by David Flatt
Synopsis: Offering an examination of Jesus' oft misunderstood statement, David looks at how the Law of Moses demonstrates man's great need, and also anticipates the coming Messiah, who alone can meet those needs.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 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 (Matt. 5:17-19).
As Jesus began His ministry, thousands of people came from near and far to hear Him (Matt. 4:23-25). His miracles and teaching made Him famous. While Jesus enjoyed overwhelming popularity during the time when the Sermon on the Mount was preached, He also had detractors. The leaders of the Jews viewed Jesus as a political threat almost immediately.
At this point in the sermon, Jesus transitions from the introduction to the heart of what He wants to teach. To do that, He answers what seems to have been a specific allegation charged against Him: Jesus was attempting to destroy the law and prophets. In other words, critics charged Him with trying to destroy the Jews' religion and national identity. Allegedly, he was trying to start something entirely new and different, something altogether disconnected from the law and prophets.
This allegation highlights the extent to which the Messiah's connection to the law and prophets was unanticipated and fundamentally misunderstood. Jesus was not attempting to destroy anything, much less the law and prophets. Rather, He came to fulfill the law and prophets. Until the law's fulfillment, Jesus defended the need to obey the law.
This statement of fulfilling the law and prophets is seldom discussed. Given the benefit of hindsight, we tend to make a simple acknowledgment that Jesus fulfilled the law and prophets and quickly move on to something else. However, understanding the deeper meaning of this text is critical for the sake of our faith.
What did Jesus mean in saying He came to fulfill the law and prophets? Which law did He fulfill? What prophecy did He fulfill? To answer these types of questions, we will cite a few prophecies from the Old Testament and explain how Jesus fulfilled them. Jesus fulfilling the law and prophets is not a reference to a few prophecies from the Old Testament. Rather, Jesus the Messiah fulfilled the entirety of the Old Testament.
The apostle Paul wrote, "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3-4). In this citation, Paul summarizes the message of the Gospel. While we may be familiar with this passage, have we stopped to consider exactly what Paul meant by writing Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures?
Reading that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures," we are not surprised. Our reaction to this statement is, "Well, of course, Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." The cross of Christ is commonly understood to have been a prophesied event. While this is true, no one in the first century knew the Messiah would die for our sins according to the Scriptures. No one understood that the entirety of the Old Testament— the Scriptures to which Paul here refers—was fulfilled through the cross and resurrection of the Messiah.
There was not a scribe, priest, or rabbi in all Israel who expected the Messiah to be crucified according to the Scriptures. For example, Paul was a Jewish scholar—formerly educated by a highly regarded rabbi, Gamaliel, in Tarsus, a city of modern-day Turkey. He did not think the crucifixion of the Messiah was according to the Scriptures. As a matter of fact, Paul persecuted those who believed the Messiah's death was according to the Scriptures.
Overall, the Jewish nation never conceived of the Messiah being crucified. Paul stated the cross of Christ was a stumbling block for the Jews (1 Cor. 1:23). While preaching in the synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia, he explained, "Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him" (Acts 13:26-27). Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin did not understand the prophets which had been read and studied among Israelites for generations.
In the aftermath of Calvary, many Jews persisted in their rejection of the Messiah. The law stated someone who was "hanged on a tree" was cursed (Deut. 21:23). Our Lord had been hanged on a tree; therefore, He was cursed. Based upon this reasoning, they rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Paul explains the meaning of this statement in his letter to the churches of Galatia, showing that the Messiah had the curse of the law affixed to Him on the Cross. Thus, He redeems us from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13). Sadly, this was not understood then, as it rarely is now.
Not even the apostles understood the cross. Jesus had told them of the cross, explaining how He would return to Jerusalem, give Himself to the authorities, die, and be raised the third day (Matt. 16:21). Yet, Peter rebuked Jesus at the news of His planned death. After His crucifixion, the apostles returned to their previous lives as fishermen (John 21:2-3). Clearly, no one understood the cross or how it was in accordance with the Scriptures.
Such an understanding would require the resurrected Lord instructing the apostles, the Holy Spirit guiding the apostles, and a divine confrontation with Paul on the road to Damascus. Heaven demanded a reanalysis of the Old Testament. In the New Testament, this reanalysis is divinely articulated. When the cross of Christ was explained for the first time, Peter revealed how the events of Calvary were in accordance with the Scriptures (Acts 2). In Paul's epistles, he runs the law and prophets through the cross. He does not use a few Old Testament passages as mere proof texts, but as offers them as summaries of broader Old Testament contexts.
