Bringing The Law To Life

I came to accomplish [the law’s] purpose.   Matthew 5:17

Once you understand the uniqueness of Jesus, you will be better able to grasp what he has done. When Jesus announced what he would accomplish through his ministry, he made it clear that he came to fulfill not only the writings of the prophets, but also the law.

If the writings of the prophets represented God’s to-do list, then the law, including the Ten Commandments and all the other commands given to Moses, represents our to-do list. In it God tells us what he requires us to do. This law will stand until heaven and earth disappear (see Matthew 5:18), and that hasn’t happened yet!

So it would be a great mistake to think that God was concerned about the law and righteousness in the Old Testament but that somehow he changed his focus and switched to grace and forgiveness in the New Testament. The whole Bible is one story. God has always been gracious and forgiving, and his law stands forever.

The law of God is still our to-do list. But Jesus says that he came to fulfill the law. In other words, he came to move the law from the to-do list to the done list. The law is not an arbitrary set of moral rules but a description of God’s character and glory. The reason we should not lie is that God is truth. The reason we should not commit adultery is that God is faithful.

The law tells us what God is like and describes his calling for our lives—how we’re to live in this world. But consider the long list of names at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel. Not one of them fulfilled the law of God—and neither have you or I. Jesus came to live the life that God has put on your to-do list. He lifted the words of God’s law off of the page and expressed them fully in his perfect life. That is why Jesus could say, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

When Jesus came, he gave full expression to God’s law—it was done.

For further reading, see Matthew 5