Fulfilled
A Riddle for the Logical Mind
Three verses. One logical answer. Can you find it?
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Matthew 5:17 (KJV) Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
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Romans 8:4 (KJV) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
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Romans 13:8 (KJV) Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Read all three. Lay them side by side. What must be true?
Paul named the law he meant.
Romans 13:9 (KJV) 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; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
- He came to fulfil the Law, not to destroy it. — Matthew 5:17
- The same Law is fulfilled in us who walk after the Spirit. — Romans 8:4
- The believer who loves has fulfilled the Law. — Romans 13:8
Fulfilled does not mean finished. The Law He fulfilled is still being fulfilled in everyone who walks it.
The verb is the same in all three: plēroō, to fill full.
Why It Matters
The church teaches that Yahushua fulfilled the Law, so the Law is finished. He said, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil" (Matthew 5:17). Paul uses the same word for believers. "The righteousness of the law" is to be "fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:4). "He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law" (Romans 13:8). If fulfill means end, then every believer who walks in the Spirit ends the Law, and every act of love abolishes it. No one believes that. Fulfill does not mean finish.
The Greek pleroo means to fill full, to carry out completely, to give the full measure. Yahushua fulfilled the Law by doing it fully and by showing its full depth. The rest of Matthew 5 does exactly that. Murder reaches to anger. Adultery reaches to the lustful look. The command grew larger in His hands, not smaller. The word He refused was kataluo, to loosen down or dissolve, the same word used for the temple stones "thrown down" (Matthew 24:2).
The other prop is Romans 10:4, "Messiah is the end of the law." The word is telos, goal or aim. Paul uses it the same way in 1 Timothy 1:5: "the end of the commandment is charity." Love is the goal of the commandment, not its funeral. Messiah is where the Law was always aiming.
This matters because Yahushua attached a warning to that very sentence. Whoever breaks "one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:19). A teaching that tells people the Law is finished is a teaching that breaks the commandments and teaches men so. He said the Law would stand "till heaven and earth pass" (Matthew 5:18), and they are still here.
Revelation identifies the people the dragon makes war against: the remnant "which keep the commandments of Yahuah, and have the testimony of Yahushua Messiah" (Revelation 12:17). The Law was fulfilled in them, not finished for them.