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

We begin by observing Matthew 5:17 from a Protestant-oriented paraphrase called The Message. Jesus Christ is speaking:

Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete.ⁱ

It might be surprising how many correspondents—people who write letters to the church—assert that God’s law is “completed.” To them, its completion means that they no longer need to obey it.ⁱⁱ Scholars call the theology behind this notion supersessionism, the teaching that the New Testament supersedes the Old, grace supersedes law, Christianity supersedes Judaism, the church supersedes physical Israel, and so on.

Jews, of course, consider the term “supersessionism” derogatory, scoffing at the temerity of Christians for insisting that Christianity succeeds and replaces Judaism. Without God’s election, Jews will never concede that the gospel Christ brought is superior to their conception of the law of Moses. They and their forbears have stubbornly resisted God on this point since Jesus traveled the lands of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.

However, Scripture indeed contains supersessionist statements. For instance, God Himself says the Old Covenant is obsolete, making way for the far better New Covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:7-13). The sacrifice of our Savior fulfills and replaces all the Old Testament ritual sacrifices and offerings (see Hebrews 10:11-13). Baptism replaces circumcision as the sign of the covenant (see Galatians 3:26-27; 5:6).

Supersessionism takes a few other forms: Replacement Theology, Fulfillment Theology, and even Dispensation Theology. In all its permutations, the concept of supersessionism is a tangled web of truth and error. Here, we will narrowly consider Matthew 5:17 in light of the interminable argument over grace and law.

A Critical Word: Pleroo

What is Christ really saying in Matthew 5:17? Is He speaking about doing away with the law, or does He intend something else? We can expand our view by including verse 18:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18, English Standard Versionⁱⁱⁱ)

To unravel this theological knot, we will start in the middle and work outward. To begin, we must consider the verb “fulfill.” The underlying Greek word is pleroo (Strong’s #4137),which appears 95 times in the New Testament and bears several meanings. (Incidentally, the “ple-“ in pleroo is the same “ple-“ of the English verbs “complete,” “replete,” and “deplete.”) Pleroo means “to make full,” “to fill up,” “to render full,” “to complete,” “to bring into effect.” So, when a person pours water into a cup to the brim, he is completely filling it up.

When a prophecy is fulfilled, God brings it into effect, as in the Greek verb’s first use in the New Testament, Matthew 1:22-23:

All this took place to fulfill [pleroo, “bring about”] what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us).

Pleroo can also mean “to finish” or “to end” in a temporal sense, that is, of time. Here are three examples of that straightforward meaning:

1. Luke 7:1: “After He had finished all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum” (emphasis ours throughout). The Revised Standard Version renders this passage: “After He had ended all His sayings . . ..” The verbs “finish” and “end” carry the meaning that Christ had completed His discourse for that time.

2. Acts 7:30 (Lexham English Bible): “And when forty years had been completed, an angel appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush.” Here, the translators use “completed” in a temporal sense, a period of time had ended or finished.

3. Acts 19:21 (World English Bible): “Now after these things had ended, Paul determined in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem . . ..”

So, considering these various meanings, what does pleroo mean in the context of Matthew 5:17? Does it mean “end” in the temporal sense, like when Christ ended His speaking, or does it mean “complete,” “render full,” “bring into effect”—or what? And how do we know for sure?

We have two avenues of study to help us:

• First, we have context—what comes before and after pleroo in the passage.

• Second, we have other scriptures, other witnesses which serve as guides to understanding.

The Context of Matthew 5:17

We will begin with context. We started in the middle of the passage, and we will now work outward. So, what comes before and after the appearance of pleroo in Matthew 5:17?

Before it, Jesus says: “I did not come to abolish.” The Greek word, katalyo, (Strong’s #2647), a very strong verb, means “to dissolve,” “to overthrow,” “to bring to naught,” “to disunite,” “to demolish,” “to destroy.” The verbs “abolish” and “end” are semantically similar, for, in some usages at least, to destroy is to bring to an end. For example, to abolish slavery is to end it. To abolish can surely carry the notion of finishing, or more colloquially, “finishing off” or “finishing up.”

So, one must ask, would Christ say that He did not come to abolish the law but that He came to end it? The question answers itself. He would be contradicting Himself within one sentence, in one breath. Further, He would then quickly contradict Himself in verse 19, where the least in God’s Kingdom will be those who disobey—and teach others to disobey—the law. Verse 19 does not support the notion that the law is “done away” by any means.

Christ uses both verbs, “abolish” and “fulfill,” to help us understand exactly what He means by using pleroo. He is saying it does not mean “end” or “finish” in Matthew 5:17 because the verb end implies “abolition” or “elimination.” By His use of pleroo, He is signaling that He means something other than “abolish” or “do away with.”

While considering the context of Matthew 5:17, it behooves us to mention verse 18 briefly, to see what comes after pleroo: “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Not even the smallest part of the law will fail “until all is accomplished.”

The Greek verb rendered “accomplished” here, ginomai (Strong’s #1096), means “to happen” or “to come to pass.” Frankly, the word all (Greek pas; Strong’s #3956) simply means “all” or “everything” in Greek. Christ is saying that only something as big as God’s creation of the New Heaven and New Earth, His dissolution of the present order, when all prophecies have been fulfilled—only that will be sufficient to end the law. Christ’s coming, His earthly ministry, His death, and His resurrection, as explosively important as they are, are not sufficient in themselves to bring about the abolition of God’s law.

