Did Jesus change things or fix things?

Did Jesus change things or fix things?

Asked by Elizabeth

When Jesus came along, he seemed to change alot of things such as the food rules and challenging social norms. Did Jesus come to change these kinds of things or just to remind us thats how it should have been anyway?

If he came to change things, why was it not like that before Jesus and why did these things change? If he came to fix things, then why did God not fix things a whole lot earlier to help these sinners know what they are doing wrong?

Thanks.

Hi Elizabeth,

Thanks for your question. 

The answer to the first part of your question is - Jesus came to remind us that God loves us & wants us to love others. But he also came to tell us of God's new plan for saving people. That's why some things Jesus says are reminders and some are new information or changes.

The answer to the second part is a bit more complicated. We often refer to the time before Jesus as the Old Covenant and the time after Jesus as the New Covenant. A covenant was like an agreement or contract between two groups. In the case of the Bible, it is God's agreement with his people. The Bible says God sent Jesus at just the right time. The information below from http://www.gotanswers.org will help explain this a little more. 

The key to understanding this issue is knowing that the Old Testament law was given to the nation of Israel, not to Christians. Some of the laws were to reveal to the Israelites how to obey and please God (the Ten Commandments, for example). Some of the laws were to show the Israelites how to worship God and atone for sin (the sacrificial system). Some of the laws were intended to make the Israelites distinct from other nations (the food and clothing rules). None of the Old Testament law is binding on Christians today. When Jesus died on the cross, He put an end to the Old Testament law (Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:23–25; Ephesians 2:15).

In place of the Old Testament law, we are under the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2), which is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…and to love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). If we obey those two commands, we will be fulfilling all that Christ requires of us: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:40). Now, this does not mean the Old Testament law is irrelevant today. Many of the commands in the Old Testament law fall into the categories of “loving God” and “loving your neighbor.” The Old Testament law can be a good guidepost for knowing how to love God and knowing what goes into loving your neighbor. At the same time, to say that the Old Testament law applies to Christians today is incorrect. The Old Testament law is a unit (James 2:10). Either all of it applies, or none of it applies. If Christ fulfilled some of it, such as the sacrificial system, He fulfilled all of it.

“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). The Ten Commandments were essentially a summary of the entire Old Testament law. Nine of the Ten Commandments are clearly repeated in the New Testament (all except the command to observe the Sabbath day). Obviously, if we are loving God, we will not be worshipping false gods or bowing down before idols. If we are loving our neighbors, we will not be murdering them, lying to them, committing adultery against them, or coveting what belongs to them. The purpose of the Old Testament law is to convict people of our inability to keep the law and point us to our need for Jesus Christ as Savior (Romans 7:7-9; Galatians 3:24). The Old Testament law was never intended by God to be the universal law for all people for all of time. We are to love God and love our neighbors. If Christians obey those two commands faithfully, we will be upholding all that God requires of us.

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