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People often misunderstand Romans 10:4 to mean that Christ is the “end” as in “did
away with” the Law/Torah. In Paul's letter to the Romans, the Apostle said, “For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes,” (Romans
10:4), and in his epistle to the Galatians he also wrote in Galatians 3:21-
“Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. . .”
From this text and when understood in its further surrounding context, no longer
being “under a tutor” means that we are no longer “under sin” or no longer “shut
up” to the faith or excluded from God’s family, but we who believe are all sons of
God AFTER FAITH comes. Because, it is not the Law that justifies us, but faith alone
that justifies us since no law in the Torah has ever been given that can impart eternal
life. The Law was given so that the justification by faith could come about, for
without the knowledge of Torah/Gospel of God that leads to faith, faith could not
come, but the Torah in itself had no ability to save.
When Paul says in Romans 10:4
that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes,” he
is NOT saying that people before Christ came were previously “saved” by the Torah,
or that their used to be a mysterious “law for righteousness” that meant people could
be saved by keeping the Torah prior to Christ’s first coming. As Paul says in Galatians
2:21, that if righteousness really would have come through the Torah then there would
have been no need for Christ’s death and resurrection in the first place. In other
words, if “Old” Testament saints were saved because they kept the Law, why would
Christ need to come in order to save people? The answer is, the Torah was only the
“tutor” when it came to salvation, it could not in itself save anyone, it could only
point the way. The Torah is the Gospel of God to man for the purpose of providing
knowledge and wisdom to man such that man could have faith and then walk according
to the knowledge and wisdom of God.
The Law (Torah) is what God utilizes to reveal Himself to man and thus point out
the way of salvation in Jesus Christ. Without the Law (Torah), we would not know
what sin is (Romans 7:7), and without understanding sin, we cannot understand our
depraved condition, our need for salvation, what we have done to sin against God,
and what is the ONLY way to take care of our sin problem. That problem can only
be dealt with when we repent, turn from sin to God, confess our sins before Him,
and believe in His Son. Salvation is through faith alone in the Messiah of Israel.
But, once faith comes, the Holy Spirit then guides the believer into all truth and
empowers us to keep God’s commandments and instructions which no longer condemn the
“sinner,” but “set free” the “saved,” Keeping the instructions, laws, precepts,
commands, ordinances, etc. of God is a byproduct of faith, not something that is
done to “earn” one’s salvation. For this is impossible anyway, since Romans 8:7
clearly teaches that before faith comes men are totally incapable of submitting to
the Law of God, because they are walking in their flesh, and the flesh wants nothing
to do with God’s Laws and Instructions.
Yeshua/Jesus is the destination/the point
to which the Torah/Law arrives. If you miss the necessity of Messiah (Jesus) in the
Law (Torah), then you have missed the most important point! Jesus is the end (of
condemnation that we face because of the Torah (law), but He is not the ending of
the eternal Law of God (since it is eternal), which remains in full force and is
still condemning those without Christ even to this very day! God's Word, His Law
(Torah) is eternal, unchanging and according to Christ, not one letter or stroke
of the pen in the Law will "pass away" until ALL be fulfilled!
The Greek word used
for “end” in Romans 10:4 implies specifically that He is the "goal" of the Torah,
and the end of any idea of righteousness by or through the Law. But such an understanding
of an “end of the law FOR righteousness,” in no way implies from the entire context
of Romans 10 that God’s definition of sin has been removed, that God’s justice and
commands have been revised or rewritten, or that the Torah itself has been “done
away with.” If the Torah was done away with, then people would no longer be considered
“sinners” and they wouldn’t need faith in Christ.
In fact, He Himself has said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the (Law)
Torah or the Prophets…” (Matthew 5:17). Funny how traditional scholars have been
told and now continue to pass on the misinformation that the Torah has “passed away,”
is “void” or “no longer applicable" to the believer, yet they never say the "Prophets"
mentioned in this text are “done away with, void or no longer applicable to the believer
today? Why is that? . . . Because they are using this verse not justify a false
teaching that we’ve inherited over the centuries, rather than truly interpreting
the text itself.
In fact, many bible teachers are making lots of money selling books
both fiction and non-
(1) require the believer to live a distinctly (and noticeable in our culture) "set apart" (holy) lifestyle as well as make some changes in their diets, work schedules and holidays,
(2) scholars would have to admit they inherited false information and are "wrong," and have been teaching everyone wrong for many years (think of all the hundreds of books that would need to be reworked), and
(3) Since Christianity has bought into the “big business” of marketing Christian
materials and study aids; such a change in how we “do church” would remove the need
for the "experts.” In other words, the “experts” would lose control over the masses.
In
truth, most scholars are sincere, honest, believers who desire to know God, study
and teach His Word, so I don't want to paint them as doing something intentionally
evil; however, the system itself places them in a position to lose their income to
feed their families if they were to step out and begin to teach this truth to their
congregations. (There are plenty of examples of pastors who have lost their congregations
because they stepped out in faith and spoke the truth)
One local pastor I know has been trying to tread lightly as far as how much he teaches
about Torah even though he knows the truth and is starting to walk in it within his
own family. However, he is right to take his time introducing this truth to his community
to allow the Holy Spirit time to work in the people's lives since such a revelation
is often life changing and can shake up your faith a little in the sense that many
people when the truth hits them go through what I call a “crisis of faith” because
they consider how many people are teaching false doctrine in this area, and they
begin to wonder what other lies they may have been told all these years. However,
time and again I have seen the Lord carry people through the “shock and awe” of the
revelation of the eternal nature of His Torah and its application in our life, only
to strengthen and prepare them more fully for the rough times ahead which could get
pretty ugly in the coming years.
In conclusion, it would make absolutely no sense
for the meaning of the text sited above to imply, "Do not think I have come to terminate
the Law and the Prophets, because I have come to terminate the Law and the Prophets????"
How ridiculous, and what is more, how can the prophets be "done away with" along
with the Law. This entire line of thinking is simply ridiculous, and sadly, the church
has been "blinded in part" to this element of their redemption in Christ that frees
them not from obedience to the Law, but frees them from sin (violations of the Law)
and the condemning aspect of the Law that is still in effect for those who are without
Christ, i.e. “sinners” (we who believe are no longer considered “sinners” under the
Law, but we are considered justified, we are the redeemed, and we are sons of the
living God, see Titus 3:5-
Question? In what sense is Jesus the “end” of the Torah (Law)? Answer: He lived a
perfectly righteous and sinless life. He perfectly lived out the Torah (Law) and
brought about our righteousness in doing so. Therefore, He is the end for which the
Torah (Law) aims and is pointed. He is the righteousness of God manifest in the world!
We keep the Torah like He kept it so that first, we might express love to God and
neighbor, for there is no other way to do so, and second, so that others might see
Messiah’s righteousness expressed through us because our lives (through obedience
to the Torah) become the tutor that leads others to Christ, just as it also led us
to Christ. For when we keep Torah, our lives proclaim the Gospel of God to the nations,
and this knowledge our lives them speak lead others to Christ.