Another view of “fulfilling the law” is that Jesus
“filled full” what
was
lacking
in the law—that is, He
completed it, partly canceling it and
partly adding to it,
forming what is sometimes referred to as “Christ’s
law” or “New Testament
teaching.” The implication of this view is that
the New Testament
brought a change in the requirements for salvation
and that the laws
given in the Old Testament are obsolete. But do either
of these views
accurately reflect what Jesus meant?
Jesus’ view of fulfilling the law
The Greek word pleroo,
translated “fulfill”
in Matthew 5:17, means “to
make full, to fill, to
fill up,...
to fill to the full”
or “to render full, i.e. to
complete” . In other
words, Jesus said He came to complete the
law and make it
perfect. How? By showing the
spiritual intent and
application
of God’s law. His
meaning is clear from the remainder of the chapter,
where He showed the
spiritual intent of
specific commandments.
Some distort the
meaning of “fulfill” to have Jesus saying, “I did not
come to destroy the
law, but to end it by fulfilling it.” This is inconsistent
with His own words.
Through the remainder of the chapter, He showed
that the spiritual
application of the law made it even
more
difficult to
keep, not that it was
annulled or no longer necessary.
Jesus, by explaining,
expanding and exemplifying God’s law, fulfilled
a prophecy of the
Messiah found in Isaiah 42:21: “The
Lo r d is well
pleased for His
righteousness’ sake; He will exalt the law, and make
it honorable.” The
Hebrew word
gadal,
translated “exalt” or
“magnify” (KJV) literally means “to be or become great” (William Wilson,
Wilson’s Old Testament
Word Studies,
“Magnify”).
Jesus Christ did
exactly that, showing the holy, spiritual intent, purpose and scope of God’s
law. He met the law’s requirements by obeying it perfectly in thought and deed,
both in the letter and in the intent
of the heart.
• If you’re not already a subscriber,
request a free subscription to our
gods-word by gaurav pawar daily artical -magazine
The Good News at
• While you’re at it, also request a
free subscription to our
World News
and good-nwse
newsletter
No comments:
Post a Comment