“I have not come to abolish [the Law or the Prophets] but to fulfil them.”
Matthew 5:17
Jesus came into the world to fulfil the law and the prophets, and He did so in His life and in His death.
1. In His Life
Isaiah said that a virgin would conceive and bear a son (Is. 7:14). And when Mary bore Jesus, that prophecy was fulfilled. Micah said that the One who would rule and shepherd God’s people would come out of Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2, 4). And when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that prophecy was fulfilled.
Jesus fulfilled the prophets in His life. And Jesus fulfilled the law in His life. “He who sent me is with me… I always do the things that are pleasing to him” (Jn. 8:29).
By God’s grace, we can sometimes do the things that please the Father, but only Jesus could say, “I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” He fulfilled—lived out—all that the law requires in His life.
2. In His Death
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Gal. 3:13). The prophets spoke about a suffering servant who would be “pierced for our transgressions” (Is. 53:5).
In Psalm 22, David depicts a man whose hands and feet are pierced, who is mocked, whose garments are divided by casting lots, and who cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus fulfilled the prophets in His death. And Jesus fulfilled the law in His death. The law prescribes blessings for obeying God’s law and curses for breaking it. We have an obligation to the law that we have not fulfilled. And that brings a curse.
But Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law in His life, and He paid the penalties of the law in His death.
What if Jesus hadn’t fulfilled the law or the prophets?
