The acceptability of my life to all eternity will always depend on the perfection of Jesus offered in my place. Very simple, really. This love is not based on emotions, but an act of the will. These covenants include things like a statement of who the suzerain was, the responsibilities of the vassal (i.e., commandments), and blessings and curses for obedience or disobedience.[1]. Instead, love is acting or not acting a certain way toward another person. Different motivation Romans 10:4: “The goal of the law is Christ for righteousness to everyone who believes” (my translation). We realize that the law is part of Godâs word meant for our good. For example, when my foster son becomes my adopted son, he will have the exact same inheritance rights as his brothers, and I will be fully responsible for him in the exact same way as I am responsible for my biological sons. Lots of strange names, foreign rulers, and two books (originally one!) Galatians 5:1: “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. ), Matthew 7:12: “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”, Matthew 22:37–40: “And he said to him, ‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Third, my imperfect love is the fruit of my faith in Jesus who is my justifying perfection before God. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. First, when the fulfilling of the Law it is called the “law of liberty” it means that as Christians we pursue love in liberty from law-keeping as the ground of our justification or the power of our sanctification. Godâs laws show us how to love Him and how to love others. We sign a contract to buy a house, to play for a baseball team, or to pay a cell phone bill. . Love in this context has nothing to do with an emotional response toward another person, such as being love or simply really liking someone. James 1:25: “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”. A Call to Fulfill the Law Through Love. First, my imperfect love is, nevertheless, real God-dependent, Spirit-enabled, Christ-exalting love that is based on my justification and not a means to it. But this standard of love is the life and power of a person who indwells us by his Spirit. 1 Corinthians 9:21: “To those who are without law, [I became] as without law, though not being without the law of God but [in, not under] the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.”, Galatians 6:2: “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”. 5&6 these commandments are either obeyed out of the motivations of our hearts or they are not obeyed at all. Love Is the Fulfillment of the Law (What’s that mean, anyway? Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Christ does not cast off the Law ⦠Paul the apostle tells his readers in Romans that love is the fulfillment of the law. The Apostle Paul sums this up as neatly as any of them, in Romans 13:8-10: Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the Law. Love is what initiated God's redemption plan for us. Today we will examine what it means that love is the fulfillment of the law. Apart from Christ, we were so sinful, so wicked, so rebellious that Scripture called us children of disobedience. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”, Philippians 1:11: “Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary For He who said, ‘do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘do not commit murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. His was perfect. How can the law that is NOT void be ended that we also have to establish and be doers of? (Scholars call this fictive kinship.) Since when does God’s holy law and divine standard say, “Pretty good will do”? and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.”. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. That is, we will be in covenant with each other. And it is foundational for everything. It is self-sacrificing, deliberate, active love. PDF. Romans 3:19–22: “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in his sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. That’s the key term that described the relationship between the suzerain and the vassal. âThe form of the Greek word implies not only that love helps a man to fulfil the law, but that in the fact of the presence of love in his heart the law is actually fulfilled. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. In the modern West we are accustomed to contracts, not covenants. In other words, the only law-keeping I depend on as the ground of my justification is Jesus’s law-keeping. He is author of. 18For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. A person can keep the law without loving. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 8:3: “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. . . 9 The commandments, âYou shall not commit adultery,â âYou shall not murder,â âYou shall not steal,â âYou shall not covet,â[ a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: âLove your neighbor as yourself.â[ b] 10 Love does no harm to a ⦠The aim of the law will be fulfilled more and more in your life. (Rom.13) Of course, this is referring to the second division of the Law -love for your fellow man and does not nullify Jesusâ teaching of the first part that the first Commandment to love the Lord is the greatest of them all. But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction.”, Romans 3:28: “We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.”, Romans 4:4–5: “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. Romans 8:4 does not say that the entire fulfillment of the law happens in us now. Mine is imperfect. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”. Where there is love, especially and really only Godâs love, there will be, can be and is joy. There's nothing tricky in here. Love Is The Fulfillment of the Law November 5, 2016 John (HFJ Director) Leave a comment Many Christians understand the foundational principle that we are to love one another. "What is the law?" Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.â Love is indeed the fulfilling of the law. In this way the Spirit of Christ will be at work to transform you into his image. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ. Denying the image of God in all humans reduces people to things and creates a straight line to abuse, because at the root of abuse is the de-personing of a person. The Greek word for âfulfilâ used in verse 17 means to make full or to give full meaning. This covenant God established is modeled on a type of covenant in that time and culture called the suzerain-vassal covenant. Galatians 5:13-18 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Love Fulfills the Law ⦠9 The commandments âDo not commit adultery,â âDo not murder,â âDo not steal,â âDo not covet,â and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: âLove your neighbor as yourself.â 10 Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Charity never faileth" (1 Cor. Galatians 3:21–25: “If a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. He did give us a “new commandment” (“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another,” John 13:34). The Day Is Near 11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. In such a covenant, or treaty, a greater party (God, in this case) created a relationship with a lesser party (the people of Israel) that made them related to each other as if by blood, even though they had no relationship to each other before then. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Love does not hurt the person you love ("tough love" is horseshit). Love, then, is not about an emotional disposition; it is about acting in a certain way toward others—a way that is consistent with the commandments laid out in the Law. I mentioned last week that some take this to mean that Christ fulfilled the law for us when he obeyed it perfectly and died as the perfect sacrifice on our behalf. Galations 5:14: For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, âYou shall love your neighbor as yourself.â In both places, the idea is the opposite of âgetting rid of the lawââit really means to accomplish Godâs goal, to obey his will in the best possible way. 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