“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. (Matthew 5:17, 18, NKJV).
Magnificent Details
In ancient Hebrew tradition, the Old Testament is divided roughly and generally into the Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy), the Prophets (Isaiah through Malachi), the History (1st Samuel through Nehemiah), Wisdom (Proverbs), and Worship (Psalms). Different scholars may have different categorizations, but most agree that Jesus is here referring to either the writings contained in the first two groups, or the entirety of the Old Testament (my personal preference). In both cases, His point is the same. God's Word, those oracles committed to the Jews by the Holy Spirit, is indestructible.
Some in 1st Century Israel thought Jesus preached the overthrow of both the existing religious (Judaism) and civil (Roman) authorities. Others believed Messiah would inaugurate a kind of divine Antinomianism, whereby the Earth was no longer under God's official Old Testament jurisdiction. Both factions were dead wrong, and Jesus is making that clear, and in doing so is giving us His view of Scripture, something to which we should pay very close attention. Consider the three following passages (there are more, of course, that speak to the same points, but these are Jesus' own words about the issue):
Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (Luke 24:25-27, NKJV).
“If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), (John 10:35, NKJV).
“Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you--Moses, in whom you trust. “For 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?” (John 5:45-47, NKJV).
The first point - the Bible, all of the Bible, is about Christ in one way, shape or form. I do not mean to say that it is not about anything else, but I do mean to emphasize that He is the main focus. That Bible study on the road to Emmaus that He gave those two disciples after His resurrection in Luke 24 must have been one of His most magnificent teachings. I believe we are not given the details for a reason - so that we can search out these treasures ourselves. One of the benchmarks of a born-again Christian is a CRAVING for God's Word, like an infant craves milk. We desire to know more about God and the things of God, and the reward is the discovery of those wondrous truths that sustain and grow us in Him. When I read and begin to understand God's unimaginably brilliant plan of Redemption ordained before the foundation of the world, and the Divine motivation behind it, I am literally speechless; without words to describe the "hugeness and power" of it all.
The second point - not even God Himself will abrogate His Word. What He says MUST come to pass. What He purposes WILL be fulfilled. His every communication is UNBREAKABLE, even down to the most minute details. This is incredibly good news to those who believe, and incomprehensibly bad news to those who don't. Make no mistake, when we are told in Scripture that every act, word or "thoughts and intent of the heart" will be judged, it WILL be. No exceptions. This is both a gracious warning and a rock-solid guarantee. The judgment will either occur in Christ, atoned for by His substitutionary death on the Cross, or on its own merits. The first inevitably leads to eternal life, the second to eternal punishment. There is no third alternative.
The third point - it is not possible to be a Cafeteria Believer in God's Word. Discard one part, and you have discarded the whole. "Puh-lease!" you say. "How narrow-minded! How unscientific! How quaintly simplistic! How embarrassing!" Look, I happen to know and can formulate many rebuttals to whatever objections an honest skeptic may have to the authenticity, authority, accuracy, sufficiency, and inerrancy of the Bible. But if you claim to be a Christian, a follower of and believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior as portrayed in Scripture (I've always wondered exactly what other Jesus you have any rational reason to believe in - the one in your own mind? To that I say, "Puh-lease!"), you have ABSOLUTELY no basis for NOT believing the entirety of God's Word. Jesus did, even the parts (or more pointedly - especially the parts) you don't like.
And don't give me that blather about there being many possible interpretations to the passages you personally find offensive or not in keeping with your own infallible view of things. It is clear and obvious when and where the Bible is to be interpreted literally or symbolically. It makes perfect sense that an omniscient and omnipotent Being would be capable of saying what He means, and meaning what He says, and PRESERVING that meaning, in ways that even idiots like us can understand.
Jesus is saying that there is NOTHING more sure than God's Word. Nothing. It is more solid than the material Universe. More consistent and powerful than any scientific principle, more durable than Creation itself. And, even more amazingly, His purpose in the Incarnation includes PROVING (fulfilling) that, down to the last crossed 't' or dotted 'i'.
The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8, NKJV).
