermon, delivered to the twelve original disciples (whom He would later call as Apostles), although within earshot of the crowd, with the Beatitude on persecution:

5:11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

5:12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Then He discussed what those obeying the Beatitudes were to do, even when persecuted.

Matthew Henry’s commentary sums up verses 13 to 16 as follows:

Christ had lately called his disciples, and told them that they should be fishers of men; here he tells them further what he designed them to be—the salt of the earth, and lights of the world, that they might be indeed what it was expected they should be.

John MacArthur says:

… the final Beatitude in verses 10-12 is transitional.  We see, in verses 10-12, the attitude of the world toward the believer, and in 13-16, the attitude of the believer to the world.  The world is going to hate us, but we still have to be salt and light to influence them.  The important truth is revealed that the people whom the world hates are the very ones they desperately need to be influenced by.  Did you hear that?  Even the quasi-religious, quasi-pious scribes and Pharisees who hated the representatives of Jesus Christ were totally dependent on their influence to know the truth of God.  The world may hate us and the world may persecute us, but the world is absolutely dependent upon us being the influence and the verbal manifestation of the gospel of God.

Jesus told them that they were the salt of the earth, telling them that they must remain like good salt, not the kind that loses its taste and is no good anymore, so must be thrown out and trampled under foot (verse 13).

Salt, particularly in ancient times, was valuable and used for different purposes. Roman soldiers were paid in salt, giving rise to the expression ‘worth his salt’. Salt preserved meat, e.g. beef jerky. Salt was used in covenants and still is today in parts of the Middle East. Newborn babies were cleansed in salt then wrapped in swaddling clothes. Salt, when poured in a wound, stings terribly. MacArthur’s sermon discusses all of these examples.

Henry reminds us that salt was used in Old Testament sacrifices:

An everlasting covenant is called a covenant of salt (Num 18 19); and the gospel is an everlasting gospel. Salt was required in all the sacrifices (Lev 2 13), in Ezekiel’s mystical temple, Ezek 43 24. Now Christ’s disciples having themselves learned the doctrine of the gospel, and being employed to teach it to others, were as salt. Note, Christians, and especially ministers, are the salt of the earth.

He summarises our Lord’s meaning:

The doctrine of the gospel is as salt; it is penetrating, quick, and powerful (Heb 4 12); it reaches the heart Acts 2 37. It is cleansing, it is relishing, and preserves from putrefaction. We read of the savour of the knowledge of Christ (2 Cor 2 14); for all other learning is insipid without that …

1. If they be as they should be they are as good salt, white, and small, and broken into many grains, but very useful and necessary. Pliny says, Sine sale, vita humana non potest degere—Without salt human life cannot be sustained. See in this, (1.) What they are to be in themselves—seasoned with the gospel, with the salt of grace; thoughts and affections, words and actions, all seasoned with grace, Col 4 6. Have salt in yourselves, else you cannot diffuse it among others, Mark 9 50. (2.) What they are to be to others; they must not only be good but do good, must insinuate themselves into the minds of the people, not to serve any secular interest of their own, but that they might transform them into the taste and relish of the gospel. (3.) What great blessings they are to the world. Mankind, lying in ignorance and wickedness, were a vast heap of unsavoury stuff, ready to putrefy; but Christ sent forth his disciples, by their lives and doctrines, to season it with knowledge and grace, and so to render it acceptable to God, to the angels, and to all that relish divine things. (4.) How they must expect to be disposed of. They must not be laid on a heap, must not continue always together at Jerusalem, but must be scattered as salt upon the meat, here a grain and there a grain; as the Levites were dispersed in Israel, that, wherever they live, they may communicate their savour. Some have observed, that whereas it is foolishly called an ill omen to have the salt fall towards us, it is really an ill omen to have the salt fall from us.

