From a conversation with Damien Callaghan
“Do not think that I have come to destroy the law.”
Jesus, in Matthew 5:17a
‘[Christ Jesus] is our peace, who destroyed . . . the law.”
Paul, in Ephesians 2:14–15
At first, it seems that Paul is contradicting Jesus by saying that Jesus destroyed the law of Moses, but that is only because we read too much into Jesus’ famous words, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law.” Jesus did not come to earth to destroy the law; he came to earth to keep it. However, when Jesus ascended into heaven to return to the Father, he went away from earth to destroy the law. In heaven, Jesus offered himself to the Father, and when the Father accepted Jesus as the sacrifice for man’s sins, the law was done away with.
Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but he did go away to destroy it, just as Paul said.
