Matthew 5:17 - Scofield Reference Notes

Bible Comments

I am not come to destroy

Christ's relation to the law of Moses may be thus summarized:

(1) He was made under the law (Galatians 4:4).

(2) He lived in perfect obedience to the law (John 8:46); (Matthew 17:5); (1 Peter 2:21-23).

(3) he was a minister of the law to the Jews, clearing it from rabbinical sophistries, enforcing it in all its pitiless severity upon those who professed to obey it (for example) (Luke 10:25-37) but confirming the promises made to the fathers under the Mosaic Covenant (Romans 15:8).

(4) He fulfilled the types of the law by His holy life and sacrificial death (Hebrews 9:11-26).

(5) He bore, vicariously, the curse of the law that the Abrahamic Covenant might avail all who believe (Galatians 3:13-14).

(6) He brought out by His redemption all who believe from the place of servants under the law into the place of sons (Galatians 4:1-7).

(7) He mediated by His blood the New Covenant of assurance and grace in which all believers stand (Romans 5:2); (Hebrews 8:6-13) so establishing the "law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2) with its precepts of higher exaltation made possible by the indwelling Spirit.

Matthew 5:17

17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.