Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament

Matthew 5:17-20

Matthew 5:17-20, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. You cannot have law, and rules for behaviour without religion, because it is religion that provides the absolute base for morality and for law.

We have broken away from religion, the concept of God, and from absolute truth. Therefore, we are stuck with existential relativism when it comes to making laws.

We are attempting in our society to have rules without an absolute. When you abandon God, theology, and truth trying to make laws without truth and without an ultimate value is impossible. You cannot build a consistent legal system on philosophical humanism, on a fluctuating, changing principle of what is right and what is wrong.

What is the absolute source of truth? Where does this evil society, floating on a sea of relativism, find its anchor? Law is none other than the law of God.

John 17:17, “Your word is truth.” People speak of times have changed. The Bible does not fit today anymore. No. Today does not fit the Bible anymore. It is today that is wrong, not the Bible. Everybody has got his own interpretation.

The way you interpret it. If the Bible confronts you where you do not want to be confronted, then say the Bible’s out-of-date or the Bible needs to be reinterpreted. Do not face the reality that maybe you are out-of-date, and you need to be reinterpreted.

They want to deny its authority. The Bible once believed to be written by God are now said to be written by some rabbi who added it in. Portions of the Scripture that we do not agree with or do not want to abide by, we just shuffle off out of the picture. We reinterpret the verses to say what we want them to say.

Jesus is saying not one jot or tittle shall pass from it. Everything will be fulfilled. Anyone who teaches anyone else to disobey the smallest command in the Bible will be the least in the kingdom of heaven. Nothing ever changes in the Bible!

This is Jesus’ view of God’s law. People want to deny that the Bible is inerrant. People want to deny the inerrancy of the scriptures. People want to deny the inspiration of the scriptures. We have series of messages on the word of God.

Even on so-called Christianity is busy about denying the Bible. Jesus’ view is that “The Bible is an absolute.” It must be our view. This is Jesus’ perspective on the Old Testament.

Jesus said, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Is the Old Testament binding on the Christian? How much of the Old Testament is binding on the Christian?

Is the Old Testament totally commanded of us? Jesus gives us a wonderful answer. Christ had appeared suddenly, startlingly, in a dramatic way. For thirty years, He had been there, but nobody really knew about Him. He was an obscurity in Nazareth.

But suddenly, at His baptism, He comes into prominence. The first thirty years of His life on earth had been lived in privacy outside his own immediate circle. He had done little traveling and attracted very little attention. But as soon as He appeared in public and was baptized, the eyes of everyone were fixed on Him. Even the leaders of Israel had to focus in on Him, and look, at Him and hear Him, and watch Him.

Of course, His meekness and His beautiful humility made Him easily distinguishable from the rest of the leaders in Israel who were proud, boastful, hypocritical. They were always looking for some way to lift themselves up.

Jesus calling them to repentance, His proclamation of the gospel, and His announcement of a kingdom made them wonder. What kind of a prophet is this?

He is so different.

What was His attitude toward the Mosaic Law? Jesus did not sound like the Pharisees. Jesus did not sound like the scribes. Jesus did not sound like anybody they were hearing in their day. Their natural reaction was to wonder whether He was really an Old Testament prophet or not. He did not echo the prevailing theology of His day. He refused to identify Himself with any of the sects of His time.

He threw over all the traditions of men and all the irrelevant, legalistic rules, He disregarded. He kept putting an emphasis on inward morality. He was a friend of publicans, He was a friend of sinners. He was a friend of all the worst scum in the society.

He proclaimed grace, and He dispensed mercy. Their natural reaction was He does not sound like the rest of the people we hear. He does not sound like the scribes and Pharisees. They were wondering.

Is He tearing down the Old Testament? Is He destroying all the absolutes of the Mosaic Law? Is He removing the foundations for some new thing? After all it is the way of most revolutionary leaders to sever all ties with the past and do everything, they can completely reject the traditions that have gone before.

For a long time in Israel there were certain people who believed that the Messiah would do just that. They were the anti-Pharisees. They were somewhat sickened by the Pharisees, and they were looking for a time when Messiah came and threw out everything.

