When Jesus came to earth, He made the Old Testament come alive. He not only made the old prophesies come true, but He made sense of the Old books of Jewish Law and History. Jesus Himself said "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (Matthew 5:17) When we as Christians read the Old Testament, we read it with Christ in mind and we see how all of the history and writings point to Jesus over and over again. Just for example take the sacrifice of the Passover lamb. Read it with Jesus in mind and the whole thing stops being a story about some dead and gone Jewish people escaping Egypt. It becomes a sign post on the road to the Cross.
When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied with the verse in the picture above. You shall Love God with everything in you and you shall love your neighbor as you love your self. He continued with this thought by saying "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:40) And when you think about all the "Thou shalt not" verses you realize He is right. If you love your neighbor you won't kill him, steal his stuff, sleep with his wife or lie to get him in trouble. Jesus made it simple to understand.
However Jesus did not stop there, He took it to a deeper, more personal level. The letter of the Law was one thing, the meaning behind it was another. Jesus began to show the people that it wasn't enough to just obey these laws, you had to get personal with them. It is easy enough to say "I've never murdered anyone" Check that one off the list of my sins! But Jesus said "I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment"(Matthew 5:22)
He came to fulfill the Law..to make it personal..it isn't just what you don't do outwardly that counts, it is what you think and feel inwardly that God looks sees. Jesus showed that not one of us can ever say "I have no sin" Our hearts, our very thoughts convict us. Jesus took those dusty stone tablets and made them come to life that day when He spoke those words. All of the sudden, the Law made sense to people in a way it really hadn't before. Before it was just a list. Now it became a way of Life.
And that is what I saw today as I read these verses, a new Way of Life. The Good News of the Gospel is pretty much summed up in this verse: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."(John 10:10). The sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross broke the hold that sin had on our lives. Without sin holding our minds and hearts captive, we are capable of living that Abundant Life. Now we are able to Love God with everything that we are! Now we are capable of finding love in our hearts for others.
O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s light for a look at the Savior, And life more abundant and free