Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
Here, then, we have our Lord’s own testimony regarding His relation to the law of God. His first and most comprehensive declaration upon the subject — the one which may be said to rule all the others — is the utterance on the mount, ‘Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets, I came not to destroy (καταλῦσαι), to dissolve, abrogate, make void), but to fulfil (πληρῶσαι).’ This latter expression must be taken in its plain and natural sense; therefore, not as some would understand it, to confirm or ratify — which is not the import of the word, and also what the law and the prophets did not require. God’s word needs no ratification. Nor, as others, to fill up and complete their teaching — for this were no proper contrast to the destroying or making void.
No; it means simply to substantiate, by doing what they required, or making good what they announced. To fulfil a law (πληροῦν νόμου), was a quite common expression, in profane as well as sacred writings, and only in the sense now given. So we find Augustine confidently urging it against the Manichaean perverters of the truth in his day: ‘The law (says he) is fulfilled when the things are done which are commanded. . . . Christ came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it: not that things might be added to the law which were wanting, but that the things written in it might be done — which His own words confirm; for He does not say, “One jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law” till the things wanting are added to it, but “till all be done.”' And uttered as the declaration was when men’s minds were fermenting with all manner of opinions respecting the intentions of Jesus, it was plainly meant to assure them that He stood in a friendly relation to the law and the prophets, and could no more, in His teaching than in His working, do what would be subversive of their design. They must find in Him only their fulfilment.
For the reference, see:
reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com
No; it means simply to substantiate, by doing what they required, or making good what they announced. To fulfil a law (πληροῦν νόμου), was a quite common expression, in profane as well as sacred writings, and only in the sense now given. So we find Augustine confidently urging it against the Manichaean perverters of the truth in his day: ‘The law (says he) is fulfilled when the things are done which are commanded. . . . Christ came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it: not that things might be added to the law which were wanting, but that the things written in it might be done — which His own words confirm; for He does not say, “One jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law” till the things wanting are added to it, but “till all be done.”' And uttered as the declaration was when men’s minds were fermenting with all manner of opinions respecting the intentions of Jesus, it was plainly meant to assure them that He stood in a friendly relation to the law and the prophets, and could no more, in His teaching than in His working, do what would be subversive of their design. They must find in Him only their fulfilment.
For the reference, see:
Patrick Fairbairn on Christ’s fulfilment of the law in Matthew 5:17
Here, then, we have our Lord’s own testimony regarding His relation to the law of God. His first and most comprehensive declaration upon the subject — the one which may be said to rule all t…
reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com