Word of Salvation – Vol. 30 No. 03 – January 1985

 

Jesus Fulfils The Law

 

Sermon by Rev. S. Voorwinde, v.d.m. on Matthew 5:17,18

(Belgic Confession Art.25)

Scriptures: Luke 2:21-33; Matthew 5:17-26

Suggested Hymns: Ps.H. 1; 3; 347; 383

 

Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

What do you think of the Old Testament?  How often do you read it?  How well do you understand it?  A man who should have known better once made a rather daring statement in a Bible study group I was leading.  He said: “I seldom read the Old Testament because I’m afraid I might practice it.”

It seems that down the ages, Christians have had their suspicions about the Old Testament.  In the second century there was a heretic called Marcion who rewrote the Gospels so that they eliminated all references to the Old Testament.  Obviously our text in Matthew 5 was completely left out.  Later in the year 381 a bishop by the name of Ulfilas completed his translation of the Bible into the Gothic language.  That Bible still exists and it’s the oldest piece of literature in any Germanic language, but it has one noticeable omission; the books of the Kings and Chronicles were left out.  According to Ulfilas the Goths were already warlike enough without reading about the bloody battles fought by the people of Israel.

And again today, there are those who don’t think too highly of the Old Testament.  In the 60’s there was a movement known as the “New Morality” which taught that law had been replaced by love.  It was also known as “situation ethics”.  In other words, the highest moral standard is not the Ten Commandments, but whatever happens to be the most loving thing in any given situation.  As you can imagine this whole movement had very little time for the Law or for the Old Testament as a whole,

There are even some very well meaning Christians who will quote the verse: “You are not under law but under grace.”  And then they will go on and set Jesus against Moses, the New Testament against the Old, the Gospel against the commandments.  Where God has created unity they cause division.  What God has joined together they put asunder.

They fail to see the majestic wholeness of the entire Bible: the Old Testament and the New, the law and the gospel.  And because they can’t see that, they can never do justice to the words of Jesus in our text: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.”

That is Jesus’ attitude to the Old Testament (the Law and the Prophets).  It is as simple as that.  He didn’t come to abolish, but to fulfil.  There’s a lot we can learn from His attitude and there are many practical lessons in these few words.  They should determine our whole approach to the Old Testament, how we should read it, how we should understand it and how we should apply it.

So let’s have a close look at this all-important statement of our Lord; first in general, then in some of the details, and finally how this relates to us in our every-day life.

First of all, let us remember that Jesus came to fulfil the Old Testament.  That was his purpose.  That was his mission.  Why did Jesus come into the world?  To fulfil the Old Testament!  Listen again to His words in verse 17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfil them.”

Now, let’s first get the meaning of this word “to fulfil”.  It suggests the idea of a vessel that is filled to the top.  You might think of a glass that is filled to the brim with a nice cool drink.  Or you could think of a bottle that is absolutely full.  But the illustration that I’d like to use in this sermon is a water tank.  Some of us depend on tank water for the basic necessities of life, for drinking, washing, cooking, bathing etc.  Even if you have never been in that position yourself, you will still understand that it must be very reassuring to know that your tank is filled to the brim and that your household has a good supply for all its needs.

In spiritual terms that water tank is the Old Testament.  It was the container of living water for the house of Israel.  Now when Jesus came He didn’t come to remove that tank.  He didn’t come to repair it or modify it or even enlarge it.  He simply came to fill it.  “I have not come to abolish, but to fulfil.”  Before He came it was partly full, but He has come to fill it to the brim.

Obviously that’s one of the favourite themes in Matthew’s Gospel.  Matthew has much more to say about fulfilment than any of the other Gospel writers and the reason is that he is writing primarily to Jews.  As you would expect they were vitally interested in how the ministry of Jesus fulfilled their Old Testament Scriptures.  And even for us this makes for a fascinating study.  Take a concordance.  Look up the word “fulfil”.  Then check all the references; and if you really want to do a thorough job, refer back to the original Old Testament passages as well.  It’s a very fruitful way of doing Bible study and it can yield some very satisfying results.  In fact some of these fulfilment passages provide very strong evidence for the truth of the Bible.  Here are some very convincing proofs that what we believe as Christians is based on facts and not on some kind of religious imagination.

