Filled or Fulfilled?, Part 1 of 3

"Don't assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 5:17-19 HCSB

There is a growing and very vital movement to restore an appropriate “Jewishness” to the Scriptures and our faith. The amount of discussion and debate concerning the proper application of the Old Covenant is amazing to me. In this debate, I once again want to follow the “Middle Way”.

First, I believe that most of the Old Covenant applies to us. Jesus came to fill (finalize, complete, cap) the Sinaitic Law, not abrogate it.[1] So, Jesus expects obedience to all of the Law that was not “filled.”

May I pause and explain the use of the word “filled” instead of the more common “fulfilled”? The Greek word plerosai means “to fill”.[2] The English word “fulfill” would seem to imply that the Old Covenant could therefore be safely set aside. It was finished – done with. But this directly contradicts the rest of the Master’s statement. He came to give the Old Covenant’s prophecies and laws meaning, so that everyone would understand what the point was. He came to give the talmidim (disciples) the power of the Holy Spirit so that they could actually successfully obey the requirements of holy living. Is this not the point of the entire Sermon on the Mount?[3]

Interestingly, this view directly meshes with Jewish tradition which stated that the Mashiach would both explain the obscure passages of the Torah and change some of it.[4]

So what was filled? Primarily (but not exclusively) all laws dealing with atonement, ritual worship in the Temple and the separation of the Jews from the Gentiles.[5]

There are whole sections of the Law that still apply. We still should not murder. We should still not generally lie. We still should be respectful of our parents.

What if I taught you several Ju-jutsu joint manipulations and at the end of the class said, “These techniques work by causing the joint to go in the wrong direction or in the right direction but too far.” What if you walked out saying to other students, “Ah! Now I don’t need to ever practice those moves because I understand the point!” Foolishness!

To throw out all the Law because it has been summarized for us as love would be like teaching your children etiquette and then having them throw those rules out the window when they leave the home because “now they understand the point!”


[1] Matthew 5:17-22
[2] See David H. Stern, Messianic Jewish Manifesto and Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel
[3] Matthew 5-7
[4] This tradition is largely based on Moshe’s prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15-19. Compare this tradition to Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28 where the Mashiach changed the application and Matthew 22:23-33 where He explained obscure concepts.
[5] Hebrews 10:12; Colossians 3:11