Jesus fulfills the law
Our journey through Exodus with Moses has led us to the giving of the law, or 10 commandments. We saw last week that these are a list of guidelines that people simply cannot uphold or perfectly keep.
Romans 3:20 | For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
Romans 3:23 | For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
Just like the Israelites, who broke the law almost directly after agreeing to keep it, we fall short of living by God’s guidelines each and every day. But God’s intent wasn’t to give us an impossible set of standards to live by so that we’d fail and deserve death; rather, He gave us the law to show us we need Jesus.
For about 1500 years, the Israelites lived under the guidelines of the law, reminded often of their shortcomings as they sacrificed the blood of animals (Hebrews 10) over and over again; they did this to show their faith in God’s way of rescue. They looked forward to the final and perfect Passover Lamb and finally, after all that time, God revealed His plan to satisfy the law’s requirements: Jesus.
Jesus Himself explained that satisfying or fulfilling the law was the very reason He came –
Matthew 5:17 | “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.”
The law gave us a clear route to righteousness, or being right in God’s sight, but it was a righteousness we could not attain on our own because of our sinful nature (Romans 3:10). So Jesus, God the Son, became human and as a result, put Himself under the law. Only unlike us, Jesus kept the law – He never sinned.
1st John 3:4-5 | Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him.
Jesus, as a human, came under the law, lived perfectly by the law, and because He kept the law, did not deserve death. But Jesus did die. He laid down His life as the sacrifice for our sins, dying the death we deserved so that our sin debt could be paid on our behalf, without our separation from God forever.
Romans 4:25 | He [Jesus] was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.
Jesus, through His death and resurrection, was able to make us right with God, because He fulfilled, or satisfied the law and the penalty that our breaking of the law required. Where the law condemned us [found us guilty of death because of our sin], Jesus purchased our freedom with His life.
Our theme verse explains:
Galatians 4:4-5 | But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.
Our Timeless Truth this week is: Jesus fulfilled [satisfied] the law. By shedding His innocent blood, He paid for the sins of the world–
1st John 2:2 | He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.
Because Jesus fulfilled the law, He purchased our freedom. If we put our faith in Him as our Savior, rather than our own righteousness or feeble attempts at keeping the law, we are made right in God’s sight and adopted as His very own children (Galatians 4:5).
Romans 3:21-25a | But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.
Jesus fulfilled the law so He could be our Savior.
What is something that stood out to you today as you learned about Jesus fulfilling the law?
What does it mean that Jesus fulfilled the law?
Why did the law need to be fulfilled or satisfied?
What are some ways you fall short of God’s standard (the law/10 commandments)?
Why is this a problem?
How did Jesus provide a solution?