Christ Fulfills the Law

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this module is to understand the various symbols of the story of our salvation. Each lesson in this module teaches our children how to identify the symbols of salvation in the Old Testament and how Christ fulfilled each one. In this lesson, we will look at how Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament.

INTRODUCTION & HOOK - 5-10 Minutes

Please review the previous week's lesson. (5 minutes)

One option:

Use a cup of water and ask the children if the liquid in the liquid in the cup is pure. Add a few drops of food coloring into the cup and ask them if it is still pure or if it has changed. Add bleach to the cup of water a few drops at a time until it changes back to being clear. This will be an analogy of how God created man without sin (pure water), but then with the Fall and the introduction of sin, humans lost their purity (colored water), and Christ came to fulfill the law by paying the price for our sins (bleach removing the color from the water so it could go back to its original state).

Another option:

Draw a venn diagram (two overlapping circles) on a board or poster. Label one side God, and the other Humans. Ask the children to describe the attributes of God (holy, great, all-knowing, all-powerful, loving, kind, merciful, gracious, generous, pure, without beginning or end, immeasurable, unchanging, all-knowing, truth, righteous, just, etc), and then ask them whether those qualities belong to God only, or if He shared them with us as humans.

This will be an opportunity to explain that God created humans with many of the same attributes He had - that He made people in His image and likeness. Then, explain that when Adam and Eve fell, and sin entered the world, humans started to have other qualities that are not God-like (sinful, cruel, unjust, etc. -- these can be listed on the other side of the diagram). Humans started to stray away from the beautiful likeness of God.

However, God gave us commandments and rules to help us behave in a more pure and holy way so we could be like Him (Mt 5:48, 1 Pe 1:16), but we could never fully return to the likeness of God until Christ came and saved us from our sins and restored our relationship with God.

HOLY SCRIPTURE - 2-5 Minutes

Memory Verse - "Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22: 37 -40)

"For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Galatians 5:14)

"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill." (Matthew 5:17)

CONTENT (KEY POINTS) - 20 Minutes

God gave the Israelites laws and instructions on how to live. We know the 10 commandments, but did you know He gave the Israelites 613 laws in the Old Testament? These commands are all in the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah, and they are mostly in the book of Leviticus.

Why did God give so many laws to the Israelites? After Adam and Eve fell from Paradise, sin began to fill the world and there was so much sinfulness, that God flooded the world during the time of Noah to rid the world of sin. But even after that, people became sinful again and God wanted to create a people for Himself that were holy and different from all the other sinful people in the world. Because of Abraham's faithfulness, God chose His descendants, the Israelites, to be His chosen people.

God gave the Israelites all the commandments and the laws in the Old Testament to keep them pure and holy, separated from all the sinfulness that filled the rest of the world. God knew they would still sin so He taught Moses about different sacrifices that could be made to take away their sins. The sacrifices to take away sins always involved the killing of an animal. While it is so sad that an animal would have to die, God was showing the Israelites that sin was a really big deal because it kept them from being united to God.

The Israelites had a really hard time keeping their hearts pure and holy and dedicated to God. They kept rejecting God and living in sin so God sent them the prophets. The prophets kept telling the people to turn back to God and they told the people that God would be sending a savior that would save them from their sins.

How did Christ fulfill the law? Christ gave us the greatest commandment, which summarizes all the commandments of the Old Testament in just two commandments. He told the people that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and the second commandment was to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus taught us that God's true nature is love and that if we truly love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul and if we love all other people, then we would be in God's image and likeness. But love here doesn't mean feeling warm feelings toward someone, it means being willing to sacrifice what you want and your own happiness for others. Loving God means doing what He wants instead of what we want. Loving our neighbor means that you will love everyone on earth and do what is good for them instead of what is good for you.

If we truly love God and love all people, then we would already fulfill all the commandments and laws that are in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ not only gave us these two great commandments, but He fulfilled them Himself by loving God as an obedient Son and dying on the cross even though He knew it would hurt Him so much and by loving all people so much that He sacrificed Himself on the cross so that we wouldn't have to go to Hades. In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord takes a commandment from the Old Testament and perfects it. In that Sermon, He told His disciples what He expected of them, and likewise, He told the world what it should expect of His disciples.

In the Old Testament, before Jesus died on the cross, everyone, even the good people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), all the prophets, even John the Baptist, would go to Hades when they died. Even if they were really good people, no one could go to paradise because the fall of humans had separated them from being able to be in Paradise. Remind the children how when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree, God made them leave Paradise and put an angel there with a sword to keep anyone from going back.

This was a big problem because God's plan in creating humans was for them to be in His image and likeness and to dwell with Him in His kingdom. The only way and the perfect way to solve this problem was for God Himself to become man and to conquer the devil and death, breaking the bonds of Hades and letting all the righteous people go to Paradise. Instead of all the sacrifices that were offered for the sins of the people in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ came as the perfect sacrifice for everyone's sins. The same way an animal had to die and its blood had to be shed, Jesus Christ died on the cross for us and shed His blood to forgive our sins. But because Jesus Christ was completely human and completely divine (God), He was able to be the perfect and final sacrifice, carrying the sins of every single person on the cross. Because He was fully divine, death could not hold Christ, but instead, He broke the bonds of Hades and He allowed all the righteous people to go to Paradise to be with God.

DISCUSSION (Challenge) - 5 Minutes

• How many laws and commandments were in the Old Testament? (613)
• How many commandments did Jesus Christ give us? (2)
• How did Christ show love to God? (obedience)
• How did Christ show love for his neighbors? (sacrificing His life)
• What does love mean in Christianity? (sacrifice)
• What effect did Christ's sacrifice have? (allowed the righteous people to go to Paradise)

LIFE APPLICATION - 5 Minutes

Now that we have shown that love means sacrifice, what are some ways we can show love in our homes and in our schools?

ACTIVITY - 6 Minutes

Show the children this video:

SERVANT RESOURCES

PARENTS CORNER/HOMEWORK

If the child does not have a cross in their bedroom, take time this week to go shopping for a cross together and place it over the child's bed or over their doorpost. Talk with your child about the sacrifice God made on the cross and how we can all go to Paradise and Heaven because of Jesus' sacrifice for us. You can tell them about how whenever they are afraid or have big emotions, doing the sign of the cross on themselves will give them Jesus Christ's protection because the devil is scared by the sign of the cross and doing this sign gives us the power over the devil.

You can also start crossing the child's room at night, making the sign of the cross either on each wall or on each corner of their bedroom as well as the ceiling, the floor, and on the child's bed. If you do this after nighttime prayers, it can create a sense of protection for the child to know they are surrounded on all sides by the power of the cross. It can especially help comfort children who are afraid of the dark or who have nightmares.