The Fulfillment of the Law and Prophets

Robert Meredith

    “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).  This quotation from the Christ is taken from His great “Sermon on the Mount,” as found in Matthew chapters 5-7.  Let us notice some of the facts Jesus relates to us.

  Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets.”  It was not Jesus’ purpose to destroy the Old Testament system, but to abolish it.  One needs to recognize the difference between destroying and abolishing.  Jesus did not come to destroy (to undo, to frustrate, or to mess up) the former law, but He came to fulfill it.  After fulfilling it, He abolished it (He removed it or took it out of the way, Ephesians 2:15).  The law and the prophets had accomplished their purpose (Galatians 3:24), and a new law came into effect.

  When Jesus used the phrase “the law and the prophets,” He referred to the Old Testament system of Judaism.  The law was the Law of Moses, and the prophets were all the Old Testament

prophets.  Therefore, Jesus was claiming that He was not going to undo the Old Covenant, but He was going to fulfill it.  The Old Testament had many prophecies concerning the Messiah and His Kingdom, and Jesus was the fulfillment of those prophecies.  He did not come to cause them to fail.  In Jeremiah 31:31-ff, God spoke of a New Covenant which He would make.  The Christ died so that the New Covenant could be established (Hebrews 9:15-17; Hebrews 8:6-13).

  Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets through His life, ministry, suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.  The Law of Moses was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24).  A schoolmaster in Jesus’ day was responsible for the educational care of a child.  The Law of Moses served the purpose of preparing a people for the coming of Christ.  It served to identify sin and show the severity of it.  Every time a Jew offered an animal sacrifice, it reminded him that he needed a true Savior (Hebrews 10:1-4).  Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end (the goal or aim) of the law…”  Jesus did not destroy (undo) the law or the prophets, He fulfilled them and nailed them to the cross (Colossians 2:14).  Their purpose had been accomplished (Galatians 3:23-29).

  Jesus fulfilled the Old Law and died to establish His New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-ff; Hebrews 8-9).  Today, we are not under the Law of Moses, but under a better law (Hebrews 8:6-7), the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25), the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2a), the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).  The Old Law served its purpose, Jesus fulfilled it and now reigns as King over His Kingdom (1 Timothy 6:16; Acts 2:33, 36) with the New Testament being the law by which we will be judged (John 12:48).