Post by Admin on Aug 31, 2023 14:14:12 GMT -5
IV. Law, Christ and the Christian
From the Scripture’s perspective, law is Torah, which refers to God’s disclosure of truth to His
human image-bearers. Torah is the communication of truth from God to man, and thus it is
fundamentally revelatory. But because Torah reveals divine truth to men, it also predicts,
instructs and prescribes. This is true of the biblical covenants, which are a primary form of God’s
Torah. Most importantly, the truth disclosed by Torah doesn’t concern facts or information as
such, but God’s heart and intent for His creation and the way in which that intent is to be
accomplished. Thus Torah is preeminently eschatological: It looks to God’s ultimate design for
the world and progressively discloses and builds the case for that outcome and the scheme for
arriving there. For this reason Torah is also entirely christological, because all of God’s purposes
for His creation and His plan for accomplishing them are bound up in Jesus the Messiah.
This is the sense in which the Scriptures are Torah and therefore also christological (Christrevealing), christocentric (Christ-centered) and christotelic (having their goal in Christ). The
Messiah is the grand subject of all the Scriptures, not because every verse speaks of Him, but
because the revelation of Him is woven into the very fabric of the scriptural storyline spanning
from the creation to the incarnation to the final consummation. Jesus came to recognize this
about Himself as He grew in His messianic self-consciousness and so insisted, in various ways,
both direct and indirect, that all of the Scriptures bear witness to Him. He pointed to His person,
words and works as affirming His messianic identity and mission (Matthew 11:1-15; John 2:13-
22, 3:1-17, 4:19-26, 5:17-24, 7:14-24, 8:12-58, 10:22-38, 14:1-11; etc.), but He also stated
directly that He is the One the Scriptures promised (ref. Matthew 22:41-45; Luke 4:16-21, 24:13-
27, 44-48; John 5:41-47). Jesus believed that His life and ministry fulfilled the messianic hope
held out by Israel’s Scriptures; He’d come to fulfill the Law, Prophets and Writings as they
together predicted, revealed and explained Yahweh’s Messiah.
Yet Christians debate just how it was that Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures, the extent to which that
was the case and the implications for the future. (Is there still “unfulfilled prophecy” and, if so,
what prophetic content remains unfulfilled and what will its fulfillment look like?) But perhaps
the most contentious aspect of this debate involves the definition of fulfillment, especially with
regard to the subject of scriptural law. Virtually every Christian agrees the Jesus “fulfilled the
Law,” but different traditions and individual Christians understand this differently.
- The first point of difference concerns the definition of law. This term is part of the
universal Christian vocabulary, but there’s no universal agreement about its meaning –
especially as it relates to obligation to law and obedience. A common question among
Christians is which of God’s laws are they required to keep, but any answer is pointless
and unprofitable – even misleading or false – without properly defining terms and ideas.
For some, law means “moral law,” for others it means “law of Moses,” while for others it
means any commandment or directive found in the Bible. Other Christians distinguish
between the Old Covenant law and the “law of Christ.” Still others associate law-keeping
with “being a good person” – conforming to a general moral and ethical standard
consistent with scriptural truths. And the less familiar Christians are with the Scriptures,
the more they tend to define law according to personal and societal norms. In effect,
God’s “law” becomes a projection of their own sensibilities and standards.
32
- But, whatever specific definition they may assign to the concept of divine law, Christians
generally view it as a code of moral and ethical standards and duties which God rightly
requires human beings to comply with. Meeting that obligation constitutes “keeping the
law” and the outcome of full compliance is “righteousness,” usually defined as the moral
perfection which God demands and which determines every person’s final destiny.
This way of conceiving law is significant in itself, but all the more so because of the
impact it has on the idea of fulfillment. Where law is understood as a moral and ethical
prescription, “fulfilling the law” means fully complying with that prescription. And when
this understanding is imposed on the New Testament – especially as it speaks to Jesus’
fulfillment of the law, the meaning and effect of Jesus’ person and work are radically
altered. His declaration that He came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17) becomes His
affirmation of His commitment to fully comply with all of God’s demands and directives.
