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The principle of fulfilment

God is the God of fulfilment and certainly not the God of the incomplete. As we look at Matthew 5:1720, we see this underlined in Jesus’ teaching concerning the law of Moses:

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus came to people who grew up under the law of Moses. They were Jews, they were taught the law and the commandments God had given to Moses, yet now in listening to Jesus they were hearing things which seemed to be adding to what the law taught them and in some cases seemed to be contradictory to it. The likely question in many of their minds was, “where does it all fit in to what I have been taught?”.

Jesus was seeking to answer that question in these verses and was, in fact, showing them God’s Principle of Fulfilment.

Galatians 3:1926 speaks of the purpose of the law:

“Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.  Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.

Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed,  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

The law of God

The law was given by God because people were violating his principles. Someone has said that you don’t break the Law of Gravity, it breaks you’. The laws of God always existed but God made them known so that people would know where they were getting out of line by comparing the standard of their lives with God’s standard.

The law of itself does not give life. Seeing a speed limit sign does not make a driver keep to that limit and if the driver were to obey that sign that would not necessarily make him a safe or a careful driver. Safe and careful driving cannot be produced by laws.

God knew that the keeping of His laws would not give people life. In fact, He knew that they would not keep the law. Yet in giving his law He showed the people how great their need really was. In the final analysis, the law simply provides conclusive evidence that all people are under sin, so that God might then offer his righteousness through Jesus Christ.

The law of God is not a liberating thing. It is a restrictive thing. God penned people in by his law (v.23) until he could show them what true liberty really was. The law was our schoolmaster (v.24), our disciplinarian, to show us where we were going wrong so that we would have the opportunity to acknowledge our wrongs and so that, when God said, “Now in Jesus Christ I have made a way for your sins to be forgiven and for you to live according to my standard”, we would recognise that that was what we needed.

In Hebrew society, a young boy would be placed under the care of a schoolmaster or tutor a man whose job it was to train that boy until, at the age cf 12 years, he could be presented to his father, disciplined, trained, knocked into shape and then he would go on to manhood. This was to provide a foundation for his life.

The law that is given to men by God is to show them how they fall short. Once having come under that “tutor” and learned the lesson of their own inability to measure up to God’s standard, they should come to the point where they see that it is not the keeping of the law that makes them free, but it is through seeing God’s standard to the point where they will receive God’s answer provided through Jesus Christ.

The point of this is that the law of God was that which brought God’s standard to man.

The grace of God

God gave to Israel a comprehensive and very detailed set of laws so that they could never say they did not know what God’s standard was for them. However, whereas the law brings God’s standard to man, the grace of God (God’s unmerited, undeserved favour) lifts man to God’s standard.

Because of the undeserved favour of God given to us In Christ Jesus, we have a way, not just for forgiveness, but by which we can live the life that Jesus lived and be lifted up to God’s standard. If we reduce the gospel to forgiveness of sins, we offer a worse way than the law. For the law, at least, forbade sin. A gospel of forgiveness only, allows it! The grace of God is not intended to help us get away with sin. It is certainly not intended to be a recognition of the inevitability of sin and, therefore, a provision simply of forgiveness to get rid of our guilt until the next time we sin.

God’s purpose is to lift us up to His standard by His work in us through Jesus Christ. This is the miracle of the new creation:

Let us look at II Corinthians 3:718:

“But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.

Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is’ there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord; are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

The giving of the law on Mount Sinai was a very spectacular, dramatic event. If the giving or the law which was to result in people being condemned was glorious, surely the giving of God’s righteousness in Jesus Christ is far more glorious. Then God drops his standard upon us, that is one thing; but when He raises us up to His standard, that is quite another.

Moses was not able to fully show all of God’s glory (vs.12,13), but we are to use great plainness of speech; we are not to hold back on letting people see, understand and experience the real glory of God in Jesus Christ. We are to “tell it like it is”. Our lives should in fact demonstrate it before our lips do. They should show that we know what it is to be liberated in Jesus Christ, that we know what it is to have our total faith and trust and hope in God, and our speech should reflect it.

