Matthew 5:17–19 — Till All Be Fulfilled

Yahushua opened with a warning against the very teaching most pulpits now preach: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). The word is pleroo (G4137), to fill full. It is not teleo, the word He spoke on the tree, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Filling the law full is not ending it.

Verse 18 then sets how long the law stands, and the limit is not the tree. “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Here “be fulfilled” is a third word, ginomai (G1096), to come to pass, an event that marks an ending. Revelation records that event. The earth and the heaven flee away before the great white throne (Revelation 20:11), the first heaven and the first earth pass away (21:1), and he that sat upon the throne declares, “It is done” (21:6), the same verb, ginomai. Heaven and earth have not passed. Not one jot has passed from the law.

Verse 19 assigns rank. Whoever breaks one of the least commandments and teaches men so “shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven,” and whoever does and teaches them “shall be called great.” The verse does not say the law-breaker enters the kingdom. It says what the kingdom calls him. Entry is taken up in the next verse, and it is not promised to the law-breaker: “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter” (5:20). The tree finished the sacrifice. It did not pass the law. The law stands until “It is done” is spoken over a new heaven and a new earth.