Matthew 5:17-20, What’s the Purpose?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

Matthew 5:17-20 and the Purpose of Christ’s Coming

Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 to 20, hear the Word of the Lord. 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.

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.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. May the Lord have His blessings. The reading of His Holy Word. What's your purpose?

As author Robert Burns said, the purpose of life is a life of purpose. Okay, that tells me I should have a purpose. It doesn't tell me what it is. Thomas Carlyle said something similar, the person without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder.

Okay, you've sold me that I need a purpose but you haven't told me what it is. Buddha supposedly said, your purpose in life is to find your purpose and to give your whole heart and soul to it. That's totally unhelpful.

First of all, it doesn't tell me what my purpose is and it misses the fact that everybody already gives their whole heart and soul for what they think is their purpose. They may not have carefully thought out much about what their purpose is.

They might have much of a long-range view of a purpose but they're living for something. Maybe just every day they get up and thinking, what can I eat today? How can I have fun today? How can I get a thrill today?

What's on TV today? You might think that's not much of a purpose, like living like the animals for what they can get now, fill my stomach now or follow whatever urge, but it is a purpose. American anthropologist Oscar Lewis described what he called the culture of poverty.

In the culture of poverty, people focus on now, their immediate needs, the next meal, the next thrill, the feeling that I can get by having sex with this person now, indulge myself now. It creates the kind of person who, if he gets paid on Friday, will have blown it all by Sunday night.

The results of that, of course, is high rates of single-parent households and divorce and unstable relationships and poverty. Our temptation is to tell such people that what they need is a purpose, any purpose.

You choose it, but something for a purpose. But they have a purpose. Make me feel good now. If we're more long-term oriented, we think, well, how can I make a little more money today so I can have a lot later?

It's a long-term vision of what my purpose is. Or how can I do something today that will advance my career for the future so that eventually I can have more money and stuff? It's not a culture of poverty because it probably will result in a more comfortable life and a better retirement, less debt.

But it's still a purpose that assumes he who dies with the most toys wins. And put like that, it doesn't make much sense either. It doesn't seem that much better than the other one, to have a purpose of acquiring things that in the end mean nothing.

That's a totally empty purpose, but it is a purpose that many people give their whole heart and soul to, taking Buddha's advice, that guides them like a rudder, guides a ship, that energizes them, that fills their sails so that every day they wake up to accomplish their goal today, to advance their career so they can get this money, so they can get the stuff that will in the end mean nothing.

What's your purpose? What the short-term purpose people and the long-term purpose people have in common is who they assume the purpose is for. Who drives the purpose? Them. Their own pleasure, whether it's short-term, today, or long-term, like retirement.

Still, it's all about them. Eric Little, we mentioned last week, confessed part of his purpose. When I run, I feel his, God's pleasure. When he does what he's gifted and called to do, he felt the pleasure of God.

And as a good Presbyterian, he would have known what the great Westminster Catechism stated in its very first question, what is the chief end of man? Answer, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. He felt God's pleasure in what he did because he did it for the glory of God.

God drove his purpose. Now, people often assume it's the other way around, that God exists for them, that God's purpose is to help them achieve their own purpose, to give them, in the title of a famous book, a purpose-driven life, to help them get where they want to go.

You know, like the old bumper sticker, God is my co-pilot. He'll help me guide where I want to go, okay? God's totally overqualified to be a co-pilot. He will not take the position of the co-pilot seat.

They think the chief end of God is to help us enjoy ourselves and glorify ourselves as long as we can. And so, because they get the fundamental question wrong, what is God's purpose, they can never get the secondary question right, what is my purpose?

They don't even know it is a secondary question. They think it's the first question because they think their purpose causes God's purpose. Now, so many people are unfulfilled, even Christians, because they don't know who should be driving their purpose-driven life.

Purpose-driven life? Who's driving? They don't know who's in the driver's seat. This passage is about purpose and fulfillment. This is one whole united passage from verse 17 to verse 48, so I've only taken a part of it and I've kind of taken it kind of out of context, but we're only looking closely at the introduction to this united passage.

In other words, these four verses introduce this block of teaching that comes immediately next, which we'll be looking at in the next three weeks, and it begins with, do not think I have come for one purpose.

Instead, his purpose is to fulfill something. To fulfill means to make it achieve his purpose. That's how the passage begins, a purpose statement, and it ends all the way in verse 48 with a command, be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.

The word perfect means end, in the sense of the termination of something, its final destination, the chief end of man, like the chief purpose, the goal it is for. So to be perfect is to reach the final goal of what we were meant to be.

