Jun 21
3
“Christ Is The End Of The Law”
HOW AND TO WHOM? Romans 10:4
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? The Holy Spirit tells us exactly how Christ is the end of the law, and to whom he is the end of the law.
HOW?
How is Christ the end of the law? Hear what God says. – “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.” Fallen man cannot obtain righteousness of any kind, of any merit before God by the works of the law (Gal. 2:21). But God requires perfect righteousness in and from us all (Matt. 5:20; Heb. 12:14). It is written, “It must be perfect to be accepted.”
Though we have no righteousness of our own, and we have no ability to produce righteousness (Isa. 64:6), we are not without hope. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Surety, Representative, Mediator, and Substitute has established righteousness which fully meets and satisfies all the law’s demands (Phil. 3:8-10). And that righteousness demanded by the law is found only in Christ. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.” Christ is made of God unto us righteousness, both for justification and for sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30).
TO WHOM?
To whom is Christ the end of the law? “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.” This is one issue of vital importance – “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.
If we would be saved we must submit to the righteousness of God. We must trust Christ alone for righteousness. Our sins cannot be put away except by his blood atonement. We cannot be made holy before God except by Christ. All who refuse to submit to the righteousness of God in Christ, must forever perish.
WHAT NOW?
Being convinced that “Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believeth,” what now must we do? We must never attempt to serve God upon a legal principle. All legal religion is banned by the express statements of Holy Scripture (Col. 2:16-23). We must never allow anyone to bring us back into bondage, no not for a moment (Gal. 5:1). We must never trust our own righteousness (Gal. 5:2). 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.”
Don Fortner
Though you are a worm
(John MacDuff, “The Thoughts of God”)
“Do not be afraid, worm Jacob; I will help you! says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 41:14
“Worm Jacob!” What weakness, insignificance, unworthiness! Yet it is this helpless, groveling “worm,” which occupies the thoughts of God — receives His sympathy, and has the assurance of His almighty aid!
Believer, beaten down it may be, with a great fight of affliction, or trembling under a sense of your unworthiness and guilt — mourning . . .
the coldness of your faith,
the lukewarmness of your love,
the frequency of your backslidings,
the fitfulness of your best purposes,
the feebleness of your best services —
your God draws near to you — He remembers that though you are a worm — still you are “worm Jacob,” — His own beloved, covenant one; and He tells you that the thoughts which He thinks towards you, are “thoughts of peace, and not of evil.”
Mark His message of comfort, “Do not be afraid!” Mark His promise, “I will help you!” The guarantee which He gives for the fulfillment of that promise, is His own great name; “says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”
“I Myself will help you!” Yes, poor, weak, trembling one, “Jehovah”, “your Redeemer”, “the Holy One of Israel” — in other words, Omnipotence, Love, and Righteousness, are all embarked on your side, and pledged for your salvation!
He loves to draw near to His people in the extremity of their weakness. “He will not break the bruised reed; He will not quench the smoking flax.” Man would do so. Man would often crush the writhing worm under his feet — bid the trembling penitent away; but He whose thoughts are not as our thoughts, says, “Neither do I condemn you!”
Be it mine to go in the strength of the Lord God. “I will help you!” is enough for all the emergencies of the present; and all the contingencies of an untried, and, it may be, a dark future. “But happy are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”
Here, and here alone
J.C.Philpot
Standing then at the cross of our adorable Lord,
we may see . . .
the law thoroughly fulfilled,
its curse fully endured,
its penalties wholly removed,
sin eternally put away,
the justice of God amply satisfied,
all His perfections gloriously harmonized,
reconciliation completely effected,
redemption graciously accomplished,
and the church everlastingly saved.
Here, and here alone, we see sin in its blackest
colors, and holiness in its most attractive beauties.
Here, and here alone, we see the love of God
in its tenderest form, and the anger of God in
its deepest expression.
Here, and here alone, we see the eternal and
unalterable displeasure of the Almighty against sin,
and the rigid demands of His inflexible justice, and
yet the tender compassion and boundless love of
His heart to the election of grace.
Here, and here alone, are obtained pardon and peace.
Here, and here alone, penitential grief and
godly sorrow flow from heart and eyes.
Here, and here alone, is . . .
sin subdued and mortified,
holiness communicated,
death vanquished,
Satan put to flight, and
happiness and heaven begun in the soul.
What a holy meeting-place for repenting sinners
and a sin-pardoning God! What a healing-place
for guilty, yet repenting and returning backsliders!
What a door of hope in the valley of Achor for the
self-condemned and self-abhorred! What a safe
spot for seeking souls! And what a blessed
resorting-place for the whole family of grace
in this valley of grief and sorrow.
This inward conflict
J.C.Philpot
“I know that nothing good lives in me—that is, in
my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what
is good—but I cannot carry it out.” Romans 7:18
Now it is this which makes the Lord’s people such a
burdened people—that makes them so oppressed in
their souls as to cry out against themselves daily,
and sometimes hourly—that they are what they are
—that they would be spiritual, yet are carnal—that
they would be holy, yet are unholy—that they would
have sweet communion with Jesus, yet have such
sensual alliance with the things of time and sense—
that they would be Christians in word, thought, and
deed; yet, in spite of all, they feel their carnal mind,
their wretched depravity intertwining, interlacing,
gushing forth—contaminating with its polluted stream
everything without and within—so as to make them
sigh, groan, and cry being burdened, “What a wretched
man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
Romans 7:24
He would not be entangled in these snares for ten thousand
worlds—he hates the evils of his heart, and mourns over the
corruptions of his nature. They make the tear fall from his
eye, and the sob to heave from his bosom—they make him
a wretched man—and fill him day after day with sorrow,
bitterness, and anguish.
