Did the Messiah Fulfill the Law? Understanding Matthew 5:17

Did the Messiah fulfill the law? That's a phrase most of us have heard dozens of times...and with good reason. The Bible says the Messiah came to fulfill the law; this was said by Jesus himself in Matthew 5:17. But it's important to get the implications of that statement correct.

What does the Messiah fulfilled the law mean?

Contrary to popular belief, fulfilling the law doesn't mean getting rid of the law or "doing away with" Biblical law. Many Christians throw the statement, "The Messiah fulfilled the law," at nearly any suggestion of keeping Biblical commandments to mean that since the Messiah did this, we don't need to worry about it anymore. This is usually said to explain why many believers choose to disregard or not honor certain instructions from Scripture. Christianity teaches that the Messiah 'fulfilled' the law by keeping it perfectly, thereby setting us 'free' from some (albeit not all, in Christian thinking) of the commandments. The foundation for this argument is flawed, as much Christian doctrine teaches that the Messiah actually violated the law. This is, of course, not true! You can see posts like this one for more information on that but the takeaway is that Yahusha never broke any of the commandments. If he had, he would have been a sinner (Scripture defines sinning as breaking Biblical commandments), and he would have been disqualified from being our Savior.

But if you look up the word fulfill in any dictionary you will find a different definition than getting rid of something. The first definition is usually given as something like, "to bring into actuality," or "to bring into effect," or "to do something." To me that sounds like the opposite of doing away with something! 

Look at the Messiah's words when we understand this word properly:

"Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to bring them into effect." -Matthew 5:17

or

"I did not come to abolish the law but to do it."

What law did the Messiah fulfill?

It's important to know exactly which law the Messiah was bringing into effect. A lot of people will tell you the Messiah actually taught some sort of New Testament law or His own version of Biblical law, but the context of the law and the Prophets doesn't support this idea. Plus at the time of this statement there was no New Testament. Since He only did what He saw His Father doing, and given the context of the law and the Prophets, the Messiah was referencing the commandments given in the Old Testament.

There are three types of laws in the Bible. Biblical, Levitical, and Jewish.

He's not bringing into effect Jewish laws that are manmade. He spent much of His ministry confronting religious leaders about upholding their own traditions and teachings in place of what Scripture says, so it would make no sense that He would be bringing those into effect.

That leaves us with Biblical law and Levitical law. Since Psalm 110 tells us the Messiah's priesthood is of Melchizedek, and we know that He cannot function as a Levitical priest since He is of the tribe of Judah, it wouldn't make any sense to say that His focus was on Levitical law and cracking down on the standards for animal sacrifice, etc.

That leaves us with Biblical law. These are the laws found in the Old Testament (mostly in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy - also known as the Torah), that give us clear instructions for our behavior. Most of Biblical law relates to how we worship YHWH, how we treat others, regulations for loans and business conduct, instructions for sexual conduct, animals we are not to eat, and instructions for Biblical holidays, including the Sabbath.

Learn more about Biblical law here.

But didn't the Messiah keep the law perfectly so we don't have to anymore?

The Messiah did keep the law perfectly. But the Bible never says that because He did, we don't have to.

Depending on where you live in the world you are subject to specific laws. These encompass everything from driving rules to tax law to workplace regulations to laws against theft. As a citizen, or even a passing visitor, you are expected to keep all of them. Let's say that my dad has flawlessly kept the laws of our state and country for his entire life...having never evaded his taxes, committed a crime, ran a stop sign, etc. Does that mean that because he has perfectly kept these laws, then I don't have to? Of course not! It would be completely absurd for me to commit a crime and tell the police officer, "It's okay for me to do this because my dad has never broken the law."

And what would the police officer think if I used that as an argument? Something like, "If your dad set such a great example, why aren't you more like him? Why aren't you following the same rules?"

Now if I were to get in legal trouble, my dad would be gracious enough to help. If I was given a speeding ticket, he would pay it for me if I couldn't. But just because someone has taken care of my debt doesn't mean it would be wise for me to go out and break traffic laws - why put myself and others at risk from reckless choices? But his actions don't mean the law does not apply to me. Since we all have a spiritual debt we cannot pay, the Messiah lovingly and graciously covered that debt for us with his own life. 

Yes, the Messiah kept the law perfectly. He didn't break even the least significant instruction of Scripture. But that doesn't make it okay for us to disregard how He lived. And 1 John 2:6 tells us that if we claim to know Him, we need to walk as He did.

