Prophetic Interpretation Page 5: Jesus is the Fulfillment

Think about this!  Did not Christ say “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”?  Is not the very basics of Christianity summed up in this one concept…this covenant?  If God’s people (mankind) reject Him and turn to idols and sin God will punish them by taking them out of the land (eternal paradise)?  However, if God’s people (mankind) repent, God will remember His covenant (binding contract and promises) and fulfill His promises.  So essentially, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is “If you accept Christ you will be given paradise.  If you reject Christ you will be punished and removed from paradise.”  Thus, Christ truly did indeed fulfill the Law and the Prophets because He provided the way by which all men might receive God’s covenant eternally.  He fulfilled with his life, death and resurrection the very heart of the message the prophets preached.

So the heart of God was found even in the message of the prophets.  It was not meant to beat people down but to build people up.  It was meant to inspire righteous living.  The point of telling what would happen to sinners was not so that people would dread the day of God’s judgment.  It was so that people would wake up and realize that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).  The point of telling about the tragedies that would befall the people was to help them think about their lives and what they were doing.  It was to help them reevaluate their actions so they would remember that God is also a just God.  He will bring a day of reckoning upon those who refuse to accept His rule.  It will come.  You cannot live your life in rebellion forever.  One day, a rebel will be brought to justice.  It is only a matter of time.  However, this message was always followed by a word about the grace of God.  It was always followed by, “After repentance, the covenant promises made to the forefathers are restated” (11.1B table).