Accordingly, Jesus’ success in fulfilling the law is understood as Him meeting the legal
standard that no other human being is able to. Substitution, then, involves Jesus’
righteousness – i.e., His full compliance – being “credited” to a sinner’s “account.” Jesus’
perfect “law-keeping” exempts sinners who embrace Him in faith from having to meet
that obligation themselves and also delivers them from eternal condemnation. For some
Christians, this scheme means that they are freed from the demand of law – they are
“under grace,” not “under law.” Others argue that Jesus’ law-keeping frees Christians
from condemnation, but also establishes their obligation of obedience; that is, Jesus
didn’t abolish the law, but reaffirmed it as binding. Sinners are “justified” by grace
through faith, but “sanctified” by obedience to law (Calvin’s “third use of the law”).
These considerations only scratch the surface of the issues and debates surrounding law and
obedience and Christ’s relationship to them. But they’re sufficient to show that there is a wide
diversity of understanding undergirded by all sorts of premises and assumptions. This is why it’s
unhelpful to simply affirm biblical concepts and terms; without careful definition, those things
come to mean whatever a person thinks they mean. Two Christians agreeing that they’re
obligated to live holy and obedient lives doesn’t mean that they actually agree. All of this needs
to be sorted out and the place to begin is with the person of Jesus. Whatever obedience, holiness,
righteousness, etc., mean, their meaning is discovered in relation to Him.
A. Law as Fulfilled in Christ
The Scriptures are abundantly clear that Jesus fulfilled the law. He said Himself that He came for
that purpose and He succeeded in that endeavor (cf. Matthew 5:17; Luke 24:44). But what does
this mean and what is the consequence for the human world?
1. Again, it’s critically important that law be understood biblically as Torah. All of the
preceding material in this study has focused on this subject and how the Scriptures
present and understand Torah. It’s been shown that, in all of its dimensions, Torah has a
forward-looking, Christ-centered orientation. But it fundamentally discloses and defines
God to men and men to themselves, and so defines and prescribes the divine-human
relationship and the human vocation as divine image-bearer.
33
Torah tells men who God is and what it is to be human. And because man was created to
be image-son, Torah instructs men in the human vocation of sonship – a vocation that,
though entirely human, is radically God-centered. Torah concerns the divine-human
relationship first and foremost and this is why Torah takes the form of covenants. It is
also why law-keeping (compliance with Torah) involves covenant (relational)
faithfulness and such faithfulness is termed righteousness – whether with respect to men
or God (cf. Genesis 15; Deuteronomy 6:1-25 with Psalm 5:8; Isaiah 44:24-45:25, 46:8-
13; note also Romans 3:21-26). It is also why lawlessness is treated as relational
infidelity (Isaiah 1:2-4; Jeremiah 2:1-33, 3:1-11; Ezekiel 16, 23; Hosea 1-2; Micah 1:1-7;
etc.). To whatever extent righteousness takes on a personal moral and ethical quality, it
does so within the larger connotation of relational integrity. Righteousness is rightness,
and rightness involves conformity to the truth of one’s created nature and function. For
human beings, righteousness is human existence – in mind, heart, word and action – that
conforms to the truth of man as God’s image-son (with all that entails and implies).
2. This understanding of Torah, then, is fundamental to understanding how it is that Jesus
fulfilled the law. Again, some theological traditions interpret this as Jesus fully complying
with God’s righteous demands, which compliance is said to affirm the same obligation
for all human beings; Jesus, the man, did what God justly requires of every man. Jesus,
then, fulfilled the law by obeying it and thus He confirmed and established it. (Most often
this formulation is used to support the notion of an eternal, unchanging “moral law” to
which all human beings are accountable and by which they will be judged.)
But the biblical language and presentation points in another direction. All of the gospel
writers indicate that Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures, and thus fulfilled Torah (the law). But
they affirm this by demonstrating, in a myriad of ways, that Jesus was the Messiah
revealed and promised in all the Scriptures (cf. Matthew 1:18-23, 2:13-23, 3:1-15, 4:12-
17, 21:1-5, 26:47-56; Mark 1:14-15, 15:27-28; Luke 4:14-21, 21:12-24, 22:24-37, 24:13-
49; John 2:13-22, 5:39-47, 6:22-45, 7:37-39, 10:22-38, 12:37-41, 13:12-18, 14:1-11;
etc.). Thus He fulfilled Torah by being in every regard (in His person, words and works)
that which Torah disclosed concerning God and man and God’s intent for His creation:
Jesus fulfilled Torah by being true God, true Man and true Israel and by embodying in
Himself the truth of God’s creational design as the beginning of God’s new creation.
