The Fulfillment of the Law

John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minn., just concluded a three-part series (which is actually part of his ongoing series on the book of Romans) entitled "Love Is a Fulfilling of the Law." Check it out online:

Part I: Read | Listen
Part II: Read | Listen
Part III: Read | Listen

The mark of a Christian is love (John 13:34-35), and Paul's letter to the believers in Rome reminds us that love meets the requirements of (i.e., fulfills) the law (Rom. 13:8-10). Of course, those requirements could only have been met through Christ. Pastor Piper sums it up this way:

Paul puts the risen, living Christ where the law was. Once you were alive to the law, but now you belong to Christ. In the place of law is a Person--a great Savior, a mighty Lord, an infinite Treasure. Our daily, hourly focus is now on him--his deliverance, his help, his guidance, the beauty of his love and justice and power and wisdom and truth, and all the joy of knowing him. And what comes of this union with Christ at the end of Romans 7:4?

Fruit. "...so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God." And what fruit is that? The fruit is love (Galatians 5:22; 5:6; 1 Timothy 1:5). And, yes, that love does fulfill the law--not perfectly (Christ alone has done that for me), but truly, because my life now in Christ has a new spirit, a new passion, new direction.

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7).