2. If they be not, they are as salt that has lost its savour. If you, who should season others, are yourselves unsavoury, void of spiritual life, relish, and vigour; if a Christian be so, especially if a minister be so, his condition is very sad; for, (1.) He is irrecoverable: Wherewith shall it be salted? Salt is a remedy for unsavoury meat, but there is no remedy for unsavoury salt. Christianity will give a man a relish; but if a man can take up and continue the profession of it, and yet remain flat and foolish, and graceless and insipid, no other doctrine, no other means, can be applied, to make him savoury. If Christianity do not do it, nothing will. (2.) He is unprofitable: It is thenceforth good for nothing; what use can it be put to, in which it will not do more hurt than good? As a man without reason, so is a Christian without grace. A wicked man is the worst of creatures; a wicked Christian is the worst of men; and a wicked minister is the worst of Christians. (3.) He is doomed to ruin and rejection; He shall be cast out—expelled the church and the communion of the faithful, to which he is a blot and a burden; and he shall be trodden under foot of men. Let God be glorified in the shame and rejection of those by whom he has been reproached, and who have made themselves fit for nothing but to be trampled upon.

MacArthur has more on the need for salt, in our Lord’s time and the present day.

He delivered his sermon in 1979. His next point is still important in today’s world which increasingly refuses Christianity:

The presupposition here is that we live in a decayed and decaying, dark and darkening world; that is the biblical world view.  Jesus reveals His perspective on the world: It’s decayed and dark.

And it isn’t getting better.  “Evil men,” it says in Timothy’s epistle, “Evil men shall become worse and worse.”  Now you know, it is absolutely a ridiculous, stupid pipe dream to think the world is getting better.  It can’t get better because it isn’t good to start with.  It’s bad, and it’s getting worse.

One of the professors at a local college was telling his class recently — one of the students told me this last week — that the reason marriage was on the decline and the reason marriage was fading out as a human institution was because man was evolving to a higher level and marriage was something that man only needed at the lower level. And he was now evolving to a higher level of living — evolutionary style of living — that was causing marriage, like his prehensile tail, to drop off.

Listen, anybody standing around in the world today, saying, “We’re still evolving up,” is blind as a bat!  Now, I agree that we’re learning a lot.  We have an incredible amount of science, and technology, and medical knowledge, and philosophy, and history, and sociology, and psychology, and educational technique, and all of this stuff is going on all the time. And you know what?  It has no effect upon the corruption of society, none at all.  We just get worse and worse and worse.  All that information means nothing.

Even the oft-quoted philosopher and unbeliever Bertrand Russell was disappointed at the end of his life:

By the way, it’s really a frustrating thing to be a philosopher.  Bertrand Russell spent his whole life being a philosopher.  At 96 years, he was ready to die.  His final statement was this, “Philosophy has proved a washout to me.”  It didn’t take him anyplace, because nothing that he ever thought of ever had anything to affect the way the world was going.

MacArthur quotes from a 1979 article from Time, which still resonates today with all the criticism of the Boomer generation:

Time Magazine, listen to this: “Today’s young radicals in particular are almost painfully sensitive to these and other wrongs of their society.  And they denounce them violently.  But at the same time, they are typically American, in that they fail to place evil in its historic and human perspective.”  Time Magazine says this!  “To them, evil is not an irreducible component of man, it is not an inescapable fact of life, but something committed by the older generation, attributable to a particular class or the establishment, and eradicable through love or revolution.” End quote. That’s foolish.  It is an irreducible human component, evil is.

Today’s churches are not helping the situation:

You know what’s so sad about it, people, is that instead of the church influencing the world this [a good, salty] way, the church is influenced by the world ... Remember some months back when I talked to you about the crises of Christianity and how the church has fallen victim to so many trends in human society?  It’s ludicrous what the church permits under the influence of the world …

We are called to be salty:

Literally translating verse 13 would be this: “The only salt of the earth is you.” “The only salt of the earth is you.”  That’s it. That’s it.  Here we are in 1979, in Southern California, in the midst of a decadent and dark society, and the only salt of this place is you.  That’s it, all who possess the character of the kingdom.