It's to be complete. It's to fully achieve the purpose for which we were made. Our Heavenly Father achieves his purpose, right? Be perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect. He achieves his purpose. Now first, this passage begins by the Lord Jesus, the Son, telling us about his purpose, defining it for us, and then by telling us we must, at the very end, achieve ours.

We see that here in four parts. One part per verse. Purpose. Second, reason. Third, conclusion. And finally, application. First, purpose. In verse 17, it begins with, do not think this thing. Don't think what he's about to describe.

Don't misunderstand Jesus's purpose. It's vital to get Jesus's purpose right. Do not think that I've come to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Now that's a clear purpose statement.

Now understand the law of the prophets that he's describing, he's talking about, was the Jewish way of describing what we call, simply, the Old Testament. Technically in full, it'd be the law of the prophets and the writings, and elsewhere the Lord Jesus does mention the writings, but here he's shortened it to the law of the prophets.

He says he's come to fulfill the Old Testament. That's his purpose. Now over the last century and a half, a theological movement has been prominent in evangelicalism, especially in America, called dispensationalism.

Dispensationalism begins with the wrong idea about Jesus's purpose. It says that Jesus came to offer a literal kingdom to the Jews, kingdom like we saw David had in Samuel, and so by doing that, call them back to law-keeping, call them back to the law.

Now we know that's not true, because in John chapter 6, the Jews actually did try to make him king, and he ran away from them, so he tried to escape from that. So anyway, that's the point here. The law had been given to them, so says dispensationalism, as a way to earn God's approval.

John Nelson Darby, the father of dispensationalism, wrote that if a man fulfills the law, it is his righteousness. You do the law, you are righteous. C .I. Schofield, the major popularizer of dispensationalism in America with his famous study Bible, wrote that legal obedience has been, quote, the condition of salvation during most of the Old Testament times, the so-called dispensation of law.

That is, the law, according to dispensationalism, was given to be a way to be right with God, thus be saved. And the purpose of the law, they say, was to show you what you do. You do these things to save yourself.

You do them, you live. That's the way they say. The purpose of the law was to show you what you need to do so you can be saved, and that's what dispensationalism taught. That's what the Jews of Jesus' day often thought.

It's what they believed. But Paul says in Romans chapter 9, verse 32, what actually also the Lord Jesus is proving in this very chapter, that the Jews, the Pharisees, did not gain salvation by law-keeping because they, quote, did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.

Now, as if it were means that their assumption of its purpose was wrong, that it was not based on works, right? If I say, he came into the gym as if he were LeBron James, and you know, if I say that, you know I mean, one, he's not LeBron James, and indeed, he's probably not even a very good basketball player.

He thinks he's something that he is not. So when Paul says they used the law, they followed the law as if it were based on works, even before Christ in Old Testament times, he's saying it was not based on works.

That was never the purpose of the law. And so, the purpose of Christ was not to revive the law as a way of salvation, of law-keeping for the Jews, because that was not the purpose of the law in the first place.

Then, after having committed that error, dispensationalism says that the Lord Jesus' purpose for us is different than here. Sure, here, they'd say, Matthew chapter 5, talking to his Jewish disciples during the, quote, dispensation of the law, his purpose then was to uphold the law.

But for us, they say, in this, what we now, a dispensation of grace, now, the law is abolished. We don't have to worry about it at all. So they say, Jesus is doing for us precisely what he here says that he is not doing, to abolish the law and the prophets.

That is, they say, he was starting a new dispensation in which all of that is irrelevant to us, not binding on us. We don't have to care about it. And so, we can unhitch from the Old Testament. Jesus says, do not think that.

The Atlanta mega-church pastor, Andy Stanley, famous for his claim that we need to unhitch the law from the gospel, wrote, quote, the Ten Commandments have no authority over you, none, to be clear, thou shalt not obey the Ten Commandments.

Here, Jesus says, do not think that, Andy. Once when I quoted Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25, do not forsake the assembly, get yourselves together, a young woman, somewhat arrogantly replied to me, why don't you try reading the New Testament?

Of course, I had to correct her. Hebrews is in the New Testament, to which she looked surprised. But obviously, in her way of thinking, if it was in the Old Testament, the law and the prophets, then it doesn't apply to us.

It's been abolished, as far as we're concerned. We can unhitch from it. But the Lord Jesus tells us here, verse 17, do not think that. Lord Jesus says that in this, all this, in his preface to what is about to come, from verses 21 to 48, where he mentions six examples of how they have interpreted the law to mean one thing, but he corrects them.

He will say, you have heard that it was said to you, but I say to you. Now, some have interpreted that to mean that Jesus is canceling the law itself. Not just their bad interpretations, but the actual law.

