Jesus' View of Scripture (Matthew 5:17–20) | John MacArthur

Today on Grace to you, >> every word, every letter authored by God, affirmed by the prophets, accomplished through Jesus Christ, will come to pass. He establishes the sufficiency of scripture to save. Let them hear Moses and the prophets. He affirms scripture every way possible. What in the world makes us so embarrassed about the gospel?

I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. One of my favorite conversations with Jesus is found in the fifth chapter of Matthew. Fifth chapter of Matthew. And it's a passage that's embedded in the sermon on the mount. Famous sermon on the mount that occupies Matthew 56 and 7.

And it's to that that I wish to turn in Matthew 5:1 17. We'll read down to verse 20. And I've titled this Jesus view of scripture because it's exactly what it is. He said in verse 17, "Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets.

I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annulls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Profound words. And just to simply break it down from verses 17 to 20, he affirms the preeminence of the law of God, scripture.

He affirms the permanence of the law of God. And he affirms the importance of the law of God. And he does it in a way that makes crystal clear how he affirms scripture as the word of God. His view of scripture, by the way, is the most crucial one.

I suppose you could reduce it to this. Whatever Jesus thought about the Bible, that's what I want to think about it. Right? This is what Jesus thought about scripture. Let's begin with the preeminence of the law. The preeeminence of it. Verse 17. Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets.

I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. He disregarded the oral law. He interpreted the written law of the Old Testament in very different ways than the scribes did. And he never quoted a rabbi and never quoted a scribe. He said things as if he was the authority.

He spoke with a kind of authority that they had never heard before. He has to be revoling against the Old Testament. But the truth of the matter is he is upholding the validity of the Old Testament and denouncing misinterpretations, additions and subtractions and particularly hypocrisy on the part of the leaders of Judaism.

He had not come to undermine the law of God. He had not come to undermine true religion. He had come to overthrow the hypocrisy of false religion masquerading as if it were true. So he says, "Do not think that I came to abolish the law." Abolish very intense word.

Cataluo in the Greek. It means to nullify, to destroy. Strong word used in the physical sense. It would describe something pulled to pieces. Something completely destroyed. No, he says, "I did not come to destroy the law. I came to fulfill it." The law is preeminent because it's God is the source.

The prophets are the ones who affirmed it, proclaimed it. But particularly is it preeminent because Christ fulfilled it. Look at the end of verse 17. He did not come to set aside the law. You're absolutely wrong. He did not come to abregate the law, nullify the law. He came to fulfill the law.

To fulfill it. Well, let's think that through for a few minutes. What exactly does that encompass? Some have said, well, he he he fulfilled it in the sense that he filled out the teaching that was in the Old Testament. He sort of completed the full revelation. God, as Hebrews says, spoke in times past by the fathers and the prophets is now spoken in his son.

So, this is filling out revelation. that that is true. That is true. But that's not the point here. Others have suggested that he fulfilled the law by perfectly obeying it his whole life. Yes, he he did complete the law in Revelation, but he also lived it in perfection, holy, harmless, undefiled.

He would fulfill all righteousness. He said in Matthew 3:15, all righteousness. So he did fulfill the law in that sense that he lived this sinless life. There's truth in that. There's truth in that. But that's not the point. You say, "What is the point?" The point is this.

He is the fulfillment of the law. Those things are true. He did fulfill the law in his perfect life. He was without sin. He did speak divine scripture. He did add to the body of revelation that we know as scripture. But the point he's saying here is I am the fulfillment of the law.

This is his great summation statement. You can look at the Old Testament and no matter where you look, it's going to drive you to me. He didn't come just to rescue the law from rabbitical corruption. He didn't just come to add more revelation. He didn't come merely to be a model of righteousness and live out demonstrabably perfection.

