The Law Was Always Pointing

The common Bible canon has 66 books and 783,137 words in the King James Version. Its mere size can be overwhelming. But there is a thread running through all of it, and when we see it, the apparent complexity begins to become cohesive and simple.

The Role of Scripture

The writer of Hebrews begins with a statement worth contemplating:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Hebrews 1:1-2

The prophets spoke. The Son speaks. The first points toward the second. This is the relationship Scripture establishes between itself and ChristNot a surname but a title: the Greek Christos, rendering the Hebrew Mashiach (Messiah) — "the Anointed." The anointing that set apart Israel's kings, priests, and prophets all converges on the one person it was pointing to. Synonyms: Messiah, Anointed, the Anointed One, Mashiach, Christos. See also: Logos More. It’s not a replacement, or a contradiction, but a direction established from the beginning.

Jesus says the same thing directly:

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. John 5:39-40

The Scriptures bear witness. They are not the destination. They are pointing at one.

Further Study: The Role of Scripture

What Fulfill Actually Means

Do not think that I have come to abolish the LawFrom the Hebrew Torah — instruction, direction — rooted in yarah, to aim as an archer toward a target. Never primarily legislative. The stone tablets were hidden inside the ark, inside the most holy place, mediated by a priest. The promise was always to move that instruction from stone to flesh — from concealment behind a veil to working from within the person. Synonyms: Torah, nomos, instruction, teaching, commandment, mitzvah. More or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill [πληρόω – plēroō] them. Matthew 5:17

Two common conclusions from this verse compete:

Some read fulfill as complete and “done away”: Jesus finished the Law so it no longer applies.
Others read it as to add to it, as if the numerous “requirements” of the Old Testament weren’t enough. Jesus raised the bar on its requirements, made them even more difficult.

Both views treat the “Law” as legislation.

But what if the Law has never been primarily about regulations? What if it has always been about prophecy? What if it has always been pointing toward something, or more accurately, someone?

Jesus and the apostlesFrom the Greek apostolos — one sent out on behalf of another. In the NT, applied to those sent by Christ as direct witnesses of his resurrection; the authority is tied to the sending and the witness, not to an institutional title that can be passed down. More do not always plainly state or argue for this perspective. They demonstrate it. For them, it was a given. Read the verses below. Not as a list of isolated verses to make an argument, but as a pattern to recognize. Let the passages show by their use what fulfill actually means.

Do not assume you already know the meaning. Let the Scriptures demonstrate it through their use. See the pattern.

What the Bereans were doing when they searched the Scriptures is worth considering. Paul had been reasoning with them from the Scriptures:

…explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. Acts 17:2-3.

They went back to the Scriptures of what is now called the Old Testament to see if what Paul was pointing to was actually there. Look for yourself. Apparently, it wasn’t so obvious. Most of the society of that day didn’t anticipate it or even recognize it once it happened. Yet, when Paul drew attention to it, they could see it.

Jesus stated it plainly after his resurrection:

Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. Luke 24:44-45

The Law of Moses. The Prophets. The Psalms. All of it pointing. All of it fulfilled, and continuing so, in one person.

The Shadow and the Reality

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festivalIn Scripture a feast — Hebrew chag — is a designated period, not a single day but a span with its own structure and sequence. The Feast of Weeks spans seven weeks; the Feast of Tabernacles, seven days. A feast may contain one or more annual holy days, but the feast itself is the full period, not any single day within it. A feast is not the same as a holy day (a sabbath), though the two connect and can coincide — the Feast of Trumpets is itself a holy day, and Atonement is both a feast and a holy day. Synonyms: festival, appointed time, moed. More, a New Moon celebration or a SabbathThe seventh day of the week, set apart for rest (Ex 20:8-11) — sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. Scripture also calls certain annual holy days "sabbaths" (Lev 23:24, 32, 39), which is why "the day after the Sabbath" (Lev 23:11) can be read two ways and the Wave Sheaf's timing is debated. The sabbath rest recurs by scale: the seventh day, the seventh year — the land's sabbath (Lev 25) — and the Jubilee that crowns seven of those. One pattern at every magnitude. Synonyms: Shabbat. See also: Sabbatical year, Jubilee. See Where Does the Week Come From? More day. These are a shadow(Greek skia) — the feasts, the tabernacle, the priesthood: a 2D projection of a 3D reality, cast by the substance — "a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ" (Colossians 2:16-17). Not a copy (which implies reproduction), but an outline — same shape, no color or depth. The shadow isn't set aside when the substance arrives; it becomes legible. You can finally see what it was the shape of. See: Through What Lens Do We View the Feasts?; The Law Was Always Pointing More of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Colossians 2:16-17

This passage is often read as only “done away”: the feasts, holy daysA holy day is a sabbath — a commanded day of rest and holiness. Scripture gives two kinds: the weekly Sabbath (the seventh day) and the annual sabbaths tied to the feasts (Lev 23:24, 32, 39). Both are holy days; neither is the same as a feast. An annual holy day is not the annual feast it belongs to. It is a point of demarcation in the sequence — a marker that gathers up the period leading to it and carries its meaning forward. Synonyms: sabbath, annual sabbath. More, and other “requirements” are done, move on. But is that what shadow and reality mean? A shadow is merely a two dimensional indicator of the three dimensional object casting it. The shadow is dark. No color of its own. Lacking details, nuance, subtlety. When we can finally see what the actual object has been all along, the shadow that was the evidence of its existence, ceases to be the focus of our attention.

The feasts, the holy days, the tabernacle, the priesthood, and all of the related “requirements” were never primarily regulatory. They were the shadow-system, the predictive scaffolding, built in advance to show the object of what was coming. Christ does not cancel them. He is what they were always pointing towards.

The Simplicity

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corruptedFrom the Latin corruptus — broken, destroyed, altered from its original state. In Scripture, describes something changed or turned from what it was — a neutral description of a process, not primarily a moral label: Christ's body "saw no corruption" in the tomb (Acts 13:37). See: A Corrupted File Isn't Guilty More from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3

Simple. Single. Uncomplicated. Connected. Unified. Cohesive.

What happens with the 66 books, the 783,137 words that have seemed so complex? They become a witness, pointing in one direction. When that singular target becomes visible, the vastness resolves.

For what is written about me has its fulfillment. Luke 22:37

Further Study: The Singleness of Christ

The Role of Scripture

Further Study: The Role of Scripture

What Fulfill Actually Means

The Shadow and the Reality

The Simplicity

Further Study: The Singleness of Christ

See also:

Not the Destination

Nowhere on That Spectrum

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