From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The words we have to look at this evening are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Romans chapter 10 and verse four. The fourth verse in the tenth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

These are the words that are before us as we look into this great Epistle to the Romans for the 236th time. And what words they are. You notice that they follow on from what the Apostle has been saying. The word "for" is explanatory of what has been preceding. And there we have seen that the Apostle says that the Jews are as a nation and as a whole outside the kingdom of God and outside the church because of their ignorance, because of their lack of precise knowledge.

And we've been tracing the forms which this ignorance and lack of precise knowledge took and still take. They were ignorant of the righteousness that God demanded. They were ignorant of the fact that all the righteousness of which they boasted was nothing but their own righteousness, not the righteousness of God nor the righteousness that God demands.

And thirdly, we saw that they were ignorant of the fact that now God himself has provided a righteousness which he offers freely to all, a righteousness which we receive by faith which doesn't necessitate our going about to establish our own righteousness, but which simply calls upon us to submit ourselves and to receive this righteousness which God is offering us.

Very well, the Apostle now takes up at that particular point. And here in this fourth verse, he sums up all that he's been saying and in a sense adds to it. The real trouble, he says, with the Jews, and this he introduces with the word "for," is that they were ignorant of the truth concerning our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So you can take this fourth verse if you like as a fourth respect in which they were ignorant and lacking in precise knowledge, or you can take it as a summing up of all that he's been saying. As if he were saying, well, all this really amounts to the fact that they are ignorant of the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and his work.

And as the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ is the truth concerning the way in which God has provided his righteousness, it is of course a particularly fatal ignorance. And that is the whole tragedy of the Jews as depicted in the New Testament. In the gospels, we see these Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees and doctors of the law, the religious leaders, arguing with our Lord, failing to recognize him and eventually persuading the people to cry out saying, "Away with him, crucify him."

It was because they didn't recognize him. They didn't realize who he was. That's why they rejected him and that is why they are therefore missing the blessings of salvation that God has sent in him. And it was the same with the Greeks who refused. They didn't recognize the Lord of glory, for had they recognized him, they would never have crucified him. And so this is a very crucial matter.

And this is in a sense still the cause of the trouble. The rejection of the gospel is ultimately due to the fact that men and women do not realize and appreciate the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't realize the truth of this one verse. This is a glorious verse. It is a summary of the whole of the Christian gospel. That is the message of the gospel: that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

I may well call this verse the Christian's charter. Here is the charter of every Christian. Here is the verse that sets us at liberty, that delivers us from every kind of bondage, serfdom, and slavery, and sets us free. Here then is the great word which should thrill the heart and move the emotions of every true Christian.

And if the mere reading of this verse doesn't make you want to praise God and to thank him, well, I think you'd better examine the foundations again. There is no more glorious statement in the whole of the scripture than just this: Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. It is the most wonderful and the most glorious statement possible. And therefore, our reaction to it proclaims exactly and precisely what we are.

Very well, let's look into this great statement. First of all, let's look at it in general. You can divide up this verse into certain general truths that it puts before us and the particular statements that it makes. Look at the general statements first.

And here the first point I make is that we're reminded here that the Jews, at any rate, whatever was wrong with them, were absolutely right in realizing the seriousness of the law and its demands. Now, the Jews made a great deal of the law as you know. They boasted that it had been given to them; the Gentiles hadn't got it. And they were quite right; it was a most important thing. There is nothing more important in the Old Testament in a sense than the giving of the law through Moses to the children of Israel.

And there is nothing more vital in life than that we should realize the importance of the law. Now, the Jews with all their error and in all their tragedy were, at any rate, perfectly plain and clear on that particular point. The Jew realized that you couldn't stand before God without keeping the law. We've seen that he misunderstood the law and he was foolish enough to think that he could keep it. But at any rate, he could see this: that you've got to keep the law and that there was no possible righteousness before God except in terms of keeping the law. And this verse underlines that and reemphasizes it.