After all, where all the scribes and Pharisees were always expounding the law, Jesus would not do that. Jesus was busy talking about grace, and mercy. Where the Pharisees and Scribes were binding the law on people, He was busy forgiving people.

The religious leaders were always talking about the outside, Jesus was always talking about the inside. He even blasted away at some of the most sacred of their traditions.

Jesus puts it all in perspective.

• I am going to reiterate to you,
• I am going to fulfil the whole Old Testament law.
• I will not set aside one jot,
• I will not set aside one tittle of that law till all of it is fulfilled.

So, the amazing manifesto of the king is in direct confrontation to their thinking. He would not lower the standard, but He would raise it where it belonged. Their thinking was that the standard was so high, somebody had had to lower it. But Jesus says that you have dragged it down so low, somebody has got to raise it again.

Why? They had turned an internal law into an external thing. Jesus was going to drive it back inside where it belonged. Jesus had a greater commitment to the law of God than the most scrupulous scribe or Pharisee. Now it bothers that people do not read or study the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the foundation to the New Testament.

Jesus is supporting that Old Testament.

Look at Matthew 5. We have the Beatitudes from verse 3 to 12. Characteristics of one who lives in the kingdom, characteristics of a believer. Who we are? In verses 13 to 16, we are told how we are to live.

How can we live that way? The answer comes immediately in V 17: You must uphold the Word of God. The Word of God becomes then the standard of righteousness. The Word of God give the guidelines, the principles, the requirements.

How can we really live out a righteous life?

How can we live out the Beatitudes?

How can we be salt and light? By keeping God’s principles of absolute obedience to an absolutely authoritative Word of God. The key to a righteous life is keeping the Word of God. This is the reason Jesus in verse 20 that unless your righteousness exceeds the Pharisees and scribes.

Jesus says that it is internal, based on the eternal law of God. So, if we are to be salt and light, we must be righteous, and the only way is to go beyond the false externalism of the Pharisees and the scribes and go to an inward righteousness that is only wrought in you by the power and the authority of the Word of God.

So, the Word of God is the basis of a righteous standard, and God never changed it. Another question raised immediately asking what about later in the chapter when Jesus says, ‘You have heard it said, “But I say.” You have heard it said, “But I say.”’

Isn’t Jesus adding to the Old Testament?

Isn’t He changing the Old Testament? No. What Jesus is doing is simply restating God’s original intention, because the rabbis had so perverted the Old Testament, that He must raise the standard back up to where God put it in the first place.

The pre-eminence of the law. V 17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil.

To Jesus, God’s law, God’s Scripture, the Word of God was absolutely preeminent, first-place, and unequalled. They were thinking that Jesus will set the laws aside. Do not think! Many of the Jews expected the Messiah to abolish the law.

They misinterpreted Jeremiah 31:31, ““Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— They thought the new covenant would nullify everything that God had established in the old, but they were wrong.

Jesus came and said, “I am introducing a new order.”

• He told them even to disregard the Sabbath.
• He violated many of their traditions.
• He rather ruthlessly swept away their traditions, their tithings of minuscule things.
• He mocked their constant washings, which He ignored.
• He disregarded their oral and scribal law.
• He interpreted the written law in a way totally different than they did.
• He spoke as one having authority.

So, it was natural for them to think of that. But no way Jesus revolting from the Old Testament. If you are a Christian today, God has not set aside His principles and they are still the same. In fact, Jesus lifted up the Old Testament so high that He wound up exposing all the Pharisees and the scribes as hypocrites.

Matthew 5:20, For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 6:1, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Matthew 6:5, And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

Matthew 6:16, ““Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

Whatever your righteousness is, it ought to be on the inside, not on the outside. Not the phony hypocrisy of an external religion.

Matthew 15:7-9, Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honour Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

Matthew 16:1, Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.

Matthew 16:3, and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

Matthew 22:18, But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? In Matthew chapter 23, He goes through the entire chapter calling them hypocrites. Verses 13; 14; 15; 25; 27; 29; hypocrites. Jesus was really after them.

Jesus opens up His sermon by saying, “Here is My standard of righteousness, and this is how you live in the world. The base of it all is to be obedient to God’s inviolable, and unchanging law.” Anybody who does not live by God’s standards, and substitutes a manmade system is no more than a spiritual actor, hypocrite!

