GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

HOW AND TO WHOM
IS CHRIST THE END OF THE LAW?

The Believer's Freedom From The Law In Christ
Romans 10:4

(Romans 10:4) "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."

Knowing something of the just severity and strict demands of God's holy law, – Knowing that the law demands, "The soul that sinneth it shall die", – Knowing that the law demands, "It must be perfect to be accepted", – Knowing the utter terror of the law, – When I read this great and glorious statement, "Christ is the end of the law," I immediately want to know, How and To Whom? Don't you?

That is the title of my message tonight. HOW AND TO WHOM IS CHRIST THE END OF THE LAW?

What does Paul mean when he says that Christ is the end of the law? There are five obvious and clear answers to that question.

A. Paul means for us to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is THE END OF THE LAW'S PURPOSE. He is the purpose and object of the law.

The law was given to lead us to Christ. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Once it has served that purpose, it has no other function (Gal. 3:24-25).

(Galatians 3:24-25) "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. {25} But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster."

The law is the sheriff's deputy who shuts men up in prison for their sin, concluding them all under condemnation, so that they may look to the free grace of God in Christ for deliverance. This is the purpose of the law. It empties, that grace may fill. It wounds, that grace may heal. The law was given to lead sinners to faith in Christ, by showing them the impossibility of salvation in any other way.

Illustration: The law is God's black dog, by which fetches his sheep to the Shepherd.
A Schoolmaster Under Roman Law.

How does the law perform its work? How does the law bring men to Christ?

(Romans 7:7-9) "What shall we say then? is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. {8} But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. {9} For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died."

Death – "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. 18:20).

• The only way any man can obtain mercy from God is to approach him with a bloody sacrifice.

(Psalms 24:3-4) "Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? {4} He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully."

Any man who thinks he can keep the law, and thereby win God's favor, simply does not know what the law requires. "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?" (Gal. 4:21).

• The law demands perfection.


• The law demands satisfaction.


• If you ever see what God requires in his law, you will beg for a Mediator (Ex. 20:1-19).

My only hope before God is that God himself will send One who is able and willing to satisfy his holy law for me. I must have a Substitute.

• One who is able to make me righteous.


• One who is able to redeem (Rom. 3:24-26).

(Romans 3:24-26) "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: {25} Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; {26} To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

Give me Christ. I want nothing to do with God's naked law!

• The law strips. Christ covers.


• The law condemns. Christ pardons.


• The law kills. Christ gives life.

B. Not only is Christ the purpose and object of the law, the One to whom the law points. Christ is also THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW (Isa. 42:21).

(Isaiah 42:21) "The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable."

Our Lord said, "I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil the law." The law demands complete obedience, without one spot or speck, failure or flaw. The law demands holiness, righteousness, perfection. The terms of the law cannot be lowered. Not even in order to save God's elect.

The law demands complete satisfaction. It will settle for nothing less than the death of every transgressor.

• His Life


• His Death (Rom. 5:19).

(Romans 5:19) "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."

(Romans 8:1) "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

(Romans 3:31) "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law."

Yes, you heard me right. Christ is the end of the law in the sense that he is the termination of the law. Dead is just about as terminated as you can get; and Paul tells us that if we are truly married to Christ we are dead to the law (Rom. 7:1-4).

(Romans 7:1-4) "Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? {2} For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. {3} So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. {4} Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God."

1. Christ has terminated the law as a covenant of life – "We are not under the law, but under grace."
2. Christ has terminated the law's curse and penalty.

(Galatians 3:13) "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:"

3. In Christ, every believer has a just, righteous claim of merit upon all the blessedness of everlasting glory (Psa. 32:1-2).

(Psalms 32:1-2) " Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. {2} Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile."

Do you see the sweet mystery of salvation by the substitutionary work of Christ? The law has no claim upon those for whom Christ died.

• The curse spent itself on our Redeemer.


• We are dead to the law.


• We are righteous, justified, guiltless, innocent in Christ.

I will be brief here, but I want you to understand that man cannot obtain righteousness of any kind, of any merit before God by the works of the law (Gal. 2:21).

(Galatians 2:21) "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."

(Matthew 5:20) "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

(Hebrews 12:14) "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."

(Isaiah 64:6) "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."

(Philippians 3:8-10) "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, {9} And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: {10} That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death."

• Justifying Righteousness!


• Sanctifying Righteousness!

(1 Corinthians 1:30-31) "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: {31} That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."

"Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." Do you see the stress of the text? It is just this – "To everyone that believeth." The one issue of vital importance is just this – "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" If you believe, Christ is the end of the law to you. If you do not believe, you are yet under the curse of God's holy law.

A. If you would be saved you must submit to the righteousness of God. You must trust Christ alone for righteousness.

1. Your sin cannot be put away, except by his blood atonement.
2. You cannot be made holy before God except by Christ.

B. If you refuse to submit to the righteousness of God in Christ, you must forever perish.

(Matthew 11:28-30) "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I WILL GIVE YOU REST. {29} Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and YE SHALL FIND REST unto your souls. {30} For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

I am done when I have given you these three words of exhortation.

(Colossians 2:16-23) "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: {17} Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. {18} Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, {19} And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. {20} Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, {21} (Touch not; taste not; handle not; {22} Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? {23} Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh."

2. Never allow anyone to bring you back into bondage, no not for a moment.

(Galatians 5:2) "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing."

Self-righteousness sticks to human flesh like leaches. Shake it off. Flee from it. Cling to Christ alone for all your hope before God. He is "The Lord our Righteousness."

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