Quote:
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Originally Posted by Legion
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matthew 5:17,18
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Legion, considering you chose the
as your icon for one of your previous posts, I'm guessing you feel the verse you typed is a rebuttal to keltic63's post. However, that's not the case. It supports it -- and very powerfully I should say.
The radical Christ, the one who continually scandalized his Jewish brothers who were zealous for scripture,
was fulfilling the law and the prophets by disregarding the law for the sake of love.
We sometimes forget that Jesus was operating under the constant criticism of the Pharisees, scribes, and most of the religious leadership of his day. Their number one charge was that Jesus did not believe the Bible (I phrase it as such so it will register with today's Conservative christian rhethoric. Back then they would have worded it like, "This Jesus, a mere carpenter from Nazareth, obviously doesn't have a high view of the law of Moses like we do." They would (and did) work hard to falsely portray him as having a massive disregard for scripture.
So Jesus shot back with the verse you quoted (much more so later in Matthew chapter 23.) Never apologizing for his radical ways, Jesus proclaimed that his ministry, his eating with the "sinners", his touching of those it was not lawful for him to touch, his healing on the Sabbath, his inclusion of women and Gentiles, his opposing the death penalty though it was biblical, all of these things, were the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.
Then Jesus charged the people (and us) with doing the same. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, love your neighbor, and love yourself, he said. Do that, and you too will have done what God requires of you.