V 17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. The word is kataluō means to abrogate, nullify, destroy. In a physical sense, the word is used of pulling down a wall, or smashing a house to the ground.

Jesus did not come to smash down the Old Testament. He did not come to pull it to pieces. To our Lord Jesus Christ, the new covenant did not just throw away the old covenant. It did not just annul everything. The law was not set aside rather it was fulfilled.

What our Lord is saying is that the law is preeminent. Nothing surpasses it Nothing takes its place.

• a) It is authored by God.

They knew which law He meant. He meant the law of God. Jesus was talking about the law of God. The law was authored by God. In Exodus, where God first laid down the Decalogue, The Ten Commandments.

Exodus 20:1-3, And God spoke all these words, saying: 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.

The law is inviolable, the law is binding, because God is the author of that law. God said of Himself, “I am the Lord, I change not.” So, the law of God is not some kind of a changing mode of human opinion designed to fit the whims of every society.

The law of God is not something you just adjust and adapt to whatever sin is going on in your day. The law of God never changes. They are God’s standards, and the first commandment is this: “I am the Lord your God, and you shall have no other gods before Me.”

This is the holy God, the only God of the universe. He has created all things and all laws to govern them, and so they are binding. God is still alive, and His rules are still the same. His nature is unchanged. His laws remain.

To what does Jesus refer when he said law? Jesus uses the term “law” in a rather comprehensive way. They had four things in mind, four possibilities. I. To speak of the Ten Commandments. II. To speak of the Pentateuch, or the five books of Moses.

III. To speak of the whole Old Testament.

IV. They were talking about the oral, scribal traditions that

they had been receiving from these various rabbis. (Mishnah)

Matthew 15:9, And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

The most common use of law among the Jews of Jesus’ time was that it referred to these thousands of minuscule principles, external stuff that had replaced the internal law of God. Let us say you believe you are only going to be in heaven because you keep the law. But the law is inward, and the law

demands righteousness, and a certain kind of character. But you are a rotten person, and do not want to give it up. Then what you do is invent a whole bunch of laws you can keep! You just invent a bunch of little rules. If I just keep all these little rules, then I will be all right. If you can just get a group of rabbis to make some rules, and just keep piling up the rules, and keep all the little rules, you can convince yourself you are all right.

This is something of their reasoning. They said that we will just make up a lot of rules. After all, the law covers every part of man’s life, so we should be able to deduce from the law a rule for every possible person in every possible situation.

So, the scribes came along, and they dug around in the Old Testament, and they picked out every possible little deal, and they made thousands and thousands of funny little laws. The people, by the name of the Pharisees, busied themselves trying to keep them, and then patting themselves on the back as if they were godly because they try to keep all these little rules.

Illustration

For example, the Old Testament law had said you could not work on the Sabbath.

“Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Rest from your labours,” But they said, if we cannot work on the Sabbath, what is work? They decided to determine what work is. They decided work was to carry a burden. So, you could not carry a burden on the Sabbath day.

What is a burden? Let us decide what a burden is “a burden is food equal to the weight of a dried fig, enough wine for mixing in a goblet, milk enough for one swallow, honey enough to put on a wound, oil enough to anoint a small member, water enough to moisten an eye salve, paper enough to write a customs house notice, ink enough to write two letters of the alphabet, reed enough to make the pen.”

Now all that was the limit and anything beyond that is a burden. They spent endless hours arguing whether a man could or could not lift a lamp from one place to another on the Sabbath.

They spent time arguing whether a tailor committed a sin if he went out with a needle stuck in his robe. They had a big discussion about whether a woman could wear a brooch; if it were too heavy, it was a burden. Or whether she could put false hair on. It was too heavy, it was a burden, if it weighed more than a fig. They also had a big argument about whether a man could go out on the Sabbath with artificial teeth, or an artificial limb, because that constituted a weight.

