Which commandments could Jesus be referring to Matthew 5:17?

[seeking the truth]

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

So guys, for those who think the law of God's commandment was nailed to the cross, which possible commandments would Christ be referring to here please?

 

[PureX]

So guys, for those who think the law of God's commandment was nailed to the cross, which possible commandments would Christ be referring to here please?

Jesus was a Jew talking to other Jews. So he was telling them that he and they should respect their Jewish religious laws and traditions. He was not telling US, TODAY, that we should follow Jewish laws and traditions because Jews both then and today have never believed that non-Jews need to become Jewish to be accepted by, or to find their rightful place before God.

So the answer is that modern day Christians are not beholding to ancient or modern Jewish religious dictum.

 

[seeking the truth]

I think to be saved you/we joined with the Hebrews, took on their customs, and worshiped their God alone so not understanding why you would say Christ's words did not apply to us?

Ruth’s reply to Naomi was the clearest example of this, “For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God." (Ruth 1:16b)

John 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

 

[eik]

So guys, for those who think the law of God's commandment was nailed to the cross, which possible commandments would Christ be referring to here please?

I think we need to distinguish commandments from ordinances. In Ephesians 2:15 we have "the law of commandments contained in ordinances,"

The ordinances (dogma) are legally binding on us to obey, and give rise to debts for non-obedience. They can be from human as well as divine rulers, although here they refer to the law of Moses. The law of Moses came from angels. "The handwriting of ordinanes which stood against us and condemned us" in Col 2:14 refers to the discharge of a debt created by the ordinances, which bound the old unspiritual man.

The spiritual man however is justified by faith, and does the work of Christ, which is to believe in Christ. Jn 6:29. He is no longer bound by the black letter law or ordinances, but as a spiritual man still obeys the commands (Roms: 3:31). The difference is that the law is now upheld in a spiritual way to promote faith in Christ as the supreme good. As Christ himself showed law was intended to be a spiritual enterprise, with lesser commands surrendering to the greater.

No one said that the divine commandments are nailed to the cross. Rather they spiritualized (i.e. prioritized) and upheld per the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In practice it means large numbers of purely ceremonial commands are seen as unspiritual for not promoting faith in Christ.

 

[seeking the truth]

No one said that the divine commandments are nailed to the cross.

Not in my encounters as MOST Christians I have spoken to says the law was nailed to the cross so no longer applicable to Christians.

 

[eik]

Not in my encounters as MOST Christians I have spoken to says the law was nailed to the cross so no longer applicable to Christians.

What you have just stated is antinomianism, a well known heresy, which says that Christians no longer have to obey the law. I believe that in the USA and European nations, antinomianism is rampant today. Roms 3:31 opposes it, see also 1 Cor 11:16, Galatians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 9:21where great emphasis is placed on obedience to spiritual law.

It is rather that the law of Moses has become the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 9:21), which puts a spiritual interpretation on the law of Moses, whose individualized minutely detailed dogma of regulations and punishments is no longer seen as always spiritual, and in any case, often unable now to be obeyed literally: to be replaced by the super-spiritual law of Christ and justification by faith which crowns Christ as Lord, above even the law.

That's not to say the laws of human morality have changed one iota. They haven't or rather have gone in the opposite direction to become more strictly interpreted: e.g. refraining from divorce.

 

[seeking the truth]

I think that is at the heart of this, they take what he said that he came to fulfill the law as meaning that by his death he fulfilled the law for us so we don't have to.

 

[eik]

I think that is at the heart of this, they take what he said that he came to fulfill the law as meaning that by his death he fulfilled the law for us so we don't have to.

By "so we don't have to" you indicate Him as coming to abolish the law by fulfilling it. But as He himself said, He did not come to abolish the law: He came to abolish "justification by law" so that all may be justified by faith (Habakkuk 2:4 quoted in Romans 1:17,Galatians 3:11,Hebrews 10:38). The commandments of the law remain obligatory on all Christians to fulfil in a spiritual way in faith in Christ.

