Following up on his definition of Law, Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture continues his foundations series with the definition of the word fulfill. The meaning of that word is a topic that has been discussed several times on this blog. Read about it here.
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FOUNDATIONS: WEEK 15
What Is Fulfillment?
What Is Fulfillment?
Key Texts:Matt 5:17–20 • Luke 24 • John 19:30📖 WHAT DOES “FULFILL” MEAN?
This is one of the most misunderstood words in Scripture.
Many claim:👉 “Fulfill = end”But that is not what the word means.
📚 WEBSTER’S DEFINITION
Fulfill:👉 To carry out👉 To bring to completion👉 To executeNot:
abolish
cancel
remove
🔥 MESSIAH’S OWN WORDS
📖 Matthew 5:17
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law… I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”He clarifies it Himself.
👉 Not destroy.👉 Not abolish.👉 Fulfill.
⚖️ WHAT FULFILLMENT ACTUALLY IS
Fulfillment means:
bringing prophecy into reality
living out the Law perfectly
confirming what was written
👉 It is execution, not elimination.
📖 LUKE 24 — FULFILLED PROPHECY
After the resurrection:
“All things must be fulfilled… in the law… prophets… psalms…”Messiah didn’t end them.
👉 He confirmed them.
🩸 “IT IS FINISHED” — JOHN 19:30
This does NOT mean:
the Law is finished
obedience is finished
👉 It means:
His mission was completed.
The sacrifice was fulfilled.The covenant was established.🧠THE ERROR TODAY
Many interpret fulfillment as:
👉 “We no longer need to follow anything.”
But Messiah said:
📖 Matthew 5:18–19
Not one Iota ("I") or Tau ("T") will pass… (Jot and Tittle are never Hebrew nor Greek letters and false translations)That’s not removal.
👉 That’s continuity.
🌿 WHAT FULFILLMENT LOOKS LIKE
Fulfillment is:
truth lived out
prophecy realized
obedience demonstrated
🔑 THE RIGHT UNDERSTANDING
Messiah fulfilled:
👉 so we could follow
Not:👉 so we could ignore⚠️ FOUNDATION TRUTH
Fulfillment never cancels instruction.
👉 It confirms it.
🌿 FINAL WORD
If fulfillment meant abolition—Messiah would not have warned:“Think not…”🌿 He fulfilled.We follow.That is the pattern.Yah Bless.
What can one say except this is the same nonsense Tim has been teaching for a number of years now. According to Tim the law does not find its completion in Jesus Christ because we must still keep the law. Except for the laws about sacrificing. And why is that except Christ as fulfilled them and brought them to an end? Apparently keeping the Saturday sabbath, keeping the feasts (and you can't really keep the feasts without a temple, priest, and sacrifices), and the dietary laws are only laws still on the books. And the Ten Commandments of course but no one has ever disputed that.
The fact is the law is a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ and Christ is the END OF THE LAW for righteousness to everyone who believes. The canard that the law has not been abolished is a red herring. Yes the law is good and holy and remains but not as a way of life but as a signpost pointing to Jesus Christ.
Tim writes:
👉 He confirmed them.
🩸 “IT IS FINISHED” — JOHN 19:30
This does NOT mean:
the Law is finished
obedience is finished
👉 It means:
His mission was completed.
The sacrifice was fulfilled.The covenant was established.
What exactly was Christ's mission? If the sacrifice was fulfilled and fulfilled does not mean abolish or done away with then sacrifices are still necessary! Can Tim even follow his own logic? It is rather interesting that in his Foundations series Tim has absolutely nothing to say about Christ's mission which was to bear our sins and punishment on the cross thereby enduring and taking away the CURSE of the law. As I wrote previously:
Christ completed the law. He finished the law and brought to an end by executing it fully. All the shadows of the law were perfected and brought to reality in and by Him. He is the Passover lamb sacrificed for us, He is God tabernacling in human flesh, He is the firstfruits from the dead, His blood is sprinkled on the mercy seat in Heaven making atonement for us, He sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost just as He gave Moses the law on that same day, and on it goes as all the sacrifices and all the feasts and all the holy days are brought to their completion and fulfillment in Him. The book of Hebrews is very explicit that Christ completed the law by becoming incarnate and shedding his own blood for us.
https://thegodculturephilippines.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-god-culture-rest-case-for-sabbath.html
“He just said the Law remains and I will not abolish it but fulfill it or keep it as an example for you.
Rest: The Case For Sabbath p. 113-114.
According to Tim the Christ's mission was to show us how to keep the law. It is more than obvious that the work of Jesus Christ on the cross means nothing to Timothy Jay Schwab who is the God Culture.
Let's hear a response from noted theologian Father Ted Crilly.
I’ve read Tim’s new “What Is Fulfillment?” post. It’s the same old tune, just with a fresh coat of paint and some dictionary quotes.What Tim is actually teaching
- “Fulfill” does not mean “end,” “abolish,” or “remove.”
- It means “carry out,” “bring to completion,” “execute.”
- Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law, not destroy it (Matthew 5:17).
- Therefore the Law is still in force — we are still supposed to follow it.
- “It is finished” only means His personal mission/sacrifice was completed, not that the Law is finished.
- The right order is: Messiah fulfilled → we follow.
- He completely misuses “fulfill”When Jesus says “I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17), He means He came to bring to completion everything the Law and Prophets pointed toward — namely, Himself as the perfect sacrifice, the true Israel, the Lamb of God, the end of the sacrificial system, the mediator of a better covenant. Tim turns “fulfill” into “keep doing it forever.” That is not what the word means in this context. Jesus fulfilled the Law the way a promise is fulfilled — by doing what it pointed to, not by extending it indefinitely.
- He turns “It is finished” into “It is not finished”John 19:30 — “It is finished” (Tetelestai) was a commercial term meaning “paid in full.” Jesus was declaring that the work of redemption was completed.Tim reduces it to “My personal mission is done, but the Law still needs to be kept by you.” That guts the meaning of the cross.
- The pattern continues
- Faith = obedience to the Law
- Repentance = turning back to the Law
- Grace = power to keep the Law
- Fulfillment = confirming that we still have to keep the Law
Every single Foundations lesson ends up in the same place: the Law is still the main director of the Christian life. Christ is important, but ultimately the real work is still on us.
- He kept it perfectly (active obedience).
- He bore its curse and ended its condemning power (passive obedience).
- “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4).
- “We are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14).
- The Law was a tutor to bring us to Christ; now that Christ has come, we are no longer under the tutor (Galatians 3:24-25).
The camel’s nose is now fully inside the tent, and the whole body of the Law is comfortably sitting there, taking up all the space.
quietly, shaking his head
Go on, go on, go on — have a cuppa. You’re seeing the pattern clearly. The Scriptures keep winning. Tim keeps trying to put the old yoke back on. The gospel offers a much lighter one. Keep holding fast to the finished work. That’s where real freedom is found.
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