Jesus did not abolish or do away with the commandments associated with the law; rather, he pointed beyond the dead letter to the living spirit and intent of the law. He did not do away, for example, with the commandments against murder or adultery or the breaking of oaths. Instead, he invited his disciples to ascend the ladder of spirituality to a higher level, to acquire a higher perspective on gospel living.
“I Am Not Come to Destroy but to Fulfil”
Jesus, as Jehovah, gave the law to Moses on Sinai. He obviously did not come to destroy the very system which he had set up and established among ancient Israel. Rather, as Elder Bruce R. McConkie pointed out, “Jesus came to restore that gospel fulness which men had enjoyed before the day of Moses, before the time of the lesser order. Obviously he did not come to destroy what he himself had revealed to Moses any more than a college professor destroys arithmetic by revealing the principles of integral calculus to his students. Jesus came to build on the foundation Moses laid. By restoring the fulness of the gospel he fulfilled the need for adherence to the terms and conditions of the preparatory gospel. No one any longer needed to walk by the light of the moon, for the sun had risen in all its splendor.” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary 1:219-20)