God’s Constitution, Pt 12: Fulfillment

Matthew 5:17-20                   17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Romans 10:4                          4Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

People in the West, particularly in America, seem to have a problem with the Law, by which I mean the Old Testament, often called the Tanakh.  In the Matthew verse Jesus explicitly says He is the fulfillment of the Law, and Paul, in the Romans verse, further points to Jesus in that sense.  Generally all of the early Church Fathers saw Jesus as fulfillment of Old Testament Law; that is, until the time of the Protestant Reformation.  As the Reformers broke away from the Catholic Church they were looking for ways to differentiate themselves, and the Romans verse was seized upon as one way to do that.  The word translated ‘culmination’ in the NIV has two main meanings, one of which is ‘end’ and the other is ‘goal’.  Unfortunately, ‘end’ was chosen probably spurred by non-so-latent antisemitism.  Also by the 19th century, the idea had arisen that humanity had risen beyond the parochialism of Jewish faith and many theologians began to view the religion of Israel as primitive and outmoded and saw the Romans verse as proof that the Old Testament was obsolete.  In combination came the idea that the Law was no longer applicable to modern, enlightened, believers.

This view is certainly not held by the majority of believers today, and although still taught from many pulpits it is clearly not the teaching contained in the Matthew verse.  Jesus is showing us that the Old Testament (Law and the Prophets) has applicability today, and further that he (Jesus) is the fulfillment or culmination to which the Law and the Prophets has been pointing all along. 

The other point to consider is to wonder just what fulfillment means because there seems to be a contradiction contained in the Matthew verses.  If Jesus is the end of the Law then what concern would there be over whether every small letter or stroke of the pen were obeyed.  Or if Jesus were the goal or culmination of the Law why would we worry about such things at all?  And Jesus himself appeared to be lax about observing the Law when for instance he healed on the Sabbath.  Was he lax about the Law or lax about tradition?

From eternity past God has had a plan.  He wanted fellowship with his children whom he created with free will.  He knew we would sin, that Satan, who had previously been cast out of Heaven, would gain dominion over the earth, and that his creation would need restoration.  He chose his children, called the Israelites, to be the people through whom that restoration would come.  He knew he would have to teach them righteousness and that they would fall and rise and fall and rise.  The Law and the Prophets was the way he taught righteousness, and that that Law would be applicable until that righteousness was achieved, or as v18 says, “until all is accomplished”.  All is accomplished when the earth is restored to its Edenic origins, when Satan and evil have been defeated, and Jesus has established the Millennial Kingdom.

In the meantime, the Law is applicable and functioning.  Then in v20 Jesus throws another variable into this calculation; now we have to decide where righteousness fits in.  And he gives the Pharisees as a negative example.  If we obey every jot and tittle perfectly are we thereby righteous?  If we relax some of the commandments are we thereby doomed?  In summary then, it seems Jesus was modifying the Law and the Prophets slightly.  The righteous believer accepts the Old Testament as a whole as appropriate and functional for the 21st century.  But there are parts of the Law which no longer apply as for instance the uncleanliness of the gentiles (pagans).  As God began to bring righteousness to his people, they had to see the gentile practices of idol worship, sexual deviations, and child sacrifices as abominations to keep away from.  They had to see such people as inherently unclean.  But now salvation was being offered to anyone willing to turn away from such things, to repent, be baptized, and seek Jesus as Savior.

The solution to this apparent contradiction is given by considering one’s heart condition.  If a person holds the Law to be inherently literal and unchanging in any circumstances then that person is at risk of developing a cold hearted attitude as did the Pharisees.  But if one considers the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the supplicant before him, one is likely to come to the conclusions that is okay to heal an infirm woman (Luke 13:10-17), or heal the man with shriveled hand (Mark 3:1-6), both of which were done on the Sabbath.  So the fully submitted believer is likely to see the Law and the Prophets as an avenue of bringing love to the needy, not as unalterable impersonal regulation.

The whole point here is that the Law and the Prophets was intended to be a guide pointing forward to the day when more complete revelation would come in the form of the Messiah.  The coming of the Messiah does not stop the Law; it just more completely explains it.  The one does not end and the other begin.  The one continues and the other adds on and gives understanding.