How did Jesus end the law without abolishing it?

[alaric]

Let’s look at how a legal contract works.

Scenario 1: Offeror offers the offeree a contract. Offeree has fulfilled the contract. Offeror honour the contract by paying the offeree.

Scenario 2: Offeror offers the offeree a contract. Offeree has breached the contract. Offeree honour the contract by making reparation to the Offeror.

The law of God is the same as a contract. If you can keep all the laws, you will have eternal life.

Matthew 19:16-17 A man came to Jesus and asked, “Good Teacher, what good work must I do to have life that lasts forever?” Jesus said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One Who is good. If you want to have life that lasts forever, you must obey the Laws.”

If you break the law, you will receive death.

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die.

If obeying the law can bring salvation and eternal life, why is everyone still dying? It is because the death sentence has been passed onto everyone when Adam disobeyed. Everyone is born according to Adam’s fallen image (Everyone is born sinner and all sinners must die).

Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

Death reigns BEFORE the law.

Romans 5:12-14 This is what happened: Sin came into the world by one man, Adam. Sin brought death with it. Death spread to all men because all have sinned. Sin was in the world before the Law was given. But sin is not held against a person when there is no Law. And yet death had power over men from the time of Adam until the time of Moses. Even the power of death was over those who had not sinned in the same way Adam sinned.

Death reigns DURING the law.

Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”

Death reigns AFTER the law (For Christians who put themselves back under the law).

There are ignorant Christians who thinks Jesus died on the cross to bring them back into the law (from scenario 2 back into scenario 1 of the legal contract). They are saved by grace through faith but went back to keep the law with their flesh.

Galatians 3:2-3 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

The truth is that God has ended the law which is designed to be obey and uphold by the efforts of the flesh.

Romans 10:4 For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God.

God has brought forth a new and better way (that is free of burdens of the law and consciousness of sin through grace by the leading of his Holy Spirit) for us to keep the law. Read Hebrews 8:7-13.

Hebrews 8:7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.

Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

Important: God is NOT INTERESTED to see how well we can keep the law through the flesh.

Important: God wants to use the law to bring to our awareness that we are sinners who cannot save ourselves.

Under the equivalent of a legal contract, everyone is fulfilling the contract as defaulters (sinners) who has breached the contract, making reparation for damages (death).

We are like mortgagor who took up a mortgage from the bank. Under the law of repayment (an example of the law), we need to make repayment (an example of death - just as everybody pays daily with their life as they age towards death) to the bank. But halfway through the repayment, someone comes along and help us make a one-time huge payment that clears the remaining amount and free us from the debt. That someone did not abolish the law of mortgage but fulfilled it and free us from it.

Jesus fulfilled the law by making full payment for our death through his death on the cross.

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I (Jesus) have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I (Jesus) have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

 

[Neogaia777]

The Bible basically says that the law is spiritual, and that it has always been about making yourself like the Spirit behind it, etc, which cannot ever be fully conveyed/taught/fully displayed in writing, etc, which is why the letter always failed/fails, etc, and can actually be used to encourage disobedience to that Spirit, etc, but that's only because of certain fallen humans though, etc.

God Bless.

 

[Clare73]

The law of Moses was not given to make righteous, for
1) righteousness had been by faith in the promise (Ge 15:5-6, Seed, Jesus Christ, Gal 3:16) for over 600 years before Moses was born
2) and man is unable to keep the law perfectly in order to be made righteous by it.

The law of Moses was given to reveal sin (Ro 3:20) and the need for a Savior (Gal 3:24).
Righteousness is only in our being in Christ through saving faith.

 

[fhansen]

Let’s look at how a legal contract works.

Scenario 1: Offeror offers the offeree a contract. Offeree has fulfilled the contract. Offeror honour the contract by paying the offeree.

Scenario 2: Offeror offers the offeree a contract. Offeree has breached the contract. Offeree honour the contract by making reparation to the Offeror.

The law of God is the same as a contract. If you can keep all the laws, you will have eternal life.

Matthew 19:16-17 A man came to Jesus and asked, “Good Teacher, what good work must I do to have life that lasts forever?” Jesus said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One Who is good. If you want to have life that lasts forever, you must obey the Laws.”

If you break the law, you will receive death.

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die.

If obeying the law can bring salvation and eternal life, why is everyone still dying? It is because the death sentence has been passed onto everyone when Adam disobeyed. Everyone is born according to Adam’s fallen image (Everyone is born sinner and all sinners must die).

Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

Death reigns BEFORE the law.

Romans 5:12-14 This is what happened: Sin came into the world by one man, Adam. Sin brought death with it. Death spread to all men because all have sinned. Sin was in the world before the Law was given. But sin is not held against a person when there is no Law. And yet death had power over men from the time of Adam until the time of Moses. Even the power of death was over those who had not sinned in the same way Adam sinned.

