Highlight: What Does "Fulfilling the Law" Mean?

Apologia Studios

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We have the 10 commandments that are still for today. Jesus was very clear that love God and love your neighbor. All of the 10 commandments hang on those two.

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This is a big one. This is a big one. Doreen, I love you, sister. I really do.

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I have a lot of affection for Doreen. Doreen, you were wrong here. Jesus didn't say that all the 10 commandments were based upon love for God, love for neighbor.

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Just read the text. All of the law and the prophets, the whole law and prophets were built upon love for God and love for neighbor, not just the 10 commandments.

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Yes, when you look at the 10 commandments, you see love God and you see love neighbor. And then the rest of the law that explains what to do if somebody violates those laws is also how you love

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God and love neighbor. So if you believe that love God and love neighbor is still relevant in the new covenant, then you should understand that that command to love

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God and love neighbor comes from Mosaic legislation, first and foremost. In other words, love

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God, love neighbor, Jesus was quoting from, ready? Leviticus, he was quoting from Leviticus.

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You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. That is in Leviticus. And so love God, love neighbor is the

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Mosaic legislation. And Jesus says all of the law and the prophets are built upon love for God and love for neighbor.

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In other words, how you punish the rapist is in large measure gonna be based upon your love for God and love for neighbor because God defines how.

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How you punish the thief is gonna be based upon love for God and love for neighbor. And so all the law and the prophets,

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Doreen, not just the 10 commandments, you misquoted it there. It's all the law and the prophets are built upon love for God and love for neighbor.

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Right, so we've got that. And then the ceremonial laws, we were talking about the not mixing fabrics, the shellfish, that was fulfilled by Jesus on the cross.

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Right, and those had a specific purpose for the nation of Israel that was fulfilled. Right, and then you have -

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Can we talk about that first just briefly? Ephesians chapter two, we typically refer to that as the holiness code, okay, the holiness code.

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And they were laws that were given to Israel that were essentially training wheels to teach them to be separate and not to engage in syncretism and be like the surrounding nations.

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So what did God do? He gave them specific ways for them to essentially live and act out their separateness from the paganism and the unrighteous societies around them.

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So God literally put it into their clothing and their food. You were to be so separate from the pagan nations, so separate and not engage in any syncretism that it's supposed to be in your clothes.

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You don't mix fibers. What did that teach them? Don't blend with the surrounding nations. Don't do what they do.

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Don't adopt their practices. Don't uphold their unrighteous statutes. You do not blend.

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And so the fabrics were supposed to teach them as training wheels not to blend with the practices of the pagan nations around them.

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They were supposed to eat differently, look differently, and because why? They were a separate nation. So here's what's important.

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The apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God says that that holiness code now doesn't apply in the same way in the new covenant administration.

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Why? Because now we've got Jews and Gentiles coming together in one body. And so the food and dietary restrictions, those don't apply in the same way anymore.

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Neither does the clothing stuff. But guess what? That law about the clothing, about the food is still abiding and relevant today.

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Not in the same way, but we are still to be separate as God's people. We are still not to be blending with the pagan nations around us.

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We're still not to be adopting their practices. So guess what? Even the equity and principle behind those holiness code legislative commands, that still abides for the new covenant believer, not in the same way.

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I ate bacon this morning, I think. I ate so much bacon, I forget when I eat it. It doesn't, it's not the same in the new covenant administration, but guess what?

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It still applies. And the apostle Paul says the same thing about the ceremonial laws and the other things that they were doing in terms of how they would actually do a practice of sweeping the yeast or the stuff out of their house.

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You're not to celebrate it in the same way, but it's still abiding and relevant because we're to purge ourselves of all that sin and all that malice and all that stuff out of our lives.

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It's still an abiding law. It's not done in the same way in the new covenant administration, but the law still abides. And guess what else still abides?

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We don't have a temple anymore. We don't have a priest anymore. We don't have yearly day of atonements anymore.

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We don't have any of those things anymore, but guess what? We still have a temple. We still have a high priest. We still have a sacrifice.

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Guess what? We're not practicing blood atonement anymore today. We're not rehearsing it every year, but guess what? Blood atonement is still abiding and relevant in the new covenant.

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It's just a once for all sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins, and that's true for the new covenant, but it's a once for all sacrifice.

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So when someone's like, yeah, we just don't do that stuff anymore. It's like, yeah, it's not the same way anymore, but every bit of that is still abiding and relevant in a new covenant.

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It's just not in the same in this administration. We still have a temple. We still have a high priest. We still have a sacrifice.

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We still have blood atonement. We still have to be separate from the surrounding nations. All of God's law and his righteous statutes endure forever.

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It doesn't mean that all of them are done in the same way, but God hasn't tossed his law aside. Like, yeah, I revealed that to you.

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Yeah, that mattered to me, and yeah, that was just, but in the new covenant, it's olly olly oxen free.

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It's just every man for himself. You can just do whatever you please. Whatever you feel like. Well, those all pointed to Christ, right?

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And so when Christ says in Matthew, did I come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, there you go. He fulfilled those laws, but he clearly says,

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I didn't come to be done with the law, to abolish it, to end it. I fulfilled it, and that's what he's talking about.