Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Review
It is early – the sun is just coming up, and you are still in bed. But you have been awakened by the noise of people in the street. You get up and look outside and see crowds of people – all headed down the road out of town. You are promptly informed what is going on. That guy from Nazareth – the miracle-worker, is just outside of town. You grab a few things and head out the door, curious, but with no idea that you are about to witness firsthand, with your own ears, what would become the most famous sermon ever preached.
For thousands of years the people of Israel waited for the promised King. And now the King has arrived, and He is setting up His kingdom, and this address He is giving up there on the hill is all about life in His new kingdom. And one of the most important questions about life in the kingdom is – what is the role of the Law? Where does the law fit, in this kingdom? But before telling us about the relationship between the Law and the kingdom, Jesus wants us to understand the relationship between the Law and the King. And that relationship is not one of abolition, but of fulfillment.
Introduction: The New Covenant
Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, but nor did He come to leave it untouched. The arrival of Jesus into the world changed everything. There is a reason we call the first part of the Bible the Old Testament and the other part the New Testament. The word “testament” means “covenant.” So Old Testament and New Testament is just another way of saying Old Covenant and New Covenant. And that language comes right out of the Bible.
Jeremiah 31:31 "The time is coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new testament (covenant) with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant (testament) I made with their forefathers
So the Old Covenant promises that someday there will be a New Covenant (Testament). And the fact that one is old and the other is new implies that they will not be exactly the same – there will be some differences. The Covenant is the arrangement God has with His people, and so Jeremiah is saying, “After the Messiah arrives, there will be a different arrangement between God and His people.” Does that mean absolutely everything will be different? Will every part of the old Covenant be thrown out? Will there be no more law?
Jeremiah 31:33 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
The Law will not be canceled – just the opposite. It will be written on our hearts! So in the New Covenant, after the Messiah comes, some things will be very different and some things will remain the same.
So which parts of the Old Testament are applicable for us today? All of them. Nothing in the Bible was written to you, but everything in the Bible was written for you. There is no epistle to the church in Thornton – no book of Coloradans, however…
Romans 15:4 whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.
Every passage in the Bible teaches something you need to know. So all the Bible is still in force, and all of it was fulfilled by Jesus, but not all of it was fulfilled in the same way.
We found last week that He fulfilled the shadow-type laws in such a way that makes them no longer binding on us today. The principles taught by those laws are still binding today, but the laws themselves do not regulate our behavior today. That is the outcome of the way Jesus fulfilled the shadow laws. The weightier matters of the Law, however, Jesus fulfilled in a different way. He fulfilled those laws in a way that makes them continue to be binding on us today.
What I would like to do here is show you specifically how Jesus fulfilled each different part of the Law. So we will start with the civil codes – government type laws (the tax code, the penal system, business regulations, etc.). How did Jesus fulfill those laws? And why are those laws no longer binding?
How Jesus Fulfilled the Civil Law
Our first impulse might be to just say, “Oh, that’s easy. Those laws aren’t binding on us because they were given to Israel, and we are Gentiles.” The thing is - those laws are no longer binding on Israel either. If you looked into your family tree and found out that you have Jewish blood, you should still send your taxes to Washington, not to a temple in Jerusalem - Even if you live in Israel. If you are a Jew living in Israel and someone murders your brother, according to the Old Testament civil codes you must be the one to put that murderer to death. But according to the current day civil law in Israel, that is not how it works. And the Christian Jew living in Israel today should follow the laws of the secular government over there rather than the Old Testament civil codes. Why is that? It is because of the way in which Jesus fulfilled that part of the Law.
The Civil Codes Set Israel apart as a Picture of Holiness
Jesus fulfilled the intended purpose of each part of the Law. So let’s think through the purpose of the Civil Law. The Civil Law was part of God’s setting aside the nation of Israel as His own special people. He had a plan for how He would bless the whole world, and that plan began with the physical offspring of Abraham (through Isaac, and Jacob). God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, so all his descendents are known as the Israelites – or the nation of Israel. So the special, set-apart people of God, was at that time an ethnic entity - defined by a physical blood line.
The people of God were a nation made up of believers and unbelievers. There was a godly remnant of Jewish people who knew the Lord, but most of them did not. But even the nonbelievers who did not know the Lord – even they were considered the people of God – the holy, set-apart covenant community.
Today it is different. In the New Covenant the people of God is the Church, and it is defined not by physical descent or who your parents are, but by being born again. So now 100% of the people of God – that is 100% of the covenant community - are believers who actually know the Lord. If a person is a member of a local church, but he is not actually born again – that person is not part of the people of God.
