Bulletin Articles
Jesus Fulfills Humanity
We sometimes talk about Jesus fulfilling us on a personal level. I am broken, incomplete, and He fulfills my needs. This is true, if we understand our needs, but I want to go in a different direction that would tie back in to this point at the end. Jesus fulfills us in the similar sense that He fulfills the Law or He fulfills the purpose of Israel. That is, Jesus fulfills and completes the purpose of and represents the perfection of humanity. What does that mean?
Think of the statement Jesus made about the Law and Prophets: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt 5:17). He did not leave heaven to destroy the Law and the Prophets. He came to fulfill and complete their purpose. The Law pointed to the Messiah. It was not complete in itself, for there were weaknesses that it could not overcome on its own (see Rom 8:3). Jesus is the One who made sense of the Law and showed its true purpose as that which would lead people to Himself as the Messiah (Gal 3:24). Jesus brought the purpose to fruition. Recall what He said after the resurrection, that “everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). It’s all fulfilled (perfected, completed, accomplished) in Him.
Thus it is with humanity. In Him is the perfection of all that humanity is meant to be. Human beings were made in God’s image (Gen 1:26-28). Because of sin, we bring reproach upon that image. We don’t lose it, but we hurt it. Jesus came to reverse this by allowing His visage to be marred (Isa 52:14). He is the perfection of the image of God, the “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb 1:3). However, He identified Himself with humanity and suffered a humiliating death, a destruction of His image, which demonstrated the horrors of what sin does to God’s image in us.
Jesus partook of flesh and blood to defeat Satan and deliver us from the fear of death (Heb 2:14-15). By coming in the flesh, God brought light to darkness through Jesus, who is the perfect image of God (2 Cor 4:4-6). Because of what He did, we may now be reborn and conformed into His image (Rom 8:29). Since He completes human purpose as God’s perfect image, He fulfills what we are supposed to be and, through Him, we find our purpose, and thus we are made complete. Jesus fully represents God because He is God in the flesh. Jesus also fully represents humanity because He is man. This makes Him the perfect Mediator: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all…” (1 Tim 2:5-6). He fully represents both God and man.
Through the resurrection, Jesus showed that He did not come to destroy humanity. Rather, He came to redeem and save. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). Jesus did not come to judge and destroy the world, but to save it (John 12:47). Judgment comes because of the rejection of Jesus, who is both light and life. If we reject life, death results; if we reject light, darkness results. He came to complete our purpose and make us whole again. As with the Law and Prophets, He did not come to abolish humanity, but to fulfill and bring to fruition human purpose through redemption.
As the only One who conquered death, Jesus also fulfills humanity by paving the path of our resurrection. Resurrection is God’s guarantee that we have eternal life. As Jesus was raised from the dead (which is proof also of a final day of judgment, Acts 17:30-31), so He promises to raise us up to live eternally with Him. Our purpose is not simply to live a few years on earth, die, and have nothing beyond that. Our purpose is to live for Him eternally, and this requires resurrection. Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians 15 wherein he affirms the resurrection of Jesus as “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v. 20). Through Him we are made alive, not just temporarily, but eternally. Jesus fulfills us by being raised and providing the path to our resurrection and life.
Jesus does fulfill us and make us complete personally, but this is only possible because He fulfills the ultimate purpose of what human beings are meant to be. Our sins have damaged this, but He came to heal the wounds of our lives. By His stripes we are healed, and now can be whole. As Paul expressed, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:23).
Doy Moyer
