The Life Of Jesus Christ In Its Historical Connexion

Section 153. Fulfilling of the Law and the Prophets: (1.) General View; (2.) Particular Exposition; (3.) Demand for a Higher Obedience than that of the Pharisees. (Matt., v., 17-20.)

(1.)

After commanding his disciples to become the " salt" of the earth, and to "let their light so shine before men that they might see their good works, and glorify their Father in heaven," it remained for him to set vividly before them, by specific illustrations, the mode in which they were to let their light shine through their actions; which would distinguish them palpably from those who then passed for holy men among the Jews.

This gave him occasion to refute the charge spread abroad by the Pharisees, that he aimed to subvert the authority of the law. But, instead of confining himself to a mere refutation, he took a course conforming with the dignity of his character, and justified himself in a positive way, by unfolding the relation in which his New Creation stood to the stand-point of the Old Covenant. He incorporated this, moreover, very closely with the practical purpose of the whole discourse (v.17, seq.). He characterizes the new law of life by distinct and separate traits. He proclaims the new law as the fulfilment of the old. For since the old law proceeds from the commandment "to love God above all things, and our neighbour as ourselves," it contains the eternal law of the kingdom of God; and only where love rules the whole life can we secure this object, which the whole religious law of the Old Testament aimed at, but could not realize. "On these two commandments (says Christ, Matt., xxii., 40) hang all the law and the prophets," i. e., the whole Old Testament. They could not be fulfilled from the Old Testament stand-point, because men needed, in order to fulfil them, a new life, proceeding from the spirit of love; and this Christ came to impart. He presupposes its existence in those for whom he communicates the new law.

Moreover, although the everlasting Theocratic law could be derived from the two commandments specified, yet its spirit, tied down to the stand-point of the political Theocracy, and cribbed in its contracted forms could not attain its free and full developement. But Christ, by freeing it from this bondage of forms, brought it into complete developement, not only in the consciousness, but in the practical life. In this respect, then, he fulfilled the law; and this was the object for which he appeared. [394]

(2.)

Christ begins, therefore, by saying, Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fufil. [395] By this we are to understand the whole of the Old Testament religion; he came to annul neither of its chief divisions, as his general mission was (last clause of v.17 [396] ) "not to destroy, but to fulfil." He adds, in a still stronger averment (v.18), that not one jot or tittle of the law should lose its validity, but that all have its fulfilment, until the consummation of the kingdom of God. [397] This last will be the great "fulfilment," for which all previous stages of the kingdom were but preparatory.

Here, again, it is shown that, in this sense, "destroying" and "fulfilling" are correlative ideas. The consummation of the kingdom will be the "fufilling" of all which was contained, in germ, in the preparatory stand-point; it will, on the other hand, be the "destroying" of all that was, in itself, only preparatory. In pointing to this consummation of the kingdom of God as the final "fulfilling" of all, Christ at the same time fixes the final end for the fulfilment of all the promises connected with the beatitudes. Thus the connexion with the words sp( ken before is closely preserved. [398]

(3.)

Passing from the Old Testament in general to the "law" in particular, and applying to it the general proposition that he had advanced, Christ commands his disciples (v.19, 20) to fulfil the law in a far higher sense than those did who were at that time considered patterns of righteousness. In proportion as each fulfilled the law was he to have a higher or a lower place in the developement of the kingdom (v.19). The principle of life which they all possessed in common (the essential requisite for fulfilling any of the demands of the sermon) by no means precluded differences of degree; it might penetrate one more thoroughly than another, and display itself in a more (or less) complete fulfilling of the law. Christ illustrates the same doctrine in the parable of the Sower.

Such, then, and so superior is the fulfilling of the law which Christ requires of all who would belong to his kingdom: Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven. [399]