Why did God do it that way? Why did He make His people an ethnic group defined by physical descent in the Old Testament instead of doing it like He does now, where His people are a spiritual family of believers only? I am not enough of a theologian to even scratch the surface of answering that question. No doubt God had multiplied thousands of reasons – some revealed and some not revealed. My guess is one of those reasons was that He wanted to put on display His grace in a special way. Doing it that way made it abundantly obvious that these people were not getting this blessing because they deserved it or earned it.
Ezekiel 36:22 This is what the Lord God says: It is not for your sake that I will act, house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned
By blessing a people who did not even love Him and making them His special people through whom He would glorify His name and bring blessing to the whole world, that made it clear how God operates - He lavishes undeserved grace.
God’s purpose for Israel was to make His name great among the nations in various different ways. One way was by showing the world how incredibly patient He was with them in their rebellion. Another way was by showing the world how severely He punished them when His patience finally ran out – showing that He is worthy to be feared and that He was not to be trifled with. And by far the greatest way that God glorified His name through Israel was to bring a Messiah through that nation who would be the perfect display of God’s glory and who would bring salvation to the whole world.
And while God was bringing about all these purposes through Israel, He warned Israel to remain separate and distinct from the Gentiles (a Gentile is a non-Jew). And so He set up a theocracy in which they had their own civil government that was totally different from any Gentile government. That unique government had the purpose of making Israel distinct and different from the world – and keeping them separate from the world.
In fact, there are a whole bunch of laws in the Old Testament civil law that are known as the holiness codes. They seem to have only one purpose – to make Jews distinct and different and separate from the Gentiles. Back then you could spot a Jew a mile away because of these holiness laws – they were so different. They dressed differently, ate different foods, farmed differently – everything about them set them apart as different – even right down to the very fabric of their clothes.
Leviticus 19:19 You must not … sow your fields with two kinds of seed, or put on a garment made of two kinds of material.
So one hundred times a day they would see their food, their clothes, their fields, their livestock – and be reminded of how different and separated they were from the Gentiles. So those laws were designed to put a wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles as a picture, or illustration, or shadow of holiness. Holiness means to be actually set apart from evil and sin and wickedness and this evil world system. Wearing different clothes and eating different foods was not actual holiness – it was just an illustration. God set up a nation that was set apart in external, physical ways from the Gentiles in order to serve as a picture of actual, internal holiness.
Fulfilled through the spiritual holiness of the Church
So how did Jesus fulfill that part of the Law?
Ephesians 2:11-13 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth …12 were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise …. 13 now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.
It says He abolished the Law. Does that mean Jesus made it so it is OK to disobey God? No. Does that mean Jesus made it so God has not commanded anything – there are no requirements – nothing left to obey? No. Does it mean we are no longer bound to follow the weightier matters of the law, like love and justice and mercy and faithfulness? Of course not. It simply means that Jesus eliminated that portion of the Law that was designed to function as a dividing wall that separated Jews from Gentiles – the civil codes. And He did that not by setting it aside or overturning it; but by fulfilling the purpose of it.
True holiness in the Messiah’s kingdom would be moral separation – where we are actually in the world but not of the world. We would be among them physically and geographically intermixed with them, but spiritually and morally we are separated from them. Paul explains all that in 2 Corinthians 6 using quotations from the Old Testament that had to do with the physical, ethnic separation of Old Testament times. And he applies those passages to the moral separation that the Church is to have today.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. … 17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." … 7:1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
So now the purpose of those Old Testament civil laws has been realized, so we no longer need the picture. So today we do not stone someone to death if he curses his parents, and we do not require the closest relative to marry a widow, or any other Old Testament civil laws. Why? Because those portions of the Bible are abolished? No! The principles taught by those passages are just as true today as they ever were. But the commands themselves had a temporary purpose of pointing to a reality that is now in place and no longer needs to be illustrated or pointed to. So that is how Jesus fulfilled the civil law.
How Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law
Remember last week I told you there were two kinds of shadow laws. One was the civil code; the other was the ceremonial – or sacrificial code. The entire sacrificial system, and all the rituals and ceremonies, Temple worship regulations, clean and unclean rules, the priesthood, the furniture in the Temple – how did Jesus fulfill that?
