what did jesus say about the old testament

We now see our Lord speaking as the one who is greater than Moses (Hebrews 3:12). Sitting upon the mount, He speaks with greater authority than Moses or any one before Him, because He has greater authority. He who speaks concerning the law and the prophets, confirming and expanding, is the one who gave it to Moses, whose fingers wrote upon the tables of stone, whose Spirit revealed the visions to the prophets and testified in them and through them beforehand, concerning the suffering and the glory that should follow. The question which comes to the Jewish mind after reading the opening of the discourse, the description of the characteristics of the heirs of the kingdom is the question concerning the law and the prophets; that is, the whole Old Testament. Did He then come to set them aside? Did He come to make the law and the prophets void? He states at once that He came not to make void the law and the prophets, but to fulfill, and adds, "For verily I say unto you until the heaven and earth pass away, one iota or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law until all come to pass."

A good deal of wrong teaching has been taken from these words; the most erroneous is the one which puts a Christian believer still under the law and teaches from this passage that inasmuch as Christ came not to make void the law so, every believer is obliged to fulfill the law. This is a favored argument with Seventh Day people and others. It springs from forgetting the fact that here we have no teaching concerning the Church or the individual believer as it was made known subsequently in the Epistles. The Epistles make very clear the relation to the law which the true believer sustains, who has eternal life and is in Christ. "So that, my brethren, we also have been made dead to the law by the body of Christ, to be another who has been raised up from among the dead in order that we might bear fruit to God" (Romans 7:4). We are dead to the law, yet the law in itself is not dead; it is as much alive as ever, and holy, just and good. However, the new nature which we have Is the perfect law of liberty; it is something altogether new; yet the old law still exists and has its power, but never for him who is a new creation in Christ Jesus. "The law has been our tutor up to Christ, that we might be justified on the principle of faith, but faith having come we are no longer under a tutor, for ye are all God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:24, 25). The law could make nothing perfect, but Christ came, and perfection is in Him and through Him. What is the meaning of "to fulfill"? It means to give the fullness, to make full, to fill out the law and the prophets. The wrong interpretation comes generally from having only the ten Commandments in view, but there is more than that and more than the Lord's full obedience to the law and fulfilling Himself all that which the law and the prophets had spoken concerning Him. In the true sense of the word the meaning is, that He came to make good the whole scope of the law and prophets. He is come to reveal the completeness of that which the law and the prophets had but pointed out. All that which the law and the prophets teach and predict, the fullness, is of Him and will be fulfilled in Him who came and who will come again. The eighteenth verse makes this clear. Even the smallest letter, the Hebrew "jod," shall come to pass; not even the least letter can be set aside, but all will be accomplished. Here we have one of the strongest words for the verbal inspiration and infallibility of the Bible. Even the "jod" is of Him, and "until the heavens and the earth pass away one iota or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law till all come to pass." All then is divine, infallible and will come to pass. What a solemn declaration of the great King this is! This is in full harmony with the entire testimony of the Word. "Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in the heavens" (Psalm 119:89). "Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name" (Psalm 130:2). "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them is great reward" (Psalm 19). In the 119th Psalm the perfection and excellency of the Word is told out in each of the 176 verses, with the exception of two, and the declaration is made, "Thy Word is true from the beginning." What an awful sin, what a heinous thing, the rejection of the inspiration of the Word of God is!

On the other hand, the Lord Jesus quoted many an Old Testament Scripture as authoritative. Did He not say, "It is written" (Matt. 4:4, 6-7) three times, quoting passages from Deuteronomy when resisting the Devil in the temptation in the wilderness? In the Sermon on the Mount we read, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law [the law, a term covering the five books of Moses], till all be fulfilled" (Matt. 5:17-18). This is a particular affirmation of the authority and inspiration of the Old Testament. A jot is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet; the tittle, a little mark on a letter to distinguish it from another letter, so alike that a mistake might be made were the mark not there. Some people are afraid of the word verbal inspiration, but our Lord goes further, and tells us every letter and mark is authoritative.