They also discussed if a man could lift his child on the Sabbath day. Now these things were the essence of religion to them. Now they also decided that to write was work on the Sabbath, but writing had to be defined. So, they decided, “He who writes two letters of the alphabet with his right or with his left hand, whether of one kind or of two kinds, if they are written with different inks or in different languages, is guilty. Even if he should write two letters from forgetfulness, he is guilty, whether he has written them with ink or with paint, red chalk, or anything that makes a permanent mark. Also, he that writes on two walls that form an angle, or two tablets of his account book so they can be read together, is guilty.

But if anyone writes with dark fluid, fruit juice, or the dust of the road, or in sand or anything which does not make a permanent mark, he is not guilty. If he writes one letter on the ground and one on the wall, or two on the pages of a book so they cannot be read together, he is not guilty, as long as they were separated.” Now that is a passage from the scribal law, believe it or not.

They also said to heal was work, so obviously this had to be defined. Healing was allowed when there was danger to life, and especially ENT. But even then, you could only take steps to keep the patient from getting worse, but no steps could be taken to make him get any better. It is a hard balance.

You could put a plain bandage on a wound, but no ointment. You could put plain wadding in a sore ear, but not medicated wadding. The scribes were the people who wrote out all this and the Pharisees were the ones who tried to keep it.

To the strict Orthodox Jew of Jesus’ time, the law was a matter of thousands of legalistic rules and regulations. Jesus was not talking about the traditions of men, but He was talking about the law of God. He came to fulfil the law of God that never changed.

What Jesus meant by “the law” here? It could be that Jesus means the Ten Commandments. It could be that Jesus means more than that, the Pentateuch. It could mean the whole Old Testament.

How do we know? V 17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. “the law and the prophets” This is a reference to the whole Old Testament. It is used that way 12 times in the New Testament.

The New Testament refers to the Old Testament as the law and the prophets. What is Jesus saying that “I have not come to destroy the whole Old Testament, but to fulfil it.” If those Jews had been tuned in that day, they would have known that they were staring face-to-face with the theme of the whole Old Testament. They were looking right into the eyes of the one who was the consummation of the entire Old Testament, the one spoken of in the law, the one spoken of in the prophets. This was He standing in front of them. He was the one who came to fulfil the whole thing.

Luke 16:16, “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. Jesus says that the law and the prophets continued till John.

But when John came, he preached the kingdom. Of course, He himself was the one who fulfilled that kingdom.

Luke 24:27, And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

The law of Moses and the prophets equal the Scriptures. The law of Moses and the prophets equal the Scriptures.

Who is the theme of the prophets? Jesus.

Who is the theme of Moses? Jesus.

Who is the theme of the Scripture? Jesus.

Luke 24:44, Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”

Everything in the Old Testament points to Christ. Jesus is saying to them that I know what you are thinking. You all think that I am going to set this law aside, but I am not. I am going to lift it up higher than it is today, and I am going to reveal the hypocrites. You are thinking that you are not going to have any of this hassle anymore, and we can just be free and easy., God’s standard has not changed. No part of the sacred Scripture will ever be destroyed or annulled. It will be fulfilled, and I Myself will fulfil it.

What a shattering claim, that He alone would fulfil the whole Old Testament. He is the object of the whole Old Testament. All points to Jesus Christ. You can divide the Old Testament law into three parts.

• Moral Law,
• Judicial Law,
• Ceremonial Law.

Deuteronomy 4:13-14, So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.

God laid down, first, the Ten Commandments. Then He said to Moses and all the other prophets, to those basic Ten Commandments, “You had the statutes and the ordinances.” So, Moses went from the Ten Commandments, and under God’s inspiration, developed the ceremonial, the judicial systems, the whole outworking of the law in the life of the people.

Then the prophets came along. Their job was to remind the people that the law was still present and binding. It all goes back to the Ten Commandments. They were expanded in the statutes and ordinances that Moses gave in the Pentateuch and then the rest of the Old Testament, the writings of the prophets, was to call upon the people to be obedient to these standards.

• The moral law was for all men.
• The judicial law, just for Israel.
• The ceremonial law, for Israel’s worship of God.

So, the moral law encompasses all men, narrows it down to Israel in the judicial law, and to the worship of Israel toward God in the ceremonial law.

