Read Luke 2:21-40
Circumcision, purification, temple presentation, and animal sacrifice may seem like minor details in Luke’s narrative about faithful Simeon and Anna, who see and proclaim the Christ child as salvation, consolation, and redemption for God’s people—people who have been waiting with great anticipation. But are these details truly minor?
Luke closes this scene by noting, “When they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee.” Jesus’ parents faithfully keep God’s law, and through their obedience we are shown that even in His infancy Jesus is fulfilling the law of the Lord. Later, Jesus will say to those gathered to hear Him teach, “I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).
Jesus is able to be our salvation, consolation, and redemption precisely because He fulfills all of God’s law—fully and completely. God’s standards of righteousness did not simply change because the old covenant became outdated or culturally irrelevant. Nor is the New Testament merely a replacement of one set of messy, bloody rules and regulations with a cleaner, more manageable standard of holiness and good living. Instead, in Christ’s life—and ultimately in His atoning, sacrificial death—He Himself becomes the fulfillment of God’s law.
That is why salvation, consolation, and redemption are found in no one else and in nothing else but Jesus.
Prayer: Almighty God, look upon the life and death of Your Son Jesus and not upon my life of sin. Forgive me of my sins by the blood and in the name of Christ. Amen.