None but a saved soul, under divine teaching, can see
this evil—and mourn and sigh under the depravity, the
corruption, the unbelief, the carnality, the wickedness,
and the deceitfulness of his evil heart.
This inward conflict, this sore grief, this internal burden,
that all the family of God are afflicted with—is an evidence
that the life and grace of God are in their bosoms.
“Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord!
So you see how it is—in my mind I really want to obey
God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a
slave to sin.” Rom. 7:25
“Christ Is The End Of The Law.”
THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW Romans 10:4
Not only is our Lord Jesus Christ the end of the law’s purpose and object of it, the One to whom the law points, Christ is also the fulfillment of the law (Isa. 42:21). 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 also demands complete satisfaction. It will settle for nothing less than the death of every transgressor.
In Christ we who believe have all that the law demands (Rom. 5:19). His righteous life of obedience as our Representative and his sin-atoning death as our Substitute are now ours; and we are the righteousness of God in him. In Christ we are free from the law’s curse and condemnation (Rom. 8:1). In Christ we fulfill the law (Rom. 3:31).
The only way any sinner can possibly fulfill God’s holy law is by faith, by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ who has perfectly fulfilled the law in all its details and demands in the place of his people. When we hear the demands of God’s law and justice, we lift up Christ in the hands of faith, and God is well-pleased!
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the termination of the law. Yes, you read the sentence right. Christ is the end of the law in the sense that he is the termination of it. 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).
Christ has terminated the law as a covenant of life – “We are not under the law, but under grace.” Christ has terminated the law’s curse and penalty (Gal. 3:13). In Christ, every believer has a just, righteous claim of merit upon all the blessedness of everlasting glory (Psa. 32:1-2).
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.
The law of God has nothing to do with the believer. We are dead to it. Being dead to the law and married to Christ, we must not even think about returning to that former dead husband. Let no man beguile you with the enticing words of man’s wisdom. Let no worksmonger bewitch you with the spell of legality. Let no one persuade you with “a show of humility in will worship” to return to that oppressive yoke of bondage from which Christ has made us free. Child of God, live in the liberty of grace in Christ, and live in peace.
Don Fortner
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2
J.C.Philpot
We by nature and practice are slaves to sin and Satan. We are the sport of the prince of the power of the air, who takes us captive at his will. We are held down also by many hurtful lusts; or, if free from gross sin, are slaves to pride, covetousness, or self-righteousness. Perhaps some idol is set up in the chambers of imagery which defiles all the inner man; or some snare of Satan entangles our feet, and we are slaves, without power to liberate ourselves from this cruel slavery. We groan under it, as the children of Israel under their burdens, but, like them, cannot deliver ourselves.
But sooner or later the truth comes to our aid; the truth as it is in Jesus flies to the rescue of God’s oppressed family; the blessed Spirit opens it up and seals it upon the heart with a divine power. As, then, under his gracious influences they believe the truth, and feel its power and savor in their heart, a liberating influence is communicated; their fetters and shackles are loosened; the bondage of sin and Satan, and the power and strength of evil are sensibly broken, and a measure of holy freedom is enjoyed. There is no other way of getting from under the bondage of the law but by the application of the gospel, and by believing what the gospel reveals. As the truth, then, comes to the heart as the very word of the living God, power comes with it to believe; faith is raised up to credit the testimony; and as faith begins to credit the truth of God and receive it in hope and love, there is a sensible loosening of the bonds; and then the chains and fetters drop off of themselves. It is with the soul as it was with Peter in prison–when the angel came, and a light shined in the prison, and the angel’s words fell upon his ears, “the chains fell from off his hands.” There remained nothing then to bar his exit; for “the iron gate that leads unto the city opened to them of its own accord.” So whatever chains or fetters may hold the soul, let the angel of mercy come; let the message of salvation be revealed, the chains of unbelief drop off, the iron gate of hardness gives way, and the truth makes the soul blessedly free (John 8:32).
MERCY!
J.C.Philpot
“Look upon me, and be merciful unto me.” Ps. 119:132
When shall we ever get beyond the need of God’s mercy?
We feel our need of continual mercy . . .
as our sins abound,
as our guilt is felt,
as our corruption works,
as our conscience is burdened,
as the iniquities of our heart are laid bare,
as our hearts are opened up in the Spirit’s light.
We need . . .
mercy for every adulterous look;
mercy for every covetous thought;
mercy for every light and trifling word;
mercy for every wicked movement of our depraved hearts;
mercy while we live;
mercy when we die;
mercy to accompany us every moment;
mercy to go with us down to the portals of the grave;
mercy to carry us safely through the swellings of Jordan;
mercy to land us safe before the Redeemer’s throne!
“Look upon me, and be merciful unto me.”
Why me?
Because I am so vile a sinner.
Because I am so base a backslider.
Because I am such a daring transgressor.
Because I sin against You with every breath that I draw.
Because the evils of my heart are perpetually manifesting themselves.
Because nothing but Your mercy can blot out such
iniquities as I feel working in my carnal mind.
I need . . .
inexhaustible mercy,
everlasting mercy,
super-abounding mercy.
Nothing but such mercy as this can suit such a guilty sinner!