“Christ Is The End Of The Law For Righteousness To Everyone That Believeth.”

Romans 10:4

The law of God is not evil, but holy, just, and good. However, it was never intended by God to be a rule of life for his people. Paul tells us plainly that those who desire to be teachers of the law, using it for that purpose, do not know what they are talking about (1 Tim. 1:7-11). Such doctrine is in direct opposition to “the glorious gospel of the blessed God.” The law was never made for a righteous man, but for the unrighteous.

I repeat myself deliberately -- 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.

Believers do not desire to break God’s holy law. Our insistence upon the believer’s total freedom from the law must never be understood as implying an aversion to it. To those who believe, God’s commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:1-3). 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.

Yet, the Word of God does emphatically assert that all who are in Christ are 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.

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.

Our law, our rule of life, is not one section of Scripture, 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. “The love of Christ constraineth us,” not the whip of the law.

Don Fortner