Great Warning of Yeshua
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:17-19
“Fulfill” Does Not Mean “Abolish”
When Yeshua said:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
Matthew 5:17 (ESV)
Many twist the word fulfill (Greek: πληρόω / plēroō) to mean “bring to an end” or “do away with.” But the very structure of His sentence makes that impossible. Yeshua contrasts two ideas, abolish and fulfill, meaning they are opposites, not synonyms.
He literally says, “Do not think I came to abolish.” Then He adds, “I came to fulfill.”
If fulfill meant abolish, the verse would contradict itself:
“Do not think I came to abolish the Torah; I came to abolish it.”
That’s absurd.
What Plēroō Actually Means
Let’s look carefully at the Greek word itself. It’s not a complicated or mysterious one and its used elsewhere in the same way.
Lexicon Definition (Strong’s G4137, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon):
πληρόω (plēroō) — “to make full, to fill up, to complete, to cause to abound, to carry into effect, to perform fully, to bring to realization.”
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon
- To fill, make full, or supply what is lacking.
- To complete or accomplish (as in bringing to its full measure or purpose).
- To carry through to the end, to perform fully (not to terminate but to perfect).
Nothing in the definition even hints at abolition. It means to bring something to its intended fullness, not to cancel it.
It is used throughout the New Testament in ways that clearly do not mean “abolish”:
- “And they were all filled (plēroō) with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:4) – Did being filled with the Spirit abolish them? Of course not.
- “That the word of the Lord might be fulfilled (plēroō).” (Matthew 1:22) – The prophecy wasn’t abolished – it came to pass in full.
- “Paul…was filled (plēroō) with joy.” (2 Timothy 1:4) Joy doesn’t disappear when it’s fulfilled – it overflows.
The “New Testament” uses plēroō to mean fill, complete, or bring to realization. It does not mean abolish. Why would we interpret it differently in this verse, in contradiction to words in the same verse, the idea in the very next verse, and principles all over the “Old” and “New Testaments”, when the ordinary way we understand this words works perfectly well here.
Yeshua Fulfilled the Torah by Demonstrating Perfect Obedience
Yeshua fulfilled the Torah by obeying it perfectly, teaching it faithfully, and revealing its spiritual depth.
He said:
“I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”
John 15:10 (ESV)
He taught others to do the same:
“Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:19 (ESV)
He is the Word of God made flesh:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
John 1:14 (ESV)
And the Word, the Torah, is eternal:
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”
Isaiah 40:8 (ESV)
The Messiah Was Prophesied to Magnify the Torah
The prophets foresaw this exact mission:
“The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious.”
Isaiah 42:21 (ESV)
Yeshua didn’t make the Torah smaller or obsolete. He magnified it. He showed its true intent, that murder begins with hatred, adultery begins with lust, and love fulfills the law’s deepest purpose.
Yeshua understood perfectly the depth of the Torah, and fulfilled the Torah in the deepest way in word and deed, and taught others to do so.
Yeshua is a living breathing Torah. Reject Yeshua and you have rejected the Torah, reject the Torah and you will have to reject Yeshua, because Yeshua lives in perfect agreement with the Torah, and he taught us to.
Yeshua warned us about those who accept Yeshua but reject Torah, and he says he will reject them.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven… Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
Matthew 7:21–23 (ESV)
Summary
- “Fulfill” (plēroō) means to bring to fullness, not to abolish.
- Yeshua explicitly contrasts “abolish” and “fulfill.”
- The Torah remains valid until heaven and earth pass away, a future event.
- Yeshua fulfilled the Torah by teaching it, living it, and magnifying it.
- Those who reject it are rejected and called “workers without Torah.”
But Doesn’t “Accomplished” Mean It Passes Away?
Some will argue, “He fulfilled it, meaning He accomplished it all, so we don’t have to.” That sounds reasonable on the surface, but it collapses under the weight of Scripture itself.
If fulfill means “accomplish, therefore abolish”, then very next verse immediately contradicts it:
“For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
Matthew 5:18 (ESV)
To claim that “fulfill” means “accomplish and therefore obsolete” requires ignoring the very next sentence Yeshua spoke.
When do heavens and earth pass way?
“For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
Notice the timing Yeshua gives: the Torah stands until heaven and earth pass away. This is not a vague or poetic statement. It refers to a specific, biblically defined event, and Scripture tells us exactly when it happens.
Revelation Defines the Moment
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”
Revelation 21:1 (ESV)
Heaven and earth passing away marks the end of the current creation order—after the Millennial Reign, after the final rebellion, after the last judgment. Only then does God create the new heavens and new earth “in which righteousness dwells.”
Hold that thought. We’ll return to it shortly, because it anchors Yeshua’s timeline perfectly.
Peter Confirms the Same Sequence
“The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”
2 Peter 3:10 (ESV)
Here, only the heavens pass away while the earth and its works are exposed. This represents only half of the conditions Yeshua described, and it does not occur until after Messiah’s return.
By Yeshua’s own words and Peter’s confirmation, the Torah cannot pass away until after the Second Coming, when the heavens pass with a roar and judgment comes.
This is the language of judgment. In Scripture, “the heavens” often symbolize the space between man and God, the clouds that veil His throne. When Peter and the prophets speak of the heavens passing away, it signifies the removal of that veil. All creation stands exposed before the Judge, and every deed is measured against the standard of the Torah.
Which is why Peter continues in the very next verse to warn us against those who erroneously believe the Torah has passed away prior to this event.
Peter’s Warning Against Lawless Interpretation
Immediately after describing this event, Peter gives a warning that mirrors Yeshua’s in Matthew 5:
“Therefore, beloved… count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you… There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.”
