Not so.
Another dot in my walk has to do with things Jesus said. For instance, the book of Matthew has Him saying he didn’t come to abolish The Law, but to fulfill it. For years that puzzled me. “What does that mean?” And though I wondered, I never bothered asking.
More recently I put different dots together and realized the meaning.
Back in the time of Abraham, God made an agreement with humanity. According to the TYPE of contract both parties agreed to, the penalty of violations were death – brutal, bloody, death. God allowed animal sacrifice to temporarily expunge those violations. The requirement for that animal was perfection. The fur on the sheep had to be flawless, the musculature and bone structure likewise. If the animal wasn’t perfect, the sacrifice was no good.
So for thousands of years the Hebrews slaughtered animals to placate God – payment for not living up to the contract. But each sacrifice was only a temporary fix that covered past errors. Future violations were not covered because no sheep was ever good enough.
Enter Jesus. The Lamb of God. That’s another dot for me, by the way. I might have more on that at a later date.
In order to permanently cover the contract violations, a perfect sacrifice had to be made. Since no human would ever be perfect, the justice of God could never be satisfied. God had to give Himself to be brutally killed in order for our contract violations to be wiped out.
Jesus fulfilled that role. He was that perfect sacrifice, butchered on the cross, to wipe out the penalty for humanity not being perfect.
His death on the cross fulfilled the Law by paying for our sins.
Dot.
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