And by the way, the “you” is plural. He’s talking about the collective body of believers.  No, you don’t put one grain of salt on anything.  You don’t say, “Pass the salt,” and then pick out one thing and drop it on there.  It only functions in combination with other pieces of salt, other grains of salt. And the church, to influence the world, must be collective salt, you see.  It’s not enough to be all alone at it. We’ve got to be at it together, collective influence … 

So the saved are the salt.  The verb here, este, stresses being.  The stress is on being; it’s on what we are and what we continue to be.  And we are the salt, and we continue to be the salt, and we are the only salt in the world.  Let me add this, it’s not what we should be, it’s what we are.  Like it or not, you’re the salt of the earth.  The only question is whether you’re salty or whether you’ve lost your salt flavor.  You are the salt. You either have a savor or you don’t.

But the idea isn’t, “Please be salt,” it is, “You are salt.”  The only question is whether you’re salty ... If you are a believer, you’re salt. 

Jesus said that believers are the light of the world, saying that a city on a hill cannot be hidden (verse 14).

As with salt — applied with many grains rather than just one — we are called to come together as spiritual lights in a world of sinful darkness.

Henry reminds us that Jesus called Himself the light of the world:

Christ called himself the Light of the world (John 8 12), and they are workers together with him, and have some of his honour put upon them. Truly the light is sweet, it is welcome; the light of the first day of the world was so, when it shone out of darkness; so is the morning light of every day; so is the gospel, and those that spread it, to all sensible people. The world sat in darkness, Christ raised up his disciples to shine in it; and, that they may do so, from him they borrow and derive their light.

MacArthur says that grains of salt and many lights in a city on a hill communicate the same notion of the faithful working together to spread the Gospel:

“The light” is the light…  He uses the illustration of a city. It’s many lights that light a city, its many grains of salt that affect a substance …

Now beloved, we are the light and we are the salt.  That’s just the way it is.  We’ve been separated from the world totally.  In 1 John chapter 5, a most significant text, verse 4, “Whatever is born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.  And who is he that overcomes the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God?”  When you believed in Christ, you overcame the world, you stepped out of the darkness.  Colossians 1, “You were translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son,” and the kingdom of His Son is light.

And you say, “John, what does ‘light’ mean?”  It means the truth and the life of God revealed.  We are no longer in the darkness; we are in the light, and we are the light of the world.  Reflecting the light of the sun, we are moons, that the world may know the truth of God.  So we are salt to retard the corruption and we’re light to manifest the truth.  One is negative, one is positive, right?  Salt retards corruption and light manifests truth.

MacArthur ties the Beatitudes into verses 13 through 16:

So our Lord connects — watch this — great blessedness through verse 12 with great responsibility, verses 13-16.  If God is so gracious, verses 3-12, to put you in the kingdom and to give you everything He gives you: the kingdom of heaven, verse 3, comfort verse 4, inherit the earth, verse 5, fill you up with righteousness, verse 6, give you mercy, verse 7, allow you to see God, verse 8, call you a son, verse 9, and give you a great reward, verse 12.  If you have all of that blessing, believe me, you’ll have responsibility too.  And the responsibility is to live as salt and light.

And it’s challenging and exciting, not easy, but vastly rewarding.  We must live above the world.  You sprinkle salt, don’t you, from above on.  You shed light from above on. That’s what Christ is saying.

MacArthur continues:

Character is the issue. The character described in the Beatitudes makes it possible for us to affect the world …

The emphatic is here; we are the only salt and we are the only light the world will ever know …

Listen, the way to change the world isn’t to change it politically. The way to change the world isn’t to rewrite the laws. It isn’t to march, and it isn’t to try to use all of the technical paraphernalia for altering society. The way to change the world, people, is just to infiltrate it with godliness, and righteousness, and holiness, and affect it from the inside out. Now those other things aren’t wrong, but they are going to be powerless, unless our lives are what they ought to be.

Think about it this way. Never has the church been more involved in social action in our country. Never has the church been more involved in social action in recent history in our country. Never have we been so preoccupied with endeavoring to see Christianity in government. And what is the result? A society that’s more immoral than it’s ever been, because that’s not the way to do it. The way to do it is the influence of a godly life.

Jesus said that no one puts a light under a bushel basket but on the lampstand so that it lights the whole house (verse 15).

