What does it mean that Jesus fulfilled the Law, didn’t dispense with it. Did He eliminate the Ten Commandments and replace ww two. What does it mean when Joe Price, televangelist writes that we doubt live be the law? TU
Kathryn
Some Protestants, by taking their “faith alone” doctrine to the extreme, are antinomian. They believe the law was strictly a curse, that condemned us-and that there’s no reason whatsoever to feel obliged to obey it. “Under grace” for them means to be forgiven, justified, saved, all a work of Christ’s with no direct onus upon us to obey or do anything at all. The New Covenant just sort of accomplishes a cart blanc one-time-event salvation for those who
believe.
Jesus fulfilled the law the right way-by the Spirit- the Spirit who
gave man the law to begin with. We’re to follow Him in this, even if we’re sure to falter at times, which He never did. The Greatest Commandments sum up the law and to the extent that we obey them the whole law is fulfilled and we are just, in a justified state. This requires
grace, however; “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5) is the essence of the New Covenant.
Man was made for communion with God. As a result of the Fall we exist in a state exiled or separated from Him. This state is directly responsible for all the sin we observe and may participate in in this world. The more we love God-and neighbor-the more sin is naturally excluded in us.
"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”a and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.*"* Rom 13:8-10
In Catholicism, God’s purpose is to restore His creation to justice, to make us truly right and just, not to forgive our sins only and ignore or overlook sin in us. We’re to ‘go, and sin no more’. So the difference between the Old and New Covenants isn’t in whether or not we must obey the law, or be righteousness; rather it’s about
how to obey and be righteous. In the OC, man is instructed to obey, but it was by his own efforts. In the NC, it’s finally recognized that man
cannot be righteous on his own, because he simply
is not righteous on his own, unpartnered from His Creator.
So man’s first step, in response to God’s gracious calling, is to come to acknowledge the existence of and his need for God. Adam did the opposite of this in Eden. That first step is called* faith*, and from there a relationship or communion with God can blossom, with Him coming to make His home within us. And from there He can do a
work in us, of transforming us into His image, the image of love, the very virtue that constitutes our justice and fulfills the greatest commandments. At Baptism, the “sacrament of faith”, we become new creations as God pours sanctifying grace, with the virtues of faith, hope and love, in us. From there we’re expected to continue to walk with Him throughout our lives, even increasing the justice He’s already given us as we cooperate in His work-the work of perfecting His creation.
In light of all this consider the most important New Covenant prophecy, Jer 31:33-34:
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them, ”
declares the Lord.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
So the Church teaches that the OC was never
revoked, but simply replaced by a new and better covenant, one that can actually accomplish what the old could not. The law is good and right and holy, but unable to accomplish what only God can accomplish in us. So we don’t come to Him, and say, "Look at me, aren’t I good and righteous and obedient? Rather we approach God in humility and say, “Look at me, a sinner, now I know how much I need
You to change me, to
justify me.”
