Did Jesus Do Away with the Law? Torah on the Heart

Elizabeth Shulam. Copyright 2026. All Rights Reserved.

What Yeshua’s words about fulfilling Torah teach us about obedience, desire, and a heart shaped by God.

You hold back the sharp reply. The words stay behind your teeth, but the argument keeps going inside. You imagine what you could have said. You rehearse how right you were.

Keeping your mouth closed may have spared someone pain. That is a good beginning. Yet there is still something within you that needs God’s care.

Yeshua reaches into that space between what we do and what we desire. In the Sermon on the Mount, he reaches into the heart from which our words and actions grow. And he begins this teaching by telling his listeners how to understand his relationship to Israel’s Scriptures.

What did Yeshua mean by “fulfill”?

In Matthew 5:17–20, Yeshua tells his listeners that he has come to fulfill the Torah and the Prophets. He explicitly rejects the idea that he has come to abolish them.

Torah means instruction. It names the first five books of Scripture and carries the sense of God teaching his people how to live. The Torah and the Prophets belong to the Scriptures through which Israel learned God’s character, remembered his faithfulness, and heard his call to covenant life.

Yeshua receives these Scriptures as authoritative. He speaks of their enduring significance and warns against setting aside their commandments. He joins doing with teaching: the life of the teacher should bear witness to the words being taught.

We should hear “fulfill” within that whole passage. Yeshua brings Scripture to its intended expression through his life, teaching, and mission. His words invite us to watch how he lives and listen closely to what he teaches next.

As Matthew 5 continues, Yeshua addresses murder and anger, adultery and desire, truthfulness, retaliation, and love for enemies. His teaching follows obedience down to its roots.

A restrained hand and a restrained tongue have value. Yeshua also calls us to examine the anger, contempt, and selfish desire that can remain beneath them.

The heart was already part of Torah

It is easy to tell the Bible’s story as though God first cared about outward rules and later began caring about the heart. Deuteronomy gives us a fuller picture.

In Deuteronomy 30:11–14, Moses tells Israel that God’s commandment is within reach. They do not need someone to climb into heaven or cross the sea to bring it back. The word is near them, in their mouth and in their heart, so that they can do it.

Notice how closely the passage holds together heart, speech, and action.

God’s instruction is to be remembered, spoken, loved, and practiced. The heart belongs within that life of obedience from the beginning.

We heard the same connection in the Shema: love the LORD with your whole heart, keep his words close, and teach them through the ordinary moments of the day. Yeshua’s teaching grows within that scriptural world.

What does God promise to write on the heart?

Jeremiah speaks to a people who have broken covenant. Into that painful history, God promises a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

Those names deserve our attention. This promise comes through Israel’s story, addressed to a people God continues to call his own.

In Jeremiah 31:31–34, God promises to place his Torah within them and write it on their hearts. He promises renewed belonging, knowledge of him, and forgiveness.

God’s instruction remains present in the promise. It will take root within his people.

For Gentile believers in Yeshua, we hear hope for our own formation. God knows the distance that can open between a confession of faith and the desires we carry. His promise reaches into that wounded place.

Follow one command inward

This week, choose one command and give it careful attention.

You might begin with truthful speech. Notice the words you use, then consider what you hope those words will accomplish. Are you trying to gain approval? Hide a mistake? Make yourself appear more generous or more certain than you are?

Bring that desire before God. Ask for the courage to speak plainly and accept the cost of honesty.

Or begin with love for your neighbor. Consider one person you find difficult. Pay attention to how you speak about them when they are absent. Notice whether you take pleasure in their embarrassment. Choose one act that honors their dignity.

This practice requires patience. We often discover desires we would rather excuse. God’s forgiveness gives us room to confess them honestly and keep learning.

Yeshua presses obedience deep enough to reach the heart. As we follow him, we learn to offer God our actions, our words, and the desires still being formed within us.

Read Matthew 5:17–20, Jeremiah 31:31–34, and Deuteronomy 30:11–14 this week. Then ask: Lord, which of your words do I need to welcome more deeply today?