Everything. He fulfilled the entire legal requirement of the Old Covenant so we could be released from the old rules and live by the Spirit.If He didn't fulfill it all, then "It is finished" was a lie. You are still staring at the invoice asking if the check cleared, while the King is already handing you the keys to the house. You should read yours starting with:
“So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,”
Galatians 3:24-25 ESV
@GWH this will serve you too.
Here i need to invite you to do some honest searching of your own before drawing the conclusions you are drawing.
You are assuming that it is finished means the moral law and the commandments are abolished. But what if it is finished means something more specific than that? What if what was finished was the sacrificial system, the penalty of sin, the requirement for animal blood, the Levitical priesthood and every ceremonial shadow that pointed forward to Christ? Because that is exactly what the prophets said He would fulfill. And fulfilling those things does not require abolishing the eternal moral character of God expressed in the Ten Commandments.
Now here is the homework I genuinely want to encourage you to do because it will change the way you read this entirely. Go and find the prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament. Not just one or two. All of them. Because Jesus did not come out of nowhere. He was announced, described and predicted in extraordinary detail centuries and in some cases thousands of years before He was born. And understanding what those prophecies said He would fulfill is the key to understanding what it is finished actually means.
Here are the books where you will find them and I am giving you the map but encouraging you to make the journey yourself because what you discover will stay with you far longer than anything I could simply hand you:
Start with
Genesis. The very first prophecy about Jesus is found in Genesis 3:15 where God tells the serpent that the seed of the woman will crush his head. Then look at Genesis 22 where Abraham offers Isaac on Mount Moriah and God provides a substitute. The entire scene is a breathtaking picture of the cross painted thousands of years before it happened.
Then go to
Deuteronomy 18:15-19 where Moses himself, the very man who received the Ten Commandments, prophesied that God would raise up a prophet like himself from among the people and that everyone must listen to Him. Jesus quoted this about Himself and Peter confirmed it was fulfilled in Christ. (Acts 3:22-23). Moses spoke of Jesus. The man who received the commandments pointed forward to the One who would confirm them.
Then look at
Psalm 22 written by David approximately 1000 years before the cross. Read it slowly and carefully. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me. They pierced my hands and my feet. They cast lots for my clothing. Every detail of the crucifixion described in precise and stunning detail a thousand years before crucifixion even existed as a method of execution.
Then go to
Psalm 110 where David describes a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The writer of Hebrews explains this is Jesus as our eternal High Priest replacing the Levitical priesthood. That is something fulfilled at the cross. The priesthood. Not the moral law.
Then read
Isaiah 53 in its entirety. This was written approximately 700 years before the birth of Jesus and it describes His suffering, His rejection, His death as a substitute for sinners and His resurrection with a precision that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck when you read it knowing what you know about what actually happened. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. With His stripes we are healed. All of it. Written 700 years before it happened.
Then look at
Micah 5:2 written 700 years before the birth of Jesus which names Bethlehem specifically as the birthplace of the one whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting. The eternal one born in Bethlehem. Predicted 700 years in advance.
Then go to
Zechariah 9:9 written 500 years before Palm Sunday which describes the king coming to Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Jesus fulfilled this to the letter on the day we now call Palm Sunday.
Then look at
Zechariah 11:12-13 written 500 years before the betrayal which names the exact price of thirty pieces of silver that would be paid for the betrayal of the shepherd and then thrown to the potter in the house of the Lord. Judas fulfilled this in precise detail without knowing he was doing so.
Then read
Zechariah 12:10 which describes the one they pierced and the mourning that follows. And
Zechariah 13:7which says strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered, quoted by Jesus Himself in the garden the night of His arrest. (Matthew 26:31).
Then look at
Daniel 9:24-27 where the prophet gives a precise mathematical timeline of weeks of years pointing to the exact moment of the appearance and cutting off of the Messiah. Scholars who have worked through this chronology carefully have landed within days of the crucifixion. Written 500 years before it happened.
Now here is why all of this matters for your argument. Every single one of these prophecies is about what Jesus would do in His first coming. His birth. His life. His ministry. His betrayal. His suffering. His death. His resurrection. His priesthood. His role as the final sacrifice. These are what it is finished refers to. The fulfillment of every promise, every picture, every shadow and every type that pointed forward to the cross.
But notice something important. Not one of these prophecies says He would come to abolish the moral law or the Ten Commandments. Not one of them predicts that the eternal character of God expressed in the commandments would be set aside. In fact Moses who wrote the commandments also prophesied that a prophet would come who everyone must listen to. And that prophet, Jesus, said with His own voice:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass away one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. (Matthew 5:17-18 KJV)
The One whose coming was prophesied by Moses confirmed the commandments Moses received. The One who cried it is finished on the cross said in the same week keep my commandments if you love me. (John 14:15). The cross and the commandments are not in competition. They never were. The cross dealt with the penalty for breaking the commandments. It did not abolish the commandments themselves.
So please do the homework. Go through those books. Read those prophecies carefully. Ask yourself honestly what they say He came to fulfill. And then ask whether any of them predict the abolishment of the Ten Commandments commonly called the moral law. The answer will speak for itself. And it will be far more convincing coming from your own honest searching than from anything anyone can simply hand you in a forum reply.