Let me give you just a few examples from Matthew’s Gospel.

Take the Christmas story for instance.  So many details are a fulfilment of what had already been said in the Old Testament:

            – That He would be born of a virgin;
            – That He would live in Egypt;
            – That the babies in Bethlehem would be slaughtered;
            – That He would grow up in Nazareth.

That was just the beginning.  More was to follow in His later ministry:

            – That He settled in Capernaum;
            – That He healed people;
            – His style of preaching, His parables;
            – His triumphal entry into Jerusalem;
            – His arrest and even that He was sold for 30 pieces of silver.

There is one striking piece of evidence after another that Jesus came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets.  Details that were recorded centuries earlier are realized in His life and ministry.  Surely this makes Him a unique figure.  Who else in the whole history of mankind has had so much foretold about His birth, His life and His death?  It sets Jesus apart.  It makes Him special.  There has been no one like Him before or since.  He is the one who came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets.

But this kind of fulfilment of course cuts both ways.  The Old Testament highlights the uniqueness of Jesus, but Jesus also highlights the uniqueness of the Old Testament.  As He says in verse 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.”

That is truly a remarkable statement.  The Old Testament will be fulfilled by Christ in every detail.  By the time the heavens and the earth pass away, all that the Old Testament states will have occurred.  Even the smallest things, even what seems insignificant, will all be accounted for.  Every “t” will have been crossed and every “i” will have been dotted.  And surely the only reason is that this is the Word of God.  You can name any human plan or promise, resolution or law and sooner or later it will need to be modified, if not cast aside altogether.  But not so even the slightest word of God.  It will achieve the purpose for which it was written.

Some of God’s words have already reached their complete purpose and fulfilment.  Other words of God are still in the process of being fulfilled.  Still other words have not yet been fulfilled at all.  They still stand like empty vessels waiting for their contents to be poured into them.  But eventually every word of God will stand like a vessel that is filled to the brim.  Jesus came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets.  In His first coming that fulfilment began.  At His second coming it will be complete.  That water-tank isn’t full yet, but it’s getting fuller all the time and when Jesus returns, it will be filled to the brim.

Now let’s take the illustration of the water-tank a little further.  Remember the water-tank is the Old Testament and Jesus has come to fill it.  At the present moment that tank is getting fuller all the time because of what Jesus has done and what He continues to do in the world.

Now let’s say that at your place your tank is filling up rather nicely, but you don’t just leave the water there.  You use it to fill other containers in the house as well.  You can picture the situation where your sink is completely full; the bath is over half-full but your laundry tub doesn’t have much water in it yet at all.  Now let’s apply that to what Jesus came to do, what He came to fulfil.  Let’s take three containers, the ceremonial law, the prophets and the moral law.

The ceremonial law is the easiest to deal with.  It is like a container that is completely full.  When Jesus came the first time, He fulfilled it completely and there’s nothing more that can be added to it.  As the Belgic Confession says: “We believe that all the ceremonies and symbols of the law ceased at the coming of Christ, and all the shadows are accomplished.”

What were some of those ceremonies and symbols?  We came across three of them in Luke 2:

1.  Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day, as God had commanded Abraham: “Every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations…!

That was the first ceremony.

2.  The second ceremony took place when he was 40 days old.  That was the time of purification for Mary and Jesus.  According to the ceremonial law in Leviticus a mother was regarded as unclean for seven days after the birth of a son and then she was to keep away from holy things such as the temple for another 33 days.  In the case of a daughter it was twice that length of time.

When this time was up, she would offer a yearling lamb as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering.  But if she was poor she could offer two turtledoves or two young pigeons and that is what Mary did.

