Ultimate Fulfillment

Note: What follows is adapted from a sermon I first delivered on June 18 at The Chapel Downtown, a Saturday night gathering in a storefront hosted by my church and our local network of churches, with the aim of providing a space for people to encounter the gospel in the heart of the city over dinner and in a more casual setting than Sunday morning services. The lesson series is on the Sermon on the Mount. The original message pulled from the ESV; this has been changed to NASB for the website.

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Photo by Doug Kelley on Unsplash

There's a weird law still on the books in Pennsylvania, where I grew up. It was first written when cars were new and fairly simple machines, rare on the roads and disruptive to a culture that wasn't used to them. The law states that, when a driver sees a horse coming on the road, they are required to pull over to avoid disturbing the horse. If the horse still seems nervous, the driver must shut down the car; if that fails, the driver must dismantle the car enough that it can be hidden in the bushes and pose no further threat to the horse and its ability to do its job. Now, I've encountered a great many horses while driving around in Pennsylvania, and I've never had to do any of that. The law still stands, but it isn't enforced, and no one really seems bothered by that fact. The reason for this is actually pretty simple: the relationship between cars and horses has changed in the century or so since that law was passed, and as such, the expectations for how both parties address both each other and the law has shifted.

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Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others [to do] the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches [them,] he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses [that] of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:17-20 (NASB)

Shall Not Abolish

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First things first: the Old Testament Law still stands. It hasn't gone anywhere, it hasn't been revoked. Jesus says in no uncertain terms that it's still on the books. The question for Christians is what this means for us.

Now, there are ways we try to work this out, and one of them is that modern Christians tend to recognize three main categories of the Law: the Civil Law, the Ceremonial Law, and the Moral Law. The Civil Law is a category we use to describe regulations that deal with the actual governing of the historic Kingdom of Israel (and, later, Judah) as a nation state. The Ceremonial Law is a category we use to describe regulations that deal with ritual cleansing and temple practice under the sacrificial system. The Moral Law is the category we use to describe that which is inherently sinful and not bound to any specific time, place, or system of practice. These categories are fine, and useful, and there are good reasons we recognize them, but it's important to note that Jesus isn't giving us room here to use that as an excuse to ignore any of those laws. He doesn't state that no stroke or letter shall pass from the Moral Law; He says the Law, the whole body of the Law, still stands. If the Law condemns something, it remains condemned. If the Law declared something as earning death, then that thing still warrants death. Nothing in this regard has changed.

Jesus doesn't even soften the Law. He actually holds people to a higher standard than the Law does! Note what He says about it in verse 20, "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." That's a high standard! And it keeps coming up in the following verses, such as...

You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell
Matthew 5:21-22 (NASB)

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You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY'; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Matthew 5:27-28 (NASB)

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Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.' But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes' [or] 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil.
Matthew 5:33-37 (NASB)

Now, Paul goes on to talk about this, but he tends to do so in a different way. He talks about being under the Law up until his conversion, and he tells his readers that they were also under the Law. He talks about the world being under the Law, and how people who don't have the text of the Law but maintain moral standards serve as a Law unto themselves. But he very clearly talks about the Law as though it is past tense for the Christian, as though Christians are no longer under the Law. It's for this reason, in fact, that some people view Paul with suspicion. I had a Muslim once tell me I couldn't invoke Paul when answering his questions about the Law, specifically because he believed Paul had radically departed from the teachings of Christ and was therefore an invalid and untrustworthy source. Was this man wrong? If Christ did not allow for any relaxing of the Law, and Paul talked about the Law as though the Christian is no longer under its authority, are these two contradicting each other?

No. But how? The simple answer is that our relationship to the Law has changed.

Come to Fulfill

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Jesus declared that He came to fulfill the Law, and to understand what is happening here and how our relationship to the Law has changed, we need to understand what it means for Him to fulfill it. To do that, we need to understand what the Law's purpose is; by definition, in order to fulfill the Law, Christ must either remove the necessity for the Law's basic function, or He must Himself perform the Law's function in such a way that we no longer need the Law to perform it, or He must somehow do both. In neither case does the Law go away, but in both cases, Christ changes our relationship to it and need for it based on its essential purpose.

Consider meals. We, as humans, don't actually need meals as they presently exist. We need nourishment from food, and we need to eat at intervals that allow our bodies to process the nutritional value of the food without eating so much that we cause other problems. Meals are the means by which we, as a culture, meet that need and teach ourselves and our children about how to select foods and portions that best accomplish this purpose. But if someone, or a household, changes their relationship to the food in such a way that they can continue getting the food they need and practicing proper balancing of foods, without the structure of three square meals, then they would no longer need the socially normative meal structure. Their relationship to the food changed; meals did not get abolished, and their need for the basic function of meals still exists, but it is now being fulfilled through a different (and possibly better) way.

This is the essential nature of how Christ changes our relationship to the Law. The Law still stands, and our needs for its functions still stands, but those needs are being met in Christ and therefore we no longer find ourselves leaning on the Law for them. So, with that in mind, let's explore the functions of the Law and how Christ fulfills them. Because, for every function, Christ both removes the necessity of the Law's function and performs that function in such a way that we no longer need to lean on the Law.

