Riff's Christian Journal

Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.

Heb 8:13 In that he says, A new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Now that which is declared obsolete and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

When one speaks of the Law the first thing that comes to mind is the Ten Commandments, and they would be right. For these commandments are the basis for all of the rules, regulations and causative laws of blessings and curses found in the first five books of the Old Testament.

For the most part, all Christian religions agree that these Laws have been done away. However, there are divisions on whether or not obedience to the Ten Commandments, here after known as The Law, is still required.

However if something ends and is now obsolete, how can one still be subject to that which no longer is here?

Here is the context in which the term “end of The Law” is used.

Rom 10:1  Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 

Rom 10:2  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 

Rom 10:3  For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 

Rom 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

The Apostle Paul is saying that His people, Israel, tried to establish their own righteousness and they failed, and when Christ came He made an end to The Law by His obedience to The Law and fulfilled all the requirements that God had demanded of us. Because of what Jesus has done, we are no longer required to be obedient to The Law in order to be made righteous by The Law. By Christs’ obedience to the Law He made an end of The Law.

Now some will argue that in Matthew 5: 17, 18 where Jesus said He did not come to destroy The Law, that not one jot or tittle will pass away until heaven and earth passes away. Here is what He actually said:

Mat 5:17  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 

Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

You see, we must read these verses in complete context. Jesus came to fulfil The Law, even if it takes until the end of time, and that when it is fulfilled it will bring an end to The Law. These parts of the scriptures are always left alone and never mentioned.

Therefore, when did Jesus fulfill The Law. In John 19 we read:

Joh 19:28  After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. 

Joh 19:29  Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. 

Joh 19:30  When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

When Jesus said, “It is finished”, He knew that He had fulfilled what he said in Matthew 5: 17 and 18. The Law had been fulfilled and in doing so, He brought an end to The Law.

The Apostle Paul made mention of this in Colossians 2:

Col 2:13  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 

Col 2:14  Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

The Law is now obsolete and we can read the full context of this in Hebrews 8:

Heb 8:6  But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 

Heb 8:7  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 

Heb 8:8  For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 

Heb 8:9  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 

Heb 8:11  And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 

Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 

Heb 8:13 In that he says, A new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Now that which is declared obsolete and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

For what, then, should The Law be used? The Law is not made for a righteous man but for sinners (1 Timothy 1: 9, 10). It is designed to show sin in man and to bring them to Jesus.

For the Christian, we are no longer under The Law, to be obedient to The Law, which was conditional on our works. As Christians under Grace we are to be obedient to Jesus to do His will, which is unconditional based on God’s love for us. For as God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure we will find ourselves becoming more willing to have an ever increasing great desire to show our love for Jesus in doing as we have been told to do unconditionally; To love God and to love our neighbor.

As God said in Hebrews, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor , and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”

Jesus put an end to The Law and it is obsolete and has vanished away.

Being under Grace puts us under the authority of Jesus all because we are in the arms of God being forgiven and loved unconditionally for all eternity. How can we not want but to be obedient to Jesus.