What did Jesus mean when he said "I have fulfilled the law"?

[Soyeong]

The problem arises in that we confuse that Old Covenant as being what is always meant by "the law."

I agree, people often make the mistake of taking what is said about works of law, the law of sin, and about God's Law as though they are all speaking about the same thing, and erroneously leads them to conclude that the Bible is speaking against obeying what our God has commanded. Though I do not see a reason to think that Romans 2 is speaking about anything other than the Mosaic Law.

That Old Covenant was a mere shell of God's law. It used mechanical illustrations of spiritual things and so when observed by the carnal mind does not really result in fully obeying God's law. I will give an example of that in a moment, but first, please consider:

Romans 2:14 "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; ) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel."

We no longer need to look to that Old Covenant once the spirit of the things it illustrated have been written upon our hearts. We are then living expressions of the law of God.

I would agree that there are more things that are in accordance with God's righteousness or that are sinful than the Law specifically instructs or prohibits. However, Paul said that the Law is spiritual (Romans 7:14), so it has always been meant to teach us deeper spiritual principles, of which the listed laws are just examples, and which are the attributes of God, so I wouldn't call it even a shell. If we correctly understand a spiritual principle and we have faith in God to guide us in how to rightly live, then we will at least do things that are in accordance with that principle. For example, God's Law has revealed it is in accordance with His righteousness to help the poor, but gaining a deeper understand of God's righteousness will always be inclusive of helping the poor in accordance with what the Law requires. So we do not need to look to the Law for instructions for how to act only if we are by nature doing things that the Law requires. If our conscience doesn't lead us to do the things that God has commanded, then that does mean that we aren't required to do those things, but rather it means that there is something wrong with our conscience. The more we choose to do something wrong, the less our conscience becomes bothered by it until our conscience become seared.

This is why Paul said, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:31

We are not establishing that Old Law Covenant which was mere illustrations of the spiritual realities. We are establishing God's fuller righteousness so that we just as Christ grow to be the righteousness of God. Ponder that in the way the following texts fit together:

Romans 1:17 "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

2 Corinthians 5:21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

In the Bible faith is always associated with a willingness to submit to God's will, such as with every example of saving faith listed in Hebrews 11. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus said that faith was one of the weightier matters of the Law, so obedience to the Law is the way to live by faith because it is about submitting to God's will for our lives and about having faith in God to guide us in how to rightly live, so our faith upholds the Law by requiring us to obey it. We are not made the righteousness of God so that we can disregard the instructions that God has given for how to do what is righteous, but so that we will live in accordance with them. Meeting a higher standard is necessarily inclusive of meeting a lower standard, so someone who tries to establish a higher standard while not meeting the lower standard does not have a correct understanding of either the higher or the lower standard.

Now, I promised you and example of what I meant when I said above that the Old Covenant merely used mechanical illustrations of spiritual things and so when observed by the carnal mind does not really result in fully obeying God's law. Just go to Acts chapters 10 and 11, to see that Peter did not have to be told that the unclean things he was shown in the vision and told to take eat of represented the uncleanness of men which God had on 5the basis of Christ's sacrifice declared clean.

Peter's vision is a good example we people often take something that was only against obeying the laws of men as being against obeying the Law of our God. In his vision, it said that all kinds of animals were let down, so he easily could have obeyed God's command to kill and eat by simply killing and eating one of the clean animals, so he was objecting to doing what the God's Law permitted him to do. The issue was a man-made ritual purity law that said that clean things that came in contact with unclean things became common or defiled (Mark 7:3-4). All of the animals were bundled together, so all of the clean animals had become common, so when Peter objected by saying that he had never eaten anything that was common or unclean, he was saying that he had never broken either this ritual purity law or God's dietary laws, and by refusing to kill and eat a clean animals, he was disobeying God in order to obey man. Note that God did not rebuke Peter for referring to clean animals as unclean, but for referring to clean animals as common, so his vision was only in regard to the incorrect status of clean animals, which he interpreted as being in regard to the incorrect status of Gentiles, and had nothing to do with eating unclean animals.

While I agree that we are under the New Covenant and not the Mosaic Covenant, we are nevertheless still under the same God, whose righteousness is eternal (Psalms 119:142), so therefore all of his righteous laws are likewise eternal (Psalms 119:160). The way to act in accordance with God's righteousness has existed from the beginning so it is not dependant on any particular covenant, though it has been revealed through them, which means that there is a distinction between a set of instructions for how to do what is righteous and a covenant agreement to live by those instructions. So anyone who wants to look up how to do what is righteous can do so by reading the Mosaic Law regardless of which covenant they are under, but as part of the New Covenant we are still nevertheless told to do what is righteous (1 John 3:10).

