The Fulfillment of Righteousness

Christ Affirmed the Enduring Standard of Righteousness

The law was not broken by Christ’s ministry, it was fulfilled.

Christ affirmed the law, the Pentateuch, the Old Testament as the Word of God.

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It has not been set aside, it has been fulfilled.

Matthew 3:15 ESV

But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.

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From the beginning of his ministry to the end Christ showed how the law and the prophets pointed to Him.

Luke 24:24 ESV

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

Luke 24:25–27 ESV

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Christ Showed the Exceeding Requirement of Righteousness

The problem that we have is we try to bring God’s righteous standards down to our level. We react against any requirement on our part.

The scribes and Pharisees were thought to be the most holy, but their’s was an external, superficial righteousness.

What God requires is righteousness that reaches all the way to the depths of the heart.

Psalm 15:1–2 ESV

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;

The rest of the Sermon on the Mount is Christ raising the standard of righteousness back to where it belongs. Love from the heart. Don’t lust in the heart. Forgive from the heart.

It is a righteousness that is completely foreign to a heart that has not been born again.

Christ is the Only Effective Source of Righteousness

We receive the righteousness of Christ by faith.

Philippians 3:8–10 ESV

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

We are conformed to the image of Christ by the purpose of God.

Romans 8:28–30 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

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We are liberated to walk in obedience to Christ by the power of the Spirit

Romans 8:1–4 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.