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“Christ is the end of the law.” Romans 10:4
When the Holy Spirit asserts that Christ is the end of the law, he means for us to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the law’s purpose. He is the purpose and object of the law. The law was given to lead us to Christ. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24-25). — “But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”
The law is the sheriff’s deputy who shuts men up in prison for their sin, concluding them all under condemnation, so that they must look to the free grace of God in Christ for deliverance. This is the purpose of the law. It empties that grace may fill. It wounds that grace may heal. The law was given to lead sinners to faith in Christ, by showing us the impossibility of salvation in any other way. Spurgeon said, “The law is God’s black dog, by which he fetches his sheep to the Shepherd.” How does the law perform its work? How does the law bring men to Christ? It exposes our sin (Romans 7:7-9). The law shows us what the result of sin must be. It declares that sin has separated and will forever separate man from God, unless justice is satisfied and sin removed. The law declares, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20). The only way any man can obtain mercy from God is to approach him with the bloody sacrifice of his own darling Son. The law reveals our utter helplessness (Psalm 24:3-4). Any man who thinks he can keep the law, and thereby win God’s favor, simply does not know what the law requires. — “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?” (Galatians 4:21). The law demands perfection. The law demands satisfaction. If we ever see what God requires in his law, we will beg for a Mediator (Exodus 20:1-19). God’s holy law shows us our great need of Christ as our Substitute. Our only hope before God is that God himself will send One who is able and willing to satisfy his holy law for us. We must have a Substitute, one who is able to make us righteous, one who is able to redeem (Romans 3:24-26). Knowing what the law requires, my soul cries, “Give me Christ. I want nothing to do with God’s naked law!” The law strips. Christ covers. The law condemns. Christ pardons. The law kills. Christ gives life. Not only is Christ the purpose and object of the law, the One to whom the law points. Christ is also the fulfillment of the law (Isaiah 42:21). Our Lord said, “I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil the law.” The law demands complete obedience, without one spot or speck, failure or flaw. The law demands holiness, righteousness, perfection. The terms of the law cannot be lowered, not even in order to save God’s elect. The law demands complete satisfaction. It will settle for nothing less than the death of every transgressor. In Christ God’s elect have all that the law demands. His life of obedience is our perfect righteousness. His sin-atoning death is our satisfaction of divine justice (Romans 5:19). In Christ we are free from the law’s curse (Romans 8:1). In Christ the believer fulfills the law by faith (Romans 3:31). Christ fulfilled the law representatively for us; and we fulfill the law by faith, offering to God what his law demands: — The Obedience and Blood of Christ! Our Lord Jesus Christ is the termination of the law. Yes, you read that right. Christ is the end of the law in the sense that he is the termination of the law. Dead is just about as terminated as you can get; and Paul tells us that if we are truly married to Christ, we are dead to the law (Romans 7:1-4). Christ has terminated the law as a covenant of life. — “We are not under the law, but under grace.” Christ has terminated the law’s curse and penalty. In Christ every believer has a just, righteous claim of merit upon all the blessedness of everlasting glory (Psalm 32:1-2; Colossians 1:12). Do you see the sweet mystery of salvation by the substitutionary work of Christ? The law has no claim upon those for whom Christ died. The curse spent itself on our Redeemer. Dying in Christ, when he died for us upon the cursed tree, we are dead to the law. We are righteous, justified, guiltless, innocent, holy, without blemish, perfect before the holy Lord God in Christ.
Don Fortner
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Pastor Fortner’s
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