Jesus says that He didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. We’re told elsewhere that the whole sum of the law is love your neighbor as yourself.

God is love, and so Jesus, God in the flesh, was love, the walking fulfillment of the law of love, since He only and always loved perfectly.

We receive the fulfillment of the law by receiving Christ into our lives. We no longer live but Christ lives in us. God’s love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We receive forgiveness for our imperfect love of the past and receive His perfect love to pour out back to God and to others. In that way we fulfill the law too, walking with Christ, abiding in love.

Jesus says we have to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, who considered themselves blameless in the law. The only way we can do that is with the perfect righteousness of Christ, that we receive as a gift and walk in by His power, with His mercy and grace always there to enable us to continue in it.

Jesus is the fulfillment of everything in our lives. He becomes our very life. If we are the light of the world, it’s because of Christ in us. They were the light of the world as God’s chosen people. We’re God’s chosen people too.

God creates good works for us to walk in and puts in us the willing and the working to accomplish them. He is the fulfillment of God’s light in us that can shine in our good works. That way our good works don’t glorify us but God.

Jesus must be the fulfillment of salt in us as well, but that one comes with a warning not to lose your saltiness, or be thrown out and trampled.

When you receive Christ in all His glorious perfect gifts, cherish them. Cling to Him; hold fast; walk in love, abiding in His joyous presence.