That is all those clean and unclean animals under the Old Covenant represented. Nothing in that Old Covenant refers to them as "dietary laws" for the sake of health. That idea is only man's carnal conclusion. Pork is for example known to be one of the least likely sources of trichinosis. And the kind of trichinosis one gets from eating pork is the most treatable kind. If you check with the CDC (The Center for Disease Control) you will find that there are many types of trichinosis which one is much more likely to get from wild game and many of those types are much more virulent and difficult to recover from apart from lasting damage to one's health or death. And some of the wild game listed would be considered clean meats under that Old Covenant. I found that an interesting and eye opening study and encourage you to do as I did and check that out with CDC. Pork is far better for us health-wise than are most of the red meats we eat. Of course the key to any food is moderation. That is in fact the key to most things in life.

There are night and day differences in the toxicity of clean and unclean animals, so it would be reasonable to think that God had a concern for our health, but I would agree that health is not the key issue. According to Leviticus 11:44-45 and 1 Peter 1:13-16, refraining from eating unclean animals is about acting in accordance with the holiness of our God.

Colossians 2:16-17 "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."

This is another good example where people erroneously take something that was only against obeying the laws of men as being against obeying the Law of our God, which becomes readily apparent when we examine the views of the people judging the Colossians:

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Paul would not have described those who are people to obey God's holy, righteous, and good Law in accordance with Christ's example as taking people captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, and not according to Christ. He went into more details about what these elemental spirits of the world are later in the chapter:

Colossians 2:20-23 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

So the Colossians were keeping God's holy days in obedience to His commands, they were being judged by those promoting human traditions and precepts, self-made religion, asceticism, and severity to the body, and Paul was writing to encourage them not to let any man judge them and keep them from obeying God. This things are important foreshadows of what is to come.

 

[Buzz_B]

There are Covenant Laws and there are God's Eternal Laws. Whatever God says to do is binding when and for the purpose he says to do it. The Eternal Law is that God has full right and authority to command whatever he chooses to command, to whomever he chooses to command to do it, for whatever purpose he chooses to command them to do it, and for whatever time he chooses that it should be binding. We see that demonstrated in that Old Law Covenant.

God has full right to choose even only one person out of all persons and command that one person to do something different than he has commanded the rest. That Old Covenant drives the point home to us all about God's sovereignty and our responsibility to obey whatever he asks of us, whenever he asks it of us. And it is that aspect of the Old Law Covenant which causes confusion for those who are afraid to let go of it now that it is no longer anything more than a covenant which man himself broke. Yet man ignores that man himself broke that covenant, instead preferring to make claims like, God promised this or that”, or, “God said, 'This is my statute forever.” All the while they ignore the, “that [thou] shouldest keep all his commandments” (Deuteronomy 26:18) and the, “IF ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant” (Exodus 19:5; Exodus 23:22).

The failure to keep God's Laws as issued in that Old Law Covenant renders even the following quotation from that law to be words calling for death: Deuteronomy 11:32 “And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.”

It was a covenant which the fleshly nation unanimously agreed to but then failed to keep: Exodus 19:8 “And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.” Therefore it is a covenant which man's weakness by flesh has already broken, thus justifying God in declaring that all are dead by reason of the weakness of their flesh and the disease of sin. And this was no surprise to God, who ever since he utter the words of Genesis 3:15 knew that his Son Jesus would be the only seed of mankind remaining deserving of life. Knowing that, do you really think that God was actually making promises to those spiritually dead in his eyes, as though he thought that he might be wrong about them?

Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned..”

Romans 3:9-12
9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Now, I highlighted that part, “and all the world may become guilty before God”, above. That is because I picked up earlier on what you spoke concerning Jews only being yet under obligation to the laws of that Old Law Covenant. I have much I could speak concerning that, but for the moment I wish to only draw your attention to the relationship between what is said at Romans 3:19-20 and the phrases, “the elements of the world” and “the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage”, at Galatians 4:3, 9.

God's giving Israel perfect laws with which to regulate themselves and their failure to be able to use those laws successfully to regulate themselves proves that all the entire world's nations which also use laws as seems good to themselves to regulate so that, through justice, peace, prosperity, and happiness can be attained by their citizens, is futility. They cannot by commandments of law escape that futility which Romans 8:20 speaks concerning. Their legal systems are all beggarly elements because they are robed with beggars clothing, aka, sinful flesh.

In that sense the failure of the Jews to be able to keep that Old Covenant was necessary. Their failing to keep that covenant was both predictable and necessary. As I asked earlier, “do you really think that God was actually making promises to those spiritually dead in his eyes, as though he thought that he might be wrong about them?” God knew that all had died in Adam and that is precisely why he planned that all who prove to be cultivatable as extended seed of the woman through her seed, Jesus our last Adam, could be returned to life. Even That Old Covenant was rendered beggarly by the flesh. And it is now a broken covenant, broken not by God but by us. Our trying to hang onto parts of that Old Covenant now is more a thing of pride. It is yet nothing more than a continued effort to use works of a written law to obtain righteousness.