Faith which comes by grace is our rule of law, for grace has replaced the law in regard to what has "ultimate" spiritual dominion: Rom 6:14. This does not entail abolition, merely a reordering of such divine principles as have authority over us, and commandments. For grace, although embodied in the very giving of the law to the Jews, was not triumphant under the law, as it is under Christ.

 

[HaEmeth]

Not in my encounters as MOST Christians I have spoken to says the law was nailed to the cross so no longer applicable to Christians.

That is indeed the true Christian position. Jesus' death abolished "the Law of commandments consisting in decrees" (Ephesians 2:15) by, as Colossians 2:14 puts it, "nailing it to the torture stake (or the cross)" and, therefore, no longer applicable to Christians. It died with Christ's flesh. Whereas Christ was resurrected, the Law was not. It shall remain buried forever in the ash heaps of divine history.

Colossians 2:17 tells us why: "Those things (i.e., the Law of commandments) are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Christ."

While Christ walks the earth prior to his death and resurrection, he was under obligation, as all other Jews were, to keep the Law of Moses until "all things take place", or are fulfilled, even to the "smallest letter or one stroke of a letter." - Matthew 5:18

But who can fulfill the Law to that detail? The standard of the Law was so high that no one can fulfill it perfectly and be declared righteous. Romans 3:20 says: "no one will be declared righteous before him by works of law, for by law comes the accurate knowledge of sin."

Except Jesus Christ. "Who of you convicts me of sin?" he challenged his detractors at John 8:46. He kept the requirements of the Law perfectly and, therefore, could be declared "righteous ... by works of law." "He committed no sin, nor was deception found in his mouth." - 1 Peter 2:22

Declared righteous by the Law's standard, Jesus could have rested on his laurels and do nothing else.

But that is not how one primarily fulfills the Law. If it were then only Jesus would be declared righteous. None of his followers would.

Jesus said that the whole Law hung upon the two commandments, to love God and to love one’s neighbor. - Matthew 22:35-40

In that spirit, Jesus fulfilled the Law primarily with the greatest expression of love ever, when he gave his perfect life to save mankind. "No one has greater love than this," Jesus himself said, "that someone should surrender his life in behalf of his friends." (John 15:13) With his own blood, he obtained an everlasting deliverance for us, once for all time. - Hebrews 9:12

Note that God was very much a part of this singular expression of love that Jesus himself declared at John 3:16: "God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son" to die for us and be saved.

"Christ", therefore, "is the end of the Law." (Romans 10:4) It has served its purpose, which was “to make transgressions manifest until the seed [in the person of the Christ] should arrive” (Galatians 3:19). His perfect obedience unto death in the spirit of love ended it.

As a consequence of all of this - and since no imperfect human can really fulfill the perfect requirements of the Law Covenant - righteousness would now depend on faith, not on works of law.

Quoting Romans 10:4 fully, the Apostle Paul declared: "For Christ is the end of the Law, so that everyone exercising faith may have righteousness."

But how do you invalidate such tenets of the Law Covenant, of which the Ten commandments is part of, as: "Do not murder", "Honor thy father and thy mother", “You must not commit adultery", “You must not steal", “You must not testify falsely as a witness against your fellowman", “You must not desire your fellowman’s house nor his wife."

You can not. They are eternal, etched into our collective conscience from when we were created in God's image (Genesis 1:26, 27), and were, therefore, incorporated into the law of the Christ where they naturally belong. The Apostle Paul said: "Love does not work evil to one's neighbor, therefore, love is the law's fulfillment." (Romans 13:10).

The commands of love can not be etched on tablets of stones, as the Ten Commandments were, but on human hearts. As the prophet Jeremiah puts it:

“I will put my law within them, and in their heart I will write it. And I will become their God, and they will become my people." - Jeremiah 31:33

"Love never fails." - 1 Corinthians 3:8
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John 12:25 "He that is fond of his soul destroys it"