Fulfilled the old covenant

In the Hebrew Bible, God makes a covenant (binding agreement) with the Israelites at Mount Sinai.
This covenant included the Law of Moses (613 commandments: Ten Commandments, dietary laws, purity laws, sacrificial rituals, festivals, etc.).
The idea: if Israel obeyed these, they remained God’s chosen people, blessed and set apart.

Christians believe Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection completed the purpose of that old covenant.

Jesus himself says:

Matthew 5:17

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

“Fulfill” is taken to mean:

He perfectly obeyed the law (something no one else managed).
He embodied what the law was pointing toward — justice, mercy, holiness, and reconciliation with God.
His sacrificial death replaced the temple sacrifices and purity rituals.

Christians believe that through Jesus, God established a new covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31–34, a Hebrew Bible prophecy often cited, and Luke 22:20, where Jesus calls the Last Supper cup “the new covenant in my blood”).
In this new covenant:
- Forgiveness and reconciliation come through faith in Jesus, not through strict adherence to Mosaic law.
- The Holy Spirit is said to guide believers, rather than an external legal code.
- Many ceremonial/ritual laws (dietary rules, circumcision, temple sacrifices) are seen as no longer necessary.

Moral laws (don’t kill, don’t steal, love your neighbor) are eternal.
Ceremonial/ritual laws (food purity, animal sacrifices, festivals) were temporary signs that pointed toward Jesus — and since Jesus has come, they’re “fulfilled.”
So Christians see themselves as under the New Covenant of grace, not bound by the old system.

Arnab's Notes