Heaven and Earth Must Have Passed II: The New Heaven and Earth Brings Universal Reconciliation

Jesus made the following statement in Matthew chapter five:

Matthew 5:17–18: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”

Jots and tittles are descriptive of the smallest pen strokes. Jesus is therefore making a very strong statement about the continuing authority of the Law. Until heaven and earth pass away and until all is fulfilled, not even the smallest part of the Law will disappear.

With this in mind, let us look at something that precedes the Mosaic Law but becomes incorporated into Israel’s covenant identity: circumcision.

God said to Abraham:

Genesis 17:7–14: “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.... This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised.... And the uncircumcised male child... shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

This is extremely important. Circumcision was not some minor Jewish custom that could easily be discarded. According to Genesis, God himself established it as the sign of an everlasting covenant. The uncircumcised male was specifically excluded from the covenant community.

This requirement was subsequently incorporated into the Law of Moses. Exodus chapter twelve makes the connection unmistakable:

Exodus 12:48–49: “And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it. One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you.”

This passage gives specific instructions concerning how a Gentile could participate fully in Israel’s covenant life. He had to be circumcised before participating in the Passover. Verse forty-nine is particularly significant: “One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you.”

So the requirement cannot simply be dismissed as an insignificant ceremonial detail. Genesis calls circumcision the sign of an everlasting covenant, and Exodus explicitly requires circumcision of the Gentile who wishes to participate in Israel’s Passover.

Now compare this with what happens in the first century.

A major controversy arose because certain Jewish believers were teaching Gentile believers that they had to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. Acts records their position very clearly:

Acts 15:5: “But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.’”

This was precisely the issue addressed by the apostles at Jerusalem. Their resulting letter stated:

Acts 15:24–29: “Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, ‘You must be circumcised and keep the law’—to whom we gave no such commandment—it seemed good to us... to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.”

Something enormous has happened.

Genesis 17 says circumcision is the sign of an everlasting covenant. Exodus 12 says an uncircumcised Gentile cannot participate in Israel’s Passover and that one law applies to the native-born and the stranger. Yet Acts 15 specifically rejects the claim that Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses.

Paul goes even further:

Galatians 5:2: “Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.”

And again:

Galatians 6:15: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”

This creates a serious problem if Matthew 5:18 is interpreted to mean that the Mosaic covenant remains legally binding until the physical universe is destroyed.

Jesus said that not one jot or tittle would pass from the Law until heaven and earth pass away and until all is fulfilled. Yet within the New Testament itself, one of the clearest covenant requirements—circumcision—is no longer required of Gentiles entering the people of God. What Genesis describes as an everlasting covenant sign and Exodus requires of the stranger is explicitly rejected as a requirement in Acts 15.

The jots and tittles have disappeared.

In fact, much more than individual pen strokes disappeared. The covenantal structure itself changed. Circumcision ceased to determine membership in the covenant people. The distinction between Jew and Gentile was transformed. Participation in the people of God was no longer established through circumcision and Torah observance.

Therefore, if Jesus’ statement in Matthew 5:18 is true—and I believe that it is—then we must seriously reconsider what Jesus meant by “heaven and earth passing away.”

Perhaps he was not talking about the destruction of the physical planet and cosmos at all.

Within the prophetic language of Scripture, heaven-and-earth imagery can describe covenantal worlds, peoples, kingdoms, and orders. If that is the framework Jesus was using, Matthew 5:18 takes on an entirely different significance. The old covenant world could not disappear until everything associated with that covenant had reached its fulfillment.

And that is exactly what the New Testament claims was happening in the first century.

The question therefore becomes unavoidable: If physical heaven and earth have not passed away, how could circumcision cease to be required?

Either Jesus was wrong when he said that not one jot or tittle would pass until heaven and earth passed and all was fulfilled, or heaven and earth in Matthew 5:18 means something different from the physical universe.

I choose the latter.

The disappearance of circumcision as a covenant requirement provides powerful internal New Testament evidence that the “heaven and earth” Jesus spoke about was the old covenant order that was passing away. The jots and tittles disappeared because the covenantal heaven and earth to which they belonged had fulfilled its purpose.

The issue is therefore larger than circumcision. Acts 15 provides a historical marker showing that the transition was already underway. What Genesis established, what Moses codified, and what Jesus said would remain until fulfillment had reached its appointed transformation.

Heaven and earth passed away—not the planet beneath our feet or the stars above our heads, but the covenantal world governed by the Mosaic order. And when that world passed, its jots and tittles passed with it.