But Jesus Fulfilled the Law…Right?

Growing up, I went to church every Sunday. I was a good Christian girl, never in trouble, and was very involved in my church. I went from being in children’s church to teaching it; from watching the Christmas plays every year, to being a part of them. I coached soccer, sang in choir, was part of a band, did soup kitchen with the church, and taught Sunday School.

I basically went full circle in the Christian world when it came to church life.

But regardless of all of these things that I was doing – I didn’t ask any in-depth questions. Whatever the pastor taught is what I believed, and anything that’s controversial just didn’t get talked about.

All throughout my life, a phrase that echoes the walls of church is: “Jesus fulfilled the law. He did away with that.” And what’s unfortunate is that so many people – just like myself – hear that and continue on with their lives, content with that response. What happens because of this contentment is that our churches are full of secular teachings and beliefs. We become exactly like the world that we are supposed be reaching out to.

We’ve been called out of darkness, we know the greatness of God and His mightiness and His mercy. We know His power and his glory! But we want to cut corners. We don’t want to be uncomfortable. We want to do just enough so that we get our ticket to eternity, but we don’t want to stick out. We don’t want to be weird, or say things that people will disagree with. And from this lack of desire to really truly grow in the Lord comes complacency and confusion.

So…to address the question included in the title of this blog. Did Jesus fulfill the law. Yes…but not in the way that you may think. In Romans chapter 13 it says that “…love is the fulfillment of the law.” [Romans 13:8-10] Ask yourself this? Did Jesus have perfect love? Absolutely. I think that we can all agree on that. Jesus was without sin [1 Peter 2:22] and therefore he loved perfectly. He had that agape love that we all talk about – that unconditional love.

But what exactly does fulfilling the law mean? Jesus says that he did not come to do away with the law and the prophets [Matthew 5:17-19], so clearly fulfilling the law is not the same as abolishing it. If you continue to read on, Jesus actually said that anyone who teaches to remove even the smallest commandment will be considered least in the kingdom of Heaven.

From Romans, we see that the fulfillment of the law is love. True, unconditional, agape love. By having this agape love for people, you are fulfilling the law. And by fulfilling the law, you are doing the things in the law.

Of course Jesus fulfilled the law! All that this means is that Jesus kept the law perfectly. He did not commit adultery, he did not murder, steal, covet. He lived a perfect life and because of this, inevitably, he fulfilled the law.

There is much confusion in our churches surrounding what parts of the law are applicable today, and this is something I will write more on later. But just to give a few verses and provide some explanation so far - the law was given to us in order to lead us to Christ [Galatians 3:24-25]. Once you have died to your old self and have been renewed in Christ, you are no longer a debtor to the law. However, once you sin, you then have transgressed the law, because sin is transgression of the law [1 John 3:4]. The law is simply there to show you where you have sin [Romans 3:20 / Romans 7:7]

Someone told me an analogy that may better explain:

When you are a kid, you live with your parents and therefore you are under their laws. If they tell you that you can’t drink alcohol or sleep around, you are under their roof and their law and expected to follow those rules. However, once you go to college, you are not under their laws anymore. You are free to do what you want, but the consequences of the action are still in place. If you sleep around, you could get an STD, if you drink, you harm your liver, and so on. Once you reach that part of your life, you are not under your parent’s laws, but it is still a good idea to follow the things of their law. Those things are good, and are set in place to protect you from the consequences thereof.

One of my absolute favorite Psalms is Psalm 19. The Psalm starts out praising God for the beauty of His creation (verse 1), and ends with the focus on how it is important for our words and thoughts to be pleasing to God (verse 14). However, after reading and re-reading through this Psalm several times, I noticed verses 7 and 8 and the weight that they carry. It was beautiful to me to read about how God’s law is perfect. It is there to show us where we are sinning and how we need to grow.

God’s law isn’t there to be held over us or to set us up to fail. That’s ultimately why God sent Jesus, because we can never atone for our own sins. We are going to sin, we are going to fail. God will help us to grow and the desires of our hearts will be changed, but we have to take those actions in order to change. God isn’t going to magically change you in an instant – our whole life is dedicated to seeking to becoming like Jesus because he is our example [1 Peter 2:21] and to sharing the gospel with others. Are we going to be perfect? No. Not in this life. But it’s about seeking every single day to be different than you were before. It’s about dying to your old self, and walking in newness of life, and sharing the good news with those who are in darkness and who need to hear it.