Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
by | Posted April 24th at 4:00pm
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Romans 10:4 NASB
If you have been brought up in a church wherein, the law was either a focus or a side doctrinal focus; please open your mind to get a new perspective on Paul. If you have understood the relationship to the moral law, as primarily keeping the Decalogue — the ten commandments, as the sole standard of righteous living, whereby we receive salvation from our sins in Christ, you may have a little bit more to fathom about the Gospel. 1
It is not a moral law or list of rules that make something right or wrong. Take civil laws for example. These requirements are established to cause people to behave in such a way that they line up with guiding principles designed by elected leaders of a city or village in which people seek to reside harmoniously — a system of law and order which was deemed necessary for the people before prescribed.
It is not a moral law or list of rules that make something right or wrong.
Laws are usually written with some ongoing situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome. Judicial guidance is a necessary deterrent to overcome a real-life problem, legislated to guide or enforce the conduct of those too immature in their thinking and behaviour. Laws prohibiting, for example, hate literature, sexual assault, or loud noise-making after 11 pm have underlying existential reasons behind each statute.2
Such laws are made to protect the immature from him/herself or to protect society from the actions of the naive. The degree of immaturity is directly proportional to the number and specificity of laws that are required. You wouldn’t ask a reasonable 17-year-old youth to hold your hand while crossing the street because the maturity of a teenager supersedes that of a 5-year-old child.
For Christians in Christ, being in the new paradigm under the New Covenant (NC) does not mean that because you are no longer viewed by God as being under the old covenant law, that it is now acceptable to kill, steal and commit adultery! Think about this question: If you believed that all the Ten Commandment laws—had come to an end, and you were living a Spirit-led life, would you start doing the things prohibited in the Decalogue? 3 (see Romans 2:29; 8:1-4; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 7:6; Hebrews 8:8) We might, however, expect some compromised behaviour from a very immature Christian.
The Jews were a very immature people coming out of slavery in Egypt. Read the old testament account of the Exodus, the book of Judges etc. to see reasons as to why they needed laws before Christ would come to this earth (see Galatians 3:19 NLT). The issue in the NC church becomes problematic when a church group doctrinally defines righteousness as obedience to this law originally prescribed for the Jews. 4
I do agree that the ten commandments were mandated in the Old Covenant (OC) only before Christ’s atoning sacrifice established the NC. His death provided propitiation for our sins — in other words, he died in our place to ransom us from the condemnation of the OC law (1 John 2:2, 4:10; Romans 3:25; Matthew 26:28; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; Hebrews 12:24). In Christ, we shift our viewpoint of righteousness into the new life which He offers us so freely. (Hebrews 2:17)
Paul’s New Testament references contrast law and righteousness as being completely antithetical and now unrelated to each other. (Romans 3:21; 4:13–14; 9:30, 31; 10:3, 4 NASB). In Romans 3:29-31 he also stated that the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, are only justified as righteous “by faith” in contrast to the “works of the law”. With this, he denied the old connection that had indeed identified the Jews as law keepers, whereby they sought to attain righteousness by the works of the OC law before Christ’s time according to that agreement — that covenant period which was entirely based on obedience to the laws stipulated by Yahweh, through Moses at Mt. Sinai — laws that were meant to lead men to the need of Christ’s own imputed righteousness by faith (Galatians 3:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
And this law of the OC is not to be confused with meritorious human efforts. Paul would answer the question of Romans 3: 31 in the next chapter concerning Abraham’s acceptance with God as stated in the law and the prophets (compare Romans 4:1-2, 13, 22; Genesis 15:6). 5
All the above verses indicate that the righteousness of God comes via faith alone, unrelated now with the law — it is a much higher righteousness beyond the righteousness of the law. In Christ, we are referred to as Christians similarly having the faith of Abraham based on our union with God by faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:7-9).
The apostle Paul warned that you become separated from Christ, when you who are seeking to be justified by law — termed as fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4 NASB) Why is this? Think of yourself in this way. You are now “found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith”. (Philippians 3:9; Galatians 2:21 NASB).
I also recommend reading The New Covenant Manifesto of God’s Love.
1 The following book is recommended to help guide you into a fuller comprehension of the transition out of the Old Covenant thinking, to the New Covenant freedom available to us, as offered in Christ. Many of the concepts in this book have proved helpful to my own comprehension on this subject. See Dale Ratzlaff, Sabbath in Christ (Publisher, LAM Publications, LLC, Arizona)
3 Dale Ratzlaff, Sabbath in Christ (Publisher, LAM Publications, LLC, Arizona)
4 “Righteousness is obedience to the law.” Ellen G. White, The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 1890-11-04
5 see N.T. Wright, The Letter to the Romans
Article posted by Glen R. Jackman, founder of GraceProclaimed.org
Glen has optimized his eldership role to teach the full scope of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ without
boundaries.
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