“Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.
Matthew 5:17 (NASB 2020)
Was Jesus’ teaching in some way contrary to the Law and the Prophets (what we call the Old Testament)? Jesus assured those who listened to him, including the Jewish leaders who fiercely opposed Him, that He was not teaching anything contrary to their Scriptures. He had not come to change or do away with some, or all, of the Law and Prophets. He had come to fulfill them.
So what does it mean to fulfill the Law and Prophets? In the Gospel of Matthew, you frequently find him telling his readers that something happened in order to fulfill what was foretold by the prophets. And many have searched the Old Testament for prophecies that they believe Jesus fulfilled, with numbers ranging from 200 to 600.
But is that what Jesus meant by fulfilling the Law and Prophets? That He was fulfilling a specific set of prophecies? Or is the whole of the Law and Prophets fulfilled in Jesus? Jesus did not say that He had come to fulfill some of the Law and Prophets. Instead, He came to fulfill the Law and Prophets, the whole thing.
The Law and Prophets pointed ahead to Jesus, His death on the cross, and the establishment of His kingdom. The book of Hebrews helps us to understand how Jesus is the fulfillment of the earthly Tabernacle, the priesthood, and the sacrifices. But Jesus fulfills more than that. The coming kingdom that was prophesied in the Prophets finds its fulfillment in the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed and now rules as King.
Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. So if we read them apart from Jesus and His work, we will never fully understand them. Our Old Testament is best read through the lens of Jesus as revealed in the New Testament.
