The Lord Jesus Himself commanded believers to be perfect as the Father is. Elsewhere, He said our lives must be blameless and without blemish. Elsewhere, Scripture says He became the source of salvation for those who believe. The source of salvation is aithios, meaning the author or source of salvation for the obedient. Hebrews 5:9 says, “And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” Obedience to Him means striving to emulate His way of life. For that, one must struggle earnestly. The Torah is rooted in the Decalogue. The Decalogue is again summarized into love for God with all heart, soul, and mind, and love for neighbor as oneself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two things.
So, when the Lord says, “I did not come to abolish but to fulfill,” He is not inviting us to betray the Torah. He is not calling us to live lawlessly, but came to fulfill it. To fulfill does not mean adding more legal items; it means obeying the Law and being an example. After He accomplished it, He also brings the obedient to Him. When Jesus became the source of salvation, we, too, must do the same. Do not assume that because the Lord did everything, we are automatically finished and thus safe simply because He did it. That is not so. The Law is not abolished; it is fulfilled.
Many erroneous thoughts arise: first, that salvation is not by good works; and second, the fact that in human experience, no one is truly good. Such teaching can make people half-hearted in righteous living, merely going through spiritual motions because they think the Lord has completed everything. That is wrong. If God’s standard is 100, then we must also reach 100. Remember that the Ten Commandments were given directly by God on Sinai; God Himself wrote them with His own hand.
The Lord Jesus has indeed redeemed all our sins. All our sins have been finished, and we are saved not by good works. But if we live righteously now, it is not to earn salvation. We are already saved—the Lord has borne our sins. That is in the context of salvation from punishment, not liberation from the process of character renewal. The Lord has borne all our sins so that we are free. Thus, if we now do what is good or keep the law, it is because we owe our lives to the law.
This is our difference from the Jews. The Jews kept the law so they would not be punished, whereas we keep the law because we are no longer under punishment. But if someone does not live by the law and is not obedient to Jesus as the source of salvation, then he rejects that salvation itself. Jesus came to fulfill the law in His life, and we who follow Him must also fulfill it in ours. That is one aspect. Another aspect is: even if the Torah were perfectly observed, if Jesus had not died on the cross, humanity would still not be saved. So, the basis for keeping the law is not to escape punishment—because the Lord has borne all punishment—but because we owe the Lord to live according to His law. The purpose of the Lord’s coming was that we would do the law. It is therefore illogical to live without the law.
So ultimately, if we do not do the law, the problem is not only the sin itself—violation of the law—but that we insult the blood that was shed for us. We keep the law because we are no longer under condemnation (see Romans), and we owe it to live according to the law. After someone keeps the law, he advances to the next level: “Sell all you have, give to the poor, and come, follow Me.” When the law was given to Israel, one context must be remembered. Israel had been a people in bondage for hundreds of years in Egypt. They were certainly less educated, less civilized, and lacking in refined conduct. But when they became God’s chosen people, God gave the Torah so they would be formed into a courteous, well-mannered nation.