THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
But who has pondered this? Who has laid such an accusation upon Him and summoned Him to respond? The words He uttered certainly did not provoke such a thought; His teachings—to embody humility, gentleness, mercy, purity of heart, and to pursue righteousness—indicate quite the opposite. What, then, was the purpose of His pronouncement? Surely, it was not without intent or reason. He aimed to present commandments of a higher order than those of old, which becomes clear from His assertion: “Hear ye, how it was said unto the ancients, Thou shalt not kill; but I say unto you, Be not angry.” With this, He prepared the pathway toward a divine and heavenly way of living, cautioning them by stating, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets.” The Jews, despite their daily transgressions against the law, held it in high regard and desired the Scriptures to remain untouched, fearing any modifications. However, they adhered rigidly to extraneous rules established by their leaders, which were detrimental rather than beneficial. These additions even marred the reverence owed to parents and corrupted numerous other obligations. Thus, recognizing that He did not hail from a priestly lineage and that His intended introductions constituted additions—ones that would elevate rather than diminish virtue—Christ anticipated the confusion such concepts might cause. Therefore, prior to sharing His profound commandments, He addressed their potential doubts.
What doubts could they harbor? They might have thought that Christ’s declarations aimed to abolish the ancient laws. He diligently alleviates this suspicion, not only in this instance but on various occasions. When the Jews regarded Him as an adversary to God for breaking the Sabbath, He defended Himself by invoking His status as the Son of God, asserting, “My Father doeth, and I do also” (John 5:17). In other moments, He took a humble approach, demonstrating the allowance to break the law for the sake of saving a sheep perishing on the Sabbath, and acknowledging that circumcision was performed on that day as well (Matthew 12:11, 12). Thus, He often spoke with humility to counter their belief that He acted contrary to God’s will. When calling Lazarus from the tomb, He turned to God in prayer, despite having previously raised the dead with merely a command (John 11:41). To prevent any misinterpretation of His relationship to the Father, He indicated, “For the sake of the people standing around, I have spoken these things, that they may believe, because You sent Me” (John 11:42). His actions and prayers were not indiscriminate; rather, they were carried out with divine wisdom. In executing significant miracles, He acted as the supreme authority, while in lesser matters, He looked heavenward. For instance, He forgave sins, revealed mysteries, opened Paradise, cast out demons, cured lepers, conquered death, and raised the dead through direct commands. However, when multiplying loaves—an act of lesser import—He lifted His gaze to the heavens. His actions were not born out of weakness; for if He could accomplish the greater, why would He need to pray for the lesser? Clearly, He sought to temper the arrogance of the Jews.
Consider this when interpreting His humble speech. He acted and spoke in humility for multiple reasons: to ensure they understood He acted according to the will of God, to bring teaching and healing to everyone, to model humility, to affirm His humanity, and to acknowledge the gradual nature of the Jews’ comprehension. Thus, He often expressed lowliness regarding Himself, leaving it to others to proclaim His greatness. For example, He told the Jews, “Before even Abraham was not, I am” (John 8:58), and His disciple stated, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word” (John 1:1). Furthermore, He never directly claimed to have created the heavens, the earth, and all visible and invisible things; His disciples, however, boldly affirmed these truths, repeatedly stating, “All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made;” and “in the world was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:3, 10). Is it surprising that others might speak of Him more boldly than He did, especially when He demonstrated His authority through His actions? His healing of the blind man clearly evidenced His creation of humanity, while when referring to the beginning, He did not say, “I created,” but rather, “He who created male and female, I created” (Matthew 19:4). Similarly, His authority over creation was demonstrated in catching fish, turning water into wine, multiplying loaves, calming storms, radiating light on the cross, and performing many other miracles; though He seldom expressed these truths outright, His disciples—John, Paul, and Peter—testify repeatedly to them. If these disciples, who were witnesses to His daily teachings and miracles, possessed such virtue and understanding yet struggled to grasp everything before receiving the Holy Spirit, how could the Jews—lacking such understanding and virtue—come to realize His alignment with the will of the Almighty God, had Christ not shown His humility?
