The Spirit vs The Letter

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”  (Mat. 5:17)

I’m amazed with how many people still think (according to their actions, if not their words) that Jesus came to abolish the Law and the Prophets when Jesus stated so clearly that He did not come to abolish but to fulfill. What do I mean by that? Well, I suppose I mean a few things. Let’s unpack it a bit.

There are at least two dimensions worth considering on this point. First, Jewish custom and teaching revealed “abolitionists” who chose not to observe or practice the Law. They were effectively choosing to “abolish” the Law by acting as if it had no authority in their lives.

The second dimension is what I feel is too common in the modern Church, and that is the practice of ignoring the Old Testament (except for maybe the Psalms and Proverbs) in favor of the New Testament. There is so much beauty and revelation in both, it seems like a great waste to ignore either.

I think Jesus predicted his followers might do this – abolish the Law and the Prophets – and He wanted to encourage us with good council. He did not come to abolish, but rather to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. Some interpreters mistakenly believed that Jesus’ fulfilling of the Law also abolished it, but this view ignores the context of Jesus’ message. A few short moments before, Jesus was using the metaphors of salt and light which provide flavor and preservation (salt), as well as illumination, clarity, and color (light). Read in context, this “salt and light” revelation seems to be what Jesus meant by “fulfill.” He has come to explain the spirit of the Law (and the Prophets) rather than the letter of the law.

The spirit of the law continues to persist.

In Matthew 5:20, Jesus goes on to encourage His disciples, “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Most of us have trained ourselves (or have been trained by others) to think this is referring to the letter of the law. We must DO a whole lot of good things – even more than the most righteous and charitable people in the world, or else we don’t get to go to heaven. I hope we can acknowledge how silly that sounds? Jesus wasn’t talking about the letter of the Law; He wasn’t building an impossible “to-do” list for us. He was rather illustrating His earlier point. He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets; to show the spirit of the Law and the Prophets; to show what they looked like in practice.

The Law was not given just to frustrate us by showing our inability to observe it, as some would suggest. The spirit of the Law is categorically different than the letter of the Law. Or if you prefer, it is “qualitatively”different. This is actually a good word for us to use, because the “letter of the Law” understanding of Matthew 5:20 makes us think in terms of quantity. Unless the quantity of our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we won’t enter the kingdom of heaven. But that’s not what Jesus meant.

It’s not meant as a statement of quantity (letter of the Law), but rather as a statement of quality (the spirit of the Law). We exceed/transcend/rise above the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees qualitatively.

This might be a difficult statement to accept, especially for Christians in some particular theological traditions. I’ll dive into several examples and illustrations in a future, follow-up post, but if you’d like to do some reading and research in the meantime, I’d suggest reading the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and Jesus’ follow up Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17-49). Think of these as a two-part sermon series. They’re two distinct, separate messages, but they address similar themes and use similar illustrations.

In the next post, I’ll spend some time diving into the six illustrations Jesus gave of this principle in practice (the contrast between the letter of the Law and the spirit of the Law). These are found in Matthew 5:21-48.

Until then, walk in the grace and peace of Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.