"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
What is the relationship between Christ and the law? You know that He has already gotten into trouble with the Pharisees and religious teachers. (Mark 2:12-3:6.) Jesus was picking corn on the Sabbath. He wasn't following the ceremonial washing ritual set down by traditions. He healed a man with the withered hand which they said broke the law.
The law of Moses is divided into three parts: The moral law, the civil laws (how to handle grievances between one another, so they can live together in harmony) and the ceremonial laws, which involve details of the sacrificial system and worship in the tabernacle and temple.
Where was Jesus in conflict with the law? Clearly, it was with the oral and scribal interpretations of the law. The classic example is how they treated the Sabbath. The word said, "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy as unto the Lord." They weren't to do work on the Sabbath.
What is work? Work is carrying a burden. What is burden? They defined a burden to mean food that is equal in weight to a dried fig, or carrying enough wine for mixing in a goblet, or enough honey to cover a wound, or to carry enough paper to write a deed, or enough ink for 2 letters of the alphabet. They got into long and involved arguments as to whether a man could lift a lamp from one place to another, or whether a tailor committed a sin if he went out with a needle in his robe. Soon the Pharisees were taking down all the rules and interpretation as the law. Jesus didn't have time for that nonsense, "The Sabbath as made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
Jesus was completely committed to the law, but the law as it is prescribed by God not by man. It was not His intention to do away with it, but to fulfill it. Jesus didn't come to just fulfill the law, but also the prophets. We see in other verses how Jesus lived under the law. He lived in obedience to the law and He was the type or a picture of many Old Testament passages, thereby fulfilling the writings and the completion of the prophetic passages that spoke about the coming and work of the Messiah. We see prophecies fulfilled in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Scribes and Pharisees didn't have any idea of how Scripture was being fulfilled by the Son of God.
It was like putting the last pieces of a puzzle together. Jesus was fulfilling the revelation of the mystery of God.
Application: Daily feed on God’s Word.
Prayer: Lord, thank You for putting Your Word in my heart. I say with David, “I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.”
