In this passage (Matthew 5:21-48), this or something similar is recorded from the lips of Jesus six times, “You have heard it said to those of old…, But I say to you.” By and large, Jesus is contrasting and comparing His teaching with things in the law of Moses. We could say that Jesus is the new Lawgiver. Moses himself said, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear” (Deuteronomy 18:15). A few verses later God said, “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him” (Deu. 18:18). On the so-called mount of transfiguration, Peter, James and John saw Jesus, Moses and Elijah in a vision, (Mat.17:1-9). Peter wanted to make tabernacles for each of them, but God said of Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!
The church is not under the law of Moses as a rule of life; her laws come from Christ! We are not under the law of Moses, but the law of Christ. Paul makes that clear in 1 Corinthians 9:19-21, For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; 20 and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law (1 Corinthians 9:19-21). Paul was not under the law of Moses and so was not obligated to obey it. He sometimes put himself under or lived like he was under it in order to reach those who were under it! What he did make clear is that he was “under law toward Christ.” The law of Christ includes His words in Matthew 5:21-48. As the Old Covenant was replaced by the New Covenant, the law of Moses has been replaced by the law of Christ. The law of Christ is similar to the law of Moses in that both include the law of God. May we hear and do these sayings of Christ, and so be likened to a wise man who built his house on the rock (Mat. 7:24-27).