Doc. of Lord (Potts) n. 11

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11. That the statement that the Lord fulfilled all things of the Law means that He fulfilled all things of the Word, is evident from passages where it is said that the Scripture was fulfilled by Him, and that all things were consummated: as from the following:

Jesus went into the synagogue, and stood up to read, and there was delivered to Him the book of the prophet Isaiah, and He unrolled the book, and found the place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me, He hath sent Me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And He rolled up the book and said, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears (Luke 4:16-21). Search the Scriptures, for they testify of Me (John 5:39). That the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against Me (John 13:18). None of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled (John 17:12). That the word might be fulfilled which He spake, Of them whom Thou gavest Me have I lost none (John 18:9). Jesus said to Peter, Put up again thy sword into its place. How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? But all this was done that the Scriptures of the Prophets might be fulfilled (Matt. 26:52, 54, 56). The Son of Man goeth as it is written of Him, that the Scriptures be fulfilled (Mark 14:21, 49). Thus the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, He was accounted among the transgressors (Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37). That the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They divided My garments among them, and upon my under-vesture did they cast a lot (John 19:24). After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now consummated, that the Scripture might be fulfilled (John 19:28). When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, It is consummated, that is, fulfilled (John 19:30). These things were done, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on Him whom they pierced (John 19:36, 37). Besides other places, where passages are adduced from the Prophets, without its being at the same time said that the Law, or the Scripture, was fulfilled. That all the Word has been written about the Lord, and that He came into the world to fulfill it, He also taught His disciples before His departure, in these words:

Jesus said to His disciples, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:25-27). Jesus said to His disciples, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me (Luke 24:44). That in the world the Lord fulfilled all things of the Word, even to the veriest singulars* of it, is evident from these His own words:

Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law, till all things be accomplished (Matt. 5:18). From these passages it may now be clearly seen that by its being said that the Lord fulfilled all things of the law is not meant that He fulfilled all the commandments of the Decalogue, but that He fulfilled all things of the Word. * The term singular is the correlative of universal, as particular is of general. The veriest singulars are most absolute ones, the most singular or individually distinct of all. [Tr.]


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