The Purpose
Well, again we have to ask, what was the purpose of that part of the Law? The purpose was to give the people a way to approach God and draw near to Him while still understanding the fact that their sin separates them from God and makes Him unapproachable. When they saw that animal die, it was an illustration of their guilt. And following God’s prescriptions in the Temple worship system enabled them to approach God in spite of their guilt.
Cain and Abel
The sacrificial system was in place in some form all the way back in Cain and Abel’s time. Abel offered a sacrifice and God accepted it, and Cain offered a sacrifice and God rejected it. So right from the start there is a sacrificial system in which one can only approach God on the basis of a sacrifice, and that sacrifice has to be acceptable to God. Later on the sacrificial system became much more elaborate, with unending symbolism, but the foundational basis remained the same – you cannot approach God without a sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be offered in a way that demonstrates faith and love for God.
Passover
The next major development of that system was Passover in the book of Exodus. And again, we could easily have a long series of sermons on all the symbolism in the Passover, but for the sake of time I will just give you the bottom line. The Jews were in captivity as slaves in Egypt, and Passover was the night God rescued them. He rescued them through an act of judgment on Egypt. The angel of death moved through the nation and killed the firstborn in every household. But the Jews were exempted from that judgment if they slaughtered a spotless, unblemished lamb that was in the prime of its life and smeared the blood on the doorpost outside their house. The angel would see that blood and pass right over the top of that house without hurting anyone – and that is where the name “Passover” comes from.
The blood was very important, because it symbolized death – someone dying in your place. God wanted to teach the people that it is the guilt of sin that alienates us from God, and so the only way we can ever approach Him and enjoy nearness to Him is if the death sentence that our sin deserves is carried out. And so to symbolize that, an innocent lamb had to die as a picture that the death sentence that we deserve cannot just be commuted or ignored. It had to be paid.
Symbols could not pay for sin
But it was not actually paid by the lamb. Not one of those millions of lambs or cattle that were sacrificed actually paid for one single sin.
Hebrews 10:4 it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Only Jesus’ sacrifice of His own life on the cross could actually take away sins. All the sacrifices before that were symbolic. Did God forgive the people’s sins back then when they offered those sacrifices? Yes, but only because He knew He was planning on those sins actually being paid for by His Son on the cross.
Romans 3:25 God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice …. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his restraint he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished
God appeared to be unjust in Old Testament times because He was letting people off the hook for their sins on the basis of animals dying. That is not justice, because an animal cannot pay for human sin. But then when Jesus died on the cross it became evident that God’s forgiveness was not a violation of justice – it was just a delay of justice.
So the animal sacrifices and that whole system of Temple worship were pictures and illustrations and shadows that teach us things about Jesus’ death on the cross for our sin. And they are of supreme value for that purpose. Are they abolished? No – the principles taught by those things are just as true today as they ever were. However they are of zero value in and of themselves. If they are not pointing forward to illustrate the meaning of the cross, they have no value at all. So once Jesus died on the cross there was absolutely no purpose for doing them anymore. If we were to abandon Christ and Christianity and try to save ourselves by doing those symbols and pictures, it would be an absolute waste of time because those things have no power in themselves to take away your sin.
So how did Jesus fulfill the ceremonial aspect of the law? He fulfilled it by being the reality that they were designed to point to and illustrate. Jesus fulfilled them by being the perfectly sinless Lamb of God who died a bloody death in the prime of life on the cross in our place to pay the death penalty for our sin in our place. So now we draw near to God on the basis of that sacrifice. So when Hebrews 7:18-19 says...
Hebrews 7:18, 19 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect)
We can understand that if we realize that what he calls the former regulation is referring specifically to the ceremonial law. It is now weak and useless – not because Jesus abolished it; but because Jesus fulfilled it.
Don’t ignore the reality for the shadow
And He fulfilled it in such a way that to continue to carry out those procedures now would actually dishonor Christ, because that would be to ignore what He has done. It would be to disregard His fulfillment of those things.
Colossians 2:17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Once you have the reality, there is something wrong with you if you continue to prefer the shadow.
Suppose my wife has been gone a long time, and I have been counting the days until she gets back. And on the day she is scheduled to get back, it’s a nice, warm, sunny day and I happen to be out in the driveway working on my car. And as I am working, suddenly I notice some movement out of the corner of my eye. I glance over and see that it’s a shadow, and immediately I can tell – that is Tracy’s shadow, no question about it.