Paul's epistle to the church at Rome is a masterpiece. He begins the letter by describing the message with which he was entrusted. This message was promised by God through the prophets and Holy Scriptures (Rom. 1:1-2). It concerned God's Son "Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:3-4). Paul continues to explain how what God did through the Messiah revealed, unveiled, or proved His faithfulness to the covenant He made with Abraham (Rom. 1:16-17; 4:1-25).
In chapters seven and eight, Paul provides a deep analysis of how the Law of Moses was fulfilled through the Messiah and Spirit. When the law was given, sin was properly defined. Therefore, Israel could know they were guilty before God. The law tabulated the sins of Israel. While the law was holy, just, and good, the law could not do anything to stop the sin it identified. It could not prevent the decay and death brought on by sin. The more Israel embraced the law, the more the law declared they were sinners. Israel lived in a constant state of tension. The good they wanted to do, they did not do; the evil they did not want to do, they did. What a troubling spiritual dilemma! Paul expresses terrible despair in light of the sin and death the law could not prevent: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:25).
In this chapter, Paul explains Israel's perplexing problem. The problem was not the law. The problem was sin: sin identified by the law. The law could do nothing about sin. The law promised life, but could not offer life due to its inability to destroy sin. Therefore, Israel needed the Messiah. They needed Jesus. After articulating the problem of sin, Paul announces the solution: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord… " (Rom. 7:26).
In the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul explains how God offered life promised by the law: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:1-4).
In summary, Paul explains that God offered(s) life promised in the law by the Spirit. However, before God could offer life through the Spirit, He first had to destroy sin. Sin was the problem highlighted by the law. God had allowed sin to abound or grow to its full height among the Gentiles and in Israel (Rom. 1:18-32, 5:20). Verse three explains how He destroyed sin; thus, enabling the Spirit to bring life. Mainly, God destroyed sin in the flesh of Jesus.
In this densely packed passage, Paul explains atonement. First, God sent His own Son. This does not mean He sent someone else to do this work, but God came in the person of Jesus. Jesus was the expression of God's love (Rom. 5:8). Next, Paul says Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh: the exact point of the problem identified in 7:14, 25. Remember, sin had grown to full height and or became exceedingly sinful during the time the law was enforced within Israel (Rom. 5:20, 7:13). The weight of the world's sin had been focused on Israel. The weight of Israel's sin was focused on the Messiah.
God condemned sin on the cross. As Isaiah prophesied, the punishment that brought us peace, fell on Him; and by His stripes we are healed (Isa. 53:5). It is important to note what Paul is not saying. He does not say God condemned Jesus. He says God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13). God's anger and condemnation were directed at sin, not Jesus.
What is the point of appreciating that Jesus came to fulfill the law and prophets? We are not Jews. What do all the finer points about the law and prophets mean to us? For the sake of faith, Jesus' Messiahship must be understood in the broadest of contexts. What Jesus fulfilled predated the law and prophets. Jesus fulfilled what God promised in the Garden of Eden: the devil would be destroyed by the seed of woman (Gen. 3:15).
Some Christians have a rather negative attitude towards the Old Testament. They admit that the Old Testament contains some "good lessons" for us, they correctly state that we are not under it anymore, but incorrectly argue that we do not need it. Just as Jesus warned about deciding which commands were important and which were not, we need to be warned about declaring which parts of the Bible are important and which parts are not. God gave His will to us by the Holy Spirit from Genesis through Revelation. God carefully unveiled human redemption over the course of 4,000 years. The time between Abraham and Jesus is approximately 2,100 years. The Law of Moses was enforced for roughly 1,450 years. Casually dismissing this history as irrelevant is unwise at best and arrogant at worst. The length God went to redeem us from sin demands we at least give some consideration to how He did this.
Additionally, understanding the Messiah in His fullest context helps us understand who we are as God's family. As those who have been redeemed by God in Christ and the Spirit, we are part of a family with quite an illustrative past. Understanding this past gives us our present identity as God's family and a hopeful future. Not understanding that Jesus came to fulfill the law and prophets led some to reject Jesus. Sharing in this misunderstanding will only lead to our rejection of Jesus. Thankfully, such misunderstanding and rejection can be prevented by learning how Jesus the Messiah fulfilled the Scriptures: Genesis through Revelation.
Author Bio: David Flatt and his family have labored with the Thayer Street congregation in Akron, Ohio since 2008. The church website is thayerstreetcoc.org. He can be reached at dflatt85@yahoo.com.
