JESUS FULFILLED THE OLD TESTAMENT (5)

LIBERTY AND LOVE #56

Jesus was the fulfillment of Old Testament principles. Christ was the embodiment of the spiritual principles set forth and contained in the Old Covenant. The summary message of the Old Testament is that in order to please God we must love him more than anything else, and we must also love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). This Jesus fulfilled to perfection, for his life and teaching reveals what it truly means to love God, and what it truly means to love others as one’s self.

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:1-8).

When Jesus was baptized, the Father spoke out of heaven and said “This is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased” (Matt. 3:17). So loving God above all was certainly what his life was about. And then consider Matthew 20:28 where Jesus said he did not come to be served but to serve. So he certainly knew what it meant love his neighbor as himself.

In order to appreciate and understand the nature of Christ in the New Testament, we should learn to appreciate and understand His role as the central theme of the entire Bible. This is the advantage of Old Testament study. Christ has fulfilled the law.

Dewayne Dunaway