This idea is confirmed by the meaning of the Greek term, fulfill. It carries the sense of
making full or complete or bringing something to its intended end; it nowhere expresses
the idea of obedience to a directive, as in keeping the law. Neither does it have the sense
of confirming or establishing something as binding. This is especially noteworthy in
relation to Matthew 5:17, which is commonly cited to support the idea that Jesus
confirmed the continuing obligation of the law (i.e., “I didn’t come to abrogate the law,
but to confirm it as binding.”) Certainly, by fulfilling a prophecy Jesus confirmed the
truth of that prophecy and its need to be fulfilled, but this is different from arguing that
His fulfillment amounted to confirming an enduring obligation regarding that prophecy.
Poythress’ observation is helpful: “Confirm suggests a static maintenance of an existing
rule, whereas fulfill suggests an advance toward realization.” Confirmation might, in the
sense above, be an implication of fulfillment, but it is not its meaning.
34
Jesus fulfilled the law by fulfilling in His person, words and works that which God’s
Torah disclosed. This is the case particularly in four respects:
a. First and foremost, Jesus was the embodiment of God’s self-revelation. Torah
served to reveal the true and living God to a world that was alienated from Him
and cut-off from His life and mind. Torah explained to men who their Creator is,
what He is like, what it means for men to know Him and what He’s purposed for
the world He created. The incarnation gave flesh and blood to this Torah, so that
Jesus could insist that observing and knowing Him is observing and knowing the
One who sent Him – that is, the God revealed in Israel’s Scriptures. Yahweh had
promised His covenant people that His departure at the time of the exile was not
the final word. He would return to Zion and again take His place in His sanctuary,
but He’d fulfilled that promise in the person of Jesus (cf. Isaiah 40:1-11 with
Mark 1:1-11; cf. also Zechariah 2 and Malachi 3:1 with John 1:14-18, 4:19-26).
b. Secondly, Jesus fulfilled Torah’s revelation and prescription concerning man. He
was the true human image-son, and therefore man as truly man. He alone among
Adam’s race fulfilled the human vocation of sonship: loving the Father with heart,
soul, mind and strength and then directing that love toward the world the Father
created and loves (Matthew 22:36-40). Thus this sonship is the vocation of royal
priesthood; it is ruling the Father’s creation in His name and authority,
administering His wise and loving care in the creation and bearing its praises back
to its Creator. Jesus fulfilled this Torah as the Last Adam and Son of David.
c. Thirdly, Jesus fulfilled Torah as it defined and prescribed Israel and its role as the
Abrahamic seed. This arena of fulfillment is especially important for those who
believe the Law of Moses continues in force. For the Law of Moses is the
covenant at Sinai and it was this covenant that provided this Torah to Israel. The
Sinai covenant ratified the relationship between Abraham’s God and Abraham’s
offspring and it disclosed to them the nature and obligation of their covenant
identity and vocation. The Torah at Sinai showed Israel what it meant to be Israel
and this is the Torah which Jesus fulfilled by embodying Israel in Himself and
fulfilling its calling (Isaiah 49:1-7). The gospel writers convey this truth by
showing how Jesus’ life repeated Israel’s life with God, but in all faithfulness.
Jesus, then, fulfilled the Law of Moses, not by perfect compliance with a list of
commandments, but by fulfilling Israel’s identity and calling with the goal of
reconstituting Israel – the Abrahamic household – in Himself (Ephesians 2:11ff).
