Jesus Did NOT Abolish the Commandments but Magnified and Empowered Them
Did Jesus of Nazareth nullify the commandments given by God through Moses, or did He reaffirm, magnify, and empower believers to walk in them by His Spirit?
A. Jesus Did Not Abolish the Law (Matt 5:17–19; Isa 42:21)
Matthew 5:17–19 — “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill… Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
Note: This is not the rhetoric of repeal but of reinforcement. He fulfills by embodying it perfectly, not by removing it.
Isaiah 42:21 — “The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law and make it honorable.”
Yeshua deepened commandments rather than discarding them: “You have heard… but I say to you” (Matthew 5:21–48)—making inward purity as binding as external obedience.
B. The Same Commandments, Now Written on Our Hearts
Jeremiah 31:33 / Hebrews 8:10 — “I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts.”
Ezekiel 36:27 — “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes.”
The Spirit doesn’t replace the Law—He empowers us to walk in it.
Romans 7:12 — “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.”
Psalm 89:34 — “I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered.”
Deuteronomy 6:5–7 — “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart… And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.” (This is the same Law Jesus quotes in Matthew 22:37.)
C. God’s Covenant Is Unchanging
Deuteronomy 7:9 — “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations.”
Deuteronomy 5:29 — “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and their children forever!”
Deuteronomy 6:25 — “Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments.”
Exodus 24:3–4 — “All the words which the Lord has said we will do… Moses wrote all the words of the Lord.” (Torah came from God’s mouth; Moses was the faithful scribe.)
John 5:46–47 — “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
There is no contradiction: Jesus affirmed what Moses wrote; believing one entails believing the other.
D. The Promise of Rest Was Always There
Isaiah 28:12 — “This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest… but they would not hear.”
Word study: Hebrew mənūḥâ (מְנוּחָה) = repose, settled rest, covenantal quiet (not merely inactivity).
Matthew 11:28–30 — “Come to Me… and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Greek anapausis (ἀνάπαυσις) = refreshment, cessation, inward tranquility. Yeshua’s call echoes Isaiah’s offer—not discarding Sabbath, but offering its deeper fulfillment in Him. His easy yoke is Spirit-empowered obedience that restores covenant rest.
E. Jesus Restored, Not Replaced, the Covenant Path
Acts 3:19–26 — “Repent… that your sins may be blotted out… Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me… Him you shall hear… I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.’” (cf. Deut 18:15–18)
Jesus is that Prophet—speaking the very words of God as Moses foretold—not launching a new religion, but calling people back to obedience from the heart, enabled by the Spirit.
Acts 7:52–53 — Stephen: “You… who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” The issue is failure to keep the Law, not that it was annulled.
Jesus didn’t lower the standard; He turns us from sin—“sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4).
F. Conclusion: Magnified, Inscribed, and Walked in the Spirit
God’s standard has not changed. His covenant is everlasting. Jesus didn’t start a new religion; He embodied Torah, fulfilled prophecy, and restored the covenant path. The Torah is not abolished—it is magnified, inscribed on hearts, and walked out in the Spirit.
Psalm 89:34 — “My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.”