FULFILLING THE LAW by F. H. Tripp

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 25, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 12.

FULFILLING THE LAW.

By F. H. Tripp

“THINK not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law; till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:17, 18.

In what way does Christ fulfil the law, according to the above text? How is it done? Is it by doing away with it, as some claim? It would seem not by the reading: “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law; till all be fulfilled.” To fulfil the law can not mean to do away with it, to annul, to abolish, it.

Then we must understand that the whole law, in all its completeness, in each one of its separate articles, and in every one of its requirements, is to be fulfilled by Christ. We also infer from the context that the law spoken of here that Christ came to fulfil is the law of commandments; for we read in the verse immediately following: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

In verse 21 we have distinctly mentioned one of the commandments, “Thou shalt not kill.” Again another in verse 27, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” From the above texts, as well as from the tenor of the whole chapter, we justly conclude that it is the moral law, the Ten Commandments, that is here meant. These being the foundation of all law (both divine and human) is another very strong reason toward this conclusion.

Our Saviour says he came not to destroy this law, but to fulfil it (to make it complete, to accomplish its design, its purpose, its plan). How does he do it? In other words, what is fulfilling the law? Paul says, “Owe no man anything, but to love one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet,” etc. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Rom. 13:8–10. Here Paul mentions five of the Ten Commandments in connection with the fulfilment of the law, thus giving us further proof that the law spoken of is the law of commandments.

In the above texts we are plainly told what the fulfilling of the law is. Christ says he came to fulfil it. How? We read that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,” etc. (2 Cor. 5:19), and, “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). Therefore Love (God) was in Christ reconciling the world unto Love (God). Then God and Christ, being of the same Spirit and substance, Christ is Love also; and when Christ comes into the heart of the believer, Love comes in, and “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Love begets love, “for Love [God] so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son,” etc. John 3:16. The Son and the Father being one, he, too, so loved the world that he gave his life to save it, and was lifted up from the earth that he might draw all men unto him.

No greater love than this has ever been known; by this he has drawn the hearts of men unto himself in love, and they do not keep the law because it is written on tables of stone, “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not,” but because it is written in the heart by Love, as he says, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.” And this shall be the covenant: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” Jer. 31:31, 33.

As the law under the old covenant was written by the finger of God on tables of stone, so under the new covenant that same law is written by the finger of God (Love) in the hearts of men; and that which is in a man’s heart will be lived out in his life, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Prov. 23:7. Thus the law will be fulfilled. Who fulfils it?—Christ; Christ dwelling in the heart by faith causes men to be so rooted and grounded in love that they are constrained to keep all the law of God.

Who is it then that fulfils the law?—Christ. So it is written: “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” What for?—“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3, 4.

So they who have the Spirit and mind of Christ (for the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be), they who actually and truly belong to him (for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his), in whose hearts he dwells, filling them with himself (Love), will live out, and accomplish the purpose and design of the law, by and through him. Is not this the way Christ fulfils the law? And so it is written, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” 1 John 5:3. F. H. TRIPP.