Recall that, in Revelation, the seven churches are referred to as lampstands. The idea is that the Church is a bright beacon of light, preaching salvation.

MacArthur has other examples of light, especially from the Old Testament:

If you study the Bible, you’ll find that light is related to the knowledge of God. Light is related to the true knowledge of God. For example, just a couple of Scriptures. In Psalm 36:9, it says this: “For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light.” So the first thing we have to realize is that God is light – right? – 1 John, chapter 1. “In Thee is the fountain of life, and in Thy light shall we see light.” God is light; so if we are to be light, then we must manifest God.

In Psalm 119:105 it says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a” – what? – “light to my path.” God is light; the Word is light …

Psalm 27:1, “The Lord is my” – what? – “light and my salvation.” So the fact is, if you want to know what light is in the Bible, it’s just a comprehensive term referring to all of God’s revelation: the revelation of Himself, of His Word, and of His Son. That’s light. And so we are to proclaim the message of light in a dark world, as well as to be salt in a decaying one.

In that same way, Jesus said, we believers must let our individual light shine before others that they may see our good works — fruits of faith rather than legalistic actions — and give glory to our Father in heaven (verse 16).

Henry explains:

See here, First, How our light must shine—by doing such good works as men may see, and may approve of; such works as are of good report among them that are without, and as will therefore give them cause to think well of Christianity. We must do good works that may be seen to the edification of others, but not that they may be seen to our own ostentation; we are bid to pray in secret, and what lies between God and our souls, must be kept to ourselves; but that which is of itself open and obvious to the sight of men, we must study to make congruous to our profession, and praiseworthy, Phil 4 8. Those about us must not only hear our good words, but see our good works; that they may be convinced that religion is more than a bare name, and that we do not only make a profession of it, but abide under the power of it.

Secondly, For what end our light must shine—”That those who see your good works may be brought, not to glorify you (which was the things the Pharisees aimed at, and it spoiled all their performances), but to glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Note, The glory of God is the great thing we must aim at in every thing we do in religion, 1 Pet 4 11. In this centre the lines of all our actions must meet. We must not only endeavor to glorify God ourselves, but we must do all we can to bring others to glorify him. The sight of our good works will do this, by furnishing them, 1. With matter for praise. “Let them see your good works, that they may see the power of God’s grace in you, and may thank him for it, and give him the glory of it, who has given such power unto men.” 2. With motives of piety. “Let them see your good works, that they may be convinced of the truth and excellency of the Christian religion, may be provoked by a holy emulation to imitate your good works, and so may glorify God.” Note, The holy, regular, and exemplary conversation of the saints, may do much towards the conversion of sinners; those who are unacquainted with religion, may hereby be brought to know what it is. Examples teach. And those who are prejudiced against it, may hereby by brought in love with it, and thus there is a winning virtue in a godly conversation.

MacArthur gives us two examples of how salt and light manifested themselves through believers. True believers have influence on others:

Andrew Murray evidently lived a holy life before his children.  I was reading about Andrew Murray, a great man of God, and about the effect he had on his children.  And the biographer says, “Eleven of his children grew to adult life.  Five of the six sons became ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Four of his daughters became ministers’ wives.”  Not bad, nine out of eleven.  Even the second generation made a good showing.  Ten grandsons became ministers of Christ and thirteen became missionaries.  Influence.

President Woodrow Wilson told this story.  He said, “I was in a very common place.  I was sitting in a barber chair when I became aware that a personality had entered the room.  A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself, to have his hair cut, and sat in the chair next to me.  Every word the man uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him.  And before I got through with what was being done for me, I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. D.L. Moody was in that chair.

“I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular effect that his visit had brought upon the barber shop.  They talked in undertones. They didn’t know his name, but they knew that something had elevated their thoughts.  And I felt that I left that place as I should have left the place of worship.  My admiration and esteem for Mr. Moody became very deep indeed.” Influence. Influence.

What message do you leave the world?  When you pass by, what are you saying? 

