Mat 5:19-20 | TNotes | STEP | 5:19 The realization of the law in Christ means that obedience to all of his commands (see 28:20 ) is the only acceptable response for his disciples. • Commandment refers to the Old Testament commands (5:18 ) as now fulfilled in Christ’s teaching (see 5:21-48 ). • the least in the Kingdom of Heaven: Jesus may mean that such an individual will enter the Kingdom, but only barely and with low status; alternatively, some Jewish evidence suggests that he is referring to damnation (cp. 8:12 , where “those for whom the Kingdom was prepared” are eternally excluded).

a5:19►

b28:20►

c5:18►

d5:21-48►

e8:12►

f5:20►

g5:21-47►

h5:48►

i12:6►

j12:41►

k3:7-9►

‏ Matthew 5:19-20

5:19 ^a The realization of the law in Christ means that obedience to all of his commands (see 28:20 ^b) is the only acceptable response for his disciples.

• Commandment refers to the Old Testament commands (5:18 ^c) as now fulfilled in Christ’s teaching (see 5:21-48 ^d).

• the least in the Kingdom of Heaven: Jesus may mean that such an individual will enter the Kingdom, but only barely and with low status; alternatively, some Jewish evidence suggests that he is referring to damnation (cp. 8:12 ^e, where “those for whom the Kingdom was prepared” are eternally excluded).
5:20 ^f unless your righteousness is better: Jesus’ disciples must have the substantially new kind of righteousness that Jesus teaches and makes possible (illustrated in 5:21-47 ^g and summed up in 5:48 ^h); it is both quantitatively and qualitatively distinct. Just as Jesus is greater than the Temple (12:6 ⁱ) and Jonah (12:41 ^j), so the righteousness of his followers far outstrips that of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees (see 3:7-9 ^k).