Church WithOut Walls International-Europe
  • Home
    • Privacy Verklaring
  • DE
    • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken >
      • Weekly Thoughts (D) Wöchentliche Gedanken - PDF
  • EN
    • Weekly Thoughts >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS >
        • John's Monthly Newsletter
      • Weekly Thoughts serie in PDF format
    • About John Fenn
    • About Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Books written by Ank Kleinmeulman >
      • About Ank - author
  • ES
    • PENSAMIENTOS SEMANALES (Weekly Thoughts) John Fenn >
      • PENSAMIENTOS SEMANALES (PDF)
  • FR
    • Pensées Hebdomadaires
    • PDF à lire et/ou imprimer
    • A propos de John Fenn
    • A propos de Wil & Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Vidéo en anglais
    • Nous contacter
  • FI
    • Viikottaisia ajatuksia >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS / Viikottaisia ajatuksia
      • Weekly Thoughts / Viikottaisia ajatuksia - PDF
    • John Fennistä
    • TV7
  • L
    • LV
    • LT >
      • Weekly Thoughts (LT) Savaitės Mintys >
        • E-Book
      • Straipsniai >
        • Kaip mes suprantame, koks turi būti surinkimas
        • Krikštai
        • Kaip veikia 5 tarnavimo dovanos namų surinkimuose?
        • Grįžimas prie paprasto tikėjimo
        • Garbinimas
        • Namų surinkimai Naujajame Testamente
        • Išgelbėjimas
        • Tikėjimo išpažinimas
        • Kaip prasidėjo CWOWI?
        • Dažnai pasitaikantys klausimai
      • Video LT
  • NL
    • Weekly Thoughts - nederlands >
      • WEEKLY THOUGHTS (NL) Wekelijkse Gedachten >
        • Weekly Thoughts NL pdf
    • Over / bio van John Fenn
    • Over / bio Wil & Ank
    • Wat wij geloven
    • Onderwijs - MP3
    • Boeken van Ank Kleinmeulman
    • Doneren / gift overmaken?
    • Conferentie >
      • Conferentie LT - 2025
    • Artikelen >
      • Hoe “Church Without Walls International” is ontstaan
      • Hoe een samenkomst van een CWOW huisgemeente eruit ziet
      • Waarom samenkomen in een huis?
      • Wat is een huiskerk en een huiskerk netwerk?
      • HuisKerken: Waarom – Wat – en Hoe?
      • Ank deelt over Wat & Hoe van Huiskerken (VIDEO'S)
  • PL
  • PT
    • "O pensamento da semana em Português"
    • PT-pdf
  • RO
    • Gânduri săptămânale >
      • Gânduri săptămânale - PDF
  • RU
    • Джон Фенн
    • Сид Рот «Это сверхъестественно»
  • Donate
  • Events
    • Lithuania - 2025
  • TV
  • Contact
  • New Page

Additional thought: Not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill

2/3/2018

0 Comments

 
Hi all,
The response to the series 'How Jewish Should a Christian Be', has been very good, but I feel the need to take 1 extra week to go into detail on Jesus' statement in Matthew 5:17-18, this time from a different perspective: 
 
"Do not think that I've come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Truly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass, not one jot or tittle will pass away from the law, until all is fulfilled." (jot and tittle being the smallest unit of Hebrew grammar)
 
The Dilemma 
For many Messianic Christians this verse is both the foundation and the justification for practicing parts of the Old Testament law, for they read it this way in their mind: 
 
"I have not come to abolish the law, therefore it continues to be binding." They understand the fulfillment as being ongoing and not complete until Jesus returns, because Hebrews 10:16 says this:
 
"This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them."
 
They are both correct, and incorrect. We're more in agreement than not, though confusion reigns in the hearts of many on this matter. Most of us are in complete agreement with Hebrews 10:16, for we recognize God's laws are written in our hearts as well. We therefore agree with Paul's statement of Romans 13: 8-10 that to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself fulfills the Mosaic Law. 
 
Some disregard Paul's teachings of Romans and Galatians, thinking that because God's Law is written in our hearts these Laws are best fulfilled by external obedience to the Mosaic Law, or parts of it, to this day.
 
They may do things to be more Jewish-like; Like refer to Jesus as Yahweh, or call the Bible the Torah, or base their focus on Old Testament scripture. Many start attending Saturday Messianic meetings replete with a processional walking in the scrolls of the Torah, prayers in Hebrew, and such - thinking God is more pleased with them than He is with their charismatic or non-charistmaic friends. Not all are like that of course, many just want to know the Jewish roots of the faith with good and pure hearts - so allow me in this brief space to make some generalities. 
 