Now, is it a good thing for me to get excited about that – the fact that I just saw Tracy’s shadow? Sure! But what if I never allow the shadow to point me to Tracy herself? What if I never turn around, never acknowledge her presence, keep my back to her and I just start kissing the shadow and trying to embrace the shadow, and just fawn over the shadow while Tracy is standing there behind me? She would be standing there thinking, “I stayed away too long – Darrell’s lost it.” It is great to be excited about the shadow, but when the moment comes when she is actually right there, and I could turn and see her and embrace her, but instead I am still enamored with the shadow, something is wrong.
That is why we do not offer sacrifices or follow the feasts or tithe rules or dietary laws or the Sabbath day restrictions or any of the other shadow laws. Those Old Testament shadows had a purpose. They were pointing to something, and while they were doing that pointing it was appropriate to be fully committed to them. The Maccabees were willing to be tortured and killed rather than eat a piece of pork – and that was appropriate. But now the reality is here, and so we turn from the shadow to the reality.
How Jesus fulfilled the weightier matters
So Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law by dying as the ultimate and final sacrifice, bringing the whole sacrificial system to an end because once the reality arrives we do not need the picture anymore. Jesus fulfilled the civil law by bringing together Jew and Gentile in the Church, and bringing about the spiritual separation that the civil separation was a picture of. But what about the weightier matters of the law – the moral law? Things like love and faithfulness and justice and mercy? In what way did Jesus fulfill that part of the Law? And if He fulfilled them, why are they are still binding on us?
Jesus kept the moral law
To begin with, Jesus fulfilled the weightier matters of the law by perfectly obeying every last one of them all His life. He always loved God the Father with all His heart. He never lied, never stole, never looked with lust, was never selfish, never greedy, never preferred anything over nearness to the Father, never loved the world or the things in the world, never worried, was never apathetic, never lazy, always trusted the Father perfectly. He lived an absolutely perfect life – flawless righteousness.
Imputed to us and cancelled the condemnation of the law
But He did not just live our perfect righteousness. He lived out perfect righteousness for us – on our behalf – so that His perfect record could be credited to our account. And when He did that, there is one part of the law that really is abolished. There is one part that is utterly and completely overturned, destroyed, eliminated, and done away with forever.
Colossians 2:13-14 He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
The word written code is a term that speaks of a document that was a record of debts. The moral law was like a record of our debts to God. Jesus nailed that record to the cross and stamped it “tetelestai” – paid in full. So the one part of the Law that really was abolished and forever done away with is the condemning ministry of the Law. We are no longer condemned because Jesus took our condemnation upon Himself, and paid the death penalty in our place, and then He credited His perfect righteousness to our account.
Created a law-keeping people
And understanding that will help us understand the question of why the moral law is still binding while the shadow laws are not.
Intended to give us life
Consider for a moment why God gave us His moral law – what is the purpose?
Romans 7:10 the commandment … was intended for life
The purpose of God’s Law is to reveal to us the way of life. The whole book of Deuteronomy is God giving the people the Law, and at the end He says this:
Deuteronomy 30:19 I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
God’s law is the way of life.
Leviticus 18:5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them.
The Law says, “See, there’s the path of life – get on it.”
But … the flesh thwarts that purpose
The problem is, our sin thwarts that purpose.
Romans 7:10-11 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.
The moral Law put him to death in the sense that it revealed to him how dead he really was. Paul saw those requirements, tried to live them out, and found himself utterly incapable of doing so. And that condemned him.
But then he goes on to say that it is not the Law that is the problem, but sin. The Law does point toward life: Just obey these commands and you will have life. And I say, “OK, here I go…” and clunk! – I take one step and realize that the sinful, evil inclinations in my heart are like a ball and chain keeping me from taking that path.
The Law can show me life, but it cannot do anything about that ball and chain. The law cannot solve my big problem – the problem of having a heart that is inclined toward breaking the law. If there is a street sign that points me in the right direction, what good is that sign if I have a heart that is determined to go the opposite way that the sign points?
What I need is not just the Law – not just the street sign pointing me in the way of life – what I need is something that has the power to break that chain and to transform the inclinations of my heart toward lawbreaking. I need something that has the power to do what the Law cannot do – transform that thing in my heart that says, “No, I don’t want to obey!”
What is that thing in my heart that is inclined to break the law? Paul calls it “the flesh.”
Romans 8:3-4 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
The Law was powerless to break that chain and transform that perverted heart that was inclined toward breaking the Law, but what the Law was powerless to do, God did. How did He do it? By sending His Son as a sin offering. He sent His Son to come and fulfill the Law in such a way that the chain is shattered and I am now free to walk by the Spirit on the path of life that the Law points to rather than the way of the flesh. And what is the result? The result is that astonishing, breathtaking statement in verse 4.