Death reigns DURING the law.

Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”

Death reigns AFTER the law (For Christians who put themselves back under the law).

There are ignorant Christians who thinks Jesus died on the cross to bring them back into the law (from scenario 2 back into scenario 1 of the legal contract). They are saved by grace through faith but went back to keep the law with their flesh.

Galatians 3:2-3 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

The truth is that God has ended the law which is designed to be obey and uphold by the efforts of the flesh.

Romans 10:4 For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God.

God has brought forth a new and better way (that is free of burdens of the law and consciousness of sin through grace by the leading of his Holy Spirit) for us to keep the law. Read Hebrews 8:7-13.

Hebrews 8:7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.

Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

Important: God is NOT INTERESTED to see how well we can keep the law through the flesh.

Important: God wants to use the law to bring to our awareness that we are sinners who cannot save ourselves.

Under the equivalent of a legal contract, everyone is fulfilling the contract as defaulters (sinners) who has breached the contract, making reparation for damages (death).

We are like mortgagor who took up a mortgage from the bank. Under the law of repayment (an example of the law), we need to make repayment (an example of death - just as everybody pays daily with their life as they age towards death) to the bank. But halfway through the repayment, someone comes along and help us make a one-time huge payment that clears the remaining amount and free us from the debt. That someone did not abolish the law of mortgage but fulfilled it and free us from it.

Jesus fulfilled the law by making full payment for our death through his death on the cross.

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I (Jesus) have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I (Jesus) have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Jesus fulfilled the law by love, which is the only authentic way to fulfill it. To the extent that we love, we also fulfill it, without even needing to hear it. There's no need to abolish the law; it's holy, spiritual, right, and good as Rom 7 tells us. The law, IOW, tells us how we're created to live, while only love can actually accomplish that life in us.

Man is obligated to love, God and neighbor. And that obligation is fulfillable only by virtue of his being united with God, grafted into the Vine. And that's what faith does; to turn to, accept, and make God our God again.

So there was nothing wrong with the law; there was something wrong with man, but something that the law could never fix. Man needs God, first of all, the God he abandoned in Eden. So Jesus shows us that it can be done, and then gives us the Spirit who empowers us to do it as well, as He reconciles with God.

 

[Grafted In]

I picture Jesus on resurrection morning assending to the Heavenly Holy of Holys where the Arc holds the Commandments and He applies His Blood to the Mercy Seat atop it.
It is covered.
Silly, perhaps, but it helps me understand.

 

[com7fy8]

How did Jesus end the law without abolishing it?

It is written >

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," ( 2 Timothy 3:16)

"All Scripture" includes the Law of Moses. So, it still is "profitable", and we see how Paul uses things of "the law" for presenting us his message, in Galatians. Galatians 4:21-26 is used by Paul in his New Testament message.

My personal take is that any scripture can be used by God to help us to love better. And this includes how God changes us into the image of Jesus, so we can love the really right way and be personally pleasing to our Father because of how Jesus in us has changed and matured our character to be so pleasing to God Himself.

All scripture can be used for this, by God.

So, Jesus has not ended the Law, but He came to fulfill it.

 

[pastorwaris]

Let’s look at how a legal contract works.

Scenario 1: Offeror offers the offeree a contract. Offeree has fulfilled the contract. Offeror honour the contract by paying the offeree.

Scenario 2: Offeror offers the offeree a contract. Offeree has breached the contract. Offeree honour the contract by making reparation to the Offeror.

The law of God is the same as a contract. If you can keep all the laws, you will have eternal life.

Matthew 19:16-17 A man came to Jesus and asked, “Good Teacher, what good work must I do to have life that lasts forever?” Jesus said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One Who is good. If you want to have life that lasts forever, you must obey the Laws.”

If you break the law, you will receive death.

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die.

If obeying the law can bring salvation and eternal life, why is everyone still dying? It is because the death sentence has been passed onto everyone when Adam disobeyed. Everyone is born according to Adam’s fallen image (Everyone is born sinner and all sinners must die).

Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

Death reigns BEFORE the law.

Romans 5:12-14 This is what happened: Sin came into the world by one man, Adam. Sin brought death with it. Death spread to all men because all have sinned. Sin was in the world before the Law was given. But sin is not held against a person when there is no Law. And yet death had power over men from the time of Adam until the time of Moses. Even the power of death was over those who had not sinned in the same way Adam sinned.

Death reigns DURING the law.

Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”

Death reigns AFTER the law (For Christians who put themselves back under the law).

