As the Gospel unfolds in Jesus’ teaching, life, death, resurrection and ascension, we see His promise coming true. Jesus gave full respect and obedience to the Old Testament Scriptures. He fulfilled the Law and the Prophets in all the ways that are important.
- Christ brought out their full meaning. Traditional interpretations had twisted Old Testament Scriptures and emptied them of their meaning. Jesus said to the Pharisees and teachers of the law, “For the sake of your tradition you have made void [empty] the word of God” (Matthew 15:6). In the case of Matthew 15, Jesus re-filled the commandment about honoring parents with its true meaning of respect and practical care for parents (Matthew 15:1-9).
- Christ obeyed every principle and command perfectly. As the first and only human who personally fulfilled the law, Jesus could truthfully say, “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him [God]” (John 8:29). Even concerning God’s new command of baptism, Jesus said, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Notice the word “fulfill” in the sense of obedience. Passages about Christians fulfilling the law do so in the context of Christ’s perfect righteousness being applied to them (Romans 8:4).
- Christ fulfilled the Old Testament’s prophecies, types and shadows. Matthew uses the verb for “fulfill” 16 times. Of these, 12 refer to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies or predictive pictures. Of Jewish attacks against Him, Jesus said, “But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled” (Matthew 26:56). Notice the concept of fulfilling the prophets. After His resurrection, Jesus spoke of fulfilling “everything” in the Law and the Prophets.
Jesus came to fulfill, not destroy.
Then He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. (Luke 24:44-45)
But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He thus fulfilled. And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. (Acts 3:18, 24)
- Christ satisfied the Old Testament’s penalties. Jesus is the sacrifice that
appeases God’s wrath—“the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also
for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2 cf. 1 John 4:10; Romans 3:25; Hebrews
2:17). His suffering fulfilled every demand for sin to be punished. His death did
this so completely that it released us from all sin, all guilt and all condemnation
(Romans 8:1; 2 Corinthians 5:19, 21; Colossians 1:19-22; 1 John 1:7-9). His death
also freed us to fulfill all the enduring good of the law.
He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. (Romans 8:3-4)
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)