The Law Was Always Pointing

The common Bible canon has 66 books and 783,137 words in the King James Version. That is a lot of territory. But there is a thread running through all of it, and when you find it, the complexity begins to resolve.

That thread is Jesus Christ.

The Role of Scripture

The writer of Hebrews opens with a statement worth sitting with:

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. That is the relationship Scripture establishes between itself and Christ — not replacement, not contradiction, but direction.

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

Acts 2:17 / 1 Peter 1:20 / Romans 16:25-27 / Acts 2:33 / Ezekiel 36:27 / Hebrews 10:28-29 / Hebrews 12:25 / Jeremiah 8:8

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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 [πληρōō — plēroō] them. Matthew 5:17

Two readings of this verse compete. Some read fulfill as complete and retire — Jesus finished the Law so it no longer applies. Others read it as deepen and elaborate — Jesus raised the bar on its requirements. Both readings treat the Law as legislation.

But what if the Law was never primarily regulatory? What if it was always prophetic — always pointing toward something, always pointing toward 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 argue for this meaning. They demonstrate it. Read what follows not as a list to get through, but as evidence to examine. Let the passages show what fulfill actually means before settling on a definition.

Do not assume you already know. Let the Scriptures demonstrate it.

Matthew 1:21-23 / Matthew 2:13-14 / Matthew 2:16-18 / Matthew 2:23 / Matthew 3:13-15 / Matthew 4:12-16 / Matthew 8:16-17 / Matthew 12:15-21 / Matthew 13:13-16 / Matthew 13:34-35 / Matthew 21:1-5 / Matthew 26:50-56 / Matthew 27:3-10 / Mark 1:14-15 / Mark 14:43-49 / Luke 1:19-20 / Luke 1:44-55 / Luke 4:16-21 / Luke 21:20-24 / Luke 22:15-16 / Luke 22:36-37 / Luke 24:44-48 / John 12:37-50 / John 13:17-19 / John 15:24-26 / John 17:11-13 / John 18:8-9 / John 18:29-32 / John 19:23-36 / Acts 1:15-17 / Acts 3:17-26 / Acts 13:26-41 / Acts 14:25-27 / Romans 2:25-29 / Romans 13:8-10 / Galatians 6:1-3 / James 2:8 / James 2:22-24 / 2 Peter 3:8-9

What the Bereans were doing when they searched the Scriptures is worth noting. 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 text to see if what Paul was demonstrating was actually there. That is the right posture. Look for yourself.

Jesus said 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 in one person.

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The Shadow and the Reality

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Colossians 2:16-17

This passage is often read as retirement — the feasts are done, move on. But that is not what shadow and reality mean. A shadow does not become irrelevant when the thing casting it arrives. It becomes legible. You can finally see what it was the shape of all along.

The feasts, the holy days, the tabernacle, the priesthood — these were never primarily regulatory. They were the shadow-system, the predictive scaffolding, built in advance to show the shape of what was coming. Christ does not cancel them. He is what they were always pointing at.

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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 meant to be — a neutral description of a process, not primarily a moral label. The word itself has undergone the very process it describes. More from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3

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

The 66 books, the 783,137 words — they are not a complexity problem waiting to be managed. They are a witness, pointing in one direction. When that becomes visible, the vastness resolves.

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

Further Study — The Singleness of Christ

1 Corinthians 12:3-13 / Ephesians 4:3-6 / John 10:30 / James 2:19 / Colossians 1:19 / Galatians 3:20 / Zechariah 14:9 / Mark 12:29 / Matthew 6:22 / Luke 11:17 / 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 / Romans 16:17 / 1 Corinthians 3:1-11 / 1 Corinthians 14:33 / John 17:21-23