What Is the Torah? Matthew 5:17-20 Explained Simply
Short answer: The Torah is God's instruction to his covenant people, most narrowly the Law of Moses and, by extension, the whole Hebrew Scriptures Jesus calls the law and the prophets. It is not a ladder of self-salvation but a revelation of God's character and will. In Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus says, "Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill." He does not set the Law aside; he embodies and completes what it pointed to. Scripture itself says every part of it is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16-17). At the same time, Paul insists no one is justified by works of the law, because the law exposes sin and drives us to Christ. The Torah is therefore holy, good, and useful, but it was never designed to make sinners righteous by their own effort.
Torah means instruction, not just law
The Hebrew word torah comes from a root meaning to teach or direct. It is better rendered instruction than the colder English word law, though law is not wrong. In the Old Testament the term can refer broadly to God's guidance for his people, and it often stands for the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. Psalm 119:1-8 opens the great wisdom psalm with the words, "Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to Yahweh's law." The psalmist does not treat the law as a burden to escape but as a path to walk with joy.
When Jewish readers today speak of the Torah, they usually mean the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Within those books are commands, narratives, songs, genealogies, and covenant ceremonies. It is not a single legal code but a whole world of revelation. It includes moral commands like the Ten Commandments, ceremonial regulations for worship and sacrifice, and civil statutes for life in the land of Israel. Reading it as one flat rulebook misses its texture and its purpose.
Jesus widens the term further in Matthew 5:17-20 when he mentions the law or the prophets. That phrase was a standard Jewish way of naming the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. So when Jesus speaks of not destroying the law, he is not merely defending a list of rules. He is honouring the entire scriptural witness that anticipated him. The Torah, in the fullest sense, is the instruction of God that prepares the way for the Messiah.
What Jesus says in Matthew 5:17-20
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus makes a startling claim. He says he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfill them. The word fulfill carries the sense of filling full, of bringing to intended completion. Jesus is not saying the Old Testament was mistaken and now can be discarded. He is saying that its deepest intentions, promises, types, and prophecies find their yes in him. He is the goal toward which the instruction pointed, not a replacement that makes it irrelevant.
He then adds a solemn warning about relaxing even the least of the commandments and teaching others to do so, contrasting that with doing and teaching them. This is not a call to earn salvation by rule-keeping. It is a warning against treating God's revealed will as trivial. The righteousness he describes must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, which means it cannot be mere external conformity. It must be a righteousness of the heart, a conformity to God's character that only he can produce in us.
Some faithful readers take this to mean believers are still obligated to keep the Mosaic law as a rule of life, while others argue the ceremonial and civil aspects were fulfilled in Christ and are no longer binding on the church. Both positions take the text seriously. What no careful reader can do is use this passage to dismiss the Old Testament or to claim Jesus set aside God's moral instruction as unimportant.
The law exposes sin and silences boasting
Paul is emphatic that the law is not sin and not evil. In Romans 7:7-12 he asks whether the law is sin, and answers, "May it never be!" He explains that he would not have known coveting unless the law had spoken. The law functions like a mirror, showing us the dirt we did not see. It does not wash us; it reveals what needs washing. This is a kindness, not a cruelty.
Romans 3:19-20 presses the point further: whatever the law says, it speaks to those under the law, so that every mouth may be closed and the whole world held accountable to God. The law's courtroom role is to end our self-defence. It strips away the illusion that we are basically fine. No one will be justified before God by works of the law, because the law's purpose is to give the knowledge of sin, not to provide the remedy for it.
This is why the Torah drives us to the gospel. If we read it only as a set of demands, we will either become proud when we think we are keeping it or despair when we see we are not. Both responses miss the point. The law was given to a redeemed people, not to people trying to earn their redemption. Grace came first in the exodus; the commandments followed. That order matters.
The curse of the law and the freedom of Christ
Galatians 3:10-14 speaks of a curse that falls on all who rely on the works of the law rather than on faith. Paul quotes the law itself: cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things written in the book of the law to do them. The problem is not that the law is bad; it is that we are unable to keep it perfectly. Partial obedience cannot satisfy a law that demands wholehearted, lifelong compliance. The law, as a covenant of works, can only condemn those who break it.
But Paul goes on to say that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. The one who perfectly fulfilled the law took the curse that our law-breaking deserved. This is how the law's demands and the gospel's gift fit together. Jesus did not lower the standard. He met it, and he bore the penalty for those who had not and could not. The law tells the truth about our condition; the cross provides the answer.
This means the Torah is not the enemy of the Christian. It is the witness that leads us to Christ. When we understand that the curse has been borne for us, we can read the law without fear and without pride. We are no longer trying to use it to prove ourselves. We are learning from it as children who have already been accepted by their Father.
How the New Testament uses the Torah
2 Timothy 3:16-17 makes a sweeping claim about Scripture: every part of it is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. The context shows that the Scriptures Timothy had known from childhood were the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. Paul does not divide them into useful and useless sections. He treats the whole as God's means of equipping his people for every good work.