MacArthur says that what Jesus called His Twelve to do went against the whole religious system of His time:

He was really calling for something new. He was saying, “You know, you’re a part of a religious system that’s fouled up. And if you live according to kingdom character in the Beatitudes, then you’ve got to be different, and you’ve got to be light so that they can all see it. And that isn’t easy, because they’re not going to like what they see.”

It’s always the fear of persecution that makes us hesitant; we’re always a little afraid. And so after the Beatitude of “Blessed are the persecuted,” He has to reinforce the fact that “Don’t you put your light under a bushel; you put it there where everybody can see it, so that the whole world will know the truth of God.”

Verse 16 personalizes it. “Let your light so shine, so shine before men, that they will see your good works.” Stop right there. Let it shine, people, that’s all He’s saying. It’s a simple message … But kalos used here means good in terms of beauty. It’s the manifest beauty; not just that they’re good in and of themselves, but they have a beauty about them, an attractiveness, they are winsome; and that’s the word he uses. In other words, “Let men see your winsomeness. Let them see your beauty. Let them see your attractiveness, your quality.” It isn’t just the good deed itself, it’s the beauty that it manifests.

Then Jesus shifts to discussing divine law and righteousness.

Because Jesus was a religious revolutionary who wanted people to return to a proper faith rather than pursue that of the Jewish establishment, He said that He came not to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfil both (verse 17).

MacArthur explains:

Tremendous concept, people, if you can just grasp this. Every single thing in the Old Testament points to Christ. And so Jesus is saying, “Look, I know what you’re thinking. I know you’re thinking I’m going to set this law aside. I’m not. I’m going to lift it up higher than it is today, and I’m going to reveal the hypocrites. You’re thinking that I’m going to put it all away, and we’re not going to have any of this hassle anymore, and we can just be free and easy, and it’ll all be wonderful. I’m telling you, God’s standard hasn’t changed. No part of the sacred Scripture will ever be destroyed or annulled. It will be fulfilled, and I Myself will fulfill it.”

Tremendous statement. What a claim. What a shattering claim, that He alone would fulfill the whole Old Testament. Shocking. Here was the one for whom it was all written. Here is the object of the whole Old Testament. It all points to Jesus Christ. In it’s God-ordained origin, it can’t be annulled; it has to be fulfilled.

MacArthur elaborates on the law and the prophets:

… Moses went from the Ten Commandments, and under God’s inspiration, developed the ceremonial, the judicial systems, the whole outworking of the law in the life of the people.

And then the prophets came along. Now what was their job? Their job was to remind the people that the law was still incumbent, the law was still binding. It all goes back to the Ten Commandments. They were then basically God’s law. They were expanded in the statutes and ordinances that Moses gave in the Pentateuch; and then the rest of the Old Testament, the writings of the prophets, was to call upon the people to be obedient to these standards.

Now we can take the law of God and divide it into three parts: the Moral Law, the judicial law, and the ceremonial law. Now watch this. The moral law was for all men; the judicial law, just for Israel; the ceremonial law, for Israel’s worship of God. So the moral law encompasses all men, narrows it down to Israel in the judicial law, and to the worship of Israel toward God in the ceremonial law.

Now stay with me. The moral law is based in the Ten Commandments, the great moral principles laid down once and forever; the rest of the moral law is built upon that. The judicial law was the legislative law given for the functioning of Israel as a nation – very important. In other words, God said to Israel, “I want to set you apart from the rest of the world. I want you to be different. I want you to be unique, so you’ll have judicial laws. That’ll mean that you’re going to live with each other in a different way, you’re going to live with the nations around you in a different way,” this very unique law of judicial law to govern their behavior. Thirdly, the ceremonial law dealt with the temple ritual and the worship of God.