Romans 8:4 …in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us
Jesus fulfilled the moral law not only by obeying it, but by enabling us to obey it.
But before all that can happen, something else has to happen. Before my heart can be transformed it has to be broken. Only the poor in spirit can enter the kingdom – only the humble. The people who think they are righteous in themselves cannot enter. So I need something to come along and show me how dead I really am and condemn me, so I can come to Christ empty-handed. And God’s Law is just the thing for that. In our pride we have the illusion that we are righteous and good, and we want to come to God with our hands full, offering Him all our wonderful goodness, and thinking how lucky God is to have us. And as long as we are under that kind of insanity, we can never actually approach God. And so God gives us the Law to show us what righteousness really is, and we take one look at that and realize, “Oh, this nice, squeaky clean heart I thought I had – it’s filthy and rancid and rebellious against God and deserves to die!” And then we get desperate and come to God with totally empty hands and beg for mercy and forgiveness. And when we do that He gives us life – which fulfills the purpose of the Law.
Didn’t die to make us unrighteous
When someone comes along and tells you, “We’re not under law, but under grace, therefore we don’t have to obey even the moral law” – when someone says that, ask them this: Are you saying that Jesus died on the cross so that we could be unrighteous? The answer is No; Jesus did not die on the cross so that we could be unrighteous or ignore God’s way. Just the opposite. Jesus died on the cross to make us righteous.
Titus 2:11-14 the grace of God that brings salvation … 12 teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
He died not to create a people that do not strive to do good, but to create a people eager to do what is good. Being under grace does not mean it is OK to say yes to ungodliness and worldly passions – grace teaches us to say no to them. So the weightier matters of the law are still binding on us today. We are never at liberty to disobey God.
Effort?
Some people will say, “Yes, we are supposed to be righteous, however you do not achieve that through effort. You achieve it by relying on the Holy Spirit.” That teaching comes from a wrong conception of what relying on the Spirit means. Yes, we achieve righteousness by relying on the Holy Spirit, but that is not opposed to effort. The way the Holy Spirit works in you is by generating effort.
Philippians 2:13 it is God who works in you to will and to act
When God works in you it results in effort and hard work.
1 Corinthians 15:10 his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
Grace produces hard work. So the reason the moral law is still binding on us today is simply this: Jesus fulfilled the purpose of the moral law by keeping it Himself, and by creating a whole society of law-keepers.
How Jesus Fulfilled the Prophets and Psalms
OK, so now we have seen how Jesus fulfilled the civil law, how He fulfilled the ceremonial law, and how He fulfilled the moral law. But let’s not forget the rest of what Jesus said.
Matthew 5:17 Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish but to fulfill.
Jesus did not just fulfill the civil law, ceremonial law, and moral law – He also fulfilled the Prophets. And not just the Prophets
Luke 24:44 [Jesus] said … “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."
So how did Jesus fulfill the Prophets and the Psalms?
The Prophets
Let’s start with the Prophets. The Prophets are divided into two groups – you have what we think of when we use the term “prophets” – all those books that come after the Song of Songs (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc.). That is one group. The other group is what the Jews called “the former prophets.” We usually refer to those as the historical books – the books that tell us all the history (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther) – those books that come before the Psalms. Those are all written by prophets too. A prophet is just simply an infallible mouthpiece who speaks for God. I am not a prophet because I am not infallible. I do speak for God as a preacher of His Word, but I do not speak for Him perfectly and without any error, and therefore I am not a prophet.
But the writers of Scripture were prophets, and the former prophets recorded the history of Israel – from the beginning all the way until four hundred years before Christ, but they did not record that history just as historians. They did it with a very specific agenda – to show God in action among His people in order to teach us about God.
And when they were not writing history, they were preaching to the people. They took God’s Law and applied it to the people’s lives – indicting them for their sin, calling them to repentance, teaching them how to live in God’s way, teaching them about what God is like, showing them God’s promises about the future, etc.
So how did Jesus fulfill the prophets? The answer to that question varies according to the purpose and message of each prophet. The historical material about entry into the Promised Land (Joshua) had the purpose of showing God as the provider of paradise for His people. Jesus fulfilled the book of Joshua by leading us into the real paradise of God in heaven. The book of Judges is the account of the time when Israel had no king and every man did what was right in his own eyes and it was an absolute, sickening, disgusting, horrific disaster. Then Samuel, Kings and Chronicles are the story of God fixing that problem by providing a king who was a man after His own heart, and who was a prototype of the Messiah. Jesus fulfilled all that by being that Messiah who is the perfect King.