The moral law is based in the Ten Commandments, the great moral principles laid down once and forever and rest of the moral law is built upon that. The judicial law was the legislative law given for the functioning of Israel as a nation. God said to Israel, “I want to set you apart from the rest of the world. I want you to be different. I want you to be unique, so you will have judicial laws. That will mean that you are going to live with each other in a different way. Israel as nation going to live with the nations around you in a different way.” This unique law of judicial law to govern their behaviour.

The ceremonial law dealt with the temple ritual and the worship of God.

Which law is the Lord speaking here? Jesus is speaking of all three. Some people say He is just talking about the moral law. No, He is not. He came to fulfil the whole thing, whether it was the moral law, the outgrowth of the moral law in Israel, the judicial law, or the law of worship, the ceremonial law. Jesus came to fulfil everyone of it.

Everything in the Old Testament is authored by God, and it all is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The law is preeminent, because it is authored by God.

• b) Affirmed by the prophets.

V 17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. The term “prophets”. The prophets simply reiterated, reinforced the law. They would say to the people of Israel, for example, “You had better keep God’s law. You are breaking God’s law. You are falling away from His law.”

Sometimes they talked about Israel’s failure to keep the moral law. Sometimes they failed to keep the judicial law. How many times did He say to Israel, “There are unjust judges”? Sometimes they failed to keep the ceremonial law.

Sometimes, He says, they did not do their sacrifice; but rather they sacrificed unto false gods. So, the prophets constantly rang the chimes on the same thing. keep the moral law, judicial law, which sets you apart as a unique nation.

Keep the ceremonial law, which is God’s definition of the pattern and standard for your worship.

Isaiah 1:18-20, “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Isaiah is saying, “If you keep God’s law, you will be blessed and if you don’t then you will be cursed.” In Malachi, the whole book.

• You have violated God’s laws of marriage.
• You have violated God’s law of taxation.
• You have violated God’s law of morality.
• You have violated God’s law of justice.
• You have violated every one of these things.

God is going to judge you. So, the prophets were God’s mouthpieces to reaffirm the moral law. the best definition of a prophet. God, by the analogy of Moses and Aaron, gives us the definition of a prophet.

Exodus 4:15-16, Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his

mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. 16 So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. Jeremiah is to be a mouth for God.

Jeremiah 1:7, But the Lord said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak. So, prophet just reiterated the law of God and spoke out the law of God.

• c) Accomplished by Christ.

V 17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil. Scripture finds its fullest meaning in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is wonderfully complete. The Old Testament is complete. It is all that God wanted it to be. It is a wondrous, perfect, complete picture of the coming King and His kingdom. The King came to fulfil it all.

5 times in the New Testament, Jesus claimed to be the theme of the whole Old Testament.

Hebrews 10:7,

John 5:39,

Matthew 5:17,

Luke 24:27, and

Luke 24:44.

2 Corinthians 1:20, “All the promises of God in Him are yes and amen.” Jesus is the one who fulfils it all. In what sense does Jesus fulfil the law?

They say that He completed the law by teaching. The law was like a sketch, and He coloured it all. Jesus said, “the law says this, but I want to tell you this.” Some say He filled it out with His teaching, that there was a basically incomplete code in the Old Testament, and it needed added new dimensions.

He did expand the law of God. He did reveal the law of God. When He sent the Spirit, the Spirit through the writers of the Epistles, revealed even more of the law of God. But that cannot be the real reason. That cannot be the real meaning of “fulfil.”

First, that is not what the word means. It does not mean “to fill out,” it means “to fill up.” Does not mean “to add to,” it means “to complete something that’s already there.” Jesus really does not add anything new. He just clarifies God’s original meaning.

Jesus did not come to give a moral lecture. The law is not fulfilled by lecturing about it, and by adding to it. “Jesus fulfilled it because He met its demands.” In His life, He kept every part of God’s law. He kept God’s judicial law, He kept God’s ceremonial law. He worshiped in the right way.

He kept God’s moral law. He never violated a rules God made. He was perfectly righteous. He was the absolutely Holy One. He was the perfect righteousness.” He answered John the Baptist, who did not want to baptize Him, and He fulfilled every detail of Him.

