<p>5:17&nbsp;<em>Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfil</em>- The idea that the Lord Jesus ended the Law of Moses on the cross needs some reflection. That statement only pushes the question back one stage further- how exactly did He &lsquo;end&rsquo; the Law there? How did a man dying on a cross actually end the Law? The Lord Jesus, supremely in His death, was &ldquo;the end of the law&rdquo; (Rom. 10:4). But the Greek&nbsp;<em>telos</em>&nbsp;[&ldquo;end&rdquo;] is elsewhere translated &ldquo;the goal&rdquo; (1 Tim. 1:5 NIV). The character and person of the Lord Jesus at the end was the goal of the Mosaic law; those 613 commandments, if perfectly obeyed, were intended to give rise to a personality like that of the Lord Jesus. When He reached the climax of His personal development and spirituality, in the moment of His death, the Law was &ldquo;fulfilled&rdquo;. Then, it was &quot;accomplished&quot; (:18), and&nbsp;<em>ginomai&nbsp;</em>there is usually used about events being accomplished; the supreme event in view is the cross. The Lord taught that He &ldquo;came&rdquo; in order to die; and yet He also &ldquo;came&rdquo; in order to &ldquo;fulfil&rdquo; the Law (Mt. 5:17). Mt. 5:17 = Gal. 5:14. Christ fulfilled the Law by His supreme love of His neighbour (us) as Himself. The Law of Moses was intended to create a perfect man- if it were to be totally obeyed. The Lord Jesus did this- and therefore there was no more need for the Law. Yet the Beatitudes were addressed to those who hungered to be righteous, and who were spiritually poor, having broken God's laws. It was therefore in this context that the Lord Jesus sets before those very people the ultimate good news- that He has come determined to succeed in perfect obedience to the Law, and thus fulfilling it, He would remove its binding nature upon others. Hence the Law was added&nbsp;<em>until&nbsp;</em>the Seed should come (Gal. 3:19). This conclusion (in broad terms) was also arrived at by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Dietrich Bonhoeffer,&nbsp;<em>The Cost of Discipleship</em>&nbsp;(London: S.C.M., 2001 ed.) pp. 74-76). The Lord's total obedience and fulfilling of the Law is therefore further good news for we who have failed both historically and in present life to keep it.</p>