C. There again you argue on hearsay. Why not read for yourself? What you object to comes in the very discourse where our Lord said that He had not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it. If you would study that most wonderful Sermon on the Mount, you would find that the law is not set aside, but that the law brings in a deeper spirituality, a code of conduct that did not set aside the law, but went beyond it, yet upholding it in all its integrity.

Let one instance suffice out of the seven occasions in that discourse when our Lord said, “I say to you.” “Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say to you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matt. 5:27-28). Where is there the setting aside of the law? Nay, He upheld it. The law was content to forbid the actual act, the Lord went further, and not only forbad the outward act, but the inward desire.

In the portion that follows we enter upon a most important subject. If there was this new kind of blessedness, so foreign to the thoughts of Israel after the flesh, what was the relation of the law to Christ's doctrine and the new state of things about to be introduced? Did not the law come from God through Moses? If Christ brought in that which was so unexpected, even by the disciples, what would be the bearing of this truth upon that which they had previously received through God's inspired servants, and for which they had His own authority? Weaken the authority of the law, and it is clear that you destroy the foundation on which the gospel rests; for the law was of God as certainly as the gospel. Hence came in a most weighty question, especially for an Israelite: what was the bearing of the doctrine of Christ, respecting the kingdom of heaven, upon the precepts of the law? The Lord opens this subject (vers. 17-48) with these words: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets." They might have thought so from the fact of His having introduced something not mentioned in either; but "Think not," He says, "that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." I take this word "fulfil" in its largest sense. In His own person the Lord fulfilled the law and the prophets, in His own ways, in righteous subjection and obedience. His life here below exhibited its beauty for the first time without flaw. His death was the most solemn sanction which the law ever could receive, because the curse that it pronounced upon the guilty, the Saviour took upon Himself. There was nothing the Saviour would not undergo, rather than God should have dishonour. But our Lord's words warrant, I think, a further application. There is an expansion of the law, or δικαίωμα (righteous requirement), giving to its moral element the largest scope, so that all which was honouring to God in it should be brought out in its fullest power and extent. The light of heaven was now let fall upon the law, and the law interpreted, not by weak, failing men, but by One who had no reason to evade one jot of its requirements; whose heart, full of love, thought only of the honour and the will of God; whose zeal for His Father's house consumed Him, and who restored that which He took not away. Who but He could expound the law thus — not as the scribes, but in the heavenly light? For the commandment of God is exceeding broad, whether we look at its making an end of all perfection in man, or the sum of it in Christ.

Far from annulling the law, the Lord, on the contrary, illustrated it more brightly than ever, and gave it a spiritual application that man was entirely unprepared for before He came. And this is what the Lord proceeds to do in the wonderful discourse that follows. After having said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled," He adds, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven" (vers. 18-20). Our Lord is going to expand the great moral principles of the law into commandments that flow from Himself, and not merely from Moses, and shows that this would be the great thing whereby persons would be tested. It would no longer be a question of the ten words spoken on Sinai merely; but, while recognizing their full value, He was about to open out the mind of God in a way so much deeper than had ever been thought of before that this would henceforth be the great test.

"Think not that I am come to make void the law or the prophets; I am not come to make void, but to fulfil" (Matt. 5: 17). The preaching of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, and his call to repentance, as well as the words of the Lord Jesus Himself, announced something completely new. But this did not mean that everything that preceeded this had become invalid. The law and the prophets (i.e. the entire Old Testament) were not destroyed by Christ. Quite the opposite, He was come to fulfil them. "Fulfilling" does not only mean obedience to the Word of God, because this could only have referred to the law, and not to the prophets. "Fulfilling" therefore means here "to confirm" and "to bring to fulfilment." The entire Old Testament testified of Christ and He was its fulfilment (John 5: 39).