Matthew 3:15, But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. That is true!

But that still is not the heart of what it is saying here. That is still not it. There is truth in all of that. He did add new perception to the Old Testament law. In fact, He took the whole law and reduced it so beautifully.

Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” In the Epistles, through His Holy Spirit, He clarified it even more, and enriched it even more. Jesus lived it in His own life. He kept the law, there is no question. He was without sin. He was flawless in His obedience. He provided the perfect model of absolute righteousness in fulfilling God’s Holy Word. But those still do not get to the major point. He fulfilled the whole Old Testament law by being its fulfilment; not by what He said so much, not by what He did so much, but by what He was.

Jesus did not come just to rescue the law from rabbinical perversion. He did not come just to be a model of righteousness. He came to bring in everlasting righteousness by being the Messiah that the law predicted. It was what He was, as much as what He did and what He said.

Judicial law. The judicial law, all the various rules that governed the behaviour of Israel, all their legal codes, and the things they were supposed to do.

Leviticus 26:46, These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

Psalm 147:19-20, He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. 20 He has not dealt thus with any nation; And as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise the Lord!

God had peculiar laws for Israel. This is His judicial law which set them apart. They had certain dietary laws. They had certain laws of dress. They had certain laws of agriculture. They had certain laws within their relationships.

How did Jesus fulfil that? When He died on the cross full rejection by Israel of her Messiah. That was the end of God dealing with that nation as a nation. The judicial law that He gave to Israel passed away when God no longer dealt with them as a nation anymore, and Jesus built His church. Praise God, someday He is going to go back and redeem that nation again, and deal with them again as a nation.

But for this time, when Jesus died on the cross, the judicial law came to a screeching halt. There were no more national people of God. There would be a new man, cut out of Jews and Gentiles, and it would be called the church, and the judicial law came to an end.

Matthew 21:43, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you.” Keep in mind that the foundations of the judicial law are in the moral law, so that the divine principles behind it still exist.

They are still binding. They are still there. But the judicial law related to Israel was set aside when Jesus died, because that was the full and final rejection of their Messiah. Ceremonial Law.

How did He fulfil the ceremonial law? Jesus died on a cross. When He died on that cross, the whole ceremonial system came to an end.

Matthew 27:51, Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,

The Holy of Holies was unbared. God was saying that the whole Levitical, priestly, judicial system is over.

• Jesus totally fulfilled the judicial law, by being the victim of their final rejection.
• Jesus fulfilled the moral law in the way He lived, and
• Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law in the way He died.

Moral Law. Every rule God ever made, He obeyed. Every precept God ever laid down, He fulfilled. He never disobeyed anything that God established. Jesus, by the living of a perfect life, fulfilled the moral law.

Hebrews 10:19-20, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living

way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, Jesus Christ ended the ceremonial system. We no longer worship God with the blood of bulls and goats. It was only a few years after He died that He allowed the Romans to come in and absolutely destroy the temple. The whole sacrificial system, the whole thing came crumbling down when He died.

It was all over. The new covenant brought in a new dawn, a new day. The ceremonial system was fulfilled. The whole judicial system was only good as long as Israel was God’s people and when that was over, the system was over.

The ceremonial system was only good until the final sacrifice came. When it came, then it was done away. That leaves only one element of God’s law abiding remains is the moral law. Moral law will be with us until we see Him face to face.

Hebrews 7:18-19, For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, 19 for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

What the law could not do, Christ did. He brought an end to the picture because He was the reality.

Hebrews 8:8, Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—

Hebrews 8:13, In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

When the new covenant comes, that passes away. Meaning by that is not God’s moral law, but God’s ceremonies. All the ceremonies were, were pictures of Christ and when the reality came, He did not need the picture. Compare Him, for example, with Aaron, the high priest.

• Aaron entered the earthly tabernacle.
• Christ entered the heavenly temple.
• Aaron entered once a year.
• Christ entered once for all.
• Aaron entered beyond the veil.
• Christ rent the veil.  Aaron offered many sacrifices.

 Christ offered one.  Aaron offered for his own sin.  Christ offered only for our sin.

