How Jesus Fulfilled the Law in His Death

“I have not come to abolish [the Law or the Prophets] but to fulfill them.” MATTHEW 5:17

Jesus came into the world to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, and He did this in His death.

The prophets had spoken of a suffering servant who would be “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5). And in the Psalms, David described the suffering of a man whose hands and feet would be pierced (22:16). He would be mocked (22:7). His bones would be pulled out of joint (22:14). His clothes would be divided by casting lots (22:18). He would cry out in agony, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” (22:1). And when Jesus went to the cross, these prophecies were fulfilled.

The law prescribes penalties as well as requirements. Blessings would follow obeying God’s law. Curses would follow breaking God’s law. “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them” (Gal. 3:10). We have an obligation to the law of God that we have not fulfilled, and our failure to fulfill the law brings a curse.

But Jesus came on a mission to fulfill the law. He fulfills the requirements of the law in His life, and He paid the penalties of the law in His death: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Gal. 3:13). The curse that would have been on us, fell on Him. That is why, “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

Are you still living like you are under the curse of the law with all its guilt and condemnation? Or are you resting in the finished work of Jesus?