Ezra and Nehemiah are the story of the Jews returning from exile and being restored as a sampling of what it will be like someday when God fulfills all the promises He has made. Jesus fulfilled that by bringing spiritual restoration to His people and by being the one through Whom all those promises are “yes and amen.”
Ruth and Esther are the stories of God preserving the Messianic line. Jesus fulfilled them just by being the Messiah.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Micah, Zephaniah warned of coming judgment for sin, called the people to repentance, and gave the comfort of God’s promises of restoration. And both that judgment and the restoration were miniature pictures of the final Judgment and Restoration at the end of the age. And they announced that these things would be ultimately realized in the Messiah. Jesus fulfilled those prophets by being that Messiah, and also by bearing the ultimate Judgment in our place, and being the One through whom God fulfilled all His promises of restoration.
Daniel announced the path world history would take for the next five hundred years until the Messiah’s kingdom arrived. Jesus fulfilled that by establishing that kingdom.
Several of the prophets also announced the judgment of the wicked nations surrounding Israel (for example Obadiah, Jonah, and Nahum). Jesus fulfilled that by being the One who will sit on the throne and judge the nations.
Habakkuk wrestled with the problem of God’s justice and mercy, and Jesus fulfilled that by being the ultimate solution to the problem of how God’s justice and mercy fit together.
The last three prophets in the Old Testament – Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi spoke to the people after they returned from exile. Haggai and Zechariah called the people to rebuild the Temple. And Jesus fulfilled that by building the Temple of the Holy Spirit – the Church. Malachi rebuked the people for their unfaithfulness, called them to repentance, and then ended the Old Testament by saying, “Judgment Day is coming, and…
Malachi 4:5 "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
Jesus fulfilled that by being that Elijah – and also by being the One who will usher in and preside over that great and dreadful Day of the Lord. That is how Jesus fulfilled the Prophets.
Psalms and wisdom lit
And that leaves us with the Psalms, and what is known as the Wisdom Literature (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs). The Wisdom books show us God’s way, and how good and profitable it is. Jesus fulfilled the wisdom books by walking in God’s way perfectly, and being the perfect example showing us God’s way.
The Psalms teach us how to pray, and how to relate to God emotionally. More than any other book they show us the character and nature and attributes and excellencies of God, and teach us how to delight in those attributes. And Jesus fulfilled that by being the embodiment of all those attributes in human flesh – the perfect representation of God, and yet accessible and near to us. He also fulfilled the Psalms by being the One who makes all those kinds of interactions and fellowship with God possible. It is only through the work of Christ that we can run to God as our refuge, or seek God as our comfort, or follow God as our Shepherd, or bow before God as our King, or rejoice in the Lord as our delight – or any of the other relational experiences with God that the Psalms describe.
Conclusion: He is our everything
Can you see how Jesus is our everything? He is not just a deity we pray to when we are in trouble – He is our everything. From the moment we wake up in the morning until we drift off to sleep at night – and all night long we depend on His grace for everything.
Genesis – He is our Creator.
Exodus – He is our Savior from bondage to sin and our Passover Lamb
Leviticus – He is our Temple and our Holy of Holies through Whom we can approach God.
Numbers – He is our promise of paradise and the light and cloud that leads us through the wilderness of this life.
Deuteronomy – He teaches us God’s way.
Joshua – He is our leader, who gives us victory over the world.
Judges – He is our Deliverer, who rescues us from the disasters created by our sin.
Ruth & Esther – He is our Messiah
Samuel - Chronicles – He is our King
Ezra – He is our great High Priest
Nehemiah – He is our security – our wall and high tower.
Job, Proverbs, & Ecclesiastes – He is our wisdom, who guides us in our decisions.
Psalms – He is our Shepherd and our fellowship with God.
Song of Solomon – He is our Husband and our Beloved.
Isaiah - Malachi – He is our Judge, our hope, and our restorer and Redeemer.
He is the solution to every problem you have. He is the source of your every joy. He is the author of all your strength and all your intelligence. He is the manufacturer of all your goodness and righteousness. He gave you everything you have. He is the redeemer of your past and He is all there is to your future. He is your life, your food and drink. He is the fountain of living water and the bread of life. He is God’s river of delights, and there is eternal pleasure at His right hand.
All that is true – if you know Him. But if you don’t know Him, He is only one thing to you – your Judge. And the only part of Him you will ever see will be the back of His hand.