d. Finally, Jesus fulfilled Torah as the embodiment of God’s covenants and His
covenantal relationship with men. Because God embodied His Torah within
covenant arrangements, Jesus could not fulfill God’s law without fulfilling God’s
covenants. This is precisely what Torah predicted about the messianic Servant:
Yahweh would make Him the covenant binding together the Creator God and
Father and His image-sons (Isaiah 42:1-7, 49:1-10). And Jesus fulfilled Torah-ascovenant in His person as well as His work; He brought together God and man in
His incarnation and reconciled them everlasting in His body on the cross. Kit Culver sermon notes
From the Scripture’s perspective, law is Torah, which refers to God’s disclosure of truth to His
human image-bearers. Torah is the communication of truth from God to man, and thus it is
fundamentally revelatory. But because Torah reveals divine truth to men, it also predicts,
instructs and prescribes. This is true of the biblical covenants, which are a primary form of God’s
Torah. Most importantly, the truth disclosed by Torah doesn’t concern facts or information as
such, but God’s heart and intent for His creation and the way in which that intent is to be
accomplished. Thus Torah is preeminently eschatological: It looks to God’s ultimate design for
the world and progressively discloses and builds the case for that outcome and the scheme for
arriving there. For this reason Torah is also entirely christological, because all of God’s purposes
for His creation and His plan for accomplishing them are bound up in Jesus the Messiah.
This is the sense in which the Scriptures are Torah and therefore also christological (Christrevealing), christocentric (Christ-centered) and christotelic (having their goal in Christ). The
Messiah is the grand subject of all the Scriptures, not because every verse speaks of Him, but
because the revelation of Him is woven into the very fabric of the scriptural storyline spanning
from the creation to the incarnation to the final consummation. Jesus came to recognize this
about Himself as He grew in His messianic self-consciousness and so insisted, in various ways,
both direct and indirect, that all of the Scriptures bear witness to Him. He pointed to His person,
words and works as affirming His messianic identity and mission (Matthew 11:1-15; John 2:13-
22, 3:1-17, 4:19-26, 5:17-24, 7:14-24, 8:12-58, 10:22-38, 14:1-11; etc.), but He also stated
directly that He is the One the Scriptures promised (ref. Matthew 22:41-45; Luke 4:16-21, 24:13-
27, 44-48; John 5:41-47). Jesus believed that His life and ministry fulfilled the messianic hope
held out by Israel’s Scriptures; He’d come to fulfill the Law, Prophets and Writings as they
together predicted, revealed and explained Yahweh’s Messiah.
Yet Christians debate just how it was that Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures, the extent to which that
was the case and the implications for the future. (Is there still “unfulfilled prophecy” and, if so,
what prophetic content remains unfulfilled and what will its fulfillment look like?) But perhaps
the most contentious aspect of this debate involves the definition of fulfillment, especially with
regard to the subject of scriptural law. Virtually every Christian agrees the Jesus “fulfilled the
Law,” but different traditions and individual Christians understand this differently.
- The first point of difference concerns the definition of law. This term is part of the
universal Christian vocabulary, but there’s no universal agreement about its meaning –
especially as it relates to obligation to law and obedience. A common question among
Christians is which of God’s laws are they required to keep, but any answer is pointless
and unprofitable – even misleading or false – without properly defining terms and ideas.
For some, law means “moral law,” for others it means “law of Moses,” while for others it
means any commandment or directive found in the Bible. Other Christians distinguish
between the Old Covenant law and the “law of Christ.” Still others associate law-keeping
with “being a good person” – conforming to a general moral and ethical standard
consistent with scriptural truths. And the less familiar Christians are with the Scriptures,
the more they tend to define law according to personal and societal norms. In effect,
God’s “law” becomes a projection of their own sensibilities and standards.
32
- But, whatever specific definition they may assign to the concept of divine law, Christians
generally view it as a code of moral and ethical standards and duties which God rightly
requires human beings to comply with. Meeting that obligation constitutes “keeping the
law” and the outcome of full compliance is “righteousness,” usually defined as the moral
perfection which God demands and which determines every person’s final destiny.
This way of conceiving law is significant in itself, but all the more so because of the
impact it has on the idea of fulfillment. Where law is understood as a moral and ethical
prescription, “fulfilling the law” means fully complying with that prescription. And when
this understanding is imposed on the New Testament – especially as it speaks to Jesus’
fulfillment of the law, the meaning and effect of Jesus’ person and work are radically
altered. His declaration that He came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17) becomes His
affirmation of His commitment to fully comply with all of God’s demands and directives.
