Chapter 57
“Christ Is The
End Of The Law”
“Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.” -- Romans 10:4
“Christ is the end of the law.” It is
entirely correct to do with that statement exactly what the whole religious
world says we must not do with it. Take it and run with it just as far as
possible. There is no sense in which Christ is not the end of the law. He is
the fulfilment of the law, the conclusion of the law, the finality of the law,
the object of the law, the reason why the law was given, and the termination of
the law.
“Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness.” There is no
righteousness of any kind, justifying righteousness or sanctifying
righteousness, to be had by our personal obedience to the law. It is written, “If righteousness come by the law, then
Christ is dead in vain!”
Christ is not the end of the law for everyone. The Son of God
did not fulfill the law’s demands for everyone. He is the end of the law for
God’s elect, for all who trust him. “Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.”
Holy, Just and Good
When the apostle Paul declares, “Christ is the end of the law,” he is not telling us that the law is evil. It is not (1 Tim.
1:8-9). It is an evil thing to misuse the law; but the law is not evil. Writing
by divine inspiration, the apostle tells us those apostate religious leaders
who try to mix law and grace, who try to put believers under the yoke of
bondage, desiring to be teachers of the law, do not know what they are talking
about, “understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.”
The law was never intended, in any sense, for those who are righteousness
before God. The law was given for the unrighteous. The law is not evil. It is
holy, just, and good. It would be well if all men lived in conformity to the
law’s commands, both in outward practice and in inward principle. Indeed, it is
ordained of God and used by all civil governments to protect society from those
who would otherwise disregard all respect for the rights, property, and lives
of others.
Delight
in the Law
When the Scriptures
affirm, as the New Testament constantly does, that Christ is the end of the law
and the believers are entirely free from the law, the Spirit of God certainly
is not suggesting that believers are free to break, or disregard God’s holy
law. Not only
is the believer not free to break the law, he has no desire to do so. To those
who believe, God’s commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:1-3). Every child of
God in this world truly delights in the law of God after the inward man (Rom.
7:22). If we could, we would love God with all out hearts. If we could, we
would love our neighbor as ourselves. But we do not have the ability to do so.
Bible
Doctrine
I am fully aware that the
creeds, confessions, and religious dogma of almost every Protestant or Baptist
denomination, as well as those written by papists, stringently affirm that
there is a sense in which believers are yet under the law. (That fact alone
ought to be enough to convince us that it is contrary to Holy Scripture!)) But
the Word of God declares exactly the opposite, and states the believer’s
freedom from the law with such frequency and clarity that error in this regard
is utterly in excusable. In Christ every believer is entirely free from the
law, because Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth.” “We are not
under law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14-15). We have been crucified with Christ,
and we are “become dead to the law by the
body of Christ” (Rom. 7:4). There is no sense whatsoever in which it may be
said that the believer is under the law (Rom. 8:1-4; Gal. 2:19-21; 3:1-3, 13,
18-19, 21-26; 4:9-11, 21, 30; 5:1-5; Col. 2:8-23).
“I defy anyone to find a
solitary text of Scripture in the New Testament that uses the law to motivate,
inspire, regulate, or even guide the believer. Believers are motivated by love,
inspired by gratitude, regulated by grace, and guided by the Holy Spirit. The
whole Word of God, the complete revelation of his will is our law. Our lives
are governed by love, not by fear. We walk by faith, not by legislation. We
walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh (Rom. 8:9-14; Gal. 3:3).” -- (Scott Richardson)
Our law, our rule of life, is not one section
of Scripture[1],
but the whole revealed will of God in Holy Scripture. We take the Word
of God in its entirety as our only rule of faith and practice. However, we
rejoice in the fact that we are no longer ruled, motivated or governed by the
law. We do not live before God upon legal principles. Therefore we sing with
joy,
“Free from the law, oh,
happy condition!
Christ has redeemed us from
every transgression.”
In Christ, the child of God,
those who live in the Spirit, those who walk by faith, are entirely free from
the law. We have no covenant with the law. We live under a covenant of grace.
We have no commitment to the law. Our commitment is to Christ, who obeyed the
law for us. We do nothing by constraint of the law. “The love of Christ constraineth us.” We fear no curse from the
law. “Christ hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree.”
False Accusations
Because the doctrine of the believer’s freedom from
the law is so clearly and universally taught in the Scriptures that it cannot,
upon any grounds, be refuted, those who refuse to bow to the Word of God have
only one other course of action by which to persuade men against it: Slander.
They attempt to justify themselves and their doctrine by making the doctrine of
Holy Scripture and those who teach it appear vile. Men often accuse us of being
antinomians. They accuse us of promoting licentiousness. They censor us and
warn others to avoid contact with us, as though our liberty in Christ were some
kind of spiritual leprosy. But we will not again be entangled with the yoke of
bondage. We will not attempt to reach the throne of God by climbing Mt. Sinai.
We will simply trust the grace of God streaming to us from the wounds of our
crucified Savior, finding all our righteousness and all our redemption in that
One who died for our sins at Mt. Calvary.
Be Warned
Let all who seek God’s
favor by their obedience to the law be warned -- “Christ
is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye
are fallen from grace.” Show me a man who trusts his own righteousness, his
own obedience, his own devotion, his own feelings, or anything else of his own
as a basis of acceptance with God to any degree or for anything, and I will
show you a man who is entirely lost, a man to whom the blood of Christ, the
righteousness of Christ, and the grace of Christ is worthless.
“Christ is the end of the law.”
The law of God is that
which we ought to dread above all things, for the sting of death is sin and the
strength of sin
is the law. The law condemns us and demands our execution. In solemn terms, it
appoints for us a place among the damned. “For
it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are
written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal. 3:10).