What they do, they do unto the Lord, and He accepts them so I do too. But my purpose is to teach the ways of the Father in balance, so let us examine this issue. 
 
To believe they are to live by the external Mosaic Law means they are in a dilemma. James, the Lord's brother and leader in Acts 15 who determined God was not making the Gentiles obey the Law of Moses so neither would these future authors of the New Testament, said in James 2:10: "Whoever keeps the Law, and is guilty in one point, is guilty of the whole law." 
 
That makes those who believe that Jesus' fulfillment of the Law means the external Law is an ongoing binding force today, hypocrites, for they must either obey all 613 Laws of Moses, or pick and choose just how much under the Law they will live - breaking the very thing they think they are obeying. That is being hypocritical. 
 
An example would be the Mosaic Law saying their clothes cannot be of mixed fibers, meaning no cotton/polyester mix is allowed. No wool blends. To break that is the same as murder, for under the law, sin is sin no matter how it is committed. To be guilty of one is to be guilty of all, as James said. 
 
You can't have it both ways
Jesus either came to fulfill all three parts of the Mosaic Law: The Sacrifical, Moral, and Sanitary/dietary Laws, or none at all. If the cross was the final sacrifice, then that sacrifice covered it all - otherwise Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was incomplete. 
 
Let us reconcile how the Law can be in our hearts, yet we don't have to obey the Laws of Moses
If Jesus fulfilled the Law, then why are God's laws written in our hearts?
 
In His statement, Jesus sets the word 'abolish' against the word 'fulfill'. Abolish means to violently destroy. He was saying He was not there to violently destroy the Law, but to fulfill that Law. Grammatically speaking, the way He structured the statement, means He was not there to prevent the fulfillment of the law, He came to enact the fulfillment of the law - His life's purpose was to fulfill the law. 
 
He told the frightened disciples on resurrection day that He fulfilled it, in Luke 24:44: "This is what I told you while I was still with you; Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms."
 
Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies about Messiah - found in the prophets and Psalms. 
He fulfilled the purpose of the Law - which according to Galatians 3:24-25 was to bring us to Christ.
He fulfilled the Law's demand for the perfect sinless obedient life - James 2:10 - if you break 1, you break them all. 
 
The tipping point
Jesus said in Luke 16:16: "The Law and the Prophets were until John (the Baptist)." They were UNTIL John, for John preached repentance and prepared the hearts of the people for Jesus' fulfillment of the Law and Prophets.
 
In Him; He in us, we in Him - answers the question how the Mosaic Law is still in force today
Jesus fulfilled the Law, then died, taking that fulfillment with Him to the grave. Then He was resurrected which according to Hebrews 9:16-26, means He became the Executor of His own Estate. Having fulfilled the Last Will and Testament of the Old, He is now the Executor of the New Testament. He possesses the Old and overrides it with the New. 
 
In this way, in this sense, Jesus' fulfillment of the Law of Moses is an ongoing fulfillment because He is alive. He is now immune to the curse of the Law - and anyone in Him is immune to the curse of the Law as well. In Him we are shielded. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us..." Galatians 3:13
 
Having God's Law written in our hearts means Christ is in us, the Executor of His own Estate - and He from the inside out directs us to live within His personal ongoing fulfillment of the Law. We have Christ in us to convict us when we lust after someone or some thing. We have Christ in us to convict us when we lie, when we steal, when we dishonor God, and so on. 
 
Because Jesus fulfilled the Law, and He is in us, His fulfillment is ongoing in our lives, moving us ever closer to maturity in Him. That is how Paul could say to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, fulfills the Law - because Christ in you is doing that and directing you in that. 
 
It means we MUST walk with Him in life so that He may direct us. It means reliance on external rules and regulations take us away from the intimacy of walking daily and moment to moment with Christ. He fulfilled the requirements of the Law, and then moved His fulfilled Life inside of us so that we walk in that same fulfillment - Love God #1, and your neighbor as yourself, and you fulfill the Law. 
 
I hope this makes sense...I trust the Father to give the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened. Blessings, new subject next week, really! 
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at [email protected]
 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

      John Fenn

      If you want to subscribe

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    RSS Feed

Church WithOut Walls International.eu (C) 2025
to donate
Photo from widakso