CHRIST ‑‑‑ THE END OF THE LAW 
Romans 10:1‑4
Unsaved man can be very religious. His religion may embody some very commendable things and concerns. Though he has conclusively proven that they are lost, the Apostle Paul takes note of some very religious things about the nation of Israel. We must not equate lostness with the absence of religious activities or concerns.

In a way there is nothing more heart‑rending than to see a people busily engaged in religious activities, sincerely earnest in the whole matter, but still lost. When Paul considered the plight of his Jewish friends, his heart was moved to petition God for their salvation. It is worthy of our noting it that the Apostle did not allow his convictions about God's elective purpose to keep him from prayerfully seeking the salvation of the lost. Any view of divine election that cools your ardor for witnessing and winning men to Christ is a false view.
 In the circle of Christendom in our day there are unnumbered multitudes that stand in exactly the same position as ancient Israel stood. While they have given themselves to religion, they have missed salvation.

What is the problem? Part of the problem is involved in the fact that zeal is never enough. Even Paul had to bear witness to the zeal of the Hebrew people after God. He said, "I bear them record that they have a zeal for God." Religious zeal and enthusiasm is never enough in itself to bring a man to salvation. The problem with their zeal was that it was "not according to knowledge". There is surely nothing wrong with being zealous about God, but if the zeal is to be acceptable it must be based upon full or complete knowledge. The Jewish people were willfully refusing to admit the truthfulness of some things God has sought to make known.

They were willfully ignorant of the righteousness of God, which is the righteousness which God Himself gives to man as a gift. They had chosen to ignore this fact. Instead they committed themselves to the task of erecting their own righteousness like a monument to their dedication and religious zeal. They wanted the whole universe to acknowledge them as being righteous and religious men. They surely did not wish to be known as guilty sinners who had to receive righteousness from God as a free gift. They did not want to be in debt to God.

This attempt at establishing their own righteousness caused them to refuse to submit to God's righteousness. They just would not admit that they had to bow before God just like pagan Gentiles and receive righteousness as a gift of grace. Does that sound like anybody you know? Modern man has such difficulty when he is confronted with the fact that salvation is not a matter of works, but is a gift of grace. Man is so inclined to want to honor his own name, to come to know God on his terms, to not owe God anything.

This brings the Apostle to his great statement concerning the place of Jesus Christ in achieving righteousness. If you can find the place that people give to Jesus Christ in their scheme of salvation, you can know whether or not they are really saved. For those who know God's salvation, who have received God's provided righteousness as a free gift, Jesus Christ is everything. To those who are still working out their own salvation, He is not the one great Essential. Those who know God's salvation in Christ speak of it as "done". Those who do not know it in Him speak of it as "do". The two little letters that make the difference between do and done indicate the difference between religion and salvation.

"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.'' This is the great summary statement that explains why the Jew is lost. Any man who ignores Jesus Christ either willfully or unknowingly has missed God's way of making men righteous. Expositors have found three different ways in which Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness. While all three of them are surely Biblical ideas, only the third of them is the message of the Apostle in this passage. For the enlargement of our understanding of the relationship that we have to the law in Christ, let us consider each of them briefly.

CHRIST THE END OF THE LAW ‑‑‑ AS THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW
Jesus Christ claimed to be the one who would fulfill the law. In relating his ministry of the Law of Moses, he said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." In his life, He embodied all that the moral law demanded of man. He was perfectly acceptable to God on the basis of His living out the law of God as the Son of Man. Not one precept of the law was left unfulfilled in His life.

He fulfilled all of the ceremonial law by living it perfectly, and by becoming through His death upon the Cross all that the ceremonial law required of man.
The Apostle Paul taught that the moral law was fulfilled in love. (Romans 13:10, I Timothy 1:5) If that is true, surely there is no question about Jesus fulfilling the moral law in His life. He was Love incarnate.

That He was the fulfillment of the ceremonial law is made evident when God raised Him from the dead. His resurrection is the supreme evidence that God has accepted His work of sacrifice in our behalf upon the Cross.

CHRIST IS THE END OF THE LAW‑‑‑AS THE GOAL OF THE LAW
The law had as its ultimate goal bringing men to Jesus Christ. This was the primary object God had in mind when He gave the law. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." The Jewish people had misunderstood God's purpose in giving the law. It was to reveal to man his sinfulness, not to cleanse him from sin. It was to indicate to man his utter lostness, not to save him. It was to lead him to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ to receive the righteousness of God as a free gift, not to encourage him to try to work out a righteousness of his own.

Surely even we must admit that the law had a worthy goal. Christ Himself is that goal. None could ever be greater.

CHRIST IS THE END OF THE LAW ‑‑‑ THE TERMINATION OF THE LAW
This is the great theme of the Apostle here. "End" is emphatic in the sentence and should be understood in the usual way. Christ is the end of the law, which is the conclusion, the termination of the law. Jesus alluded to this in the Gospel of Luke when He said, "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it." (Luke 16:16) The coming of Jesus Christ marked the end of the reign of the law.

What does the Apostle include in the word "law"? It will be helpful to note that in the original text he does not employ the definite article. He is the end of "law". The word is used then of all law‑‑the Law of Moses both moral and ceremonial, but also the law as the Gentiles knew it. Christ brought all of that to a conclusion.

What does it mean? Dr. A. T. Robertson said that "it ended the law as a method of salvation.” That is true in a sense, but really man had never been able to be saved by law. God's way of saving sinners has always been by grace through faith. However, if there ever was a day when man had to listen to the law as it declared, "Do this and live", or "do this or die," that day ended when Jesus Christ came. The Christian faith does not begin with "do", but it begins rather with "done".

It means that because of the death of Christ upon the Cross, God has bestowed upon us righteousness as a gift. Therefore righteousness is not something we are seeking, but is a position we enjoy in Christ. We are dead to the law, and are alive unto Christ. At least this is the way the Apostle expressed it earlier in this same letter. (Romans 7:4)

But Christ is not the end of the law to everyone, only to those who put their trust in Him. Whether a man be a Jew or a Gentile makes no difference, if he will place his whole trust in Jesus Christ, he is the possessor of the imputed righteousness of God, and is no longer under the law.

Instead of being under the law like the Old Testament man, the New Testament man has had the law of God internalized in him through the indwelling Holy Spirit. He is not obeying an external command, as much as he is walking in an internal compulsion from the Holy Spirit. His right living is not a duty rendered to an external law, but devotion rendered to a risen Lord.

Do you see that the Jewish brethren of Paul then and now were lost? The blame cannot be placed on God. They are lost because they have chosen to ignore what God has done in Christ. They are lost because they would not submit to the righteousness which God wishes to give to them. They are lost because they have refused to place their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

You can no longer excuse your lostness. You cannot say, "I am lost because I cannot live it." The law is no longer any consideration. All God asks of you is for you to submit to His Son as Lord, and to receive as a free gift the gift of righteousness. Will you not abandon everything except Jesus Christ? He is all that you need in order to be acceptable before God.