I have come not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it

Book of Deuteronomy 4:1.5-9. 
Moses spoke to the people and said: "Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 
Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees as the LORD, my God, has commanded me, that you may observe them in the land you are entering to occupy. 
Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, 'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.' 
For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? 
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?" 
"However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children's children." 



Psalms 147:12-13.15-16.19-20. 
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem; 
praise your God, O Zion. 
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; 
he has blessed your children within you. 

He sends forth his command to the earth; 
swiftly runs his word! 
He spreads snow like wool; 
frost he strews like ashes. 

He has proclaimed his word to Jacob, 
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. 
He has not done thus for any other nation; 
his ordinances he has not made known to them. 




Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5:17-19. 
Jesus said to his disciples: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. 
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven." 

"I have come not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it"

We see Christ submitting to the law of Moses; or rather, we see the lawgiver subject as man to his own decrees. The reason for this we learn from the wisdom of Saint Paul. He says...: "When the fullness of time had come God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law" (Gal 4,4-5). Thus Christ ransomed from the law's curse those who were subject to the law but had never kept it. How did he ransom them? By fulfilling the law. Or to put it in another way, to blot out the reproach of Adam's transgression, he offered himself on our behalf to God the Father, showing him in all things obedience and submission. Scripture says: "As through one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so through one man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Rm 5,18). And so, Christ submitted to the law together with us, and he did so by becoming man in accordance with the divine dispensation. For: "It was fitting that Christ should do everything that justice required" (cf. Mt 3,15).

He had in all truth assumed the condition of a slave (Phil 2,7); and so, reckoned among those under the yoke by reason of his humanity, he once paid the half· shekel to those who demanded it, although as the Son he was by nature free and not liable to this tax (Mt 18,23-26). When you see him keeping the law, then, do not misunderstand it, or reduce one who is free to the rank of household slaves, but reflect rather on the depths of God's plan.