Now you say, “Which law is the Lord speaking of?” Now watch this one. He is speaking of all three, people. Some people say He’s just talking about the moral law. No, He’s not. He came to fulfill the whole thing, whether it was the moral law, the outgrowth of the moral law in Israel, the judicial law, or the law of worship, the ceremonial law; He came to fulfill every bit of it. It was all authored by God; it is all preeminent – all the principles, all the patterns, all the prophecies, all the types, all the symbols, all the pictures. Everything in the Old Testament is authored by God, and it all is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

So we see, first of all, that the law is preeminent, because it is authored by God. Secondly, the law is preeminent, because it is affirmed by the prophets. It is affirmed by the prophets. Look at verse 17. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets” …

First of all then, the law of God is binding, because it is authored by God. Secondly, it is affirmed by the prophets. Thirdly, accomplished by Christ. And this is the heart of the matter. It is accomplished by Christ.

For Christians, the Epistles clarify the moral law further, because they tell us how to live a holy life:

And in the Epistles, through His Holy Spirit, He clarified it even more, and enriched it even more.

Jesus fulfilled all three types of law by dying on the cross:

When He died on the cross – now watch this – when He died on the cross, that was the final, full rejection by Israel of her Messiah, right? That was it. And you know what? That was the end of God dealing with that nation as a nation. The judicial law that He gave to Israel passed away when God no longer dealt with them as a nation anymore, and Jesus built His church. Praise God, someday He’s going to go back and redeem that nation again, and deal with them again as a nation.

But for this time, when Jesus died on the cross, the judicial law came to a screeching halt. There was no more national people of God. There would be a new man, cut out of Jews and Gentiles, and it would be called the church, and the judicial law came to an end. That’s why Matthew 21:43 says, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you.”

Now let me add this: keep in mind that the foundations of the judicial law are in the moral law, so that the divine principles behind it still exist. They’re still binding, they’re still there; but the judicial law related to Israel was set aside when Jesus died, because that was the full and final rejection of their Messiah.

What about the moral law, did He fulfill the moral law? Sure He did. In what way? In the way we mentioned earlier. Every rule God ever made, He obeyed, right? Every precept God ever laid down, He fulfilled. He never disobeyed anything that God established. Yes, He filled up the judicial law in the sense that He brought the whole thing to its ultimate climax. He allowed Israel, God did, to go the way they chose, and they ended their identity as His people at that point, until a future time, and summed up the judicial law, and it was over. And Jesus, by the living of a perfect life, fulfilled the moral law.

That leaves only one other: the ceremonial law. Listen, how did He fulfill the ceremonial law? Oh, this is fantastic. Let me tell you: He died on a cross.

Now listen to me; this is the last point, but I want to make it, and I want to make it good. He died on a cross, and when He died on that cross, the whole ceremonial system came to an end. In fact, when He died, it says the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. The Holy of Holies was unbared, and God was saying, “The whole Levitical, priestly, judicial system is over. It’s all over.” And so He fulfilled totally the judicial law, in a negative way, by being the victim of their final rejection. He fulfilled the moral law in the way He lived, and the ceremonial law in the way He died.

That torn veil meant that, thanks to Christ’s one sufficient sacrifice on the cross, mankind was finally reconciled to God and that we could approach Him directly, no longer through priests, who themselves could not stay in the Holy of Holies longer than a few seconds themselves.

There is one further fulfilment of the law, and that is Christ’s resurrection, which gives believers the promise of eternal life.

Henry has an interesting note on the word ‘fulfil’:

To fill up the defects of it, and so to complete and perfect it. Thus the word plerosai properly signifies. If we consider the law as a vessel that had some water in it before, he did not come to pour out the water, but to fill the vessel up to the brim; or, as a picture that is first rough-drawn, displays some outlines only of the piece intended, which are afterwards filled up; so Christ made an improvement of the law and the prophets by his additions and explications … The gospel is the time of reformation (Heb 9 10), not the repeal of the law, but the amendment of it, and, consequently, its establishment.

Jesus said that, not until heaven and earth pass away, shall one jot or tittle of the law remain unfulfilled (verse 17).

This is the King James Version of that verse:

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.

MacArthur reminds us that not every prophecy has yet been fulfilled:

He fulfilled some; ah, but some are yet to be fulfilled. Some of the prophecies haven’t been fulfilled yet, have they? Some are still future. But I’ll tell you what He says. Verse 18 he says this: “Not one jot or tittle shall in any way pass from this law, until every single bit of it is fulfilled.”