The End of the Law?

Turning away from a contextual view of the passage, we will consider the light another oft-mishandled verse sheds on Matthew 5:17. When wrong-headed theologians seek support for their supersessionist notion that, with Christ’s death and resurrection, the law is “done away,” they invariably turn to Romans 10:4. The Good News Translation vastly mishandles God’s Word in this case: “For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God.”

A still more unabashedly fraudulent rendering of Romans 10:4 is that of The Jerusalem Bible, a Catholic Bible first published in 1966. It serves as the official Bible for use by English-speaking Catholics outside North America: “But now the Law has come to an end with Christ, and everyone who has faith may be justified.”

The focus, of course, is the English noun “end.” In Greek, it is telos (Strong’s #5056) and means “result,” “object,” “scope,” “final cause” or “the end proposed and intended.” In essence, telos is the target at which one aims.^iv

English-speakers use “end” in this way, usually denoting the idea of “result”: “He reasoned with his son to the end that he might convince him not to join the army.” His son’s deciding not to enter the military was the father’s intended aim. Another: “The end of the boy’s playing in the snow was a high fever.” Again, the result of exposure to cold and wet conditions was illness. One more, a proverbial but false saying: “The ends justify the means.” Here, as in the others, the proverb asserts that the outcome of an action excuses the action, no matter how unconscionable it may be.

With that background, we will examine seven of the more honest translations of Romans 10:4:

1. The Berkeley Version: “For Christ is to every believer the completion of the Law that brings righteousness.”

2. Concordant New Testament: “For Christ is the consummation of law . . ..” Consummation, meaning “the act of completion,” is quickly becoming an archaic word in our day. An example of its usage: “The signing of the treaty marked the consummation of months of negotiation.” In its adjectival form, “consummate,” it means “the best,” “superior”: “He is a consummate statesman.” “With consummate skill, he played the concerto without flaw.”

3. International Standard Version and New International Version: “For the Messiah is the culmination of the Law . . ..” “Culmination” is similar in meaning to “consummation.”

4. Common English Bible: “Christ is the goal of the law . . ..” Here, the translators took telos to signify a target or objective.

5. Complete Jewish Bible: “For the goal at which the Torah aims is the Messiah . . ..” That is, Christ is the ultimate intent of the law. All the law points toward Him or, we could say, describes His character.

6. New Testament for Everyone: “The Messiah . . . is the goal of the law . . ..”

7. The Voice: “God’s purpose for the law reaches its climax when the Anointed One arrives . . ..”^v

Christ, the Law’s Object and Exemplar

Considering both the context of this passage and the correct meaning of telos in Romans 10:4, Christ is the object of the law, its culmination. When put to the test, neither Matthew 5:17 nor Romans 10:4 states that He “finished it off,” “put an end” to it, or “completed” it to make it of no effect.

We can have no objections with “fulfill” as a proper translation of pleroo in Matthew 5:17. When someone fills a cup, he completes the cup’s purpose—a cup is for filling up. Until Christ came to teach the letter and spirit of the law, enabling us through the Holy Spirit to obey it, our understanding of the law was incomplete—a cup not full.^vi Now, after His finished work, the cup is full.

In closing, a brief mention of Romans 3:31 (New Century Version) is warranted. The apostle Paul begins by rhetorically asking: “So do we destroy^vii the law by following the way of faith?” His answer is emphatic. “No! Faith causes us to be what the law truly wants.”

Please note that Paul does not accept the supersessionist idea that law and faith are binary opposites—enemies, as it were, with daggers drawn. To him, law and faith do not work at cross purposes, but collaboratively, if not reciprocally. Law, the schoolmaster (a metaphor Paul uses in Galatians 3:23-25), teaches us what sin is and simultaneously displays God’s character to us. Having the faith of Christ operating in us through the work of the Holy Spirit, we can obey that law both in its letter and in its spirit. In this way, we live God’s way, embedding His character in us, being what He wants us to be.

End Notes

i To be fair, the translators of The Message redeem themselves a bit when they editorialize, “I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama.”

ii The volume of those letters is a good measure of how many preachers in the world’s churches assert this lie and how many of their parishioners believe it.

iii Unless otherwise noted, all scriptural citations are from the English Standard Version.

iv Admittedly, telos can—but does not always—mean “end” in a temporal sense or “finish” in a spatial one, as in the end of the day, the end of a string, the end of the war, or the like.

v Another, somewhat adequate translation is that of the GOD’s WORD Translation: “Christ is the fulfillment of Moses’ Teachings so that everyone who has faith may receive God’s approval.” Of course, Christ is the object of God’s law, not “Moses’ Teachings.” Paul makes a similar point in the book of Galatians where the apostle connects Christ with the promises God made to Abraham (see Galatians 3:15-29).

vi Considering the contexts and meanings of pleroo and telos, the following two versions do an adequate job in translating Matthew 5:17:

• Berkeley Version: “I did not come to abolish but to complete the Law . . ..”

• The Holy Bible in Modern English (F. Fenton): “I have not come to abolish, but to complete [the Law and the Prophets].”

vii The Greek verb here is not katalyo but katargeō (Strong’s #2673). The King James Version translators render katargeo as “destroy” (5x), “do away” (3x), “abolish” (3x), and “cumber,” “loose”, “cease,” “fail,” “deliver,” and eleven other miscellaneous translations once each.