• Aaron offered the blood of bulls.
• Christ offered His own blood.
• Aaron was a temporary priest.
• Christ is an eternal one.
• Aaron was fallible.
• Christ is infallible.
• Aaron was changeable
• Christ is unchangeable.  Aaron was continual.  Christ was final.
• Aaron was imperfect.
• Christ was perfect.  Aaron’s priesthood was insufficient.  Christ is all-sufficient.

Look at the tabernacle.

The tabernacle had a door. Christ said, “I am the door.”  It had a brazen altar; He said He was the altar, the ransom for many.  It had a laver; He said He would wash and cleanse us.  It had lamps; He said He was the light.

 It had bread; He said He was the bread.  It had incense; He said, “My prayers ascend for you.”  It had a veil; He said, “The veil is My body.”  It had a mercy seat: He said, “I am the mercy seat.” Everything pictured Him.

Look at the Levitical offerings. There was a burnt offering to speak of the perfection of life; He was that perfection of life. There was a meal offering to speak of dedication; He was that one, dedicated holy to God. There is a peace offering; He is the peace.

There was a sin offering; He became sin for us, who knew no sin. There was a trespass offering; and He provided for our trespasses. Think of the feasts in the ceremonies of Israel. The Passover, He is our Passover.

The unleavened bread which speaks of a holy walk; He is the one who walked in holiness. The Feast of First Fruits: He is the one who rose from the dead, the first fruits of them that slept. The Feast of Pentecost: He is the one who poured out His Spirit.

The Feast of Trumpets: He is one who someday has His angel blow the trumpet and gather the elect from the four corners of the earth. The Feast of Atonement: He is the one who paid the price of atonement. The Feast of Tabernacles, which speaks of reunion: He is the one who will gather His people into His house forever.

The point is that Jesus fulfils every part of the law, every part of the law.

Galatians 3:24-25, Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

What law was he talking about there? The ceremonial. The ceremonial pointed to Christ. Once Christ came, he is saying to the Judaizers in Galatians, “We don’t need the rituals anymore. We do not need the rites anymore. We do not need the circumcision anymore. The reality is here. He fulfilled it all.

He fulfilled it all.”

Because He was perfectly righteous, because He fulfilled all righteousness, you and I can too.

Romans 8:4, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. You too can fulfil God’s law. You can fulfil God’s moral law. Jesus is the theme of the Old Testament.

• In Genesis, He is the seed of the woman.
• In Exodus, He is the Passover Lamb.
• In Leviticus, He is our High Priest.
• In Numbers, He is the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
• In Deuteronomy, He is the Prophet like unto Moses.
• In Joshua, He is the Captain of our salvation.
• In Judges, He is the Judge and Lawgiver.
• In Ruth, He is the Kinsman Redeemer.
• In 1 and 2 Samuel, He is the trusted Prophet.
• In Kings and Chronicles, He is the reigning King.
• In Ezra, He is the faithful scribe.
• In Nehemiah, He is the builder of the broken wall.
• In Esther, He is the Mordecai.

• In Job, He is the ever-living Redeemer.
• In Psalms, He is the Lord our Shepherd.
• In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, He is true wisdom.
• In Song of Solomon, He is the real lover and Bridegroom.
• In Isaiah, He is the Prince of Peace.
• In Jeremiah and Lamentations, He is the weeping Prophet.
• In Ezekiel, He is the wonderful four-faced man.
• In Daniel, He is the fourth man in the fiery furnace.
• In Hosea, He is the eternal husband, forever married to the backslider.
• In Joel, He is the baptizer with the Holy Spirit.
• In Amos, He is the burden-bearer.
• In Obadiah, He is the Saviour.
• In Jonah, He is the great foreign missionary.
• In Micah, He is the messenger with beautiful feet.
• In Nahum, He is the avenger.
• In Habakkuk, He is God’s evangelist pleading for revival.
• In Zephaniah, He is the Lord, mighty to save.
• In Haggai, He is the restorer of the lost heritage.
• In Zechariah, He is the fountain opened in the house of David for sin and for cleansing.
• In Malachi, He is the Son of righteousness, arising with healing in His wings.

Jesus is the theme of the Old Testament!