The End of the Law

6/24/25 Bible Thought (Romans 10)

Image generated by Grok3

In Romans 10, Paul continues his discussion on Israel, his desire for their salvation, and how they utterly missed the Messiah in His first coming.

They strove after righteousness via the Mosaic law and missed what God intended altogether. Their zeal was commendable, and yet Paul concluded, “they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Rom. 10:2).

Their zeal in pursuit of the law was misguided.

For right-standing with God isn’t granted by obedience to the law but by faith in Christ. As Paul would powerfully conclude,

“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4).

The law certainly functioned to show Israelites how they ought to live, but it likewise shows all of us that we aren’t sufficiently righteous to live a God-pleasing life. That’s why Leviticus is chock-full of sacrifices! Right from the outset everyone knew that the law wasn’t keepable. Thus, the sacrifices were set up as a sort of safety harness that would catch those who were certain to fall.

That was true then and it’s true now.

We’re all lawbreakers who deserve the righteous judgment of God (Jas. 2:10). All have sinned!” Paul cried out (Rom. 3:23). As such, no amount of good works or righteousness or anything we bring to the table could ever be sufficient to save us. No—We need Christ.

Christ perfectly kept the law. He’s the only One who ever did. Never a sacrifice was needed to atone for His sins and to make up for His shortcomings for He never sinned.

Yet, the greatest law-keeper suffered as a lawbreaker in order that we who stood justly condemned by God’s law might be declared “Not guilty!”

How could this be? Christ suffered in our place. He took the punishment we deserved—that He most certainly didn’t—so that our record of guilt might be wiped clean.

As the apostle wrote in another place,

“For our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

Salvation is a gift that is received by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9). It’s the result of a believing heart and confessing mouth (see Rom. 10:9-10). Righteousness isn’t found through good works.

As the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) explains,

“For the believer the Law is set aside as a way of salvation by the Christ event.”^[1]

Many today believe something along the lines of, “Good people go to heaven.” Essentially, the idea is that heaven is the base destination for any half-decent human being who isn’t a criminal of sorts and only the most wretched among us are likely to miss it.

Yet, if law-keeping Jews couldn’t be righteous enough to merit salvation in the first century, certainly no one today is righteous enough to earn salvation. It must be freely received, as a gift, from the One who purchased it for us.

Let us never be confused: our merits don’t earn us anything with God.

We don’t get brownie-points for anything we bring to the table. No amount of church attendance, altruism, generosity, selfless service or anything we do moves the needle at all! The only merit I have is Jesus Christ. My only hope is Christ. My salvation, its promises and hopes are all bound up in the finished work of Christ.

Now, this ought not to result in lawless living (Rom. 6:1). Yet, it should cause us to live our lives in response to such wonderful grace and doing all manner of these good things not in order to be saved, but because I am saved (see Titus 3:4-8).

---

^[1] Gerhard Delling, “Τέλος, Τελέω, Ἐπιτελέω, Συντελέω, Συντέλεια, Παντελής, Τέλειος, Τελειότης, Τελειόω, Τελείωσις, Τελειωτής,” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–) 56.