What Does It Mean That Jesus Came to Fulfill the Law?

God created everything perfect. He set it all up just the way it should be, placing the people made in his image in the Garden of Eden. The Bible mentions two trees in the middle of the Garden: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:9). The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the only tree God forbade them from eating.

Eating from the Tree of Life kept Adam and Eve living forever (Genesis 3:22). The tree represents God’s provision for eternal life, sustained by his presence. Life flows from a relationship with God, free from death and corruption. Adam and Eve had access to both the relationship and the Tree of Life, but once they sinned, God barred them from the Garden, essentially from the Tree of Life. God’s consequence was an act of grace, keeping them from living eternally in a sinful, fallen state.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil wasn’t inherently evil. In fact, created by God, it was inherently good. But it represented the responsibility of moral knowledge, acting according to right and wrong. Only God can bear this burden. He is omniscient and omnipresent and omnipotent. The Lord alone can know the exact right action, which explains the need for submitted and humble relationship with him. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree or they would die (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam and Eve had relationship with righteousness himself. They had no need to eat of the tree.

By eating from the tree, Adam and Eve claimed the right to define good and evil on their own terms. This rebellion rejected God’s authority and assumed a role belonging to him alone. This separated them from relationship with him and the Tree of Life, subjecting all of creation to corruption and entropy (eventual decay and death). Only God, who is life himself, can handle the knowledge of good and evil without being corrupted by it (James 1:17). When we try to take that responsibility, in our pride, it separates us from God, resulting in spiritual death (Romans 6:23).

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So why, then, would God give humans a law to follow? If they couldn’t follow one rule, and were now corrupted, why would the Lord give the Israelites hundreds more?

The Mosaic Law served several purposes. First, the Law was a covenant between God and his chosen people, meant to set them apart from the surrounding nations and revealing God’s holy nature (Exodus 19:5-6). Following the Law, the Israelites would enjoy supernatural blessings and show the other nations how to live under such blessings. God’s heart was always for a people to be his representatives on earth, and through the Law, Israel could give the world a glimpse of heaven on earth.

Yet the Law had a problem. It depended upon sinful, broken humanity to perform it. A corrupt humanity can’t fulfill a divine standard. The Old Testament continually records how Israel couldn’t keep the Law, failing time and time again. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul explains the Law was good, created by God like the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But God gave the Law to ultimately prove humanity’s inability, exposing the sinfulness of the human heart. “I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the Law” (Romans 7:7). The Law showed first the Israelites and then all humanity how no one can meet God’s standards on their own. James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”

God never intended the Law to be the solution for humanity’s relationship with God. Instead, he used it as a tutor or “schoolmaster” to lead people to Christ (Galatians 3:24). Through revealing our pride and weakness in trying to do it on our own, the Law pointed to the absolute need for a Savior.

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The Law, while itself good and holy, reveals humanity’s sinful nature. The Law is the extension of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, God giving humanity what they chose. The Law brings a knowledge of sin and exposes our prideful attempt to live independent of God. It calls us to moral perfection, but its impossibility leads to hopelessness and death. With the Law alone, we only know our sin, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

Legalism is the belief that we can earn righteousness or favor with God through our works or adherence to the Law. When we attempt to bear the weight of heavenly standards through our own ability, we become prideful and self-reliant, always leading to failure and condemnation. All people do this, even the supposedly non-religious or atheist. Our fallen human nature tries to take this on. The Law only reveals our ultimate inability.

Thankfully, God offers us a way back to the original design – to reject the Law and have intimate relationship with the Lawgiver himself, the one who is righteousness. The New Testament consistently tells us the danger of following the Law and calls us to follow the Spirit.

The Spirit is life and leads to life. The Spirit of Christ, symbolized by the Tree of Life, provides the power to live according to God’s will. We become a “new creation,” or born again from the Spirit. As we turn from our pride and self-reliance and trust the Spirit, we find the ability to walk in obedience, not through our strength but the Spirit’s work within us. We trade the Mosaic Law for a new law of Christ: “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).

This is repentance, turning away from our own ways and efforts and choosing complete dependence on God’s power and grace. Galatians 5:16 encourages us to “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” By following the one who is righteous, we walk righteously.

In Christ, we see the Tree of Life fulfilled and given back to us. While Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, in Christ, the access is restored. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and Revelation 22:14 promises that those who wash their robes in Christ have the right to the Tree of Life.

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First, we should look at how Jesus fulfilled the Law. Jesus consistently spoke and acted in perfect alignment with the Father’s will, in oneness and relationship. He declared he only said what he heard the father speak and did what he saw the Father doing. “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19).

“For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment — what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me” (John 12:49-50). As an example to us, Jesus submitted his every thought, action, and word to what the Father commanded in the moment. Jesus didn’t follow the letter of the law; he followed the God who gave the Law in intimate relationship.

In fulfilling the heart of the Law, he fulfilled the whole, including the intents, motives, and purposes. Through this, he perfectly and completely met every requirement of the law and made it clear righteousness can only be achieved through God’s work, not human effort.

When Jesus says in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them,” the Gospel uses the Greek word pleroo for fulfill. Pleroo means to complete, bring to fullness, or accomplish a purpose. Jesus came to bring the Law to its intended goal or complete its purpose.

What purposes? As we previously discussed, the Law was meant to reveal God’s heavenly righteousness (to live heaven on earth) and at the same time to prove our inability to perform this. Jesus as God in the flesh fulfilled both purposes by living in constant dependence on the Father. Jesus fulfilled every part of the Law — including the intent, ceremonial, civil, and moral. Also, this fulfilled every prophecy within himself. This doesn’t nullify the Law, but now the Law lives in Christ alone.

The ceremonial laws, such as sacrifices and priestly rituals, pointed to our need for atonement. Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:10) and our only High Priest (Hebrews 4:14). The civil laws and moral laws, such as the Ten Commandments, reflected the righteousness and justice of God, and Jesus kept these commandments perfectly (Hebrews 4:15).

Now, when reading the Old Testament with the Spirit, we can see how the Law and the Prophets point to Jesus, from the ceremonies to the promises. He’s in every part. In this, the Law isn’t abolished but serves a greater purpose – to reveal Christ.

Jesus offers a way back to full communion with God through his death and resurrection. Jesus restores the original design in the Garden, and he becomes the new Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45) of a new people sharing divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). By giving us his Spirit, we have the Person within us who walked in complete obedience to God while on earth, was tempted in every way and yet lived without sin.

Jesus gave us the Spirit after his resurrection for this reason. The fulfillment of the Law lives within us, doing the work for us. We can’t even submit to God without Christ’s power. But he has done this, too, and we can humbly trust the Spirit to help us repent, follow, and endure in obedience.

Christ is the resurrection and the fulfillment of the Law. Living and walking with him, we have hope for the future. Death isn’t the end of our story; it has no power or sting over us. We will live forever with the Father in a perfect and eternal world.

Peace.

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