You've heard that you're not to swear falsely, but I say to you, you know, this other thing, don't swear at all. You've heard it said an eye for an eye, but I say to you, don't resist. Submit to it. Be passive.

Now, I have four theological degrees, beginning with an undergraduate degree from Stanford University. So I took a lot of classes, sat in a lot of classrooms, heard a lot of lectures. In the very first session of the very first course, Old Testament survey in college on a nice early fall day, sunny day in Alabama, began with a professor saying something like, Jesus quoted from the Old Testament, then said, but I say to you, something totally different, canceling it.

Well, here, the Lord Jesus introduces the block of teaching by making clear that is not what he's doing. If we interpret his coming words, you've heard, but I say to you, we interpret that as nullifying the Old Testament.

We've interpreted him wrongly. He makes it as clear as he can possibly make it, that what is coming is not him revoking the law or the prophets, the Old Testament. He might be revoking a bad interpretation of the law, but not the law itself.

He would say to my professor on the nice fall day in Alabama, do not think that. Notice in verse 17, the Lord Jesus says, I have come. He clearly shows that he fully knew his purpose, that he was the driver of his purpose-driven life.

I have come. I established my own purpose and I fulfill it. He's the only one who can say that. The rest of us have to accept the purpose made for us by God. The rest of us are sent. He's the sender. What's your purpose?

It's to have the word of God fulfilled in you. Second, the reason in verse 18. In Greek, verse 18 begins with truly, literally, amen. So, this is certain. Others have their opinions about their purpose or opinions about what Jesus' purpose was, but Jesus says, amen, truly, this is the truth.

Then, for or because, which is establishing the reason why Jesus' purpose was what it was. Verse 18, establish the reason for verse 17. Why is Jesus' purpose to fulfill the law and the prophets? Because of what the law and the prophets, it's the word of God, is.

Not just old traditions from their culture, not just fables, it's not just myths, it's the word of God. Until heaven and earth pass away. Now, heaven means the universe, the galaxies, the stars, together with the earth.

It's like from Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, very first verse in the Bible. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, in other words, everything. So, until everything, until the universe reaches its end, it passes away.

But now, in science, called heat death, according to the laws of thermodynamics, at about 1 .7 times 10 to the 106th power, years. In that many years, the protons and electrons will no longer have enough power to stick together and everything will be dissolved.

Okay? That's one, if I understand this right, that's a one with 107 zeros after it, times 1 .7, so add an extra 70 to that. That's a lot of years. Now, we don't have a name for that bigger number, so that's a lot of years.

Until that happens, not an iota, he says. Iota is the smallest Greek letter, kind of looks like an I. Not a dot, it's not a hook, not an accent mark. If it were English, we might say not an apostrophe.

If it were Chinese, not even a little brushstroke, the tiniest part of the writing will pass away. Until all of it, all of the law, the prophets, the writings, what we call the Old Testament, all the word of God, for that matter, until it is accomplished.

It doesn't expire with the so-called dispensation of law. It lasts as long as the universe. Its purpose will be fulfilled. Inherent to the nature of the word of God is that it be fulfilled. And so, the word incarnate, Jesus, comes to do just that.

So also, we must teach all of God's word, the whole counsel of God. There's no part of it that is obsolete or irrelevant to us. There may be a part of it that are harder to understand or a part of it that are harder to see the relevance, but none of it is irrelevant.

No part of it we unhitch from, that we just ignore. That's why here in this church, we try to preach from at least part of the five major parts of God's word every year, the law, the prophets, the writings, the Gospels, including Acts, the letters, including Revelation, every year.

We might have a year when we don't do that, all parts, but long-term, we try to get to all of it. So this year, we looked at some chapters from Genesis, that's the law, 2 Thessalonians, Jude, Philippians, Philemon, that's from the letters, Samuel, that's from the prophets.

We're now in the Gospels that we plan to finish the year in the book of Ruth, which is the writings. And of course, we read and sing a psalm, which is also from the writings, every service. Not any part of it is expired or passe or detached from us.

Everything must be taught and believed and held on to. Now, back to my famous whipping horse or boy or whatever you call it, dispensationalism. Remember, it asserts that all the law, the prophets, and the writings of the Old Testament is for a different time, mostly so-called dispensation of law, and so it creates a culture of poverty when it comes to Scripture, leaving us with only the latest parts.

Oh, it says that all the Bible's inspired and it's good to know the stories and it's kind of like good to know the backstory, the prequels, that kind of thing. But in effect, it's abolished for us. It was for different people at different time, a so-called dispensation.