There are ignorant Christians who thinks Jesus died on the cross to bring them back into the law (from scenario 2 back into scenario 1 of the legal contract). They are saved by grace through faith but went back to keep the law with their flesh.

Galatians 3:2-3 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

The truth is that God has ended the law which is designed to be obey and uphold by the efforts of the flesh.

Romans 10:4 For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God.

God has brought forth a new and better way (that is free of burdens of the law and consciousness of sin through grace by the leading of his Holy Spirit) for us to keep the law. Read Hebrews 8:7-13.

Hebrews 8:7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.

Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

Important: God is NOT INTERESTED to see how well we can keep the law through the flesh.

Important: God wants to use the law to bring to our awareness that we are sinners who cannot save ourselves.

Under the equivalent of a legal contract, everyone is fulfilling the contract as defaulters (sinners) who has breached the contract, making reparation for damages (death).

We are like mortgagor who took up a mortgage from the bank. Under the law of repayment (an example of the law), we need to make repayment (an example of death - just as everybody pays daily with their life as they age towards death) to the bank. But halfway through the repayment, someone comes along and help us make a one-time huge payment that clears the remaining amount and free us from the debt. That someone did not abolish the law of mortgage but fulfilled it and free us from it.

Jesus fulfilled the law by making full payment for our death through his death on the cross.

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I (Jesus) have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I (Jesus) have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Dear brother in Christ,

Thank you for your thought-provoking comment. You’ve laid out a detailed and honest attempt to describe the law and salvation through the lens of a legal contract. And while there’s some strong imagery there, I’d love to build on that thought and also offer a bit of pastoral redirection in love, grounded in the full counsel of Scripture.

Let’s walk through this together:

The Law Was Holy, But It Was Never the Savior​

You're absolutely right: God’s law is holy (Romans 7:12), and it exposes sin. It’s the mirror that shows us our condition but it was never the soap that could cleanse us. The law tells us what’s required, but it does not empower us to meet those requirements.

Romans 3:20 says,

"Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin."

That’s the key right there: the law was given not to save us, but to point us to the Savior (Galatians 3:24). It prepares the heart to receive grace.

Jesus Didn't Just Fulfill the Law, He Replaced the Old System with a Better Covenant​

You referenced Matthew 5:17 and rightly so. Jesus fulfilled the law, meaning He lived it perfectly. He didn’t abolish it. He satisfied every demand of it. And in doing so, He opened the door to a new covenant.

Hebrews 10:1 makes it plain:

“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming not the realities themselves.”

And Hebrews 8:13 is clear:

“By calling this covenant ‘new,’ He has made the first one obsolete.”

We don’t go back to what was meant to lead us forward. To return to the law after receiving grace is like insisting on animal sacrifices when the Lamb of God has already been slain!

Grace Is Not a Loophole, It’s a Living Relationship,​

I sense a warning in your message to those who might treat grace lightly, and I share that concern. Romans 6:1-2 asks the rhetorical question,

“Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

But here’s the beauty: the Spirit doesn’t just forgive us. He transforms us.
Romans 8:3-4 says,

“For what the law was powerless to do... God did by sending his own Son... in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

So yes, the law is fulfilled in us, not because we grind it out in the flesh but because the Spirit of Christ lives in us.

Your Mortgage Analogy Is Powerful but the Gospel Is Even Better, ​

You painted a helpful picture of someone paying off our debt but the Gospel goes beyond that. Jesus didn’t just write a check for our debt. He made us heirs with Him.

Romans 8:17 says,

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ...”

It’s not just a transaction, it’s a transformation. We’ve gone from condemned criminals to adopted children. That’s better than a legal contract. That’s a covenant of love!

The Danger of Returning to the Law​

Paul was deeply concerned about believers who were saved by grace but tried to return to the law for sanctification. He called it foolish in Galatians 3:3:

“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

It’s like starting a marathon in a luxury car and then getting out to crawl on your hands and knees. Grace got you started and grace will get you home.

Dear Brother, Live By the Spirit, Not the System​

The law demands grace transforms.
The law condemns grace convicts and then empowers.
The law says “do” grace says “done.”

So I say this as your brother and pastor: don’t go back. Don’t trade the freedom of the Spirit for the burden of a broken system.
Let us walk in the Spirit. Let us rest in the finished work of Jesus. And let us proclaim to the world:

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!” (Galatians 5:1)

You are not under the law. You are under grace. Walk in it. Live in it. Be transformed by it.
In His Grace,
Pastor Waris

 

[tharkun73]

"Abolish" and "fulfill" were/are rabbinic technical terms that mean to 'interpret correctly' and 'interpret incorrectly', respectively. It has absolutely nothing to do with getting rid of the law. Jesus came in part to show us how to interpret the OT law correctly.