← Back to Studies

Jesus Fulfilled the Law

Lesson 1: Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and David

Published in The Jesus Study

Matthew, the writer of the book of Matthew in the New Testament, wrote his book specifically with the mission of showing the Jews that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. This is why his account includes more references to Old Testament Scripture than any of the other three Gospel accounts. For this reason, Matthew is the perfect book for us to start in.

The first prophecy can be read in Matthew 1:1:
“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

This may not seem like a prophecy, but the reader must understand the significance of Jesus being the son of David and the son of Abraham.

The Promise Given to Abraham

Let us start with the significance of Jesus being a descendant of Abraham. Let us go to Genesis 15:1–5:

“After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”

And again, in Genesis 22:17–18:

“That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”

Let us first look at how the New Testament authors interpreted this Scripture and applied it to Jesus Christ in their day.

Peter interpreted it in Acts 3:25–26, saying:
“Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”

Speaking to the Jews, Peter refers to this “seed” of Abraham as the one through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. In the next sentence, he connects this promise to Jesus, saying that He was sent to bless them by turning every one of them away from their iniquities.

Paul interpreted this in Galatians 3:16:
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”

Again, Paul refers to this “seed” as speaking of Jesus, emphasizing that God did not say “seeds,” as of many, but “seed,” as of one.

So the New Testament writers believed that the Messiah had to be a descendant of Abraham in order for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham. Therefore, they would not have believed someone could be the Messiah if he were not a descendant of Abraham.

The early Christians believed Jesus fulfilled these promises because He was, in fact, the seed of Abraham. The way the New Testament writers understood the blessing He would bring to all nations was through Jesus turning people away from their iniquities.

Discussion

  1. What did the Christians believe God was promising to Abraham when He said that all nations would be blessed through his “seed”? Is this reasonable?
  2. Do you think this promise sounds national, for Israel only, or global, for all humanity? Why?
  3. Why do you think it would have been important for the Messiah to be a descendant of Abraham?

The Promise Given to David


Next, let us speak about the significance of Jesus being a descendant of David.
Let us go to 2 Samuel 7. David desires to build a temple for God, but God does not allow him to. Instead, God sends a prophet to tell him that He would raise up David’s seed after him to build a house for His name.

2 Samuel 7:12–16:
“And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.”
  • The promise was given that God would raise up David’s “seed” after him and establish the throne of his kingdom.
  • God says that He would be his Father, and this “seed” would be His son.
  • Finally, He says that David’s house and kingdom would be established forever.

So we see that this future King would have to be David’s descendant, God would be His Father, and His kingdom would stand forever.

We can see this partially fulfilled in Solomon, David’s son, who did go on to build the first temple. However, if God was speaking only of Solomon, we see one aspect of the promise that was not fulfilled: the throne of Solomon’s kingdom did not stand forever.

And today, looking through history, we can see that David’s physical throne has not continued uninterrupted forever.

So this leads us to an important conflict: either God’s Word failed, or this promise was fulfilled in another way. The first-century Christians claimed that this promise found its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus.

How did the New Testament writers claim this was fulfilled in Jesus?

In Luke 1:30–33, an angel appears to Mary, who was a virgin, and says:
“Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
  • The angel says Jesus would be called the “Son of the Highest.”
  • God would give Him the throne of His father David.
  • And His kingdom would never end.
So, in this sense, it makes sense for the Christians to call Jesus the “Son of God,” because it was promised to David that one of his future descendants would be God’s Son and that God would be a Father to Him.
A man named Peter, in Acts 2:25–36, declares this message before the Jews, showing us what these first Christians believed:
“For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Peter finishes these verses by quoting Psalm 110:
“The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”
David is stating that the LORD said to his promised descendant, whom David calls “my Lord,” to sit at His right hand until His enemies were made His footstool.

Though this promised King would be a descendant of David, David referred to Him as “my Lord.” Peter’s claim is that David, being a prophet, recognized that this promised descendant would be much greater than himself, even calling Him his “Lord.”

So Peter finishes by saying:
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
In other words, Peter is stating that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise given to David. He is essentially telling them, “You have crucified the King you have been waiting for.”

Therefore, if Jesus had not been a descendant of these two men, Abraham and David, His claim to be the Messiah would not have fit these Old Testament promises.

It was the fulfillment of Old Testament promises that the New Testament writers depended upon as the basis for their claim that Jesus was the Messiah.

Discussion

  1. What does it mean that Jesus is described as seated at God’s right hand?
  2. Do you think the fulfillment of earlier promises is a reasonable basis for identifying someone as the Messiah? Why or why not?
  3. How does this method of establishing a religious movement differ from other methods we see throughout history?

Conclusion

Even in the first verse of Matthew, we find something incredible. The Christians believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham and the fulfillment of the promise given to David. Roughly 2,000 years after the promise was given to Abraham, and about 1,000 years after the promise was given to David, the Christians believed God was still concerned with fulfilling what He had promised. They believed that God fulfilled these promises through Jesus.

So, who is Jesus in this lesson?
He is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and David. The first Christians did not claim that Jesus simply started a new religion. Christianity began with the claim that God had fulfilled promises He had already made centuries earlier within the Jewish religion. This is important because it tells us that there is more to the claims about Jesus than something someone could have simply fabricated overnight. Through these claims, we can examine what the early Christians taught and determine whether we believe their connections between Jesus and Old Testament prophecy are reasonable.

Though many religions throughout history have begun with individuals claiming private revelations, such as visions, angelic encounters, or hidden knowledge, early Christianity presented its central claims as being rooted in publicly accessible historical records and ancient documents that were already widely known and read.

The earliest Christians did not merely claim that they had received secret revelation about God. Rather, they proclaimed that a man named Jesus was the Messiah based on what they believed to be His fulfillment of promises found in the Old Testament. Because of this, their claims could be examined, questioned, and tested by those who lived at the time, just as they can be examined by us today. The New Testament writings even celebrated those who did not simply take the Christians’ word for what they reported. Instead, they searched the Scriptures for themselves to determine whether the things being proclaimed about Jesus truly aligned with what had already been written.

Acts 17:11:
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
They had a healthy amount of honest skepticism. And this is what we are here to do in The Jesus Study.

Discussion

  1. Before this study, how would you personally have answered the question: Who is Jesus?
  2. Has examining Jesus through Old Testament promises changed or challenged your understanding in any way?
  3. Why do you think Christianity began as a claim of fulfilled promises rather than as a completely new religion?
  4. If God truly fulfills promises across centuries, what would that suggest about history and human purpose?