Christ the End of the Law
Rom 10:4,5 Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, "The man who does those things shall live by them." (Lev 18:5)
The righteousness of the law is a performance based righteousness. One is righteous so long as they do the things required by law. Not so with regards to the righteousness which is by faith in Jesus Christ where salvation is granted as a gift which one does not work for. Having been saved by grace through faith, eternal life is guaranteed as there are no rules or regulations one must abide by in order to obtain nor maintain one's salvation status. Rather having believed, one receives the right to become a child of God and as such is born-again by the Spirit of God which affects one's behavior such that righteous behavior is naturally characteristic of those born of God. And that is the sense in which verses are to be taken that speak of the correlation between a person's behavior and their salvation status, rather than in a legalistic sense as some have misconstrued. In contrast the law of Moses is all about rules and regulations, and failure to live up to them may quite literally end in death. Christ ended the reign of law "having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." Col 2:14
The Berean Christian Bible Study Resources
Jesus is the exact expression of God's nature (Hebrews 1:3) and that that looked like was a life lived in sinless obedience to the Mosaic Law, so everything in the law points toward or teaches us about how to know him or have a relationship with him, which is why Jesus said that the Scriptures testify about him (John 5:39-40). In 1 John 2:4, those who say that they know Jesus, but don't obey his commands are liars and the truth is not in them, and in 1 John 3:4-6, sin is lawlessness, and those who continue to practice lawlessness have neither seen nor known him. In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus said that he would tell those who are workers of lawlessness to depart from him, so God's law is His instructions for how to know or have a relationship with Christ, which is why Romans 10:4 should be understood as speaking about a relationship with Christ being the goal of the law for righteousness for everyone who has faith rather than the end of the law. It just doesn't make any sense to think that Jesus ended the way to have a relationship with him, especially when the context of Romans 10:4 has nothing to do with Jesus ending it, but just the opposite. In Romans 10:5, Paul quoted Leviticus 18:5 in regard to this faith saying that the one who obeys the law will attain life by it, so this is based on faith, not based on performance, which is why Jesus said in Matthew 23:23 that faith is one of the weightier matters of the law. Paul went in in Romans 10:6-10 to reference Deuteronomy 30:11-16 in regard to our faith saying that God's law not being too difficult to obey and in regard to what it looks like to submit to Jesus as Lord.
When we have a character trait, then we will express it through our actions, so doing what was righteous in obedience to the law was never the way to become righteous, but rather that is what someone who is righteous looks like. In Matthew 19:17, Jesus said that if we want to enter into eternal life, then obey the commandments, so again that is what faith looks like. In Psalms 119:29, David wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him to obey His law, in Romans 1:5, we have received grace in order to bring about the obedience of faith, and in Titus 2:11-14, our salvation is described as being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, and to renounce doing what is ungodly, which is what God's law was given to instruct how to do, so that is what receiving the free gift of salvation looks like. Again, Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23 that he would tell those who are workers of lawlessness to depart from him, so obedience to God's law through faith is absolutely a salvation issue even though we do not earn our salvation by obeying the law.
In 1 John 3:10, those who do not practice righteousness in obedience to God's law are not children of God, the right to be a child of God requires our obedience. To be a child of God is to express the same character or nature as God, which again is what Jesus expressed through his obedience to the Mosaic Law. In Ephesians 2:10, we have been made new creations in Christ for the purpose of doing good works, and God's law is His instructions for how to do good works. Saying that the Mosaic Law is about rules and regulations is completely missing that the whole goal of the law is a relationship with Christ.
Christ ended the reign of law "having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." Col 2:14
There is a difference between someone handwriting a sign that says:
1.) You shall not commit murder.
2.) This person has been found guilty of committing murder and the punishment is death.
The first is an example of a law of God that is for our own good, while the second is an example of a handwriting of a requirement that was against or contrary to someone. Whenever someone was crucified, the people would write out a sign that listed the charges that were against them and nail it to their cross in order to announce why they were being executed (Matthew 27:37). This served as a perfect analogy for the list of our violations of the Mosaic Law being nailed to Christ's cross and with him dying in our place to pay the penalty for our sins, but has nothing to do with ending any of the laws, especially because they are all eternal (Psalms 119:160). In Titus 2:14, it does not say that Jesus gave himself to end any laws, but in order to redeem us from all lawlessness, so saying that Jesus ended the reign of the law undermines what he went to the cross the accomplish.
