*[[Mat 5:17-19]] KJV*
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
*[[Joh 1:16-17]] KJV*
16 And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.
17 for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
*[[2Co 3:3-9]] KJV*
3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
*[[Rom 8:2-4]] KJV*
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
*[[Rom 2:13-15]] KJV*
13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts...
Maybe no other precept in Jesus teaching has been misunderstood, twisted, or ignored to the degree of his saying he came to fulfill the law.
The word fulfill can in some instances mean to take away, but it also means to give something its full strength. When we look at Matthew and place the word in context of what is said the latter is the only possible usage.
Before his use of fulfill he has said he has not come to destroy(take away)the law, and after fulfill he says it will not pass away till heaven and earth pass away. so am I saying the law is still in effect...not exactly, closer to say the law was never effective before the work of Jesus.
Let us look at how he has made it effective. The natural man(all people before being crucified by faith in Christ)see the law as a teaching about what they should do and not do. When we look at the law with the grace of the Spirit which is making us alive and the truth(Jesus) abiding(dwelling)in and through us it is a promise of who he is making us to be.
Jesus reinforces this idea of the law as what we should be instead of what we should do; by teaching it is written not to murder or commit adultery but he declares we must not have hate or lust. It is in this way that our righteousness must come from our heart; exceeding the righteousness of actions despite appearing the same to the outside world.
The life of God shared with us produces this change that the self life can not. The flesh may change an action but it can not change what it is; we are changed by grace through faith into a new creation in Christ.
This new man in Jesus is not directed by the will but by faith, and its movements are not by its strength but by the Spirit of God.
The written law, by revealing the holy and pure life found in God, when looked upon by the flesh was a mirror; to show the sin and death that was contained in itself. When this same law is looked at with the veil of the flesh removed, as it should be in one living by the generation of the Spirit, it is a promise of what we are being made by the abiding life of Jesus in us.
As our Lord makes us one with him, as Paul said, we do (by this new nature) the things contained in the law. The things contained in the law are description and teaching of who God is not things we should perform.
When we understand that Gods intention has always been to restore man to become that which He created; which is His children. The Spirit breathed into Adam made him one with God, and therefor alive. Adam lost that life when He became a self. The self can never by its own strength be as God is.
When Jesus did what was necessary for us to once more receive the Spirit living in us, that is carrying the self received from Adam to His death, we where born into a new life. As a natural child reflects his fathers looks and mannerisms, and even personality because he genetically came out of His father; so it is those who's life comes out from God through His Spirit are regenerated to resemble their Heavenly Father.
The law being a description of who God is not what He does also comes to us that we might know and believe what He is making us into. So it is that "thou shalt not kill" is not a command of action but instead a promise of who we are being made into.
It is from faith to faith that the righteousness of Christ is revealed in us meaning every day every hour we let go of the relying and trusting in the self to generate our lives and instead put our reliance and trust and dependence on God to live both in and through us. Then it is the life and the goodness and the righteousness of God that is revealed to this world through our body.
Rick Rosamond
A bond slave of Jesus
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