When Moses taught the Law of God to Israel, he said, “If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him” (Lev. 24:19–22).
But Jesus seems to overthrow this commandment. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt. 5:38–39).
Did Jesus contradict Moses? If so, how can Jesus be the same God who gave Moses the Law?
Jesus’s teaching in these verses is part of what we now often call the Sermon on the Mount. It begins in Matthew 5:1, when Jesus he went up a mountain side. This location echoes Deuteronomy 18:15–18, where Moses went up a mountain to deliver God’s Law to Israel. So, in a sense, Jesus is like Moses, giving the Law.
And he makes it clear in Matthew 5:17–20 that he didn’t come to set aside God’s Law: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass away from the Law until all is accomplished.” In other words, Jesus is not contradicting, minimizing, or setting aside the Law.
Instead, Jesus pointed to the Law’s fulfillment, which is love. If we love God perfectly, and if we love each other as we should, then we’re keeping the Law perfectly. What Jesus highlights here is that people don’t do that. This is why he says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20). He’s exposing them as hypocrites, people who seem like they’re keeping the Law but aren’t.
So when Jesus says, “Well the Law said x, but now I say y,” like he does in Matthew 5:38–40 and elsewhere in the Sermon on the Mount, he isn’t overthrowing the Law. But by speaking this way, he identifies him as the Law-giver, as God. He’s saying, “My word is the Law.” When he talks about retaliation—“an eye for an eye”— he isn’t saying that this principle isn’t just or needs to be thrown out. Instead, he’s pointing to the Law’s fulfillment in love.
Those who heard the Sermon on the Mount would have thought—or at least should have thought, “God’s perfect Law goes even deeper than I thought, and I fall so far short.” God’s Law shows us what perfect love is like and, since we fail to love as we should, our desperate need for God’s grace and mercy.
So, there’s no contradiction. Jesus is the same God who gave the Law to Moses. In Jesus, the divine Law-giver came to us as a human being, a new Moses, and delivered the Law from the top of a mountain. He did this to drive his listeners to the grace of God.
This article is part of our Frequently Asked Questions series. Listen to Pastor Adriel answer this question on Core Radio here.
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