“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:17-20).”
In the next part of his sermon, Jesus states that he came to fulfill all the Law and the Prophets. As a Just God, he must bring Justice for lawbreakers, which all of us are. The Law dictates that there must be punishment for sin. As was foretold, Jesus kept every law perfectly, that is, he never sinned and yet bore the penalty for our sins. Thus, he kept the Law and fulfilled the Law.
Just as the Law is clear, so are the Prophets. Depending on what you count as one prophecy, there are between 200-365 prophecies specifically about Jesus in the Old Testament that he fulfilled. The clearest and most vivid is Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the Suffering Servant. This is the passage that Jesus, Peter and Paul all cited multiple times in proving that Jesus was the Messiah. Interestingly, although every synagogue reads through the entire Jewish Scripture every year, they all skip over this section as it is too obviously describing Jesus. And because of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we know for a fact that this was written at least a hundred years, and probably 600 years, before Jesus' birth.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:5, 11).”
Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfilled every iota of the Jewish Scriptures so that he could bear your sins. My sins. He who never sinned bore our punishment so that we might be saved.
What is our response to this? Our righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees or we will not go to Heaven. The problem is, those Pharisees and lawyers seemed amazingly righteous. Perhaps even too righteous. In Luke 7, Jesus had his feet washed by the tears of a sinful woman while Simon the Pharisee insulted him again and again. Too often, I know I come across as someone supremely confident in my salvation, like Simon (when I really am not). I am supremely confident in Jesus as my savior. I have to stop thinking that anything I do makes me at all attractive to my God. My goal is to infuse the gratitude of the sinful woman into every moment of every day of my life. We are saved by grace, through faith, not by works, that none should boast (Ephesians 2:8-10).
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