I was recently asked a sincere question about the relationship of Yeshua to the Torah. Yeshua’s words in Matthew 5 seem to advocate changing the Torah’s principle of “eye for eye” with grace and mercy. The question was as follows:
God gave the people laws to obey, as recorded in Exodus 21 ("these are the laws you are to set before them..." v. 1) through 23. Among them is "an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth" (v. 24). Yeshua said "you have heard they were told 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' But what I tell you is this: do not resist those who wrong you..." (Mt. 5:38-42). If we are required to be fully Torah observant, and Yeshua was simply establishing a way for us to do so in practice but without making any actual change to the laws Moses communicated, then how could Yeshua establish a new law of mercy in their place as he told his followers here?