This is one of the more misunderstood sayings of Jesus Christ in the Bible. Many interpreters have concluded that here Jesus was referring to the prophecy of His death and that He had come to fulfil the prophecy that He would die. That He had come merely to fulfil this prophecy.

This is unfortunately the interpretation that has existed for centuries and has been firmly ingrained into the consciousness of mankind making it very difficult indeed to convince them of another interpretation. This widely accepted interpretation, however, is false and narrowly confined.

Jesus said in Matthew verses 17 and 18 that “think not that I have have to abolish the laws and the prophets but I have come to fulfil them” Then He went to say that not a dot and not an iota will pass before the law until all is accomplished. He then continues in verse 19 to say that “Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven”

These follow on verses should have alerted us to the fact that Jesus was not referring to His death or His crucifixion but indeed to the Laws of God in the Universe. Jesus was saying that He had come to UPHOLD the Laws of God and not to change these Laws. He had come to fulfil and maintain the Laws of the Father and not to change them. He had come to tell us that not a dot or an iota can escape the Laws of God. He was not at all referring to the laws of men.

He was referring to the adamantine and unchangeable Laws of God which stipulate that whatever we sow we will reap.  He had come to fulfil that Law among others which stipulates that whatever we sow as human beings in our thoughts, words, or actions will not pass by or be forgiven without being accounted for.

These Laws of God had always been active and the coming of Jesus Christ would not and did not change these Laws of God. On the contrary, Jesus told us that He had come to affirm the existence and the activity of these Laws. So Jesus Christ was referring to the great Divine Laws of God which are constant and just and active from eternity.

He had come to invigorate and reaffirm the existence of these Laws and remind us of them. He had come to tell us about these Laws and how we must adjust ourselves to them. In fact the whole of the Sermon on the Mount was devoted to the affirmation of the Laws of God. When He continued and said that “Ye have heard that it was said…” or “Ye have heard said to the men of old…”; not only was He affirming the old laws He was actually strengthening and broadening them.

He was not only taking in and presenting the old teaching but actually expanding on them and making them stricter, for example, in verses 27 and 28 when He said “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Here He was not only affirming the old laws but He was making them even stricter and more vigorous. He was actually asking us to obey the Laws of God as He had given them to us. It is this strict adherence to the Laws of God as He explained it that can lead to our salvation. 

The old laws needed to be strengthened and affirmed and in some cases even changed for the better. This is what He did with the Sermon on the Mount. With this Sermon He gave to us all what we needed as it lies in the Will and Laws of God. We cannot but live by the Law and that is why this was the first thing He did when He started preaching. He preached the Laws of God first so that we might know of them and then adjust ourselves to them.

There is no getting around the Laws of God. Whatever we sow we must reap many times over. Whatever we sow in our thoughts, words and actions cannot be taken over by someone else. We have to be responsible for our own spiritual activities. The Laws of God stand adamantine and unchangeable unto all eternity. They are active in everything that we do and they cannot be annulled or dismissed or ignored. We must learn of these Laws and adjust ourselves accordingly if we want Salvation.