Jesus as the Fulfillment

Matthew 5:17 reads: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;  I have not come to abolish them, but fulfill them."

The first five books of the Old Testament are known in Jewish tradition as the Torah - they are the books of law.  Sometimes in Christian tradition, we refer to them as the Pentateuch.  God hands down His law to us through Moses in the Old Testament.  The law is what we are called to live by.

We know, through human experience that we sometimes have problems following the rules.  We break the law and we make new ones to add to the ones that we've broken, to make them more clear, or to make them more rigid.

Why isn't it easy for us to follow the law...I think it is often because we think we know better for ourselves.  We think that if we edit the rules, and spin them to suit us, then we will be better off.  But relying on our own understanding often leads us to destruction.

Jesus came to turn that around.

Jesus came and said "watch me."  Not necessarily with His words, but with His actions.  That is a fact: Jesus was a man of action.  He truly lived out the law.  He took what was on paper and made it into a lifestyle.  He calls us to do the same.

Jesus fulfilled the law through the example He set for His people.  Jesus was more of a do-er than a don't-er.  That is an admirable attitude.  It is an attitude that can take what is on paper and breathe life into it.  That is what Jesus did.  He took the scriptures - lifeless without Him - and animated them into a lifestyle.