FULFILLED BUT NOT ABOLISHED
A CORRESPONDENT requests some suggestions in regard to the teaching of Matt. 5:17, which reads: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Our correspondent informs us that a person in that neighborhood is teaching that the foregoing text means that Christ abolished the law. It is said that when He came, He fulfilled the law; and having fulfilled it, He therefore set it aside. But the text does not say anything of that kind. And it is easy to see, from the Bible, that the inference is unwarranted. For instance, in Matt. 3:13-17 we have the record of Christ coming to John to be baptized. John remonstrated with Christ that he needed rather to be baptized of the Lord; but Christ’s reply was, “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered Him.” ARE RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JOY ABOLISHED?
According to the argument made in regard to the abolition of the law, when Christ was baptized He fulfilled all righteousness, and therefore all righteousness was abolished when Christ was baptized. Such an absurdity does not call for any further comment. The seventeenth chapter of John records the earnest prayer Christ made for His immediate disciples and for His church through all the ages. In that divine petition we find this statement: “And now come I to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” John 17:13. Then following the reasoning of the individual who would have the law abolished when Christ fulfilled it, we would have His joy abolished here should His prayer be answered, for He prayed that His joy might be fulfilled in His disciples. In writing to the Philippian church, the apostle Paul said: “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” Phil. 2:1, 2. Still following that kind of reasoning, if the church at Philippi had followed Paul’s request, they would have fulfilled his joy. Was Paul laying definite plans to have his joy abolished? IS THE MINISTRY ABOLISHED?
When writing to the Colossians, Paul said, “Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God.” Col. 1:25. Then Paul’s ministrations to the Colossians were for the purpose of fulfilling the word of God. And again, according to that faulty method of reasoning, Paul could not do the work of the minister without fulfilling God’s word; and if he fulfilled it, then would the Scriptures be abolished? To ask the question is sufficient. There is no need to answer it. In the same letter, he says: “Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it.” Col. 4:17. Would Archippus, by fulfilling his ministry, abolish it? If so, what is the purpose of the ministry? IS THE LAW OF CHRIST ABOLISHED?
But perhaps we could not select a text that would show the absurdity of this reasoning any more clearly than Gal. 6:2. The text reads, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Then if “fulfill” means to abolish, when Christians bear one another’s burdens, they fulfill the law of Christ, and that would abolish it also. The popular notion is that in the old dispensation the Father gave a law which was abolished, and that Christ has given us a new one for this dispensation. But if Matt. 5:17 teaches the abolition of the law of Ten Commandments, then this text from Galatians also teaches the abolition of the law of Christ itself, so we would have no law from either the Father or the Son. These scriptures ought to make it apparent, to any reasonable mind, that the word “fulfill” as used in the Scripture cannot by any reasonable interpretation be made to mean the same as “abolish.” Christ did indeed fulfill the law of God. The apostle Paul states the case of the sinner exactly when he says: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” Rom. 7:19-21. Man cannot do what his mind tells him he ought to do. He156is powerless against sin. He cannot keep the law of God, for God’s law demands not only that the outward actions shall be right, but every meditation, every thought, and every purpose must be true and righteous. Man has never reached this standard except as he has attained it under the influence of the divine power, and it was to fulfill this exalted standard in man that Christ came. The Saviour says: “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” The Lord Jesus Christ kept His Father’s commandments. He did not abolish them. WOULD THE LORD BE SO INCONSISTENT?
The last book of the Bible to have been inspired and written is the book of Revelation; and in the last chapter of that book, and toward the close of the chapter, we have these words: “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” The book of Revelation, according to its first utterance, is “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Therefore it is Christ who is talking, and the expression “His commandments” must refer to the commandments of the Father. There is no honest way of avoiding this conclusion. Then let the question be asked in all candor and seriousness, Would Christ pronounce a blessing upon the keeping of commandments that He had abolished? And is it not clear, to the candid reader, that when Christ fulfilled the law, He obeyed it? And rendering obedience to a law is the highest type of evidence that one regards that law as binding. It is a blessed promise recorded in Rev. 22:14. Those who do His—the divine Father’s—commandments, will enter in through the gates into the city of God. To each individual who will receive it, Christ is seeking to impart power that will enable him to fulfill, or to keep, God’s law, even as the Master Himself kept it. This teaching is plain in the sacred Word, and the prize of eternal life that the Lord offers is of too much value for us to allow ourselves to be cheated out of it through mere quibbles.