The Claim
Most churches teach that Yahushua came to fulfil the Law, and once it was fulfilled, it was finished. He said not one jot or tittle would pass “till all be fulfilled,” and on the tree He cried, “It is finished.” The Law and the prophets were until John. Again and again Yahushua said, “Ye have heard that it was said … but I say unto you,” setting His own teaching above Moses. Believers now follow the law of Messiah, not the Law of Moses.
On this reading, the Torah had a built-in end date, and the end date was the cross.
The Point in One Sentence
Yahushua named the end date of the Torah Himself, and He set it at the passing of heaven and earth, which has not happened.
The Short Version
- Yahushua said it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for the smallest stroke of the law to fail.
- Heaven and earth have not passed. Scripture places their passing in the future.
- He attached a penalty to teaching men to break even the least commandment.
- Every time He spoke about the commandments, He raised the standard. He never lowered it.
- Any theory that dates the end of the Torah to the cross has to overrule His own sentence.
He Named the Condition
Luke records the plainest form of the saying:
And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
— Luke 16:17
There is no other condition in this sentence. Luke does not include the phrase “till all be fulfilled” that appears in Matthew’s account. He gives heaven and earth alone. The phrase in Matthew 5:18 is answered in its own testimony. Luke’s form needs no answer. It simply states the condition.
The Smallest Stroke
A tittle is keraia (G2762), a little horn: the tiny hook or stroke that tells one Hebrew letter from another. Matthew adds the jot, the yod, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Yahushua did not say the big ideas of the Torah would remain. He said the smallest marks on the page would outlast the sky.
Heaven and Earth Have Not Passed
Scripture places the passing of heaven and earth in the future, not at the cross. Peter wrote decades after the tree: “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). John saw it in a vision of the end:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
— Revelation 21:1
Any reader can check the condition by looking up. The heaven and earth Yahushua spoke of are still here. By His own words, then, so is every stroke of the law.
He Attached a Penalty
Right after naming the condition, Yahushua named a consequence:
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.
— Matthew 5:19
The least commandments. Break them and teach men so. This verse is not about the end of the age. It speaks of the kingdom of heaven, which Yahushua was preaching then and there. A teacher who tells believers that the commandments are gone is doing exactly what this verse describes.
He Raised the Standard
The next verse sets the bar higher, not lower:
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.
— Matthew 5:20
Then come the sayings that begin “ye have heard … but I say unto you.” The first two show the direction of all of them. The commandment said, do not kill. Yahushua said, do not even be angry with your brother without a cause (Matthew 5:21–22). The commandment said, do not commit adultery. He said, do not even look with lust (Matthew 5:27–28). Each time, the commandment stays and its reach goes deeper. The other sayings in the chapter are answered in their own testimonies, and none of them reverses the direction set by these two.
His Words Do Not Pass
Yahushua also said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). The Psalms say the same of the Father’s word: “Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever” (Psalm 119:152), and “every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever” (Psalm 119:160). Isaiah agrees: “the word of our Elohim shall stand for ever” (Isaiah 40:8). The Son’s words and the Father’s words do not compete. The Son says what the Father gave Him to say.
What This Foundation Does Not Claim
- It does not claim that nothing changed in how the Torah is carried out. The priesthood passed to Messiah, and F-06 sets out what changed. No stroke of the law failed in that: the Levitical commandments still read as they always read, and the change of priest was foretold in Scripture itself (Psalm 110:4).
- It does not settle the meaning of Matthew 5:17–18, Luke 16:16, or the other sayings. Each has its own testimony.
- It claims this: Yahushua gave the Torah an end date, and the date He gave has not arrived.
The Verdict
The modern teaching gives the Torah an end date at the cross. Yahushua gave it a different one: the passing of heaven and earth. He set that date in the plainest words He ever spoke on the subject, attached a penalty to teaching otherwise, and spent the rest of the sermon raising the standard. Heaven and earth are still here. The passages that rest on this foundation are answered one at a time in their own testimonies.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
— Romans 3:31
The sky is still overhead. So is every stroke of the law.