Fulfilled In Him
The Word of God finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. “IN HIM,” all His promises are “yea” and “amen.” The things that were “hidden” in the past are revealed in the life, words, death, resurrection, and exaltation of the Son, the one in whom all the shadows and types prefigured in the Hebrew Bible have become real. All His mysteries are laid bare in the Nazarene.
In
the era that dawned with his death on Calvary, the nation of Israel has not been
“replaced” by the New Covenant people of God. Instead, the original promise to
Abraham to bless “all the nations” has come to fruition as Jews and
Gentiles are united in Jesus to form one new people - (Romans 16:25,
Galatians 2:28, 2 Corinthians 1:19-2:0).
In
Matthew, Jesus is the promised Messiah who came to fulfill “all the
Law and the Prophets,” and fulfillment in him is a key theme
threaded throughout Matthew’s account. What was “written” beforehand is
actualized in the man from Nazareth - (Matthew 1:22, 2:15, 2:17, 2:23, 4:17, 5:17-20,
8:17, etc.).
THE TRUE TEMPLE
In
the gospel of John, Jesus is the true Tabernacle in whom the
unveiled glory of God resides. “Grace instead of grace” arrived
in the “word made flesh.” Though the Law came through Moses, but “grace
and truth came to be in Jesus.” He is the true Temple, the place where the
presence of Yahweh is found rather than any building “made with hands” -
(John 1:14-18, 2:19-21).
The
time has arrived for the true worshippers to worship God “in the
Spirit and truth.” The old limitations of holy space and holy time no
longer apply. With his arrival, all debates about where to locate the Temple are
now pointless - (John 4:23-24).
Likewise, the ancient feasts of Israel find their significance in the Son of God. He is the true “living bread from heaven” that imparts life, not the manna given by Moses in the wilderness - (John 6:50-51, 7:37-39).
According
to Acts, when the day of Pentecost was “fully filled up,” the Spirit
was poured out on the saints who were gathered “with one accord” in
Jerusalem. Peter proclaimed this to be the promised gift of the Spirit
predicted by the prophet Joel. The “promise of the Father” was given to
Jesus upon his exaltation, and he now bestows the gift of the Spirit on his
disciples - (Acts 2:16-21, Joel 2:28-30).
BLESSING OF ABRAHAM
In
his letter to the Galatians, Paul explains how Jesus came to “redeem
us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse in our behalf.” This
was so “the blessing of Abraham should come to the Gentiles.”
The
covenant promises were to Abraham and to his “seed,” and that “seed”
is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. The original covenant always envisioned
the inclusion of the Gentiles, and that has been achieved in the death and resurrection
of the Son of God - (Galatians 3:13).
The
Law of Moses served as a “custodian” until the time of
fulfillment when the “seed” came. But now, the time of “custodianship”
has ceased. Jesus, the true “seed” of Abraham, is the “end of the Law
for righteousness to all who believe” - (Galatians 3:19-25, Romans 10:4).
Thus,
the Law was an interim stage between promise
and fulfillment. The Son came in the “fullness of time” to
redeem those who were under the Law. Consequently, for those who are “in
Christ,” no longer can there be “Jew or Greek, bond or free, male and
female.”
The social and ethnic distinctions inherent in the Mosaic Law have no place in the New Covenant. All who have “put on Christ” are one in him, and all are now “Abraham’s children, and according to promise, heirs” - (Galatians 3:26-29, 4:4-7, Colossians 3:11).
To
again observe “days, months, seasons and years” as required by the Torah
amounts to submission to the “weak and beggarly elemental spirits”
that previously tyrannized us. If we do so, effectively, we exchange the Spirit
and liberty for the death-dealing letter of the Law with its ever-present
curse on all men who do not do all that it requires - (2 Corinthians
3:6-7, Galatians 3:10, 4:8-10, 5:1-3).
God
has spoken with great finality “upon these last of days in His Son.” Previously,
He spoke partially - Here a little, there a little. The earlier word was true but
promissory, preparatory, and partial. But now, He has spoken fully in Jesus,
the only one who “achieved the purification of sins” and now reigns over
all things – (Hebrews 1:1).
The
priesthood of the Son surpasses the Aaronic priesthood. His death achieved what
no animal sacrifice could ever do. Jesus is the “guarantee of a better
covenant, one legislated on better promises.”
If
the first covenant had been “faultless,” there would have been no need
for another. And this vastly superior New Covenant has rendered the old one
obsolete, including its sacrifices and rituals - (Hebrews 8:4-10:18).
TYPES AND SHADOWS
The
old system constituted “glimpses and shadows of the heavenly realities,”
mere patterns of the real and now permanent originals. “Let no one,
therefore, be disqualifying you in eating and in drinking, or in respect of a feast,
new moon and Sabbaths, which were SHADOWS OF THE COMING THINGS, but the
substance is of the Christ” - (Colossians 2:9-17, Hebrews 8:1-7, 9:9-10,
9:23-24).
In
Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles receive their “introduction in one Spirit to
the Father,” therefore, no longer are they “strangers and sojourners,
but fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God.”
In Christ, God has dismantled the earlier “wall of partition” that separated Jews and Gentiles so that “the two he might create in himself into one new man” - (Ephesians 2:14-22).
The
body of Christ is composed of believers in Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles, who
are now “resident aliens” and “sojourners” in this world, a
people without a national homeland that possess the incorruptible inheritance
of salvation.
The
Apostle Peter strung together several appellations that originally applied to Israel
but now are inherited by the church:
- “But now, in Christ Jesus, you are the living stones being built up into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices well-pleasing to God, through Jesus Christ… You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a peculiar treasure,” a people that “at one time were a no-people but now are the people of God” - (1 Peter 2:4-10, Exodus 19:5-6).
Thus,
the theme of fulfillment IN JESUS is found throughout the New Testament.
In HIM, “all the promises of God are Yea and Amen!”
God
defeated Sin, Satan, and Death on Golgotha, not on the altar of the Temple in old
Jerusalem. The “mystery of God” that was hidden in past ages has been
revealed in His Son, and especially so in the proclamation of “Christ
crucified” - (Romans 16:25, 1 Corinthians 2:1-9, 2 Corinthians 1:19-20).
And
since the substance of God’s promises and the disclosure of His eternal “mysteries”
are available in His Son, and freely so, it would be foolhardy in the extreme
to return to the types and shadows of the old and incomplete revelation
for knowledge and illumination about the Creator of All Things.
