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This video will address the widely held mainstream Christian false teaching and incorrect belief that Yeshua (Jesus) fulfilled the law, so we don’t have to obey it. This belief, held by many Christians, is based on Matthew 5:17, isolating and taking that verse out of context, and redefining what the word ‘fulfill’ means.
MATTHEW 5:17 (NKJV):
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”
Many mainstream Christians have been taught that the law was against us, and Yeshua (Jesus) nailed the law to the cross, essentially ending it.
COLOSSIANS 2:14 (NKJV):
Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
The law was not nailed to the cross. The death penalty, the requirement for breaking the law, was nailed to the cross. Yeshua (Jesus) paid the death penalty for us when He was nailed to the cross.
The law of God is perfect. Perfection does not need to be abolished or fulfilled.
PSALM 19:7 (NKJV):
The LAW of YHWH (the Lord) is PERFECT.
MATTHEW 5:48 (NKJV):
“You shall be PERFECT, just as your Father in heaven is PERFECT.”
Scripture declares that God’s law is perfect and we shall one day be perfect. Therefore, it is not the law that needs to change or be done away with, but it is us who needs to change in order to live in perfect harmony and compliance with God’s laws.
Did Yeshua (Jesus) ‘fulfill’ the law? Not exactly.
Fulfill means to complete, achieve, or carry out something as intended or promised. Abolish means to officially put an end to something, such as a law, system, practice, or institution. Fulfill and abolish are not synonymous words.
Psalm 19:7 declares that the law is perfect, so the law itself did not need to be altered, completed, filled in, or fulfilled. To fulfill a law, the law would have to be incomplete. It would be like as if a government put up speed limit signs without the actual posted speed limit, then afterward they filled in the speed limit fulfilling the law. Yeshua (Jesus) personally obeyed the law, fulfilling the requirements the law, all the laws that applied to Him, but to say He fulfilled it so that we do not have to obey it is like saying He destroyed His perfect law after He observed it. Yeshua’s (Jesus’) obedience to the law had no effect on the status of the law.
JOHN 1:17 (NKJV):
Torah (the law) was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ).
Grace and truth do not replace the law, nor make it void. The law is good and perfect, and believers should obey all of God’s laws that apply to them. Yeshua (Jesus) came as the Messiah, suffered and died for us, offering us atonement and grace, but in doing so He did not make void the law for us.
Christians often complain that there are 613 laws to follow according to Torah (law) keepers, which are impossible to keep. All 613 laws do not apply to any one person. If you are not a farmer – then faming laws do not apply to you, if you are not a woman – them laws pertaining to women do not apply to you, if you are not a man – then laws applying to men do not apply to you, etc.
Yeshua (Jesus) did not keep the whole law, but kept the laws that applied to Him. Yeshua (Jesus) never went to be washed after a menstruation period (Leviticus 15:19-24, 18:19). Yeshua (Jesus) never returned a stolen item (Exodus 22:1-4; Leviticus 6:4-5). Etc., etc. Yeshua (Jesus) kept the law where He was obligated.
He did not keep the law where He was not obligated.
Matthew 5:17 is really not that difficult of a verse to explain or understand.
The problem in not with the verse itself, but with the predisposed mindset of many mainstream Christians who have been conditioned to believe that God’s laws, or some of God’s laws, were bad and needed to be abolished. Christian teachers twist, distort, concoct, and take the Matthew 5:17 verse out of context to uphold the law-is-done-away-with mainstream Christian philosophy.
Matthew 5:17 is actually a two sentence verse addressing two subjects: the law and the prophets. Yeshua (Jesus) clearly stated in the first sentence of the verse that He did not come to destroy either the law or the prophets. Mainstream Christians almost exclusively focus on the law and ignore what Yeshua (Jesus) said regarding not coming to destroy the prophets. What Yeshua (Jesus) meant is that He did not come as the Messiah to conquer Rome and establish His kingdom, because if He did so, He would destroy the prophet’s words. The following is how the second sentence, in context with the first sentence, of the Matthew 5:17 verse should be properly understood…
MATTHEW 5:17 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy [THE LAW] but to fulfill [THE PROPHET’S PROPHECIES OF THE MESSIAH WHO WOULD SUFFER AND DIE TO ATONE FOR THE SINS OF MANKIND].”
As far as the law is concerned, the temporary ordinance measures of animal sacrifices and the Levitical priesthood were completed, fulfilled, and made obsolete by Yeshua (Jesus), who was our once and for all time sacrifice and became our High Priest forever (Hebrews 6:20, 10:10). It was the prophet’s prophecies about the suffering sacrificial Messiah that were fulfilled, not the law, when Yeshua (Jesus) declared on the cross, “It is finished,” (John 19:30).
Some Bible versions add the words ‘them’ in the second sentence of Matthew 5:17, with ‘them’ indicating that Yeshua (Jesus) fulfilled the law and the prophets, but this is an incorrect interpolation insertion of words into the biblical text.
Matthew 5:17, when read in context, shows that the law, and lesser laws, were not abolished, destroyed, or fulfilled, but remain eternally. Yeshua (Jesus) addresses the law and the least of the commandments in Matthew 5:18-19.
MATTHEW 5:18-19 (NKJV):
“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. 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.”
The Law of YHWH (the Lord) is perfect (Psalm 19:7) and we shall be made perfect (Matthew 5:48). We will be changed into immortal, incorruptible, perfect beings in the twinkling of an eye! (Matthew 19:28; 1 Corinthians 15:52).
