What does it mean that Jesus fulfilled the law but did not abolish it?

Question

We hear that we are no longer under the law. It even says so in Galations:

Galations 3:23-25
Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

_{It seems 1 Corinthians 10:23 also supports this.}

But yet, Jesus said that he did not come to abolish the law:

Matthew 5:17-18
“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. For truly I tell you, 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."

What did Jesus mean that he did not come to abolish the law, but fulfill it, especially since it seems from later in the Bible that he did abolish the law.

Answer 1

There is salvation through Christ Jesus, and the law is the measure by which we are able to gauge our human existence reborn in Christ. Paul was an instrament of God. But Paul announces "my gospel" often. Jesus cited His Father's will, design, power, or design. First Peter instructs us that the gospel of Jesus is our salvation. The key being that if we are reborn through Christ with the Holy Spirit within us the law also lives within us to Allow us to know through measure our life vs the life of Christ. God tells us that He loves our laws. To know the 613 Jewish laws offeres insight to the base of the Christian life and the life of Jesus who preached to the "Jewish" followers. Even Paul tells us to follow the order of the Pharisees but to live the rules laws and commandments and not be hypocrites like the Pharisees. What Christ Jesus does for me is bless me and guide me to see how far my life is from His, and how far abridged God's law is because I am deceived and mislead by the world. There is no "G" in me, my or I. So where is God.

Answer 2

It's more dangerous to be practicing the Law or to be under the Law, because cursed is anyone who is still under the Law. We are saved by grace.

I want to advise Christians practicing the laws by observing them (such as the yearly feast, and those who tithe), you are still under the Law, and if you fail to keep one, you are guilty of all. So, be very careful and come in and dwell under grace.

God bless you.

Answer 3

It means that while the gospel state supersedes and makes the Mosaic Covenant obsolete, it does not do it by opposing it but by becoming the perfection and fulfillment of it.

The ceremonial law was made obsolete by Christ as he was what all the sacrifices pointed to. The civil law was made obsolete as the kingdom was no longer a physical Israel but an invisible one.The moral law was made obsolete in that the Mosaic Law was a renewal of the covenant of works and not based on faith in Messiah therefore it was written on stone, but now the law is written as a principle of life through a new birth.

This does not mean any aspect of the Law is opposed, or destroyed by Christ. On the contrary by his blood we enter God's Kingdom and obey his laws.

7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. (2 Corinthians 3:7-10, NIV)

Notice what was glorious, the Ten Commands, the sacrifices, etc. now has no glory, but just as the Sun does not destroy the Moon when it appears in its blaze of glory, so,the gospel does not destroy the Law. The Moon has no light of its own but only promises that a Sun exists and will come for it reflects its glory. In the same way the Law was not built on faith but pointed to faith, once faith arrived the Law was fulfilled and made obsolete.

The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” (Galatians 3:12, NIV)

By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. (Hebrews 8:13, NIV)

Another way of looking at it is high school does not destroy kindergarten, but when you come of age adult things make you put away childish things. Under the Law we were God's people are like little children taught by a tutor, only later becoming adults in the gospel. Adulthood does not oppose and destroy childhood:

23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. (Galatians 3:23-25, NIV)

Answer 4

From what I've been able to discern as a High School student in a good Christian school, the Law of Moses is now and always has been relevant only to rewards in heaven, given when you obey the Spirit.

Think of it like the relation between dog and trainer, when the dog does something that the trainer wants him to, the dog gets a reward. The Spirit is our trainer and we are the dog. When we follow the law under the Spirits direction, we get rewards in heaven.^*

As far as the relation between Matt. 5:17-19 and Galatians goes, Paul had always meant that the Galatians church members were not under the law for salvation like others were telling them, but that they were saved by God's grace. The first commentator also had a good point in saying that Romans explains it better.

^{I think I may have just written a modern parable there!}

Answer 5

I think part of the difficulty comes as a bit of confusion as to what is meant by the law and its application.

When the law was introduced, it was never intended to be the instrument by which man would save himself, but it was the instrument through which man was to be saved. In a very real sense, man is saved through the fulfilment (keeping) of the law. When Christ fulfilled the law, he earned the privilege of life. Those who are in Christ, likewise, share in his righteousness and are delcared righteous right along side him. In that sense, the law has always stood and and will continue to stand.

That being said, though, it's important to realize that we basically choose whether the law applies to us individually or not -- through grace, we can choose to be in Christ, or we can choose to stand on our own merits when we're judged. In that sense, too, the law still stands.

Paul talks a good deal about this in the book of Romans, and the whole book gives a much more complete (and competent :) ) version of an explanation that I'm about to...

I think it's important to realize the role of the law. I'm going to jump arount a bit, but if we start with Romans 7:7-12, I think we can make a little more sense of this (emphasis mine):

Romans 7:7What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

There's a certain bit of irony when the law is introduced to human nature. Being rebellious and sinful that we are, we latch on to the specifics as a means to found outlet for our repressed frustrated rebellions. The law was never meant to save man, but rather was a contrast between the holiness of God and the depravity of man. The law offered life through its fulfilment and death through its violation. This is a subtle but significant key, I think we somehow overlook when discussing grace, as this seems to be exactly how Jesus came to be our savior offering us hope for life...He earned that right by fulfiling the law.

That being said, there's still hope for us wretched sinners:

Romans 7:4Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Looking at the block starting with v.7 we see that the law is not bad (in fact it's good) just because we use it as a springboard for badness. The law is good, and it's been fulfilled by Christ. He was the one who fulfilled it; not us.

When we look on the Romams 8, Paul clarifies a bit more (Emphasis mine):

Romans 8: 1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

The righteous requirement of the law has been fulfilled in us (those who are in Christ Jesus) by virutue of us being in Christ. The law has been fulfilled, there is, therefore no condemnation for those who are clothed with Christ's righteousness, but we should remember that those who live according to the spirit set their minds on spiritual things and will see to live in accordance with God's moral law. Romans 6:15 reminds us of this, but note, (Paul does suggest again that we're not under the law, per se):

Romans 6:15What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

With his blood, Jesus purchased us from death. Jesus was the fulfilment of the law; not us. Because of that, we are bound as slaves of righteousness. We're not going to fulfill the law in our own lives, and we're not expected to; but lest we use this as an excuse to sin without rein, we are supposed to set our sights on righteousness out of gratitude and duty to our Savior. Those who understand the Gospel (the goodness of God, the wickedness of sin, the graciousness of God to provide a savior) will, naturally seek to please the God who save them and whom they serve, and the best way we can know what this is it to look to the law He's given us.

ETA: TL;DR:

When Jesus came to fulfil the law (i.e. obedience leads to life; disobedience leads to death) he did just that. Notice He didn't say, that old law's no good, don't worry about it (i.e. abolish it); what he did, instead, was to come saying the law is good, and he is the fulfulment of it.