He came to be the fulfillment of the law. And then there's a second point to make. Not only is the scripture preeminent, but it is permanent. Look at verse 18. That's not going to change. It's not going to change. Verse 18. For truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Now heaven and earth will pass away. They definitely will pass away. But until then, not one part of this word of God will pass away until everything is fulfilled. Everything, all the prophecy, all the pre-written history has to be fulfilled. And not one single letter, smallest letter or small stroke, a little hook that goes over the top of a Hebrew letter or a dot on an I down to the minutia.

None of it is going to pass away. Every word, every letter authored by God, affirmed by the prophets, accomplished through Jesus Christ will come to pass. Our Lord here is obviously firmly saying that every word of God is pure. All scripture is God breathed. And some of the Old Testament had already been fulfilled in his birth. his incarnation.

Other parts were being fulfilled in his prophetic ministry and soon prophecies of his death and resurrection would be fulfilled and eventually in the future even the final glory of Christ and all those prophecies will be fulfilled in the new heaven and the new earth. We won't need the scripture because we'll know everything.

But until then the scripture will prevail. It is permanent. So Jesus is saying I I wouldn't set aside that which is permanent. That's Jesus view of scripture. Scripture he said cannot be broken. You you can't find a crack in it. 64 times he referred to the Old Testament as authoritative.

Then as I mentioned a moment ago in Matthew 24:35 he said heaven and earth shall pass away but my words will not pass away. Here he says scripture the law of God will not pass away equating his words with the law with the scripture. If the law means the scripture in the Old Testament and Jesus words are scripture that's the the words that he spoke in the gospels.

Now the gospels are inspired from him and second Peter says Paul spoke scripture. You have the New Testament affirmed as scripture. It's not going to go anywhere until the whole universe disintegrates. Our Lord was very direct. In Matthew 19, he affirmed the Genesis account of creation. In Luke 11, he affirmed the murder of Abel.

In Matthew 24, he affirmed the flood, Noah. In John 8, he spoke of the faith of Abraham. In Luke 17, he looked back to Sodom and Lot and the destruction there. In John 6, he talks about the mana. In John 3, he talks about the serpent in the wilderness.

He establishes the sufficiency of scripture to save. Let them hear Moses and the prophets. In Mark 12:24, he said, "You don't understand the resurrection because you don't understand the scripture." He said, "Scripture would make you free from bad theology error." When he was tempted in Matthew 4, he answered all three temptations with a quote of a passage from the book of Deuteronomy.

He affirmed scripture every way possible. When he attacked the temple in Mark 11, he tied it into Isaiah's prophecy and Jeremiah's The point is this. If you reject the Bible, you reject Jesus. You You reject him. If you reject the Bible as authoritative, you reject the claim that Christ made that it was true.

And more than that, look at Luke 24. Luke 24 verse 25, our Lord says, "Oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all the prophets have spoken. You're to believe it all. You're a fool if you don't." Was it not necessary for the Christ, the Messiah, to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?

There were there were disciples questioning why did he have to die? And he's saying, "Don't you believe the prophets? They showed you that Christ, the Messiah, had to die before he could enter his glory." And then to make it clear, beginning with Moses, Genesis, and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

He basically says,"I am the theme of the Old Testament." I am the theme of the Old Testament. Down in verse 44, he did it again when he said to his gathered disciples, "These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled."

Notice the all all things. And back in verse 27, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. The scriptures filled with truth about him. There's no way it would ever be nullified or abregated. And he's indicting them at the same time by saying, "I'm here and you're unwilling to believe in me."

Now, what is the importance of this? Look at verse 19. Whoever en knows one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

It's a lot at stake. How you handle the scripture will determine whether you're least or whether you're great. in the kingdom of heaven. In other words, it determines your eternal reward. He's talking about believers who are in the kingdom, who will be in heaven, but their eternal reward is connected to how they handled scripture.

If if you decide in your life that you're you're going to ignore some of the commands that you think are minor, it'll affect your eternal reward and your eternal reward will be forever whatever it appropriately should be based on your faithfulness. And if you teach others to have a cavalier approach to scripture and pick and choose what they want, you're going to compound the loss of your eternal reward.

