Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Ver. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law] As the Pharisees slandered him only to bring him into hatred with the people; and as to this day they maliciously traduce him in their writings. Rabbi Maimonides, in his Mishna, hath a whole chapter concerning the punishment of the false prophet, that teacheth that he came to destroy the law. Calumniare audacter: aliquid saltem adhaerebit, said Machiavel. A depraver, saith Plato, is mus nominis; a devil, saith Paul, 2 Timothy 3:3. It is the property of defamations to leave a kind of lower estimation, many times, even where they are not believed.
I am not come to destroy] Gr. to loose, dissolve, or untie the law (καταλυσαι), as those rebels, Psalms 2:3, sought to do, but with ill success. For it tieth and hampereth men with an Aut faciendum, aut patiendum, either you must have the direction of the law, or the correction; either do it, or die for it. Thus the "law is a schoolmaster," Galatians 3:24, and such a one as that which Livy and Florus speak of in Italy, that brought forth his scholars to Hannibal, who had he not been more merciful than otherwise, they had all perished. The comfort is, that it is a schoolmaster to Christ, who became bond to the law to redeem us that were under the law, from the rigour, bondage, irritation, and condemnation thereof. So that the use that now we have of it is only to be as Paul's sister's son, to show us our danger, and to send us to the chief Captain of our salvation, who came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it.
But to fulfil it] To complete and accomplish it (πληρωσαι), for he fulfilled all righteousness, and finished the work that was given him to do, John 17:4. A new commandment also gave be unto us, that we love one another; which love is the complement of the law and the supplement of the gospel. Besides, "Christ is the end of the law to every one that believeth," and commandeth us no more than he causeth us to do, Romans 10:4; Ezekiel 18:31; yea, he doth all his works in us, and for us, saith the Church, Isaiah 26:12. Thus Christ still fulfils the law in his people; into whose hearts he putteth a disposition answerable to the outward law in all things, as in the wax is the same impression that was upon the seal. This is called the "law of the mind," Romans 7:25, and answereth the law of God without, as lead answers the mould, as tally answereth tally, as indenture indenture, Heb 8:8-10 cf. 2Co 3:2-3 Romans 6:17 .