Is Jesus Christ the END OF THE LAW for You?
© 2022 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 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. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Romans 10:1-4)
In the above statement, the apostle Paul references two absolute truths. First, each person (including Paul’s Jewish brethren) has a sin problem which God shall punish without exception. Secondly, no sinful man is capable of paying his, or her, own infinite penalty. Paul, previously known as Saul of Tarsus, had been a vicious persecutor of Christians. God had showed Saul that the sinless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, had paid his entire penalty for him. Christ did this by bearing that penalty as He died at Calvary. Through faith in Christ’s payment, Saul was now saved and had become Paul, the apostle. Paul yearned for his Jewish brethren to comprehend that their attempts to achieve righteousness by obeying the law are futile. Fallen man simply cannot do it. But, for those who trust Christ, the awful penalty of the law is ended! Paul now declares that the law’s primary purpose is to convince us that our own self-help efforts are hopeless. Our redemption can come only through faith in Christ and His finished payment.
“But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:22-24)
As in Paul’s day, billions still seek to earn their own justification by religious observances. However, fallen man is unable to satisfy God’s requirement for perfection. Thus, a person’s only hope is for Christ to become his or her substitute in bearing God’s punishment for sin. Only those who, by faith, trust Christ as Savior, have Him as their substitute redeemer. For them, He has become the end of their condemnation under God’s perfect law.
Christ’s payment is absolutely complete for all who come to Him in faith!
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
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