Fulfillment can sound awkward as a title or name, but it is one of the most prominent proclamations concerning Christ found in the New Testament.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has many names and titles. He is our Redeemer; he is Emmanuel, God with us; he is Prophet, Priest, and King. The titles of Christ are not given merely for his glory and honor, but actually proclaim his work to us by revealing who Christ is for you. Among these titles, one that deserves particular attention is Christ as the Fulfillment. That is, Christ is the culmination of God’s prophecies, promises, and will.
Fulfillment can sound awkward as a title or name, but it is one of the most prominent proclamations concerning Christ found in the New Testament. Presenting Jesus in this manner begins even before his birth: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet” (Matt. 1:22). Soon after his birth, Christ is shown to be the fulfillment not only of direct promises but also of the history of God’s people. When Christ, as an infant, is taken to Egypt to spare his life from the wrath of Herod, his return is heralded as the fulfillment of the prophet Hosea: “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Matt. 2:15; Hosea 11:1).
Christ as fulfillment nullifies the concept of prophecy as uncertainty.
“Out of Egypt” is a reference to the Exodus—the rescue of God’s people from the cruel hand of Pharaoh. In Christ, this event is demonstrated as not only history, but prophecy fulfilled through the final rescue of sinners in him. The proclamation of fulfillment follows Christ everywhere he preaches and teaches throughout his ministry. In Nazareth, Jesus proclaims, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Later in his ministry we read, “So that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’” (John 12:38). Christ himself goes so far as to proclaim that he is not the bearer or originator of a new religion or a new Scripture, but the fulfillment of all Scripture: “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).
This changes our perception of Scripture and prophecy. Prophecy is commonly depicted as a dimly lit window into the future. We predict and cast prophecies of uncertain futures and unknown outcomes, ranging from the environment, to geopolitics, to the all-time favorite—the end of the world. Christ as fulfillment nullifies the concept of prophecy as uncertainty. The life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ declare that the prophecies of Scripture are different. They are not a desperate search for God in vague or hidden places. Instead, prophecy is God’s certain proclamation of salvation, which he himself brings forth and accomplishes for his people.
Jesus Christ is not the fulfillment of fiction or lies, but the fullness of all truth (John 14:6).
Likewise, this asserts the importance of the truthfulness and historicity of the events of the Old Testament. If Christ is the fulfillment of the great flood (1 Pet. 3:18-22), the Exodus (Matt. 2:15; Hosea 11:1), Jonah in the belly of the fish (Matt. 12:40), and all the other extraordinary stories of the Bible, then these events cannot be treated as mere fiction, happy myths, or exaggerations of ancient authors. Jesus Christ is not the fulfillment of fiction or lies, but the fullness of all truth (John 14:6).
Finally, we see that Christ and his fulfillment are for you—for your deliverance from sin and death. Christ is the fulfillment of your sins. The blameless Lamb of God, who knew no sin, becomes sin (2 Cor. 5:21) and dies, fulfilling your death to sin and bearing the wrath and power of the law (1 Cor. 15:56) through his death on the cross. Here at the cross, Christ fulfills God’s word against sin: “You shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). He gives his final breath as the seal that every requirement and demand of sin and the law has been fulfilled: “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Yet even in his death, the gift of fulfillment does not stop. On the third day, Christ rises from the dead, fulfilling his promise: “After he is killed, he will rise the third day” (Mark 9:31), delivering to us our own resurrection from the dead and eternal life. As Romans 6:7-11 states:
[7] For one who has died has been set free from sin. [8] Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. [9] We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. [10] For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. [11] So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Our Christian faith clings to Jesus Christ, trusting in his name. For this reason, the names and titles of Christ are not arbitrary. Jesus is our Lord; he is our Redeemer; he is the eternal Word who spoke the world into existence; he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus Christ is the fullness of God (Col. 2:9), the fulfillment of all things, delivering to you the certain rescue from our sins and the sure promise of life in him.