Accordingly, Jesus’ success in fulfilling the law is understood as Him meeting the legal
standard that no other human being is able to. Substitution, then, involves Jesus’
righteousness – i.e., His full compliance – being “credited” to a sinner’s “account.” Jesus’
perfect “law-keeping” exempts sinners who embrace Him in faith from having to meet
that obligation themselves and also delivers them from eternal condemnation. For some
Christians, this scheme means that they are freed from the demand of law – they are
“under grace,” not “under law.” Others argue that Jesus’ law-keeping frees Christians
from condemnation, but also establishes their obligation of obedience; that is, Jesus
didn’t abolish the law, but reaffirmed it as binding. Sinners are “justified” by grace
through faith, but “sanctified” by obedience to law (Calvin’s “third use of the law”).
These considerations only scratch the surface of the issues and debates surrounding law and
obedience and Christ’s relationship to them. But they’re sufficient to show that there is a wide
diversity of understanding undergirded by all sorts of premises and assumptions. This is why it’s
unhelpful to simply affirm biblical concepts and terms; without careful definition, those things
come to mean whatever a person thinks they mean. Two Christians agreeing that they’re
obligated to live holy and obedient lives doesn’t mean that they actually agree. All of this needs
to be sorted out and the place to begin is with the person of Jesus. Whatever obedience, holiness,
righteousness, etc., mean, their meaning is discovered in relation to Him.
A. Law as Fulfilled in Christ
The Scriptures are abundantly clear that Jesus fulfilled the law. He said Himself that He came for
that purpose and He succeeded in that endeavor (cf. Matthew 5:17; Luke 24:44). But what does
this mean and what is the consequence for the human world?
1. Again, it’s critically important that law be understood biblically as Torah. All of the
preceding material in this study has focused on this subject and how the Scriptures
present and understand Torah. It’s been shown that, in all of its dimensions, Torah has a
forward-looking, Christ-centered orientation. But it fundamentally discloses and defines
God to men and men to themselves, and so defines and prescribes the divine-human
relationship and the human vocation as divine image-bearer.
33
Torah tells men who God is and what it is to be human. And because man was created to
be image-son, Torah instructs men in the human vocation of sonship – a vocation that,
though entirely human, is radically God-centered. Torah concerns the divine-human
relationship first and foremost and this is why Torah takes the form of covenants. It is
also why law-keeping (compliance with Torah) involves covenant (relational)
faithfulness and such faithfulness is termed righteousness – whether with respect to men
or God (cf. Genesis 15; Deuteronomy 6:1-25 with Psalm 5:8; Isaiah 44:24-45:25, 46:8-
13; note also Romans 3:21-26). It is also why lawlessness is treated as relational
infidelity (Isaiah 1:2-4; Jeremiah 2:1-33, 3:1-11; Ezekiel 16, 23; Hosea 1-2; Micah 1:1-7;
etc.). To whatever extent righteousness takes on a personal moral and ethical quality, it
does so within the larger connotation of relational integrity. Righteousness is rightness,
and rightness involves conformity to the truth of one’s created nature and function. For
human beings, righteousness is human existence – in mind, heart, word and action – that
conforms to the truth of man as God’s image-son (with all that entails and implies).
2. This understanding of Torah, then, is fundamental to understanding how it is that Jesus
fulfilled the law. Again, some theological traditions interpret this as Jesus fully complying
with God’s righteous demands, which compliance is said to affirm the same obligation
for all human beings; Jesus, the man, did what God justly requires of every man. Jesus,
then, fulfilled the law by obeying it and thus He confirmed and established it. (Most often
this formulation is used to support the notion of an eternal, unchanging “moral law” to
which all human beings are accountable and by which they will be judged.)
But the biblical language and presentation points in another direction. All of the gospel
writers indicate that Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures, and thus fulfilled Torah (the law). But
they affirm this by demonstrating, in a myriad of ways, that Jesus was the Messiah
revealed and promised in all the Scriptures (cf. Matthew 1:18-23, 2:13-23, 3:1-15, 4:12-
17, 21:1-5, 26:47-56; Mark 1:14-15, 15:27-28; Luke 4:14-21, 21:12-24, 22:24-37, 24:13-
49; John 2:13-22, 5:39-47, 6:22-45, 7:37-39, 10:22-38, 12:37-41, 13:12-18, 14:1-11;
etc.). Thus He fulfilled Torah by being in every regard (in His person, words and works)
that which Torah disclosed concerning God and man and God’s intent for His creation:
Jesus fulfilled Torah by being true God, true Man and true Israel and by embodying in
Himself the truth of God’s creational design as the beginning of God’s new creation.