The work of the Holy spirit in us (v.18) is not only to convict of sin. His work is to lift us up to where Jesus is, because it is true that we become like that upon which we gaze. If we look at sin, we become like sin, if we look at our selves, we become more like ourselves. But if we look at Jesus not as some kind of psychological exercise but by having a true, open-face relationship with him, just as Moses had a face to face relationship with God, we are transformed into his image.

The glory of God shone from Moses’ face because he enjoyed that kind of relationship with God. If we really believe that the grace of God lifts us up to God’s standard, how much more can we believe that God, by our relationship with him, changes us into the very image of Jesus. The Bible says, “As he is, so are we in this world.”

It also says that we are to walk even as Jesus walked. That is not a grovelling, keep-our-heads-above-water type of existence. It is a life of genuine victory and overcoming. The seven promises in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 are to the over-comers this is the life to which we are called!

“Greater is he that is within you than he that is in the world.”

This is the liberating work of God’s Spirit. We have the opportunity of a fellowship with God beyond anything that Moses knew, for He lived in a time when God’s law which condemned was being ministered. We live in a time when it is God’s Spirit who liberates who is being ministered to people.

The liberating work of God’s Spirit only begins with the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and goes far beyond that so as to make us into the image of Jesus.

That is the fulfilment of that which God set out to do when He gave His law.

Fulfilment of God's purposes

The foregoing has been a study on Law and Grace so as to make the point which Jesus was making concerning the Principle of Fulfilment. The principle being simply this: All that God speaks or begins must be fulfilled. God underlines this principle in Isaiah 55:511:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not re turn unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

We need to understand, of course, that although by nature our ways and thoughts are quite different from God’s, we are to learn what it is to walk in his ways and to think his thoughts, for God has revealed them to us by his Spirit (I Corinthians 2:9-10).

Verse 5 is not so much a theological statement as it is a rebuke to those who should know better. Mount Everest, for instance, is like a pimple to God, and we need to learn to see things from God’s viewpoint!

It is a sure thing that everything which God speaks or begins must be fulfilled. God is only involved in sure things. If He starts something it is because He plans to finish it and He will. If He says something it is because He is going to do it. But it must be God’s word that goes forth out of His mouth. He does not say that just because we might go around quoting Scripture, things are going to happen. Unless that Scripture is what God is saying at that time and what God has anointed for that situation, it is not God’s word and will achieve nothing.

If we say what God is saying, He has personally underwritten the result. He has pledged his fulfilment. The only condition is that it is God’s word. If God is in it, it is going to work. If God is not in it, we have no right to be in it ourselves!

Our need is not in knowing how best to skilfully apply the Bible. It is in knowing God intimately so that when we speak we can be confident that it is God’s word going forth from God’s mouth.

Such things as Bible memory verse courses can be a problem here. We can learn many verses and thus believe that we know God’s word. That, though, is a little like a man who has a number of dud bullets in his gun but, because they look like bullets and make the same noise, he believes they are real bullets.  However, no matter how sincere he is, when he fires them there will be no results! It is great to know your Bible, but you had better not use it unless God is using it and you had better not be quoting something out of Romans when God is wanting to quote something out of Matthew! In fact, you had better not be quoting the Scripture at all if God is wanting to put it some other way!

It is God’s word that goes forth from God’s mouth that shall accomplish that which He pleases and shall prosper in the thing whereto He sends it. God is only committed to his projects and not to ours. Even our most exciting plans, projects and ideas are irrelevant and are in fact destructive unless they have first originated in the heart of God.

God is not seeking our bright ideas, nor is He seeking our methods, nor is He asking us to define purposes and goals. Rather He is wanting to involve us in His purposes and to show us His goals and then He will be responsible for their fulfilment.

About the author

Tony Kostas was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1941, where at the age of seventeen, he committed his life to Jesus at a Billy Graham Crusade. In 1967 he founded the Melbourne Outreach Crusade, a non-denominational evangelistic outreach. This later grew into Outreach International, which is now a worldwide body of believers, who share a God-given calling and are committed to live in love with Him and with one another.

Tony’s life is a true expression of all that God has revealed to him throughout the years, in its purity and focus on loving God. His passion is for God to have the desire of His hears: a people who truly represent Him because they are His and His alone.