He is better than any pleasure in this world. He is the pearl of great price that is worth selling everything you have to obtain. He is more to be desired than much fine gold. He is the Redeemer of those who believe and the punisher of those who do not, and if you do not know Him He is calling you to come to Him right now. There is absolutely no reason to wait any longer.
Benediction: 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast-as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
Summary
In the New Covenant the Law would not be abolished but written on the heart. Jesus fulfilled the Civil Law by bringing about the holiness that it pictured (and in the process, abolishing the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile – thus making those rules no longer binding). He fulfilled the Ceremonial Law by being our final sacrifice and enabling us to draw near to God. He fulfilled the moral law by living it perfectly, applying His righteousness to our account, and giving us grace to become law-keepers. He fulfilled the prophets in multiple ways according to the purpose of each prophet. He fulfilled the wisdom literature by showing us God’s way. He fulfilled the Psalms by enabling us to have that kind of fellowship with God.
Appendix—The Old Testament Book by Book
The first five books: “The Law,” “The Pentateuch” or “The Books of Moses” (written by Moses)
Genesis – The first three chapters –among the most important in the Bible – explain the origin of good (God) and evil, suffering and death (rebellious man). The rest of the book outlines the origin of God’s dealings with man through covenants. Most of it describes the lives of the Patriarchs of what would become the Jews (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph).
Exodus – The story of how God made a special covenant with Israel and delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt. This is the time in which Israel received the Ten Commandments, and wandered in the desert for forty years.
Leviticus – Contains the details of the sacrificial system that God instituted to give the people a picture of how their sins could be forgiven and how they could worship God properly and understand holiness.
Numbers – The account of Israel’s trip from Mount Sinai where they receive the Ten Commandments to the boarder of the Promised Land (Canaan, which became Israel – the land promised to Abraham).
Deuteronomy – Moses’ fuller explanation of the meaning of the Ten Commandments.
The Historical Books:
Joshua – The account of Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land.
Judges – The account of the first twenty years or so in the Promised Land when Israel had no king and was ruled only by occasional Judges.
Ruth – The account of how the messianic line was preserved (Ruth is King David’s great grandmother).
1 Samuel –The account of Samuel and of Israel’s first king (Saul) whom God rejected and the second king (David) who was a man after God’s own heart.
2 Samuel – Further information on David’s reign.
1and 2 Kings – The account of Solomon’s reign (the third and last king of the United Kingdom), and the account of how Israel split into two, brief descriptions of the various kings of both kingdoms, and an extensive account of the lives of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. The descriptions of the kings list the kings of the Northern Kingdom (referred to as “Israel”) until they were conquered by Assyria and deported, and the kings of the Southern Kingdom (referred to as “Judah”) until they were conquered by Babylon and deported. The kings are evaluated based on how they stack up against David.
1 Chronicles – Another account of all the kings of the Southern Kingdom focusing more on worship and the good kings.
2 Chronicles – The account of the rebuilding of the Temple after Judah came back from the exile in Babylon.
Ezra – The account of the return of the Jews from exile and the restoration of Temple worship.
Nehemiah – The account of the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem.
Esther – An account of the near elimination of the Jews and God’s preservation of them through providence.
The Wisdom Literature:
Job – An explanation of the fact that the Retribution Principle (the wisdom theme that the righteous are blessed and the wicked cursed) is a principle and not an absolute law. There are exceptions – like Job.
Psalms – The Hebrew hymnbook.
Proverbs – A collection of observations of life useful for decision making and general skill at living.
Ecclesiastes – A description of the futility of life “under the sun” (without considering God)
Song of Solomon or Song of Songs – A collection of love poems warning of the power of romantic love, and the advice not to awaken prematurely.
The Prophets (the first five are called “major prophets” because they are longer, and the remaining twelve are called “minor prophets”):
Isaiah – Part 1 (ch.1-39) written after the defeat of the Northern Kingdom warning the Southern Kingdom to repent or face the same fate as the Northern Kingdom. Part 2 (ch.40-66) comfort and promises of restoration that would come after the judgment. This book is rich in announcements of the Messiah.
Jeremiah – Shortly after Isaiah, Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. While Isaiah said, “Repent or be judged” Jeremiah said, “Now since you did not repent, you will be judged.”
Lamentations – A sequel to Jeremiah, a series of dirges lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon.
Ezekiel – Announcement of the coming judgment of Jerusalem and on surrounding godless nations, and promises of restoration for Jerusalem.
