The word ‘fulfill’ in Matthew 5:17 has generated significant discussion among New Testament scholars, and rightly so, because it carries tremendous theological weight. Blomberg notes that Jesus likely intended the term to do multiple things at once: he would do the things laid down in Scripture, he would bring out their full meaning, and through his life and teaching he would bring Scripture to its intended completion. These are not competing interpretations; they are layers of the same truth.
Consider the sacrificial system. No one attending church on Easter Sunday brings an animal to offer at the altar. Why? Because the entire sacrificial system was a long preparation for the one final sacrifice Jesus would make on the cross. The Levitical offerings did not stop mattering when Christ came; they became the lens through which we understand what he did. He fulfilled them. And understanding the sacrificial system now helps us appreciate, with far greater depth and gratitude, what it meant for Jesus to give himself as the Lamb of God.
Paul writes in Romans 10:4 that ‘Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.’ The word ‘end’ (telos) does not mean termination; it means goal, destination, the completion point toward which the whole journey was aimed. Every commandment, every prophecy, every type and shadow in the Old Testament was pointing forward to him. He did not arrive to clear the board and start over. He arrived to be everything the board had always been about.
This understanding transforms Bible reading. The Old Testament is not a relic. It is the first half of one coherent story, and every page of it is pressing toward the person of Jesus Christ. When you read it with that lens, the whole Bible becomes richer, deeper, and far more Christ-centered than you may have imagined.