This means that God’s law is permanent:

… The permanence of the law.

… The Jews were looking for a more lax system. They couldn’t keep up with the scribes, and they couldn’t keep up with the Pharisees; and, body, they were hoping somebody’d come and drop the standards a little bit so they could make it. And the Lord Jesus Christ lifts the standard even higher, and then He just wipes out the Pharisees and the scribes for their hypocritical approach to God’s law.

You see, what they were doing; they had substituted human tradition for the law of God, and Jesus came in and just wiped the human tradition away, just cleaned it off. The judicial law was fulfilled, for the most part; the ceremonial law was fulfilled, for the most part. Even some of the moral laws; I said the Sabbath was fulfilled. But God’s righteous standards never changed, and so He says, just so they don’t ever forget it, “Nothing is going to pass, nothing, until it’s all fulfilled.”

MacArthur explains jot and tittle:

“Jot” is really a representation of a Hebrew letter. In the Hebrew, there is a letter called “yodh” – Y-O-D-H if you want a transliteration. Yodh is similar to an apostrophe, that’s all, an apostrophe. It’s a letter, however. It’s pronounced as a “y” sound. And a yodh is the smallest letter. In the Greek language, the little, tiny “iota,” obviously coming from the same kind of root: iota – Greek students call a iota subscript, where you take an “i” out of a word, and for certain reasons in the Greek language, they drop it under another letter, and it appears as another little, tiny apostrophe. And what He’s saying is, “Not the tiniest Hebrew letter, not the tiniest Greek letter shall pass from this law, till all fulfilled.”

People say, “Well, we don’t have to believe in an inerrant, infallible Bible, that every word is inspired by God, do we?” Yes. In fact, every yodh and every iota. When God gave His Word in the original manuscripts, every jot was inspired by Him.

And then He talks about a “tittle.” This is interesting. I don’t know how to show you what it is other than saying it’s a keraia, which is a very small item. I guess the best illustration would be, it’s the difference between an “e” and an “f.” An “f” is a line with two lines on it running perpendicular to it, and an “e” has three. And that last, little, tiny thing makes the difference between an “e” and an “f.”

And that’s what Jesus is saying. That little tiny keraia, that little serif that is on the tag-end of a letter that separates, if you will, a bet from a kaf. A bet looks like this, like a “c.” A kaf looks the same way, only it’s got a little, tiny line on the edge of it. And He’s saying, “Not one little, tiny serif that distinguishes a bet from a kaf will be removed from My law until the whole thing is fulfilled. Did I come to set it aside the law of God? Not on your life.”

Is this still God’s authoritative Word? Is it still God’s Holy Word for us? You’d better believe it. Jesus fulfilled part of it, but God’s moral law has never been set aside; and it’ll all be there until it’s fulfilled, and it’ll all be there till heaven and earth pass away. Conversely, folks, heaven and earth isn’t going to pass away till every single element in this Book is fulfilled.

Jesus went on to press His point by saying that whoever breaks one of God’s commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever obeys them and teaches others to obey will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (verse 19).

MacArthur says this verse points to the pertinence of God’s law:

He reiterates the preeminence of it in verse 17, and then the permanence of it in verse 18, and then the pertinence of it in verse 19, and finally the purpose of it in verse 20. Now they were looking for a king, and He was a King, but they were looking for a political king who would bring an external kingdom; and He was a spiritual King who would bring an internal kingdom. So instead of talking about a new economy, instead of talking about a new politic, He kept talking about new character; that’s what He was talking about in the Beatitudes. Instead of changing the outside, He wanted to change the inside.

And here, He tells them that the key to a change on the inside, the key to qualifying to fulfill the responsibility to be in His kingdom is the Old Testament Word of God. “It still stands,” He says. “Righteousness is still defined on God’s terms. God hasn’t changed His mind.”

MacArthur explains the words Jesus used:

The word “break” is a very interesting word. It’s the word luō. It’s a very, very common word in the Greek. It means “to loose,” “to release,” “to nullify,” or “to destroy.” And the idea here would be that if you loose yourself or release yourself fr