2 Peter 3:15
Peter is not speaking in a vacuum. His warning is given in the direct context of the coming judgment of Yeshua, which will be according to Torah.
It’s as if the Holy Spirit foresaw how people would twist Paul’s writings to justify lawlessness and then placed this warning exactly where a reader searching for “heaven and earth passing away” would find it.
Yeshua’s Parallel Warning
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:21-23
The Greek word for lawlessness is ἀνομία (anomia), meaning “without law” or “without Torah.”
Yeshua doesn’t deny their works, He rejects their rebellion against God’s law. Lawlessness is not faithfulness. The same warning given through Peter is here repeated by the Messiah Himself.
The author of Hebrews confirms, “Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses” Hebrews 10-:28(ESV)
The author of Hebrews confirms that those who set aside the Torah die without mercy in his letter to the Hebrews, but space is limited here so we stay focused on the bigger picture.
Scriptures Detail Exactly When the Torah Passes Away
The Bible tells us exactly when this happens:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more… He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:1-4
The first heaven and earth pass away at the end of the Millennial Kingdom.
By this point in the biblical story, everything the Torah was given to govern, sin, death, and judgment, is finished. Satan is defeated. The wicked are judged. Mortality itself is destroyed. Righteousness fills the new creation.
The Torah’s role as the standard of judgment and righteousness reaches its perfect conclusion.
Its purpose was to condemn sin and bless righteousness, to define the standard by which the Judge rules. When judgment is complete and sin is no more, there is no longer any need for the Law to condemn, for there is nothing left to condemn.
That is when the Torah passes away, not before.
All Is Accomplished
At this point in Scripture, all is accomplished. Every prophecy, every shadow, every type, all fulfilled.
The entire biblical narrative leads to this moment in Revelation 21-22 and no further. Beyond that point, Scripture is silent. The whole story concludes there. ALL IS ACCOMPLISHED, after the rebellion is put down and new Jerusalem descends from heaven.
How fitting that Yeshua’s words in Matthew 5 point us directly to that moment.
The Logic of God’s Timing
How consistent this is with the nature of God.
The Torah does not vanish at the cross or fade when men grow weary of obedience.
It remains until its divine purpose is fulfilled, until righteousness dwells in the new creation and sin no longer exists. The Torah was crated by God to condemn sin, and it does so until sin is no more.
Yeshua told us exactly when it would pass:
“Until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
Matthew 5:18
At present moment:
- Heaven and earth have not passed away according to Peter and John, but will.
- Sin still exists.
- Judgment has not yet come.
- All is not accomplished.
Therefore, the Torah still stands.
The Torah’s Enduring Purpose
The Torah continues to do exactly what it was designed to do: to define and curse sin and bless righteousness. It was never designed to save, salvation is by grace through faith, but obedience to Torah remains the expression of love and obedience toward the Creator of heaven and earth.
We obey not to be justified, but because we are His.
And we will walk in that obedience until heaven and earth themselves pass away.
The first heaven and earth pass away at the end of the Millennial Kingdom.
At this point in the biblical story, everything that the Torah exists to govern, sin, death, judgment, is finished.
Satan is defeated, the wicked are judged, mortality is destroyed, and righteousness fills the new creation. The Torah’s role as the standard of judgment and righteousness reaches its perfect conclusion.
The Torah’s purpose is to condemn sin and bless righteousness, to define the standard by which the Judge rules. When judgment is complete and sin is gone, there is no longer any need for the Law to condemn, for there is no longer anything to condemn.
That is when the Torah passes away, not before.
At this point in the Bible story ALL IS ACCOMPLISHED, every prophecy, every type, every shadow, all have been fulfilled. The entire bible story takes us up to the point of Rev 21 and no further. We have no clue whatsoever what’s on the other side of the book of Revelation, but at that end, All is fulfilled, all is accomplished.
The Logic of God’s Timing
How perfectly consistent this is with the character of God. The Torah does not vanish at the cross, or when men grow weary of obedience. It remains until its purpose is fulfilled in the new creation, when righteousness dwells and sin no longer exists.
Yeshua told us exactly when it would pass:
“Until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
Matt 5:18
Heaven and earth are still here.
Sin still exists.
Judgment has not yet come.
Therefore, the Torah still stands.
The Torah does what it was designed to do. It curses sin and blesses righteousness. It does not save you, it was never designed to. But if you are one God’s then you obey it to show him love and walk in agreement with the creator of heaven and earth, until heaven and earth itself pass away.
Conclusion
Yeshua did not cancel or abolish the Torah. He completed it in Himself, taught it in its true meaning, and called His disciples to keep and teach even the least of the commandments until the appointed time. Scripture is plain about that time. The Torah stands until heaven and earth pass away and until all is accomplished (Matthew 5:17–19, ESV). Revelation and Peter tell us when that occurs, after the Second Coming, the final judgment, and the old creation’s dissolution, when God makes the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:10–13, ESV; Revelation 21:1–4, ESV).
Until that day, the standard remains. Grace saves us. Faith justifies us. The Spirit empowers us to walk in God’s ways. The Torah defines love for God and neighbor, defines and condemns sin, and blesses righteousness. Yeshua warned that many will claim His name and works yet be turned away for lawlessness. He is not impressed by spiritual resumes that ignore His Father’s will (Matthew 7:21–23, ESV).
So choose the path Yeshua walked. Keep and teach what He kept and taught. Let Isaiah’s promise be true in you, that the Messiah has magnified the law and made it glorious (Isaiah 42:21, ESV). Until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota will fail. Therefore, stand firm, grow in grace, and honor the King by obeying His Word.