But here, by insisting that all Scripture, even the least parts of it, whatever we think that is, is relevant for all time until heaven and earth pass away, for the entirety of this creation, this universe, until 1 .7 times 10 to the 106 power years.

Jesus shows us that it's going to be relevant that long. Jesus shows us that there is no time when it expires, when it becomes irrelevant, when it becomes passe. There's no dispensation of law. That's why the Bible never tells us when one dispensation ends and another one begins, because it doesn't teach the idea at all.

There's one successful plan of salvation. There's a unity of the Bible, one plan of salvation that began as soon as the first sin in Genesis chapter 3, as soon as that sin is committed, God announces the plan of salvation and it is unfolded through all the Scripture.

So this teaching, all the teachings of the Old Testament, this teaching here in the Sermon on the Mount is for us. It's not expired, not an iota, not a dot. It will pass from the law and we can include with that Jesus' teaching, the law of Christ.

It is for us and all of the Bible is for us until all is accomplished. The law accomplishes the gospel. The law and the prophets are fulfilled when who they point to, the Lord Jesus, achieves the goals they were written for at the end of verse 18, until all is accomplished.

Now all, think about all, implies that there are several goals to be accomplished, not until just it is accomplished, the goal. And now all of the goals, not just one, all of the law with all of its purposes.

So here from verses 17 to 48, beginning with this statement of purpose, to the six cases, he clears up the confusion caused by those who wanted to be religious, but they didn't really want to live under the rule of God.

And so they were trying to effectively abolish God's law with thousands of cuts of tradition. Another purpose is that we see we've not kept the law and so we humble ourselves. That's a purpose of the law, that we see we've not kept it, that we've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And so we seek grace. We know we need grace because the law exposes our sin. We see how needy we are, a wretched, poor worm, depending on God's kind arms. And finally, another purpose of the law is we see that Jesus did keep it.

He kept the law and so righteousness was attained. Not by us, because we had already broken it, but by him who came to fulfill the law. So righteousness was accomplished. So he means not that every regulation of the Old Testament remains binding forever.

We got to understand that. Some people say, well, so we got to keep all those rules, all those regulations, like the Pharisees. Well, not necessarily. He means that they are binding until they accomplish the goal they are for, their purpose.

Now some say we still have to keep the food laws because God's Word doesn't change. And they'll point to this very passage. It won't do it, won't pass away until the universe does. So we still got to abstain from pork and shrimp and oysters and keep the kosher laws, just like the Old Testament.

But they don't understand the purpose of why those laws were for, what they were intended for. In Mark chapter 7, verse 19, Jesus declared all foods clean. It says that right there, Mark 7, 7, 19, Jesus declared all foods clean.

Now the legalist still with us today with their doctrine to demons, Paul calls it in 1st Timothy 4, they have doctrine to demons who say we still have to refrain from the foods that are prohibited in the Old Testament.

And they claim that that verse cannot possibly mean, that Mark 7, 7, 9, verse 19, Jesus declared all foods clean. That can't possibly mean that. Either it must mean something else and they'll try to confuse it, or it was added by later copyists and wasn't something really Jesus said.

It was added later by, you know, compromising people. It's not really in the original Greek manuscript inspired by God. Well, that's all wrong. It is original. It's in all the ancient Greek manuscripts.

It means what it says. Jesus declared all foods clean. So the Lord Jesus, the same Lord here who says that none of his laws can be relaxed, they're not abolished, he said all foods are clean. He was saying the purpose of having some unclean, forbidden foods, some of these kind of ceremonial laws you read about in Leviticus, that purpose is fulfilled.

We can have, so then, because of that, we can give special thanks when we eat pork or oysters, give thanks for always for our food, but maybe special thanks when you have pork or oysters or shrimp, something like that.

You know, this would have been unclean if we were still bound by that, but it's been declared clean. We give special thanks, restricting us from those foods have been accomplished in Christ. The purpose, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.

The Command to Keep and Teach the Whole Law

The third point, the conclusion, verse 19. The conclusion is that since Jesus did not abolish the law and the prophets, the Old Testament, but fulfilled them, then we should do and teach it all. Now some will say, oh yeah, okay, he came to fulfill them, but now I don't have to.

He does it for me, so I don't have to worry about it. I'm off the hook. Jesus keeps the law for me, so I can ignore it and I kind of just do my own thing. But he immediately says, therefore, indicating a conclusion derived from what he just said.

Remember, verse 17 is the statement of purpose, verse 18 is the reason for the purpose. Now, verse 19 is the conclusion, therefore, from that reason. He just stated that God's Word is as lasting as the entire creation.