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Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were [aroused] by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
Romans 7:4-6 (NASB)

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Revelation of God's Perfection

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The Law reveals the perfection of God in its content. The ways described in the Law are the ways of God; the Law provides insight into what perfection looks like, and in doing so, tells us about the perfect nature of God. This was part of the function of the sacrificial system itself, as well. It provides opportunity to recalibrate our minds to fix them on God, and declares His perfection in the face of our imperfection. But by walking among us, Christ fully revealed the nature of God and put His perfection on display. We can see in the words and actions of Christ what perfection looks like, not merely conceptually, but lived out in the real world of daily practice and special circumstances. Christ not only displays perfection, He delivers perfection; by being perfection in flesh, He redeems flesh and introduces perfection to it.

When I first delivered this message, I got permission to change the way we did communion for that service. This was because I wanted to allow communion to serve its function as a sign in a robust way by incorporating it into the lesson itself. At this point, then, I called on the people to take up the bread of communion. I told them to remember, as we held the bread, that the ultimate revelation of God's perfection and love was given to and broken for us, and that we will one day enjoy the perfected flesh that Christ now bears in His resurrected body. That Christ took on the function the animals bore in the sacrificial system, and in doing so, fulfilled the function of the Law in revealing God's glory. We no longer need the broken bodies of animals to tell us of God's perfection; the glorified body of Christ is more than sufficient for the task.

At this point, we ate together.

Revelation of Our Need

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The Law serves to reveal our inability to achieve perfection. Paul points this out when he talks about the Law revealing sin to us and the world. Under the Law, it was made apparent by the level of purity needed to stand before God and the complete inability of people to meet that standard alone. The lofty demands of the Law and the detailed steps to become clean highlighted our constant failings to achieve the perfection of God and stand before Him whole. The Law, then, makes us aware of sin not only as a concept, but as a lived reality in our own personal experiences. Christ fulfills this purpose in our lives; in His death, we see the weight of our sin. His blood, therefore, serves the Law's function of revealing sin in us and in our world. By inviting us into His death, however, Christ goes beyond revelation of sin and brings us into His eternal life; a life lived outside the authority of sin, thereby ensuring that we do not need the Law to reveal the authority of sin in our lives any longer.

At this point, we drank together.

Setting God's People Apart

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The Law, finally, sets God's people apart. This was evident in the Law, as its practices ensured that the culture and behavior of the Israelites were distinct in their world and made their separation from it obvious.  Consider this segment of Psalm 119, a song that celebrates the content and functions of the Law.

He. Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, And I shall observe it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law And keep it with all [my] heart. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies And not to [dishonest] gain. Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, And revive me in Your ways. Establish Your word to Your servant, As that which produces reverence for You. Turn away my reproach which I dread, For Your ordinances are good. Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me through Your righteousness.
Psalm 119:33-40 (NASB)

This function is also fulfilled in Christ. By dying to sin, we are cut off from the world and set apart as God's people; the Law, therefore, is no longer the means by which our separation is apparent, but rather, our separation is apparent by Christ in us. In Christ, we are no longer under the domain of death, as the world is, but have been brought into the domain of life and given the work of displaying that life in the world. Through His death and resurrection, then, Christ fulfills the Law by doing more than it could ever it. Not only does He make us appear distinct, but He makes us utterly new creations, set apart and unique among creation. And this is not by our own efforts, not by keeping the Law, but by Christ living in and through us, changing us, making us ever more into people who display His work in us to a watching world.

At this point I reminded them that we are not merely set apart individually, but together; we are set apart as one body, and our sharing of communion declares our unity with Christ and with each other.

Our Response

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For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM."
Galatians 3:10 (NASB)

If you are reading this, and you aren't in Christ, then you're still under the Law. That is, you remain in the domain of sin, subject to the Law which highlights salvation but cannot provide it. Remember Matthew 5:20 cited earlier, that your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, the chief law keepers and teachers of the day, in order to see salvation. But this is impossible for us! To rely on your own works is to remain damned. Have you never lied? Have you never coveted? Have you never raged against your fellow man? Please hear me, you cannot meet the demands of the Law yourself; you need to rely on Christ, who has done the work you cannot, and has waiting for you a perfection that you cannot achieve on your own power.

But for the rest of us, for anyone reading this who is in Christ, we have some questions to answer. Are you living like you are in Christ? Or are you, instead, still trying to trust in the Law? I don't only mean in terms of salvation. I'm asking if we're still looking to the Law to do work in us that only Christ can do. Are we being made perfect by Christ, or by the Law? Are we looking to Christ for how to live our lives, or the Law? Are we looking to the Law to tell us who God is, or are we looking to Christ? What is it that sets us apart from the world around us? Do we look any different from the world around us, and if we do, is it because of the radical shift in perspective, the perfect love, that comes by relying on Christ? Or is our own separation found in what we condemn, what we hold accountable to the Law? If we are not distinct, then something is wrong. And if we are distinct, but only in our desire to wield the Law against one another and against the world, then something is wrong. We must be a people who let Christ do what He has promised to do in our lives, and not people who return to faith in the Law for results.