In What Way Did Jesus Fulfill the Law?
Jesus was a Jew born under the Old Covenant, under the law. If He was to fulfill the law, He had to keep it perfectly, which He did. By the time He died, Jesus had fulfilled the law. The Old Covenant and its law then ended. We fulfill a contract by completing what we are obliged to do under the contract. Once we do this, we have fulfilled the contract, and it is ended.
Suppose I am an artist, and I am engaged to paint a mural in the city hall. A contract is drawn up detailing the obligations of all parties involved. Once I have completed the painting and fulfilled my obligations to the city, and they have fulfilled their obligations to me, the contract is fulfilled and ended. It no longer has a legal hold over me or the city. It is fulfilled. But suppose, before I fulfill my obligation in the contract, the state government steps in, reviews the contract, and says there is something about it that is contrary to state law. They then use their authority, or the authority of the court, to end the contract, to declare it void, to abolish or destroy the contract before it is fulfilled.
Jesus was saying in Matthew 5:17-18 that He had not come with the authority of God to destroy the law before it was fulfilled or to declare it void, but that He was going to fulfill the law right down to every jot and tittle. Once He did that, the law would end because all obligations in the contract would have been fulfilled.
With the Old Covenant law now fulfilled, anyone coming along and saying that we must still keep it is Judaizing or promoting legalism. Whatever reason he may give for saying this does not matter because there is now no valid reason for teaching that we must keep the Old Testament law. Judaizing is often condemned in the Bible, and in Galatians it is called “another gospel: which is not another” (Galatians 1:6-7; see also Galatians 2:16-21; 3:1-14; 5:1-4; and Acts 15:1-5, 24). It is not really another gospel because “gospel” is not a proper word to describe it. “Gospel” means “good news,” but this other message that legalists promote is bad news. This false message says that we are still under the law, and, therefore, Jesus did not fulfill it as He said He would. It implies that when Jesus said, “It is finished,” He lied. It says, therefore, that Jesus did not do in the flesh everything that He was supposed to do. Thus, those who promote it fall into the category of antichrists and deceivers according to 1 John 4:2-3 and 2 John 1:7. Paul said, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). Anyone who preaches that people need to keep the law is preaching a false gospel, which makes that person a false apostle and deceitful worker and accursed (2 Corinthians 11:1-13; Galatians 1:6-10).
Jesus Fulfilled the Law in Three Ways
Make no mistake about it. Jesus did not come to destroy the law before He had fulfilled it. But He did fulfill and end it. He fulfilled the law in three ways. First, He lived under the law perfectly. Being perfectly righteous, He could not have done otherwise. He obeyed every bit of the law. And God imputes Jesus’ perfect righteousness to us.
Secondly, He paid our legal, penal obligations by dying in our stead. Because of our transgressions, because we have all sinned, our obligation was to die and spend eternity in hell. Jesus fulfilled that obligation for us by what He went through on the Cross.
Thirdly, Jesus completed all that the Law and the Prophets typified of Him, prophesied of Him, or in any way spoke of Him (notice Luke 24:27).
As He said in Matthew 5:17, Jesus did not destroy the law, but by fulfilling the law, He removed us from being under all legal obligations.
One of These Least Commandments
And what commandments did Jesus mean when He said, “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”? (Matthew 5:19). Most assume that he meant the Ten Commandments. But He never says that He means the Ten Commandments or any other Old Testament commands. In fact, since Jesus has just said that He was going to fulfill the law, why would He then immediately warn against breaking Old Testament laws?
To properly understand, we must look to the context. Before verse 19, Jesus said He would fulfill the law. After verse 19, Jesus speaks of the importance of our righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees. Then, Jesus gives us a few, small examples of how God’s true standards of righteousness would apply to specific cases. These cases are the least (elachistos—smallest) illustrations of what God demands. The question we’re to form is, if these impossible commandments are the least of what God demands, how can we ever hope to live up to God’s requirements? The answer, of course, is Christ. Only by putting our trust in Jesus Christ can we expect to meet God’s demands.
Suggested reading:
“The Sermon on the Mount”
As regenerated believers, the Holy Spirit gives us the desire to live righteously, always walking in love. But in this life, we do not perfectly keep Jesus’ commandments because the habits of our flesh don’t allow us to love perfectly and consistently. But our works are not our source of righteousness. Jesus Christ is our righteousness, and, that being so, it is impossible for us to be condemned. As John says, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9). There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, as Romans 8:1 says. We always remain perfectly righteous when we are robed with the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ who fulfilled the law perfectly for us.
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.
Romans 8:1-4
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