And then the conclusion for us is whoever relaxes or literally is loosens, like you loosen your belt or you loosen your shoestrings, whoever does that to one of the least of these commandments, whatever it may be, could be food laws, instructions for giving, command to sing psalms, church discipline, women elders, like women pastors, whatever you think is minor, whatever you think is the least, whoever loosens them and teaches others to do the same, to also regard the least of the commandments as something you can ignore.

And such a person will be called by God or by others or both least in the kingdom of heaven. They loose the least commandment, they're called the least. Will they even make it into the kingdom of heaven?

Will they be rejected from the kingdom of God because they loosened God's commands, probably to make others feel good. They gave into the pressure that the world puts on them. You know, that every tolerant, nice person accepts these sins, this lifestyle, whatever.

Paul helps us in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 -11. He says, the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. They don't get in. They're not given it at all. They are called least by people who are in it while they are left outside in hell.

Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

So, they are outside and they're called least by those who are inside. But does that also mean that some people will be in the kingdom of God? They'll be included, go to heaven, we would often say today.

But they're second class in heaven. That is, they're the least in heaven because they've relaxed parts of God's word. Maybe. Probably, actually. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called by God and others, great in the kingdom of heaven.

The king of the kingdom here says that if we relax, we loosen one of the commands, we tell people something is permissible that the Lord has prohibited. We teach people, thou shall not obey the Ten Commandments.

If we do that, we'll be called least in God's kingdom, whether we make it or not. The place where God rules will celebrate those most who lived under God's rule, who followed his orders, while it would make the least of those who thought they had the right to decide for themselves which of God's commands were the least.

The Righteousness That Exceeds the Scribes and Pharisees

Finally, the application in verse 20. The purpose is to fulfill God's word. The reason is because God's word is eternal. The conclusion is to keep and teach it all. And the application is that we need a righteousness that exceeds that of the religious people.

This is for, that is the result of not loosening the word of God. I tell you, unless, there's no other way. Think of unless. It's not that there will be unlikely. It's as I tell you, it'll be hard to make it in this way.

No, unless. It won't be just difficult. Unless means it's exclusive. He's saying there will be impossible unless your righteousness exceeds, that is greater than, that of the scribes and Pharisees. Until you have a superior righteousness than the most conservative, strict, hardline religious people, and of Jesus' day, until you have a better righteousness than theirs, you will never, absolutely not, enter the kingdom of heaven.

And there's actually two Greek words there for no, Jesus uses. Translated as never, and they combine them to make one never in the ESV. Literally, he's saying, unless you have better righteousness than those rigorous, severe, austere religious zealots, no, you will not enter God's kingdom.

You'll have no way in. Absolutely none. The Pharisees and the scribes both added traditions onto scripture to prohibit things the Lord never did and to allow things the Lord prohibited. Now, we most remember them in our culture now for what they prohibited, being strict and rigorous.

They condemned the disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath as they're walking through a field, or for not washing their hands before they ate, or condemned Jesus himself for healing on the Sabbath.

Not that they could heal anyone ever, but they condemned him. Now, we often think then to be Pharisaical is to be legalistic, to be excessively puritanical. But they also are condemned here by Jesus himself for thinking of clever little ways to justify doing what the Lord had told them not to do, for inventing ways to loosen God's commands so that they could hate, or they could insult, or they could lust, or they could break their word, and they could still think that they have kept God's law.

They relaxed the law. They liberalized it because they weren't really interested in righteousness, in a right relationship with God. They were interested in religion, in looking good, not in God. The Lord Jesus tells them and us that our living, our righteousness has to be much greater than theirs.

It has to be both according to the law, what it really says, and it has to be genuine. It's coming from a heart that longs to know the Father, that seeks that right relationship with him first, and it has to be accomplished.

Fulfilling the purpose, Jesus came. Unless we have that, we will not ever enter God's kingdom. What's your purpose? It is to glorify God. You glorify God when you obey him out of love. You want to. Your purpose is to enjoy him forever, not just you grimly do your duty, but you enjoy being right with him.

Yet, left to ourselves, we're not right with him, and our hearts are corrupt, and they don't want naturally to obey him. And no amount of religion or morality will make us right so that we can glorify and enjoy him.

Even if we exceed the religion of the most religious, we still won't accomplish it. So Jesus came to accomplish what we couldn't so that now we can, like Eric Little, fulfill our purpose, live for him, run for him, or sit, or work, or sleep, or eat, or drink, or laugh, or cry, with all our might and all our love for him now, with all our heart and soul, loving God, so we can feel eternally his pleasure.

That's your purpose.