Have you ever asked yourself in the course of your own study of the Word of God if there is a theme to the Old Testament, and if so what it is? It is a question with which every Old Testament theologian must grapple and for which a variety of answers have been given.
We turn to the Psalms, and there we also find great prophecies. For David was a prophet, at least according to Peter who spoke about one of his prophecies on the day of Pentecost, and he probably understood more about the significance of Christ's coming than anybody else in the Old Testament period except Isaiah. Thus, we look at the twenty-second Psalm and there find an awesome description of Christ's death by crucifixion.
It is not only true that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the law, however; he also fulfilled the prophets as the verse implies, only he did this in an entirely different way. When we speak of prophecy we are speaking of direct statements in the Old Testament about the one who was to come to deliver Israel and redeem mankind, statements that told who he would be, where he would be born, what he would do, how he would suffer, and what would be the ultimate outcome of his suffering. Thus, when Jesus said that he had come to fulfill the prophets, he meant that he had come to fulfill the great statements that had been made about him in the Old Testament.
Someone will object, however, "But doesn't the Bible say that God does not desire sacrifices? Doesn't Hebrews 10:4 say that ‘It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins’? And doesn't Psalm 40:6 say, ‘Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire... burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required’?” Yes, it does. “Well, then, how is it possible that these verses exist along with all of the other verses that speak of the need for sacrifices in the terms that you have given to it?"
The first great public utterance of the Lord Jesus Christ on Scripture not only set forth its complete authority, as we saw last week. It also contained the categorical statement that the Scriptures were to be fulfilled in their entirety by him. Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matt. 5:17-18). We are now to ask: In what sense did Jesus fulfill the law and in what sense did he fulfill the prophets?
