NOTES for Mat 5:17-19
Jesus says that although the Law has been surpassed by the New Covenant, keeping the commandments has not been abolished. The apostle Paul explains that the ministry of the New Covenant cannot be reduced to keeping commandments ("a ministry of death-dealing letters"), because we have no such ability in ourselves. Rather, it consists in confidence before God through Christ ("the ministry of the Spirit"), because God gives us this ability.