We might all agree that Jesus fulfilled the law, because he said so in Matthew 5:17 but do we live that way?

In his provocative book on the Sermon on the Mount, titled What if Jesus was Serious?, author Skye Jethani writes, “Every Christian has at least two Bibles. First, there’s the actual Bible — all sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. Then there is the Bible we read. This is what some call our functional Bible, and it includes sections we regularly seek to engage and apply to our lives. This functional Bible is different for each person, but it contains some familiar Gospel stories and parables, some of Paul’s letters, and a handful of psalms.”

To the degree that this is true of us, our faith will be shallow and thin rather than robust and thick.

Beloved, here is the underlying assumption we must confront: we often believe we can fully grasp and faithfully follow Jesus without deeply engaging the whole of Scripture. In doing so, we risk accusing Him—albeit subtly—of abolishing the Law.

Jesus and the Law: Abolished or Fulfilled?

Jesus makes this clear when He declares in Matthew 5:17-18,

“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.”

Even early in His ministry, Jesus was turning expectations upside down by announcing that the kingdom of heaven had come. Some must have assumed He was dismantling everything that came before. Yet the keyword here is fulfill.

To fulfill is to bring to completion, to give true and complete meaning, to reveal real significance. And here is where we often misunderstand. When something is fulfilled, we tend to assume it is no longer relevant. Many Christians treat the Law this way, as though Jesus fulfilled it, so we no longer need to think about it.

But Jesus did not fulfill the Law so that we would have less to obey. He fulfilled it so that we could truly obey—from hearts transformed by love. He fulfilled it so that we could join Him in loving God and loving others, moving outward in obedience to the Great Commission.

Jesus did not fulfill the Law so that we would have less to obey. He fulfilled it so that we could truly obey—from hearts transformed by love.

Then Jesus makes an audacious claim: “Truly I say to you…” In His day, rabbis grounded their authority in others’ interpretations. But Jesus grounds His authority in Himself. He declares that not even the smallest stroke of the Law will pass away until all is accomplished. The Law has enduring significance because it finds its completion in Him.

This means that when we read the Bible, the interpretive key is Jesus. All of Scripture either points forward to the cross or flows from it. The Old Testament is the Gospel in bud; the New Testament is the Gospel in full flower. His name is embedded on every page.

What if there is more of Jesus waiting for you in the pages you have never read? What if the parts you tend to breeze over are the very places where your vision of Christ could expand?

Try this: make a list of the books you’ve never read or feel least familiar with. Prayerfully engage them. Ask the Spirit to open your eyes. A robust faith requires a whole-Bible vision of Jesus.

A robust faith requires a whole-Bible vision of Jesus.

Because Jesus fulfilled the Law, we can fully live out Jesus. Law fulfilled leads to faith lived from the inside out.

Because Jesus fulfilled the Law, we can fully live out Jesus. Law fulfilled leads to faith lived from the inside out.

Do You Have the Mark of True Maturity?

Jesus continues,

“Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19).

The measure of Christian maturity is not knowledge alone, but obedience and reproduction. The commandments of God are not meant merely to be studied; they are meant to be obeyed—and taught. Discipleship is not optional. Greatness in the kingdom is marked by being transformed by truth and helping others walk in that same transformation.

How often do we treat the Great Commission as a suggestion rather than a command?

Moving from Skin-Deep Righteousness to Heart Transformation

Obedience must flow from a deeper source. Jesus intensifies the call:

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).

At first glance, this sounds impossible. The Pharisees were meticulous. They studied, memorized, and outwardly obeyed the Law. But their righteousness was skin deep. As John Stott observed, “Christian righteousness surpasses pharisaic righteousness not in quantity but in kind. It is a righteousness of the heart.”^[1]

There is a difference between doing good and being good. Jesus is not interested in external conformity. He desires internal transformation.

And here is where this text meets many of us. If we are honest, we sometimes feel hollowed out, worn down by hustle and hurry, and exhausted from trying to present a polished exterior. We can look obedient on the outside while our hearts quietly cry, “I am not okay.”

Beloved, Jesus invites you to lay down the mask. Pull up a seat at His table. Embrace your poverty of spirit. Let the Spirit carve out capacity within you to receive the kingdom. The righteousness He requires is the righteousness He provides.

The righteousness He requires is the righteousness He provides.

We must also guard against dulling the edge of His words by assuming that grace lowers the standard. Grace does not erase the demands of the Law; it deepens them. The demands of grace are higher and deeper – but grace always empowers what it commands.

The Law is now written on our hearts. When Jesus declared, “It is finished,” He secured a bride for the Father, a family for Himself, and a temple for the Spirit. The Gospel unites us to God and to one another.

And now we get to work, not from striving, but from resting. Not to earn approval, but because in Christ we already have it. Not to prove our love, but as the fruit of being extravagantly loved.

Pastor and author Rich Villodas succinctly and powerfully summarized the point of Jesus’ Sermon by saying, “The Sermon on the Mount was not given to show our inability to live it and trust God. It has been given so we could trust God and live it out. There’s a difference.”

So may we realize with renewed excitement that Jesus is not done fulfilling the Law. He continues His fulfilling work through the lives of His redeemed people who are marked by a kingdom righteousness that runs deep so that it can go far and wide.

Law fulfilled. Faith lived out. Read the whole story so that you can live the whole Gospel.

Copyright © 2026 Justin Jeppesen. All rights reserved.

^[1]  Stott, J. R. W., & Stott, J. R. W. (1985). The message of the Sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian counter-culture (p. 71). Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.