For this reason, when He broke the Sabbath, He did not abruptly introduce a new law, but provided a multitude of reasons beforehand. If His intention had been to erase even a single commandment, He would have articulated such changes with care to avoid alarming His hearers. Thus, when adding an entirely new law to the old, He surely needed to prepare them, addressing their needs and conditions to prevent aggravation. Consequently, He refrained from openly declaring His divinity everywhere; if His modifications to the law caused disquiet, they would have been even more unsettled had He directly announced Himself as God. Hence, He spoke many things that appeared beneath His divine dignity. With this intent, He approached the fulfillment of the law with caution, reiterating, “Do not imagine that I am come to destroy,” and further stating, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” These assertions not only silence the audacity of the Jews but also counter the claims of heretics who argue that the old law originated from evil. Indeed, if Christ came to vanquish the power of evil, how could He both not destroy it and yet fulfill it? He asserted, “I will not destroy,” which alone would suffice; yet He also added, “I will fulfill,” illustrating that He neither opposed nor dismissed the law, but rather endorsed it.
You may wonder how He did not violate the law. How did He fulfill the law and the prophets? He fulfilled the prophets by validating through His actions everything they prophesied about Him; thus, the evangelist frequently notes, “Let what was spoken by the prophet be fulfilled.” This was evident when He was born, when young men sang His praises, and when He rode upon a colt. In numerous instances, He brought prophecies to fruition, which would have remained unfulfilled had He not come into the world. He fulfilled the law in various ways: first, He committed no transgression against it. To confirm that He upheld all righteousness, listen to His words to John: “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way” (Matthew 3:15). He challenged the Jews, asking, “Who among you reproaches Me for sin?” (John 8:46) and told His disciples, “The prince of this world is coming, and in Me he finds nothing” (John 14:30). The prophet foretold that He would not commit sin (Isaiah 53:9). This establishes the first way He fulfilled the law.
Secondly, He fulfilled the law on our behalf. It is remarkable that He not only fulfilled the law personally but also granted us the capability to fulfill it, as Paul elaborates: “the end of the law is Christ in righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4), and “He condemned sin in the flesh, that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh” (Romans 8:3, 4). Additionally, “Is the law to be destroyed by faith? Let it not be, but let us establish the law” (Romans 3:31). The purpose of the law was to render man righteous, which it could not accomplish, but the Lord fulfilled this through His coming to earth, establishing the model of justification by faith. What the law failed to achieve through written codes, Christ accomplished through faith; thus, He states, “I come not to destroy the law.” Furthermore, upon careful examination, one will uncover a third manner by which He fulfills the law. How so? By instituting the new law that Christ intended to deliver. Indeed, His teachings did not negate the old law but rather elevated and enriched it. For example, the commandment “Thou shalt not murder” is not nullified by the directive “Thou shalt not be angry”—rather, the latter amplifies and reinforces the former. The same could be said for all the others. As Christ scattered the first seeds of His new doctrine, He did not draw any suspicion upon Himself. Yet upon beginning to draw comparisons between the old and the new law, the possibility of accusations of contradiction grew; this is why He declared beforehand, “I come not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.” The commandments He proposed were already founded on prior teachings. Thus, for instance, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” corresponds to the command against anger; “Blessed are the pure in heart” aligns with the admonition against lustful gazes; the commandment against hoarding earthly treasures relates to “Blessed are the merciful.” Mourning, persecution, and reviling resonate with the exhortation to enter by the narrow gate; yearning for righteousness harmonizes with the principle expressed, “If you want anything, let men do it to you, and you do it to them” (Matthew 7:12).
When Christ favors the peacemaker, He echoes the command to leave a gift at the altar and seek reconciliation with an offended brother or adversary. The distinction here lies in the fact that He promises rewards for obedience while warning that transgressors will face repercussions. He asserts that the meek shall inherit the earth; and warns that anyone who labels their brother a fool is subject to hellfire. He promises that the pure in heart shall see God, while stating that a person who looks at their spouse with impure intentions is a true adulterer. He calls peacemakers the sons of God, whereas He cautions the unpeaceful to beware of the judge. He bestows blessings upon those who mourn and face persecution, affirming that those who do not follow this path face destruction, declaring, “those who walk the broad way perish.” The statement “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) seems similar to, “Blessed are the merciful” and “thirsting for righteousness.” As noted above, the Lord intended not only to clarify prior pronouncements, but also to augment them. For instance, He commands mercy not merely as abstaining from harm but instructs to also turn the other cheek to one who is about to be struck. To underscore the absence of contradictions, He reiterates, “I came not to destroy the law,” and repeats it multiple times: “Do not imagine that I am come to destroy; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”