Fulfillment

Fulfillment is a good word isn't it? It speaks of contentment, happiness, and most importantly completeness. When we marry we want spouses who fulfill or complete us. No wonder God uses the example of marriage when He refers to His relationship to Israel. He is like a husband to her. He fulfills her. One day after Yeshua returns to the earth, there will be a great wedding feast for Him and His bride, the believers. Again, fulfillment speaks of contentedness and completeness. We, as believers, are completed or fulfilled in Yeshua.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Yeshua made the following statement:

Matthew 5:17 (KJV)
¹⁷ Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

He came to fulfill, to make whole, to complete, not in the sense of ending anything, but of filling up, or filling to the full. He fills us up to the full, He completes us, not to make an end, but to make us whole.

Yet, Christianity has not viewed the word fulfilled in Matthew 5 in that sense. It has been said that Yeshua fulfilled the law by his death and resurrection, therefore, we don't have to do the law any more. This in effect, destroys the law, which He claimed He hadn't come to do.

But let's go with Christianity's usual understanding. Yeshua said that He fulfilled the law. He didn't specify any particular laws, just THE LAW. This must mean that Yeshua fulfilled the entire law. Based on this, then, every single law in the so-called Mosaic Law was then fulfilled and we no longer have to observe the food laws, we no longer have to observe Passover, nor do we have to keep a Saturday Sabbath. However, this also means that the law against stealing, murder, having other gods, or adultery are also fulfilled and we don't have to keep these laws any more, either. Fortunately, I don't know of any Christian who believes that when Yeshua fulfilled the law that meant the laws about murder, etc. were done away with. My dear readers, we must be consistent!

Let me give you another example.

Galatians 6:2 (KJV)
² Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

If the fulfilling of a law means that we don't have to do that law any more, the Galatians verse tells us that if you bear another's burdens, then the law of Yeshua is fulfilled and you never have to do it again! But, I don't know of anyone who understands the verse in this way. We understand that by helping others with their problems we do fulfill the law of Yeshua, but we are completing, or making full, or making whole, the law, not setting it aside. We must continue to do this bearing of burdens over and over again, because it is a law that can never be set aside.

Another point about Galatians 6:2 is that the law of Yeshua is the law of love. Isn't this the same command that we find in Leviticus 19:18?

Leviticus 19:18 (KJV)
¹⁸ Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

It seems that the command to love your neighbor as yourself, or to bear his or her burdens has not gone away, it has not been set aside. Neither have the other laws been set aside, even though they are fulfilled.

Lastly, looking again at Matthew 5:17 we see that not only is the law fulfilled, but the prophets as well. But Yeshua's use of law and prophets is a way of referring to the entire Scriptures of God. They have all been fulfilled. Does this mean that they are all set aside? Obviously, not, since we know that there are many prophecies yet to be fulfilled in the sense of "occurring." There are also prophecies that are fulfilled multiple times. One example is Daniel's "Abomination of Desolation."

Daniel 12:11 (KJV)
¹¹ And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.

This prophecy was fulfilled during the days of the Maccabees. Yeshua speaks of it as well in Matthew.

Matthew 24:15 (KJV)
¹⁵ When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

This was fulfilled during the days of the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 A.D. But many believe that this will occur during the end times as well. Yet, Yeshua fulfilled this all when He died on the cross. Obviously, the meaning is to fill up, to complete, to make whole, not to end.

Dear readers, it is time to begin reading the Bible with fresh eyes, to let go of assumptions, and false tradition that have been handed down by supposed scholars and theologians for hundreds of years. The law has been fulfilled. It has been made whole and filled to the full by Yeshua!

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