To the healed leper He said, "Go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded." (Matt. 8:4.) He appeals also to the words of Moses in the matter of divorce: "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female … for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh?" And what these words of Moses teach He regards as of God. "What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder," etc. The whole context proves that the Lord owned the words to be of, and by Moses. And the Pharisees acknowledged the truth of this, Matthew 19:3-8. See also, Mark 1:44, And offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them." "For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother," etc. This Jesus regarded as the commandment of God. (Mark 7:9-10.) To the Pharisees on another occasion He said, "What did Moses command you?" (Mark 10:3.) "Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake to him, saying, I am the God of Abraham," etc. (Mark 12:26-31.) "They have Moses and the prophets … If they hear not Moses and the prophets," etc. (Luke 16:29-31.) "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Thus Moses and all the prophets are declared to be the scriptures by the risen Son of God. "And he said to them, These are the words which I spake to you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which was written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures." (Luke 24:27-45.) Do we need any clearer proof than the plain teaching of Christ? "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1:17.) Let us agree with Philip, "We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write." (Ver. 45.)

Jesus constantly refers to facts recorded in the books of Moses. He says, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." (John 3:14.) "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" (John 5:45-47.) "Did not Moses give you the law? … Moses therefore gave you circumcision," etc. (John 7:22.) Such is the uniform teaching of Christ. Thus the puerile attempt to repudiate the true authorship of Moses, or the inspiration of Moses (the law), the psalms, and the prophets — as God truly speaking to us by them — is a wicked attempt to make Jesus a liar and a deceiver. My soul, be thou found with Him, the light and life and the truth; and not lost in the wanderings of modern thought.

The full value of a type is enshrined in its antitype! The importance of the Old Testament Scriptures lies in the fact that they speak of Christ! "The scriptures … are they which testify of Me" is the tremendously significant statement of our Lord to the religious leaders of His day who failed to grasp the import of what they read (John 5). They boasted in their knowledge of Moses' words, and were marked by pride and self-importance in their approach to God, but failed to appreciate that Moses wrote of Christ (John 5:46), and that there was no approach to God except by Him who is 'the Way.' They would not 'receive to hold' (lit.) the Word, the true Light that came into the world in the Person of Christ, but they did 'receive to hold' the traditions of men. The Lord's word to them "Search the Scriptures" was an appeal rather than command; He knew that those who truly searched would find Him to be the theme and substance of the Word. To those who, though momentarily disappointed and sad, had related the Scriptures to Him He expounded the "things concerning Himself" and caused their hearts to burn within them (Luke 24).

In these words also were exposed the evil motives lying deep in the hearts of His opponents, yet He was not their accuser. Moses was that through the law that had been given by him. They boasted in Moses, because they felt that great man conferred some honour upon themselves, but they did not really believe him. Had they done so they would have received Christ. Verse 39 applies to all Old Testament scriptures: they "testify of Me." Verse 46 alludes specifically to the early books written by Moses; and he "wrote of Me." This, then, is the key which unlocks all the Old Testament — the main theme is the Christ, who was to come.

Mark's gospel begins with quotations from the prophets Malachi and Isaiah, and in chapter 7, our Lord said to the Pharisees, "Well has Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me," and charges them with rejecting "the commandment of God," as in Exodus and Leviticus, and setting up instead, "commandments of men." "Thus," added our Lord, "making the word of God of none effect through your tradition." Here our Lord calls the writings of Moses the word of God. (Vers. 6-13.) In chapter 12 our Lord declares that David wrote Psalm 110 (Ver. 36.) Again, we ask, Is it possible to have clearer proofs of divine inspiration?

These two verses plainly teach us that in the apostles' days there were sacred writings, which they could speak of as written for our comfort and instruction. It is well, then, first of all, to see if we can gather from other parts of scripture with certainty what these sacred writings were. As to this, one thing is very striking. It is the way in which our Lord in the days of His flesh referred to "the scriptures." Not only did He say, "Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, for they are they which testify of me;" but He was wont to appeal to His hearers, saying, "Have ye never read?" "Did you never read?" "What is written in the law?" "How readest thou?" "Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God?" ― all evidently referring to sacred writings. Moreover, He not only said, "Moses wrote of me," but He was pleased to rank the "writings" of Moses with His own "words," when He added, "If ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" There were writings, then, which our Lord in His ministry frequently authenticated as divinely-given, which He honoured and obeyed, and their authority was to Him final and conclusive. In point of fact, "It is written," when quoting the very words of scripture, was with Him the sword of the Spirit to resist Satan in all his temptations.