Hebrews 7:19 “For the law (or, the Old Law Covenant) made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.”

Does that say we draw closer to God by continuing the things of that Old Law Covenant? Or does it say that we have a better hope than that Old Law Covenant which draws us closer to God?

Hebrews 8:8-9 “For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.”

If Paul did in fact continue to live as a Jew under that Old Law then there would be no point to his having said, “And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law..” 1 Corinthians 9:20

I understand that you feel that you earnestly do see where Paul continued faithful to that Old Covenant, but you have to miss far too much of what Paul said to make that idea stand. Paul plainly said to Peter: “Galatians 2:14 “But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?”

I believe you are caring to do what is right and that is a noble thing. There is room midst love to be able to do certain things of that Old Law for the right reason of not stumbling those who are yet having a difficult time getting free from the things their robe of flesh renders to be beggarly elements unable to be of any real service to our growth in God's righteousness. But we must bear closely in mind that those same things, requiring an external focus observing the flesh, have the power to also stunt our spiritual growth in God's righteousness.

We all wrestle with this subject a long time before we get it.

 

[1213]

In Matthew 5:17 Jesus says:

"Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to destroy but to fulfill."

So, how exactly did Jesus fulfill the law? Was it because Jesus kept the law perfectly? If the law is fulfilled by Jesus how do we now keep the law? By loving our neighbor? Discuss.

Bible says:

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not give false testimony," "You shall not covet," [TR adds "You shall not give false testimony,"] and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love doesn't harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.
Romans 13:8-10

That is why I think Jesus fulfilled the law by love that was so great that he was ready to die for us.

 

[Buzz_B]

Bible says:

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not give false testimony," "You shall not covet," [TR adds "You shall not give false testimony,"] and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love doesn't harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.
Romans 13:8-10

That is why I think Jesus fulfilled the law by love that was so great that he was ready to die for us.

I fully support what you have said. Expounding on the wisdom already shared with us by Soyeong concerning faith:

When God gives us a command, it is the compelling law of God's love written upon our hearts for us to share that moves us to obey. We of course would not know that love except for faith. Faith opened the door to knowing God's love and faith then continues to do all that it does from there forward by the motivating power of that love: “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” Galatians 5:6

1 John 4:19 “We love him, because he first loved us.” Our love of others is an emulation of God's faith and love toward us, causing us to by faith look for the good in others and to support that good to grow further by means of emulating God's love. Where faith is become able through the corrected frame of mind and heart, love is become enabled and can begin to work on behalf of that good faith for the further enrichment of that good we find in others. Paul describes this for us at 1 Corinthians 13:1-8. (That good is actually there to be found in us because man was created in the image of God and so our faith can begin there by believing in that design of God which is a major evidence of his love of us that he would so design us in his image. I would dare say that if we cannot have faith that we were created in God's image we will have difficulty seeing his love of us. We must discipline ourselves to look for the good in others and belief that man was created in God's image provides us a basis for doing so.)

 

[Mark51]

Jesus came to make the teachings of the prophets come true, his coming was a guarantee that their prophecies concerning the restoration of paradise on earth would be fulfilled. Here are just a sampling-not inclusive: Psalms 37:11, 29; Isaiah 9:6, 7; 11:1-10; 45:18; Daniel 2:34, 35, 44, 45; 7:13, 14.

 

[Buzz_B]

Jesus came to make the teachings of the prophets come true, his coming was a guarantee that their prophecies concerning the restoration of paradise on earth would be fulfilled. Here are just a sampling-not inclusive: Psalms 37:11, 29; Isaiah 9:6, 7; 11:1-10; 45:18; Daniel 2:34, 35, 44, 45; 7:13, 14.

I agree with you on that. But it is not flesh and blood inheritance which gets us into that restored paradise earth. Would you agree?

I see Paul's words at 1 Corinthians 15:50 "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption", as telling us that we cannot get there by anything other than a renewed spirit After all, we all must die to our now flesh and blood even if only by no longer living for our flesh as Paul speaks of in Romans chapter 6. And one who has lain his flesh down in death (even when done spiritually as at Romans 6) no longer has any inheritance rights through that flesh, else it was never really let die. So to insist that place in the new paradise earth (which constitutes Christ's kingdom) is guaranteed by flesh and blood inheritance is like saying we will not be there. It shows the emphasis of our focus to be yet fixated on the flesh rather than fixed in the spirit where it needs to be.

I know some, as JWs for example, teach that verse to mean that no flesh and blood bodies will be there in the kingdom of God. So they say it applies only to 144,000 who go to live in heaven as spirit embodied creatures. Yet they realize that the OT Scriptures clearly teach that flesh and blood will be there in that new paradise earth and so they were compelled to have a separate group to satisfy that realization. (Don't get me wrong. JWs are good people. They are entitled to have to grope a bit for the truth, even as we all have it to do. And it is good for us to learn to dwell together in peace despite our imperfections.)