That means the Torah still teaches us. It shows us who God is: holy, merciful, jealous, faithful. It shows us who we are: prone to wander, quick to justify ourselves, slow to repent. It gives us categories for worship, justice, rest, and community. It gives us the vocabulary of sacrifice and atonement that the New Testament assumes we understand. Without the Torah, much of the New Testament would be unintelligible.
At the same time, the New Testament distinguishes between the moral will of God, which abides, and the ceremonial and civil ordinances that were particular to Israel and fulfilled in Christ. Christians debate exactly how to draw these lines, and we should be honest about that. What is clear is that the Torah is not discarded but read in light of its fulfillment in Jesus, who teaches us how to obey it from the heart.
Common misconceptions about the Torah
One misconception is that the Torah is merely a harsh set of rules from an angry God, replaced by a gentle Jesus. But the law itself begins with grace: God rescues Israel from Egypt before he gives them commandments at Sinai. And Jesus does not soften God's standards; he intensifies them, tracing murder to anger and adultery to lust. The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New are the same God, and both testaments reveal his holiness and mercy.
Another misconception is that the Torah saves. Paul is clear that no one is justified by works of the law. The law was never a means of earning God's favour. It was given to a people already redeemed, as a way of life that reflected their covenant relationship. When we confuse the law's role with the gospel's role, we either become legalists who trust our performance or antinomians who ignore God's commands altogether. Both are distortions.
A third misconception is that the Torah is irrelevant to Christians. Jesus said he came not to destroy it but to fulfill it, and Paul says all Scripture is profitable. The Torah shapes our understanding of sin, atonement, holiness, and the mission of God. It is not a dead letter to be skipped. It is the foundation on which the New Testament builds, and it repays careful, Christ-centred reading.
Reading the Torah as fulfilled in Christ
To read the Torah as fulfilled in Christ is to look for him on every page. The sacrificial system points to the lamb of God. The Passover points to deliverance from a greater bondage. The tabernacle and temple point to God dwelling among his people. The promises to Abraham point to a blessing for all nations. The law itself, with its demands and its curses, points to the need for a mediator who could satisfy it on our behalf.
Paul can even say in Romans 7:7-12 that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good. He does not retract that. The problem is not the law but the flesh. When Christ redeems us and the Spirit writes God's instruction on our hearts, the law's goodness becomes something we love rather than resent. Obedience is no longer a grim duty but a grateful response to grace.
This does not mean we become law-keepers in the old covenant sense, earning our standing. It means the righteousness the law describes is fulfilled in us as we walk by the Spirit. The Torah remains God's good instruction, and in Christ we find both the power to obey it and the forgiveness when we fail. That is a far better story than either lawlessness or self-righteousness.
Biblical fidelity check
The passages establish several things plainly. Matthew 5:17-20 establishes that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them, and that God's commandments are not to be treated as nothing. Romans 7:7-12 establishes that the law is not sin and that it reveals sin, using coveting as an example. Romans 3:19-20 establishes the law's role in exposing guilt and stopping every mouth. Galatians 3:10-14 establishes that relying on law-works brings a curse and that Christ bore that curse to redeem us. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 establishes that all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for equipping.
These texts do not establish that Christians are saved by keeping the law, nor that the law is evil, nor that the Old Testament can be ignored. A common misreading says that because Jesus fulfilled the law, Christians can disregard the Ten Commandments or the Old Testament entirely. That is wrong because Jesus explicitly says he did not come to destroy it, and because Paul calls the law holy and good. Fulfillment does not mean cancellation. It means the purpose of the law is reached in Christ, and its moral instruction continues to shape the life of those who belong to him.
Other passages that speak to Matthew 5:17-20
Several other studies help connect this passage to the wider biblical witness. If you struggle with fear and want to see how God's presence meets our anxiety, see What does 2 Timothy 1:7 mean about fear? For how the Spirit produces the obedience the law describes, see What does Galatians 5 mean by fruit of the Spirit? For the rest Jesus offers to those who are weary under the weight of trying to measure up, see What does Matthew 11:28–30 mean by easy yoke? And for how Jesus promises his presence when two or three gather, see What does Matthew 18:20 mean?
Frequently asked questions
Does the Torah mean the same thing as the law?
The Hebrew word torah is better translated instruction than law, though law is a legitimate rendering. It can refer to the first five books of the Bible, to the whole Hebrew Scriptures, or to God's guidance generally. In Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus speaks of the law or the prophets, a phrase that covers the entire Old Testament. So the Torah overlaps with the law but is a broader category, and reading it as sheer legalism misses its role as God's teaching and direction for his people.
Did Jesus abolish the Old Testament law?
No. Jesus says explicitly that he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfill them. Fulfillment means he brings their purpose to completion, not that he cancels them. Faithful Christians differ on how the ceremonial and civil parts of the Mosaic law apply to the church today, but all agree that the moral character of God's instruction has not been set aside. The law remains holy, righteous, and good, and it continues to teach us about sin and grace.
How should Christians read the Torah today?
Read it as God-breathed Scripture that is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Read it in light of Christ, looking for the ways it points to him: sacrifice, priesthood, covenant, and promise. Read it without trying to earn your salvation by it, since Paul insists no one is justified by works of the law. Let it expose sin, drive you to Christ, and shape your gratitude, not your pride. The Torah is a gift when read with the gospel in view.