You're not going to lose your salvation. It's going to affect where you are in terms of usefulness and responsibility and heavenly reward. when we see the Lord. But whoever keeps these commandments, you live them, you love them, you obey them, and you teach them properly shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

You know, it's an amazing thing because we we know so well what a grace humility is that the Lord would say to us, if you want to be great in heaven, obey my commands and teach others to do that. That that's a that's that's Jesus saying that you can be humble here, but you don't need to try to pursue humility forever.

Humility now and uh exaltation forever to the honor of Christ. I mean it comes down to this. What you do with the word of God will determine your eternal reward. And just to make sure nobody is confused, in verse 20, he says, I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now, he's not talking about those who are in the kingdom and their eternal reward. He adds this final comment that if your righteousness is not beyond the scribes and Pharisees, you won't even be in the kingdom because he wants to make that final footnote. By the way, when we talk about obedience and we talk about commandments and you obey them and you teach them to others and you'll be great.

It does not mean that you earn your way to heaven. That's the lie of the Pharisees. To even get there, you have to have a greater righteousness than they have. Well, how righteous do I have to be? Over in verse 48 of chapter 5, you're to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

Oh. Well, that puts an end to any works system. No, you you have to be perfect. You can't do that. But you can receive the righteousness of God by faith in Christ. So, what was Jesus' view of scripture? Well, he believed in its preeminence, its permanence, and its definitive importance to determine eternal reward.

And he believed every bit of it was true down to every dot and marking. Still people say this, well certainly there are errors in scripture. Really this um poses a devastating problem. If there are errors in scripture, if if there are errors in scripture, then Jesus didn't know that.

He didn't know that because he said down to the dots and the squiggles, not one marking is anything other than divine revelation to be consummated and fulfilled. He didn't know that he was mistaken. You have a mistaken Jesus, Christianity collapses. If you have a mistake in Jesus, then he is a a liar.

He's not God because God wouldn't make that mistake. God wouldn't be ignorant. God knows everything. So if you minimize the veracity of scripture, you have just struck a death blow against the deity of Christ. You say, 'Well, no, I don't want to do that. So, do I have another option?

Yeah, you can say he did know it and he knew it wasn't true, but he said it was. Either he knew or he didn't know. Those are the only two options. So, if he doesn't know, then he's not God. If he does know that it's not true, flipping it, and says it's true, he's a liar.

So, take your choice. That's the liar lunatic option. So, there are errors and Christ didn't know it. There are errors and Christ did know it but he lied. Or what's the third possibility? There are no errors. Then everything stays intact. So as I said at the beginning, I don't need to make the decision about scripture.

I just want to sign on to Jesus. >> Amen. I believe what he said about it. The implications of that brief passage are massive because now you have just declared this entire book is inspired by God for us that we might know him, honor him, worship him, serve him, obey him, proclaim him, and one day by virtue of that faithfulness receive an eternal reward.

Lord, your view of scripture is everything. You can't have an infallible, omnisient son of God if he's wrong about something, especially something like scripture. He was adamant. He's either wrong or dishonest or he's telling us the absolute truth. I want to close with a text that's familiar to us.

Second Timothy 4. Second Timothy 3 actually the end of the third chapter verse 16. All scripture is inspired by God. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be perfect or adequate, equipped for every good work.

Do do you understand the power of scripture in those two verses? You you you want to be equipped for every good work. You want to be mature, then you need to be taught, reproved, corrected, and trained in righteousness. And the scripture does that. The scripture does that. I would think we wouldn't want anything less. that we might be useful for every good work and enjoy a special eternal reward.

When we share the truths of scripture, we must do so faithfully, accurately, and from a heart of joy and gratitude. What does the word of God mean to you? You can't faithfully share the truths of his word without understanding it correctly. If you're new to Grace to You or the teaching ministry of John MacArthur, I want to tell you about an invaluable resource that should be a part of your personal library.

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