What does Matthew 5:17 mean then?

This passage of Scripture does say that the Messiah came to fulfill the law, but we can see that fulfill doesn't mean "do away with," but rather "to do" or to "bring into effect"! If the meaning of the word fulfill isn't convincing enough, we should also note in this same verse Yahusha says without ambiguity, "Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them." The Messiah literally said that He did not come to do away with the the commandments! 

This understanding of Matthew 5 fits with the rest of the Messiah's life and the Gospels. We consistently see Him keeping the commandments and defending Biblical law to the religious leaders who were more concerned with their own traditions. He came to show us the way to live, and said He wasn't abolishing Biblical law.

The Messiah fulfilled the law by keeping it, and by keeping it He set the example for how we are to live.

Related posts:
Did the Messiah Break the Law?
Basics of Biblical Law
Commandments or Traditions - Understanding the New Testament

The Truth: Reformation 2.0 Book - Interview + Giveaway!

Learn more about the new book The Truth: Reformation 2.0 by Luke Abaffy, who along with his wife Kayte, created The Way Documentary and The Christmas Question. We will be hearing from the Abaffys today and giving away a few copies of The Truth!

What is The Truth: Reformation 2.0?

This is the book I wanted when I was learning about faith. It addresses the contradictions found in our church doctrine and what the Bible says. All of those "but what about..." questions that pop up in discussions about keeping the commandments Luke answers. 

Some of the questions answered in the book:

-But didn't Jesus fulfill the law so we don't have to?
-Didn't Jesus declare all foods clean?
-Wasn't the law done away with?
-Have you read Galatians?!
-Did Jesus break the Sabbath?
-Are you going to stone your children?
-Isn't the point of the New Covenant that we don't need to keep the law anymore?!

These are the questions I had when my faith was changing, and these are questions I hear all the time, in real life and here on the blog. And yes, all of these topics and more are explained in The Truth! And you don't need to be a scholar to track with this book, which I love! The explanations are simple...most aren't longer than two or three pages...but they are thoroughly answered using Scripture. Luke gives many fun analogies and it reads like how you would talk to a friend at Bible study. I laughed out loud more than once when I read through it.

Luke and Kayte were kind enough to take a few minutes to share a bit about the book and the process of writing it with us!

Land of Honey: What inspired you to write The Truth?

Luke: For years I wanted to write a book laying out all my thoughts on theology, so our sons could read it. But I didn't think I was qualified or would be until I was an old man. I think that because of that lack of confidence in being a big wig "theologian," I ignored any prodding of the Spirit to write the book. I wasn't likely to do it for decades, or ever, as I wasn't likely to magically morph into a “big wig theologian”. Then, in the summer of 2021 I was building a deer fence for our apple trees and by a nearly impossible effort of overwhelming stupidity, I impaled my hand on a metal t-post. It severed my tendon. I was in the hospital waiting to be put under for the operation to reattach the tendon and sew up my hamburger-meat hand, when I started thinking and praying. It went like this: "Luke, if you're weirdly allergic to whatever anesthesia drug they give you and you die, would you be happy with what you've accomplished?" I lay there thinking. Then, "No, Luke, I'd have wanted to write down what I believe for my kids first." More thinking. "Then you better do that." So that was the inspiration. Lol.

Also, the reason I wanted to write this instead of making it a doc like The Way, was partially because of Milton Friedman. He was doing interviews when television was first becoming widespread. He aired his idea in radio interviews, on television and also written down in his most popular book: Capitalism and Freedom. Friedman said the best medium to get difficult ideas across was the written word. Why? People weren't distracted by the looks or presentation of the author (like with TV), or his voice and cadence (like with radio). They study his ideas via black and white words. And those ideas either make sense, on their own merit or they don't. Also, readers can go back over the page at their leisure to re-read paragraphs or whole sections easily instead of having to rewind or pause. 

What did the process of writing this book look like and how long did it take?

Luke: I looked at all the questions I’d ever been asked by Christians in my life about keeping Torah. I went through tons of Torah resources where teachers answered questions and objections about our faith. Kayte posted on our Facebook page asking our community what theological truths were hardest to explain and articulate. That initial list became the content of the book. From there, we divided it into chapters that covered the book’s big ideas - things like our identity as Israel, how Yeshua lived, the goodness of the law, the character of Yah etc.

