Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-18 (NIV] “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. [18] I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
In other words, Jesus came to fulfill the initial intent of the Mosaic Law. God’s meaning had been perverted by those that were entrusted with His revelation. The Law was intended to set the Israelite's apart from the other nations around them. The form of this was drafted in the context of a Suzerain/Vassel covenant. Within this framework it showed people their need for atonement before a holy and perfect God and His love for them and the whole world. All of this was ultimately to point us to Jesus. "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." - Luke 24:27 (NIV) Who was going to bring a new and perfect covenant that could never be violated. Jesus didn't come to tear up the contract that God had made, with it's promises, but to fulfill humanities side of the covenant that the Israelite failed to keep. Jesus' death served two purposes. One was the fulfillment of the part of the covenant that required death for its violation and two, the beginning of the new covenant between God and all of humanity. This is God's grace in action.
Galatians 3:24 (NIV) So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
However, His love and the Israelite's obligations in the covenant had been replaced with a religious system based on threats and a political oligarchy. What the law and the prophets were intended to do became clouded and obscured by institutionalized religion. Much like what we see today in denomination and churches across the USA in regards to the New Covenant God made with the descendants of Adam through Jesus.
Jesus was saying to the Jews that the original intentions of the law that God gave Moses was still in effect. It was meant to point to him.
It was also meant to show people their need for a solution to their inability be keep a covenant with God and shining a light on the problem of sin and our guilt before God. Romans 3:20 (NIV)...through the law we become conscious of sin. He came to fulfill and make plain the true interpretation of God’s message versus the religious system that the leaders (e.g. Pharisee, Sadducees, Essenes…etc.) had created. It was the restoration of what Adam and Eve lost in the beginning, Eden. Where the people of God dwell in the place of God and eternally thrive in the presence of God. What would be called the Kingdom of God.
Israel was going through the motions of religious piety by following the Law but ignoring it's intent. Jesus challenged them because they were perverting the original intent of the Law. The Law was not about checking off religious acts but rather to point people to their need for redemption and the solution being found in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who brings us back into the kingdom of God. The kingdom we gave up in Eden.
Paul in his writing also alluded to this fact. Paul writes, “But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death....What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7:8-10, 24-25 (NIV)
Jesus fulfill all the requirements of the old covenant that we could not. Jesus was the fulfillment of all the promises and covenants God made in the Old Testament.
The Mosiac Law was a covenant made with a specific people, the Israelites.
For example:
Jesus did not come to abolish the Sabbath. He fulfilled the reason for it, therefore it is no longer binding. Because the Sabbath was a sign of the Old Covenant God made with the Israelite's. This was not translated into the New Covenant in Jesus. The Sabbath is now found in Jesus not on a particular day. A clearer view of the intent of the Sabbath for believers in Hebrews 4. In the New Covenant we have the sign of the Lord's supper.
It is clear through Scripture, that Jesus did not come to do away with the intent of the Law (Luke 22:44). Which was to show humanity that it stands condemned before a perfect and holy God and their need for someone outside of itself to rescue them, a Savior and that Savior is Jesus. He was against many of the mis-interpretations of the Law especially by the religious leaders (Matthew 6:1-4).
Matthew 23:1-4 (NIV) Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: [2] “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. [3] So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. [4] They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
Since the law was intended to reveal our sin and our need for a Savior. Which it still does today therefore it is not done away with. It still is used to point us to Jesus however, we are not bound by it.
Romans 3:20-21 (NIV) Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
As believer we have been freed from the tyranny of the law and are now to live by the Holy Spirit. Romans 7:6 (NIV) But now, by dying to what (the Law) once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Someone might suggest that the written code or law that Paul was speaking about in Rom 7:6 was the ceremonial laws. However, we must always read "words" in verses in their context. So if we keep reading the verses that follow, Paul makes it perfectly clear what he meant by "the law" or written code. In the next verse he tells us the law he was referring to was the Ten Commandments by referring to the tenth commandment itself. Romans 7:7 (NIV)What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
If you are in Christ "the Law" is not what we obey. Why? Because we can't. 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Now that Jesus has rescued us from this dilemma it is by the Spirit we now live.
Galatians 5:22-25 (NIV)But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.….. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
No law can produce the fruit of the Spirit and no law can be produce that can stop the fruit of the Spirit. In short, we are to obey God’s Spirit not the Mosiac Law. There is no law that can create this kind of obedience or stop this kind of obedience.
Jesus told the woman at the well that God is looking for people that will worship Him in Spirit and in truth not the Law.
If I'm living by the Holy Spirit I will love God, the saints, my neighbor and my enemy.
Hebrews 8:13 (NIV) By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
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