How did Christ fulfill the law and the prophets (Matt. 5:17)?
In order to answer this question, we must carefully read Matthew 5:17-21. Verse 17 begins, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.” Why did the Lord say, “Do not think”? He said this because there was the possibility of thinking this way. Perhaps some thought this. After the Lord had spoken the nine blessings on the mount, He mentioned two other matters: (1) we are the salt of the earth, and (2) we are the light of the world. When the people heard this, they might have thought that the blessings spoken by the Lord were absolutely different from the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, God wanted the Israelites to be great, prosperous, and victorious over their enemies. But now the Lord was saying that man should be humble, meek, suffer persecution, and so forth. This is completely different from the Old Testament. Had the Lord come to abolish the law? In the past God selected the Israelites to be His testimony on earth. Now He was saying that His followers were the salt and the light. God had already removed His testimony from among the Israelites and given it to a few others. Had not the Lord come to abolish the law? Therefore, immediately after the Lord said that we were the salt and the light, He said, “Do not think.” The Lord said that He did not come to abolish but to fulfill. The literal meaning of the word abolish is to tear down piece by piece, as in tearing down a wall, and the literal meaning of the word fulfill is to fill to the brim.
In history there were two schools of teaching regarding the Lord Jesus’ attitude toward the law. One teaching was poor. They said that the Lord Jesus fulfilled the law by annulling the law. They argued that there were clearly many discrepancies between what the Lord said and what Moses said. Moses said that if a man wanted to put away his wife, he only needed to write a certificate of divorce. Yet the Lord said that putting away one’s wife, except for the cause of fornication, was not permitted. According to the first school, the Lord was opposing Moses. The Protestant school, however, said that much had been added to Moses’ law by the Jews in the fifteen hundred years after Moses, so the Lord came to preserve the true nature of the law by abolishing what had been added by man. But contrary to what these two schools say, the meaning of “fulfill,” was for the Lord to fill to the brim; it was to make up the lack. Now let us see the Lord’s attitude toward the law.
First, the Lord acknowledged that the law and the prophets came from God. In Matthew 5:12, the Lord said: “For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” This indicates that the Lord acknowledged the prophets. In Matthew 5:23 the Lord spoke concerning the matter of offering sacrifices on the altar, indicating that the Lord was not against the altar. After the Lord had finished His teaching on the mount, He came down and met a leper. After healing him the Lord commanded him to show his body to the priest and offer the gift which Moses had commanded (Matt. 8:1-4). This proves that the Lord acknowledged that what Moses had commanded should be done.
Second, although the Lord acknowledged that the law and the prophets came from God, He also said that the law was not complete. In Matthew 5, we read again and again: “You have heard that it was said to the ancients...but I say to you.” The Lord agreed with Moses when he said that it was right for one not to kill or commit adultery, but even this was not complete. Rather, one should not even be angry or have a lustful thought. However, we have to note that being incomplete does not mean that it is wrong. For example, a child has just learned that two plus two equals four. Concerning knowledge, his learning is not complete, but this does not mean that what he has learned is wrong.
Third, the Lord came to fill up the inadequacy of the law. The word “fulfill” refers to the Lord’s work of fulfilling as a teacher, not to His work of fulfilling as a Savior. This means that where the law was lacking, the Lord supplemented and made it full. The law teaches us to return an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is the principle of fairness. However, the Lord teaches us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This is the principle of grace. The law expresses God’s way of doing things, which is to do everything in fairness. Grace and mercy express the nature of God Himself. According to the Lord’s grace, He causes the sun to rise on the good people as well as the evil, and the rain to fall on the just as well as the unjust. John 1:17 says, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” Moses talked about God’s procedures, while the Lord talked about the nature of God Himself.
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