This idea is confirmed by the meaning of the Greek term, fulfill. It carries the sense of
making full or complete or bringing something to its intended end; it nowhere expresses
the idea of obedience to a directive, as in keeping the law. Neither does it have the sense
of confirming or establishing something as binding. This is especially noteworthy in
relation to Matthew 5:17, which is commonly cited to support the idea that Jesus
confirmed the continuing obligation of the law (i.e., “I didn’t come to abrogate the law,
but to confirm it as binding.”) Certainly, by fulfilling a prophecy Jesus confirmed the
truth of that prophecy and its need to be fulfilled, but this is different from arguing that
His fulfillment amounted to confirming an enduring obligation regarding that prophecy.
Poythress’ observation is helpful: “Confirm suggests a static maintenance of an existing
rule, whereas fulfill suggests an advance toward realization.” Confirmation might, in the
sense above, be an implication of fulfillment, but it is not its meaning.
34
Jesus fulfilled the law by fulfilling in His person, words and works that which God’s
Torah disclosed. This is the case particularly in four respects:
a. First and foremost, Jesus was the embodiment of God’s self-revelation. Torah
served to reveal the true and living God to a world that was alienated from Him
and cut-off from His life and mind. Torah explained to men who their Creator is,
what He is like, what it means for men to know Him and what He’s purposed for
the world He created. The incarnation gave flesh and blood to this Torah, so that
Jesus could insist that observing and knowing Him is observing and knowing the
One who sent Him – that is, the God revealed in Israel’s Scriptures. Yahweh had
promised His covenant people that His departure at the time of the exile was not
the final word. He would return to Zion and again take His place in His sanctuary,
but He’d fulfilled that promise in the person of Jesus (cf. Isaiah 40:1-11 with
Mark 1:1-11; cf. also Zechariah 2 and Malachi 3:1 with John 1:14-18, 4:19-26).
b. Secondly, Jesus fulfilled Torah’s revelation and prescription concerning man. He
was the true human image-son, and therefore man as truly man. He alone among
Adam’s race fulfilled the human vocation of sonship: loving the Father with heart,
soul, mind and strength and then directing that love toward the world the Father
created and loves (Matthew 22:36-40). Thus this sonship is the vocation of royal
priesthood; it is ruling the Father’s creation in His name and authority,
administering His wise and loving care in the creation and bearing its praises back
to its Creator. Jesus fulfilled this Torah as the Last Adam and Son of David.
c. Thirdly, Jesus fulfilled Torah as it defined and prescribed Israel and its role as the
Abrahamic seed. This arena of fulfillment is especially important for those who
believe the Law of Moses continues in force. For the Law of Moses is the
covenant at Sinai and it was this covenant that provided this Torah to Israel. The
Sinai covenant ratified the relationship between Abraham’s God and Abraham’s
offspring and it disclosed to them the nature and obligation of their covenant
identity and vocation. The Torah at Sinai showed Israel what it meant to be Israel
and this is the Torah which Jesus fulfilled by embodying Israel in Himself and
fulfilling its calling (Isaiah 49:1-7). The gospel writers convey this truth by
showing how Jesus’ life repeated Israel’s life with God, but in all faithfulness.
Jesus, then, fulfilled the Law of Moses, not by perfect compliance with a list of
commandments, but by fulfilling Israel’s identity and calling with the goal of
reconstituting Israel – the Abrahamic household – in Himself (Ephesians 2:11ff).
d. Finally, Jesus fulfilled Torah as the embodiment of God’s covenants and His
covenantal relationship with men. Because God embodied His Torah within
covenant arrangements, Jesus could not fulfill God’s law without fulfilling God’s
covenants. This is precisely what Torah predicted about the messianic Servant:
Yahweh would make Him the covenant binding together the Creator God and
Father and His image-sons (Isaiah 42:1-7, 49:1-10). And Jesus fulfilled Torah-ascovenant in His person as well as His work; He brought together God and man in
His incarnation and reconciled them everlasting in His body on the cross. Kit Culver sermon notes