Yet, man has a strange
infatuation with the law. Like the gnat that is drawn to the candle that will
destroy it, man by nature is drawn to the law for righteousness, when all the
law can give is destruction. The law can do nothing else but reveal sin and
pronounce condemnation on the sinner (Rom. 3:19-20).
Still,
we cannot get men to flee from the law. They are so enamored with their own
self- righteousness and their own self-worth that they will cling to the law
with a death-grip, though there is nothing to cling to. They prefer Sinai to
Calvary, though Sinai offers them nothing but death. Listen to the Word of God.
If the opinions of men, or your own opinions contradict the Word of God, “Let God be true and every man a liar.”
·
The law was never given to save sinners; and it can never serve that
purpose (Gal. 2:16).
·
The law was never given to motivate the people of God to holiness and
service; and it cannot serve that purpose. The one thing that God requires is a
willing heart (2 Cor. 8:12; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Rom. 12:1-2).
·
The law was never given as a rule of life, or standard of conduct for
the believer; and it cannot serve that purpose (Rom. 3:28, 31; 1 John 3:23).
·
The law was not given to produce sanctification in the believer; or
even to be a measure of sanctification, and it cannot serve such purposes (Gal.
3:1-3). Christ is our sanctification!
The law
was given to point men to Christ for salvation. The law was given to show man
his guilt, his sin, and his need of a Substitute. This is the law’s only
purpose; and it serves that purpose very well (Rom. 3:19-22). The thunders of
Sinai drive us away and point us with its lightening bolts to Calvary and to
Christ who is the end of the law.
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 (Gal. 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 may 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 them 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 (Rom. 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” (Ezek. 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 (Psa. 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?” (Gal. 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 (Ex. 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 (Rom. 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 (Isa. 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 (Rom. 5:19). In Christ we are free from the law’s curse
(Rom. 8:1). In Christ the believer fulfills the law by faith (Rom. 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, 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 (Rom. 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 (Psa. 32:1-2; Col.
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.
“Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.”
Sinners cannot obtain righteousness of any kind, of
any merit before God by the works of the law (Gal. 2:21). God requires perfect righteousness (Matt. 5:20; Heb. 12:14). We have no righteousness of our own, and we
have no ability to produce righteousness (Isa. 64:6). Christ has established righteousness for his
people that meets the law’s demands (Phil. 3:8-10). His name is “The Lord Our Righteousness!” The
righteousness of the law is found only in Christ.
“Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believeth.”
The one issue of vital importance is just this: -- “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” If
you believe, Christ is the end of the law to you. If you do not believe, you
are yet under the curse of God’s holy law. If you would be saved you must submit to the righteousness of God. You
must trust Christ alone for righteousness. Your sin cannot be put away
except by his blood atonement. You cannot be made holy before God except by
Christ. If you refuse to submit to the righteousness of God in Christ, you must
forever perish under the infinite curse of God’s holy law.
Let us never attempt to
serve God by a legal principle (Col. 2:16-23). We must never allow anyone to
bring us back into bondage, no not for a moment (Gal. 5:1-4). We must never
trust our own righteousness (Gal. 5:2). Self-righteousness sticks to human
flesh like leaches. Shake it off. Flee from it. Cling to Christ alone for all
your hope before God. He is “The Lord our Righteousness.”
“Case
dismissed!”
Sam Houston led the battle that brought defeat to
Santa Anna and his Mexican army at the battle of San Jacinto.
After Texas became a Republic, with Sam Houston as it’s president, the law
provided free land to any soldier who had fought along side of Sam Houston at
San Jacinto.
On one occasion a man by the
name of Knobby Horsham was accused of defrauding another farmer of some land.
When the farmer who had accused Mr. Horsham of fraud appeared in court, he was
surprised to find none other than President Sam Houston himself defending the
accused. Knobby Horsham was considered a man of ill repute. Nine of the jurors
seated were farmers who all had been defrauded by rascals like him.
When the trial began, Judge Phinizy asked Sam Houston if he had any witnesses.
"Only one, your Honor," Houston replied.
Limping to the witness box,
his right leg dragging from a serious wound sustained in the battle, Houston moved
next to the defendant, and looked down on him as a loving father might look
upon one of his own sons, despite the fact that the defendant was a known
criminal. As the courtroom sat in silent expectation, President Houston uttered
only two sentences. "Knobby, you’ve heard the serious charges made against
you. Where were you on the afternoon of
April 21, 1836?"
Knobby Horsham looked up
like a little child and whispered, "With you in the front-line at San Jacinto."
"The defense rests," Houston said, taking his seat. "Case dismissed," Judge Phinizy cried.
O believing sinner, guilty
though we are by nature, you and I were there at Calvary with the Lord Jesus
Christ, when the horrible wrath of God fell on him. "There is therefore
now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." -- Case
dismissed!
[1] Frequently, the word “law”
is used in the Old Testament, particularly in the psalms, to refer to the whole
Word of God, the whole revelation of God and his will in Holy Scripture.
Sometimes the Word “law” is used to refer to the ceremonial, dietary and
sometimes to the civil law given to the nation of Israel. And the word “law” is
often used to refer specifically to the ten commandments as recorded in Exodus
20. These ten commandments are commonly referred to as “the moral law” by
preachers and theologians. However, you will search the Word of God in vain to
find a separation between the ten commandments and the other laws given by the
hand of Moses to the children of Israel. When the Scriptures declare that
believers in Christ are free from the law and that Christ is the end of the law
the declaration is that we are free from all the Mosaic law (civil, dietary,
economic, and moral) by which the nation of Israel was governed in the Old
Testament.