He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” (Luke 24:44)
Christ FULFILLED the Law of Moses
Think not that I am come to destroy [καταλῦσαι (katalysai) = to destroy or overthrow, annul, abrogate, subvert, or discard] the Law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil [πληρῶσαι (plērōsai) = to make full, to complete, or make complete in every particular, to consummate] (Matthew 5:17)
What did the Lord Jesus Christ mean when He said that He had come to fulfil the Law?
The Law He was referring to was in the Torah, also called by Him the Law of Moses. So we need to see what there was within the Torah which was fulfilled by Christ, and why the Law of Moses is now NULL AND VOID.
1. Christ fulfilled
all the prophecies concerning Himself which were given in the first five books of the Bible.
2. Christ fulfilled
all the types and shadows about Himself which were in the Torah.
3. Christ fulfilled
the just demands of a holy God that a Man should obey the Law perfectly and live thereby.
4. Christ brought out
the inner and spiritual meaning of the Ten Commandments which are necessary for the New Covenant.
5. Christ fulfilled
all the sacrifices of the Law within Himself as the Lamb of God. He became the Whole Burnt Offering, the Meal Offering (called the Meat Offering in the KJV), the Peace Offering, the Sin Offering, the Trespass Offering, and all the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement. He also became the Passover Lamb.
6. Christ took
the curse of the Law upon Himself by hanging on that cross, thus cancelled out the curse on sinners.
7. Christ brought
the entire system of worship contained within the Law to an end. The Levitical priesthood, the temple, the temple sacrifices, the feasts, festivals, and holy days connected with this worship, and all the ceremonial observances which were enjoined on Israel came to an end when the veil in the temple was supernaturally torn from top to bottom on the day He died.
8.
Christ ushered in the New Covenant with His death, and ratified it with His shed blood. He also
fulfilled the Feast of Passover on that day, the 14th of Nisan in the year AD 30.
9. Christ fulfilled
the Feast of First Fruits on the day of His resurrection (the first day of the week, or the morrow after the Sabbath).
10. Christ brought
the need for physical circumcision to an end through the necessity of the New Birth, which requires the circumcision of the heart through repentance.
11. Christ brought the promise of
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to fulfillment on the day of Pentecost, and thus fulfilled that feast.
12. Christ
entered into the heavenly Sanctuary with His own blood, and sprinkled it on the heavenly Mercy Seat. At the same time He became our Great High Priest and Advocate in Heaven, thus opening the way for each one to come directly to the Throne of Grace.
13.
Christ distilled all 613 commandments of the Torah into the Law of Christ, which is the Law of Love or the Law of Liberty, thus called the Royal Law. Now Love is the fulfilled of the Law for those who have been saved by grace and washed in the blood of the Lamb.
14. The Law of Moses contained the Old Covenant. But the Law of Christ contains the New Covenant, which is infinitely better according to the epistle to the Hebrews. Thus anyone who now reverts to Torah observance is in direct disobedience and rebellion.