It took 8 months to do the study/research and write the first draft, but then it took another 6 months of research and editing to get it pretty nailed down to a point that we were finally willing to let it go out to some trusted readers. 

This book is "eating the elephant". It's tackling every doctrinal question and argument that mainstream Christians ask us. It's diving into all the gospels, and Paul's writings and Hebrews. So, it was a bit daunting at first. But thank goodness we were standing on the shoulders of giants. For the most part I tried to restate in a cute way, what other big brains (such as Nathan Lawrence, and 119 Ministries) had already solved. But there was a bit of new ground I think Yah let us break. So, with persistence, you eat the elephant, one bite at a time. And during all of that, our perspective changed on a few issues. That always happens when doing non fiction though. I consider it a sign that I'm being honest with the material. More on that later.

Kayte: I worked with the book cover designer and the illustrator to execute everything visual about the book. We’d made a huge list of potential illustrations for the concepts in the book and then narrowed them down to the key ones we wanted, plus some Venn Diagrams. So we drew awful stick figure sketches that gave the illustrator an idea of the composition and elements of each image, and he took them and ran and made them look great.

Luke would come home from writing at the end of the day and I would ask him what he wrote about. I’d ask question after question, trying to get him to distill the main ideas to their purest form. I’d be like, "Did you say it like THAT in the book!?" and I'd write down any good language that came out of the torturous questioning--to add to the book.

How did your faith grow throughout this process?

Luke: Whenever you see the hand of Yah working in your life, your faith grows. That happened in this project throughout, just like with The Way. That was so exciting to see, because it's not only a personal confirmation that you're doing the right work for Him, but after The Way, I only hoped and prayed that we could again be used where Yah's hand is apparent, and we can watch Him work throughout. 

One instance with this project was when we were looking for an artist. Kayte queried dozens of great artists and all of them were too busy to do it within our timeline, even if they were interested in the project. Frustrated, we kept looking, but Kayte reached out to an artist named Jesús Meza in Mexico. He was the first one who could make room to do this project. And they started working on concepts. In the process of trying to explain where we were coming from, Kayte was explaining about Passover and Jesús said, "Oh yeah, I know all about it. I've been keeping Passover for years." He’s a Messianic believer. We were shocked and he was totally on the same page with all the art and could thus make it come across in the manner that we needed. That's one example of how no matter what we tried to do, Yah guided everything. It was already planned. 

Kayte: The idea that Yah is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him came alive to me in this process. When answers or His direction isn’t instantaneous and you have to doggedly pursue Him, it really does reveal your heart—whether I care enough to continue seeking Him—and whether I believe that seeking His face will pay off with a deeper knowledge of who He is. Also, on the more logistical side: timing the book release around Reformation Day was totally accidental, which sounds insane given the subtitle of the book—but we didn’t plan that at all. Yah did!

I love the fun analogies used throughout the book - do you have a favorite? or one that seems to 'click' with most people?

Luke: I don't know what clicks with people yet because so far, only editors and beta readers have read it. But I think that most important are the Engine of Atonement and the Queen's Court (rules of etiquette vs atonement) as they both try to explain New Covenant and priesthood/atonement topics that were difficult for me to understand. The worst one is "Christ as Toothpick". I'll let the readers find that one for themselves. 

Do you have any tips for navigating sharing these truths (or the book itself) with family and friends?

Kayte: 

-Ask questions.

-Use resources like this book to fill in theological gaps  and answer questions that might still be hazy in your mind. Feeling settled in your own understanding is a good step towards more peaceful Bible conversations with friends and family.

-Think about apologetics as a pantry of pre-prepped ingredients that allow you to be ready to serve an answer to a person who’s hungry and sincerely questioning. Don’t think about loading up on apologetics like arsenal for a food fight—if I can take the analogy a bit too far :) 

-Remember that it’s the Spirit who opens eyes and our understanding.

Luke: What ties the book together is the through-line that if you believe the Torah isn't for us today, then dozens of contradictions within the Scriptures are instantly created. Following that overarching theme, we visit 25 of the unnecessary contradictions created and use them to visit all of the popular arguments brought up by mainstream Christians. 