Daniel – The account of Daniel and friends’ rise to power once exiled to Babylon, and prophecies of world history from Daniel’s time up to Jesus’ time, as well as of the end times.
Hosea – An announcement to the Northern Kingdom that they would be judged because of their unfaithfulness.
Joel – A warning to both kingdoms that God’s judgment (“The Day of the Lord”) is on the way unless they repent.
Amos – A warning to both kingdoms (mostly the Northern) of the coming judgment because of their social injustices.
Obadiah – A warning to the Jews’ enemy, Edom, not to gloat over Israel’s defeat, because Edom would be destroyed and the Jews would be restored.
Jonah – A description of God’s mercy on the evil city of Nineveh when they repent after hearing Jonah’s warning of judgment.
Micah – Oracles of judgment on the Southern Kingdom and hope of their restoration.
Nahum – The prophecy of the judgment of Nineveh for their wickedness.
Habakkuk – A dialogue between the struggling prophet and God about God’s justice, followed by a beautiful confession of faith.
Zephaniah – A warning to the Southern Kingdom of coming judgment as well as the surrounding nations.
Haggai – A call to the restored Southern Kingdom to rebuild the Temple.
Zechariah – Another call to rebuild the Temple, and announcements of the Messiah and end times.
Malachi – A prophecy to the restored community rebuking their unfaithfulness, a call to repentance and an announcement of the Lord’s coming.
The New Testament
Historical Books:
The Gospels (Accounts of Jesus’ life)
Matthew – Highlights the Kingship of Jesus.
Mark – Highlights Jesus as the Son of God
Luke – Highlights Jesus as the “Son of Man” (the great, heavenly figure of Daniel 9)
John – Written to help generate belief
Acts – A sequel to Luke’s Gospel - the history of the beginning of the Church
The Epistles (letters to churches)
Paul’s Letters
Romans – The longest, most detailed theological explanation of salvation by grace through faith in Christ
1 Corinthians – Paul’s answer to the Corinthians’ questions on various issues.
2 Corinthians – Paul: Our suffering teaches us and you comfort, trust and brings thanksgiving. Ministry and future hope keep us from losing heart. We have God’s approval and divine validation. The super-apostles are from the devil. Your response to us and repentance was wonderful. Now forgive and comfort the one who caused grief so Satan does not outwit us. Be generous in your gift. Do not make me punish when I come.
Galatians – The Galatians’ re-enslavement to circumcision and ritualism is apostasy. Justification AND sanctification are by faith expressed in love and not works of the Law. We avoid sin because the life of faith is a life lived for God (and to rebuild the system of righteousness through law-keeping would be law-breaking anyway). Do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh (reaping corruption), but live by the Spirit fulfilling the law (love and serving)..
Ephesians – The unification of Jew and Gentiles in the Church
Philippians – A “thank you” letter of encouragement for the gift they sent to Paul
Colossians – A refutation of a heresy that diminished Jesus
1 Thessalonians –Control your body honorably. Increase in your loving the brothers. Be quiet and work hard. Do not act hopeless about death, because of the resurrection/rapture. His coming will overtake them like a thief, but not you, sons of day, so let’s be awake. Honor church leaders. Always rejoice, pray and give thanks. Do not oppose the Spirit/prophecy, but do test for evil.
2 Thessalonians – Relief from your persecution will come at the Second Coming (but not until after the Antichrist and apostasy). Do not feed or associate with the idle busybodies.
1and 2 Timothy – Instructions to Timothy, who was overseeing and reforming the church in Ephesus
Titus – Instructions to Titus, who was establishing church leaders in Crete
Philemon – A letter to Philemon urging him to accept back his runaway slave who is now a believer.
General Epistles:
Hebrews – A warning to Jewish Christians not to turn away from Christianity because (1) it is superior to the alternative and (2) turning away would result in terrible judgment.
James – Prize suffering/humility, study the law and have true faith (expressed in loving deeds) to honor God. Repent of pride and selfish greed, living in light of Judgment Day.
1 Peter – encouragement for suffering believers
2 Peter – instruction for believers who are subject to false teachers
1 John – description what it means to truly love God
2 John – A letter urging believers not to support false teachers’ ministries
3 John – A letter to commend Gaius for siding with John and against the false teacher Diotrephes
Jude – Very similar to 2 Peter 2.
The Revelation:
Revelation – Christ calls the churches to overcome, then comes tribulation (saints protected but persecuted), then all evil is defeated and thrown into hell and overcomers reign with God in the dwelling place of God.
