While our Lord Jesus Christ in coming into the world certainly introduces a new dispensation of God, He is emphatic in declaring that He in no way destroyed the truth of the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets. Rather, He had come to fulfill or complete the truth of these in no uncertain way. Not one jot, the smallest letter in Hebrew, nor one tittle, the tiniest point that would distinguish one letter from another, will fail. The original Scriptures as God gave them in the Hebrew language are absolute perfection. We may say the same of the New Testament in the Greek language.

Notice, however, that Christ did not merely say He came to keep the Law, but He came to fulfill it. This was not a matter of merely His own personal conduct in the world, but of His fulfilling the Law’s claims on behalf of others. In order to do this, He must accept the sentence of death on their behalf, for He had come to “save His people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21). They had not kept the Law and were exposed to its solemn judgment under sentence of death. To fully honor the Law and to discharge righteously its claims against His people, He Himself must bear the sentence of their guilt. We know that He did this by the great sacrifice of Himself at Calvary. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’)” (Gal. 3:13). The believer is therefore “not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14), but he respects the Law and thanks God that its righteous claims have been fulfilled by his precious Lord.