How the Lord fulfilled the whole Law

It is believed by many at this day that when it is said of the Lord that He fulfilled the law it is meant that He fulfilled all the commandments of the Decalogue, and that thus He became righteousness, and also justified mankind through faith in this. This however is not what is meant, but that He fulfilled all things which are written of Him in the Law and the Prophets, that is in the whole sacred Scripture; for this treats of Him alone. The reason why many have believed otherwise is, that they have not searched the Scriptures and seen what is there meant by the Law. By the Law there, in a strict sense, the Ten Commandments of the Decalogue are meant; in a wider sense, all that was written by Moses in his five books; and in the widest sense, all the Word. (L. n. 8)

That the Lord fulfilled all things of the Law means that He fulfilled all things of the Word, is manifest from the passages where it is said that by Him the Scripture was fulfilled, and that all things were finished. As from these: “Jesus went into the synagogue, … and stood up to read. There was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah; and when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the bound, and sight to the blind; … to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the book and said, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke iv. 16-21). “Ye search the Scriptures, and they testify of Me” (John v. 39). “That the Scripture might be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel upon Me” (John xiii. 18). “None of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (John xvii. 12). “That the saying might be fulfilled which He spake, Of those whom thou gayest Me I have not lost one” (John xviii. 9). “Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into its place; … how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? … But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the Prophets might be fulfilled” (Matt. xxvi. 52, 54, 56). “The Son of Man indeed goeth as it is written of Him; . . that the Scriptures may be fulfilled” (Mark xiv. 21, 49). “Thus the Scrip­ture was fulfilled which saith, He was numbered with the wicked” (Mark xv. 28; Luke xxii. 37). “That the Scripture might be fulfilled, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots” (John xix. 24). “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now consummated, that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (John xix. 28). “When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished,” that is, “it is fulfilled” (John xix. 30). “These things were done that the Scripture might be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken,. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on Him whom they pierced” (John xix. 36, 37). Besides these, in other places passages of the Prophets are adduced where it is not at the same time said that the Law or the Scripture was fulfilled. That the whole Word was written concerning Him, and that He came into the world to fulfil it, He also taught His disciples before He departed, in these words: “Jesus said to them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered this, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke xxiv. 25-27). Afterwards, Jesus said to His disciples, “These are the words which I spake unto you whilst I was yet with you, That all things must be fulfilled which were written, in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me” (Luke xxiv. 44). That the Lord in the world fulfilled all things of the Word, even to its minutest particulars, is evident from these His words: “Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled” (Matt. v. 18). From these now one may clearly see that by the Lord’s fulfilling all things of the Law it is not meant that He fulfilled all the commandments of the Decalogue, but all things of the Word. (L. n. 11)