3.  And the third ceremony happened at the same time, the presentation of the child.  The law of Moses stipulated that every firstborn male should be dedicated to the Lord.  This law applied to animals as well.  For clean animals such as sheep and goats this meant that they would have to be sacrificed on the altar.  For man and the unclean animals a redemption price of five shekels was paid to the Lord.  They were bought back and then could be kept.

This practice was to remind the people that when Pharaoh wouldn’t let the people go, the Lord killed every firstborn of Egypt.  Therefore all the firstborn of Israel were dedicated to the Lord.  It was a memorial, a remembrance of what God had done for His people in delivering them from Egypt.

Now why don’t we do things like this anymore?  Why don’t we circumcise baby boys when they’re eight days old?  Why don’t mothers offer doves and pigeons 40 days after the birth of a son?  And why don’t we dedicate our firstborn to the Lord and buy them back for five shekels of money?

The simple answer is that Jesus fulfilled all these laws.  It wasn’t just that He kept them; He fulfilled them.  And He didn’t fulfil them when he was 8 days old or 40 days old.  It was when He was 33 years old, when He died on Calvary.

1.  When Christ’s blood was shed, the bloody sacrament of circumcision made way for the bloodless sacrament of baptism.

2.  Those doves and pigeons that were sacrificed for Mary’s purification pointed ahead to when Jesus would be sacrificed for our purification.  She was ceremonially unclean.  We are morally unclean.  By Jesus’ sacrifice we are made clean of all our sins.

3.  The dedication of Jesus in the temple by his parents reminded people of how God saved Israel out of Egypt.  But it also pointed forward to the greater redemption from sin that Christ would achieve for His people on Calvary.  Mary may have dedicated her firstborn son to God in the temple, but God gave us His only begotten Son on the cross.

It is because Jesus died on the cross that there’s no more circumcision, there’s no more sacrificing of doves or pigeons or lambs, and the firstborn don’t have to be bought back for shekels of silver.  These laws don’t apply anymore because Christ fulfilled them on the cross.  In fact the whole ceremonial law has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ.  It stands as a vessel that is filled to the brim and it will stay that way forever.

But then there are these other vessels, the vessels of prophecy and the vessel of the moral law (the Ten Commandments).  How full are they?  Obviously the vessel of prophecy isn’t completely full.  Although Jesus has already fulfilled a lot of what the prophets foretold, there are obviously predictions that are still reserved for the future.

Only when Jesus returns will also this vessel be filled to the brim.  But then what about the moral law, the Ten Commandments?  Didn’t Jesus keep them perfectly?  Yes, He kept them but He didn’t fulfil them.  It never says that.  That may sound trivial, but it isn’t.  The moral law is not a vessel that Jesus filled completely.  More is still to be added for that vessel to be filled to the brim.  Do you know how?  Do you know how Jesus is going to fill that vessel?  He’s going to do it through us.

Listen to what Paul said in Romans 8:

“For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit,” (vss.3 & 4).

And how do we fulfil that law?  Paul tells us twice so that there can be no mistake:
            “He who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the Law.” (Rom.13:8).
And again:
            “For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement,
              you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” (Gal.5:14).

So are you fulfilling the law?  That’s a good question.  It is also relevant when we plan to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  In the form which is read on the Sunday before the Lord’s Supper, three quest- ions we are asked to consider, one of which is:
            – “Is it my sincere desire to show God true gratitude
               for my redemption, in obedience to His good law:
                to love Him and my neighbour?”

Are you fulfilling the law?  Do you love your neighbour?  Then don’t be angry with your brother without cause, Jesus says.  Don’t call him a fool.  And if he has anything against you, then first go and be reconciled to your brother.  Only then come and offer your gift.  Only then come and celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

Jesus did so much to fulfil the Law when He suffered and died.  And now what He’s asking is that you fulfil the Law by loving your neighbour.  Is that too much to ask?

Amen.