Jesus tells us there’s a hierarchy in Heaven, a ranking or metric whereby some believers are counted great and others least in God’s kingdom. (Mt 5:19) Though salvation is by grace and not by works (2Ti 1:9), works are evidently very important. (Ro 2:9)
Jesus Christ explains the standard by which He will measure us all to define this eternal ranking in His kingdom; He lays it out very plainly: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:19) Jesus is talking about Torah, the Mosaic Law; (17-18) He will evaluate everyone in His kingdom based on how we have respected Torah, His Law, the Law of God. Did we do our best to keep all of it as a manner of life and teach others to do so? Or did we break certain parts of it and encourage others to do so?
So, Jesus will give every one of His saints a grade in Heaven based on how we keep His Law, even the least of His commandments: the seemingly obsolete and obscure laws He laid out for us in the Old Testament in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Do we love them (Ps 119:97), delight in them (Ro 7:22), and try our best to love and honor Him in keeping them? (Jn 14:21) Or do we ignore some or all of them? (Ro 2:8-9)
Jesus mentions two grades in His Kingdom: Great and Least: in other words, we’re evidently either getting an A+ or an F.
Clearly, those trying to convince us God’s Law is just for Jews, if they’re in God’s kingdom at all, are ignorantly aiming for an F, and they want us at the bottom as well. Not smart.
We don’t even know what sin is apart from Torah (Ro 7:7); how can we strive against sin (He 12:4) if we have no clue what it actually is?
Jesus’ focus on obedience to the least of His commandments tells us they’re all important. He wasn’t careless or arbitrary in giving us His Law; if we break any of His commandments on purpose, we expose ourselves as lawbreakers (Ja 2:10), those who despise His Law and trample Him underfoot. (He 10:28-29)
Those who don’t yet know Jesus Christ as Judge, don’t yet know Him as He is. (He 10:29-31) Those of us who do, serve Him with fear and rejoice with trembling. (Ps 2:11, Php 2:12)
It is clear to me from Mt 5:19 that there will be those in Heaven who thought it was OK to break Torah, so they did as a manner of life.
Many, many evidently God-fearing people are deceived about the relevance of Torah today, and this deception has been inherent in Christianity ever since it developed as a distinct, new religion nearly two millennia ago. Not all who are breaking Torah, though they are sinning, are necessarily excluded from the Kingdom. Many are sinning through ignorance.
Jesus does not encourage us to focus on whether others are in the Kingdom or not, but on whether we are walking as we should and encouraging others to do the same. God will sort it all out in the end.
Jesus describes His grading system such that it partitions us all into two distinct groups: we either respect all of Torah or we don’t. This leaves no one without a grade, and it allows only two grades.
We teach both by our words and by our example, so we are all teachers in this sense.
When He says, “and shall teach men so” it evidently means anyone to whom we teach Torah obedience/disobedience, even Gentiles, implying Torah is universally applicable.