Jesus Fulfilled

What Did Jesus Do?

Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
Matthew 3.15


There has been quite a lot of excitement and interest among many Christians and in many churches over being purpose driven. But when our life is in fulfillment of what God has ordained for us, it is not about our choosing or deciding on a purpose, but inexorably doing all that the Father has designed and desired for us to do. If our purpose is about anything other than fulfilling God’s will for us, God’s Word for us, well, we’re being driven by the wrong purposes.

From the beginning, the life of Jesus was all about fulfilling. From His conception and birth (See Matthew 1.18-23), to the many works of healing he performed (Matthew 8.14-17) to the manner of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21.1-5), to His suffering and death on the cross (John 19.28-37), to His resurrection (Luke 18.31-33; 24.44-46), all that Jesus was and all that He did was in fulfillment of what God had spoken in his Word. Jesus fulfilled.

Though the Father’s creative genius was manifest in the Son, the Son was not creative in the sense of in the sense of spontaneity and initiative save to fulfill what had been spoken of Him. Jesus did not come to do as He pleased, though as King of kings and Lord of lords He would have appeared to have all authority and right to do so. Rather, the Son was all about doing the will of the Father, that every Word of the Father should be fulfilled.

Even the Law of Moses would not be abolished, though Jesus would free us from the burden of trying to observe it. It was only because He perfectly fulfilled all the law that those who are in Christ Jesus no longer stand under condemnation but under grace in the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8.1-4) Amazingly, those whom the Holy Spirit fills are empowered to fulfill all righteousness in Christ, the One who was and is the fulfiller of the Father’s perfect will. There is no life, no matter what purpose may drive us, apart from the life the Father gives us in Christ. Therefore those who are in Christ are fulfillers as He fulfilled. After all, it’s “us” who Jesus said should be all about fulfilling.

What’s our purpose today? We may have a calendar full of appointments, but if those appointments have nothing to do with fulfilling the Father’s will for us in Christ, our time will be wasted. We may have a day chock full of projects and tasks, even one’s like writing a devotion, but if they are not about fulfilling, our efforts will be fruitless. But if we know that our one purpose in life today and every day is to do what the Father has ordained for us, and seek to accomplish his will only, we will know what it is to be fruitful, for fruitfulness is the end of fulfillment. So, how about it, will our purpose be fulfilling, not in the sense of satisfaction but of accomplishing what is in God’s Word? That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4