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Chapter 74
The End of the Law
To the believer what does Christ become?
"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." Rom. 10:4.
In what sense is the word end (Greek, telos) sometimes used in the Scriptures? Object, intention, or design.
"Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord." James 5:11.
What was the object of the law?
"And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death." Rom. 7:10.
What further is the end, or object, of the law?
"Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart." 1 Tim. 1:5.
What is charity, or love?
"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Rom. 13:10 (1 John 5:3).
Why did God send His Son to the world?
"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." Rom. 8:3, 4.
Then what is one enabled to do through Christ?
"That the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us." Rom. 8:4 (see margin of Revised Version).
NOTE: Since obedience "unto life" is the "end of the law," and Christ is the means by which one is justified and enabled to keep the law, it is thus that He becomes the "end" or object, of the law for us.
"The end of the law was to bring men to perfect obedience, and so to obtain justification. This is now become impossible, by reason of the power of sin, and the corruption of nature; but Christ is the end of the law; the law is not destroyed, nor the intention of the Lawgiver frustrated; but full satisfaction being made by the death of Christ for our breach of the law, the end, or objective is attained -- which is justification and obedience. Christ is thus the end of the law for righteousness, for justification; but it is only to every one that believeth." --Matthew Henry.
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