The main audience for the book is the Torah-observant believer, with the hope that if a mainstream Christian picked it up, they wouldn't be put off or feel like we're writing in a different language (literally). If you’re planning on giving The Truth to a friend or family member who’s not on board with Torah, they would need to have a more than a passing interest in the possibility that it's true that the Torah is relevant for us today to get through it. The main goal of the book is to help harden the faith and defenses of Torah observers. The idea is to fill any cracks that might appear in their apologetic veneer through want of research. So my tip is: if you don't have an overarching framework that lets you respond to queries, attacks or debates from all directions, then check this book out. 

When will The Truth: Reformation 2.0 be released?

Kayte: The e-book is out now and the paperback version will be shipping on November 15.

Where can I get it?

Paperback and digital copies can be purchased online through The Way's website.

I hope you will have a chance to check out this resource, and read more of the explanations and analogies, and see eye opening images! It will help you better understand the Bible. Congratulations to Luke and Kayte for completing such a great project and thanks to them for joining us here today!

For the giveaway! Luke and Kayte have been kind enough to donate a few copies of The Truth! We are giving away two physical copies of the book (open to US and Canadian readers only please), as well as two digital copies (open to everyone!). Feel free to enter both if you are in the US or Canada! It's open for a week and winners will be contacted via email.

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Related posts:
Five Books that Changed My Understanding of Scripture
Kayte Abaffy Talks about The Christmas Question
Write the Torah on Our Hearts Printable

Jeremiah 30:10 Bible Verse Printable

Jeremiah 31 is one of many passages of Scripture that calls attention to the two houses of Israel and Judah. Verse 10 promises that the lost northern kingdom of Israel shall be regathered.

"He that scattered Israel shall gather them and keep them, as a shepherd does his flock." -Jeremiah 31:10

Remind yourself of this profound promise by placing this verse somewhere in your home or office! Click here to download this printable from Jeremiah 31. It is free for your personal use.

More free printables:
Keeping the Torah Printable
Jeremiah 33 - Abundance of Real Peace and Truth
Love YHWH and His Commands

Who the Dragon Waged War Against in Revelation 12:17

Who is the evil dragon waging war against in the book of Revelation?

This post will explain the attributes of who the dragon raged against, and help us understand the identity of this woman.

"And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, those who keep the commandments and have the testimony of Yahusha." -Revelation 12:17

This people group is defined in two ways:
-as having the testimony of the Messiah
-as keeping the commandments

Why is this significant? Because here is another New Testament passage where followers of the Messiah are keeping Biblical law...and the forces of evil hate this! It's not the kingdom of Heaven waging war against this group; it's the Dragon, the most blatantly evil being in Scripture. This leader of darkness does not like when believers in the Messiah also keep the commandments. This should draw our attention that something very powerful happens when we put the word of God into practice!

The testimony of Messiah is the most important thing in this world. I am not discounting his life or sacrifice, but we need to see that the Dragon is not waging war against all the people who know the Messiah or that identify as saved or Christian or Bible believing, etc. Believing in the Messiah is a wonderful starting point, but the Dragon won't be waging war against you unless you start keeping the commandments of Scripture as well.

On the surface, this can seem like an easy way to avoid persecution. Just don't keep the commandments and all will be good, right? But in Matthew 5:12 we are told to rejoice when we are persecuted! Not because it is pleasant, but because it is better to be persecuted for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven than it is to be honored and praised for works of darkness. For those that the book of Revelation speaks of, this persecution is the surest sign that they are on the right track.

Keep in mind that in addition to foretelling the last battle of good versus evil at the end of days, Revelation was the last book of the Bible to be written. When John had these visions, it was decades after the Messiah had ascended into Heaven. Most, or possibly all, of the original Disciples were dead, and the writings of Paul were completed. And angels were speaking to John that YHWH's people would be keeping his commands! This wasn't talking about before the Messiah's day when it was a given that Biblical law would be followed. Many pastors would tell you that Biblical law was done away with when the Messiah ascended, but here, decades later, John didn't believe that to be the case.

The Dragon hates when those who follow the Messiah also keep the commandments, and the Dragon hates what YHWH loves. Keeping Biblical law is so important to the Creator that the forces of evil actively work to stop it. If believers today don't keep the commands, are they aligning with the Dragon's side or the King's?

Note: This is not to say that those who don't keep the commandments and have the testimony of the Messiah will have it easy. If you are in a war zone, things are going to be hard. In wartime, even collaborators suffer. But it's very different to be a bystander to war than having war waged on you. 

More posts to understand Scripture:
What You Need to Know When You Read Galatians
Did the Messiah Break Biblical Law?
The Two Houses: Israel and Judah in Scripture