And today we have to realize the same thing. Our main problem is not particular sins. The main problem of every man who comes into the world is the problem of standing before God. Now, so many are not aware of that. They're troubled by particular sins, they're troubled by particular failures, and they think that if they were delivered from these particular sins that they'd be perfect and that all is well.

So the great business of preaching is in a sense to show everybody that all have got to stand before God and will be judged in terms of the righteous demands of the law. Though you may not be guilty of many sins and though you may be delivered from particular sins, it doesn't help you at all because we are judged not in terms of particular sins, but in terms of the righteous demands of the law of God.

And as James reminds us in the second chapter of his epistle, if a man fails in any one point of the law, he has failed with regard to the whole law. Now, nothing is more important than the realization of this. And I say, with all their defects and their errors, the Jews at any rate were perfectly clear about that particular matter.

A second general point is this: that any teaching concerning salvation which does not express itself in terms of the demands of the law of God is a false teaching. Now, I want to repeat that because this is a tremendously important point. Any teaching concerning salvation which does not express itself in terms of the demands of the law is false teaching.

Now, there are many such teachings with which you are probably familiar. There are many who put a teaching concerning salvation solely in terms of the love of God. They talk about nothing but the love of God, and their message of salvation is that however much you may sin, it doesn't matter, that God loves you and it is the love of God that gives you your salvation. Or they may put it in terms of the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And their teaching concerning him is that he came into the world to tell men and women about the love of God, that the trouble with people is that they don't know how God loves them and they're unhappy because they don't realize the love of God. The problem, they say, is entirely on the side of man. Here is God loving everybody, ready to forgive everybody, but people don't realize it. And the preaching of salvation according to them is just the making known of the fact that God loves everybody and the only thing we need is to come to that knowledge and to realize it.

Now, I'm saying that if we had nothing but this verse, it would be sufficient in and of itself to show that such teaching is not only wrong, it is dangerously wrong, it is tragically wrong. There is no more misleading teaching than that. Any teaching concerning salvation must be put in terms of the demands of the law. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."

So if our notion of salvation is not in terms of the satisfaction of the law of God, it is wrong teaching. Now, those who know the Epistle to the Romans should be in no trouble about this. The Apostle has already told us this very plainly and clearly in chapter three, in verses 25 and 26 where he puts it like this: "Whom God"—is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's take 24 as well. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 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, to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

So then he asks at the end, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law." So any teaching about salvation or any thinking about salvation which doesn't put it in terms of how the law of God has been satisfied is a completely false teaching and it is to be rejected as of the devil himself. All that comes out in a general manner in this fourth verse of the tenth chapter.

And then our third general point, the last general point is this: the absolute centrality and cruciality of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this, of course, is the central point. Christ is the end of the law. This person.

And once more, therefore, we have to be very clear about certain things. You see, the whole trouble with the Jews was that they didn't recognize this person. They didn't see the cruciality of his work, of his death upon the cross. That's why they're not saved. You see, this is absolutely vital. They believed in God, they believed in the love of God, they believed in the forgiveness of sins, but they're not in the kingdom. Why not? Why are they lost? Why do they need to be saved? It is because they have failed to realize the absolute necessity of this person and what he has done.

So you see, the Apostle emphasizes this. Now, this is as important today as it was in the first century. There are many people today who regard themselves as Christians and others who say they believe in God and who believe that God loves them, that all is well between them and God, and they're concerned about being blessed by God, and they never mention the Lord Jesus Christ at all. They say you can go to God and listen to God and get guidance from God and get many other things, and they literally don't mention the Lord Jesus Christ.

But you see, that's a denial of the whole of the Christian gospel. Christianity is Christ. Without him there is no Christianity. Without him there is no gospel, there is no salvation. "Christ is the end of the law." So again, we must test any idea of relationship to God or blessings from God or the love of God or anything about God. We must test it all with this vital test of the place and the position and the importance of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Very well, but we've even got to go further. It is not only his person but also his work. It is the Lord Jesus Christ in relationship to the law of God. That is the crucial point in this whole matter of salvation. Now, here again, you see there are many people who say, yes, we agree, we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And they're interested in him as a person, they're interested in his teaching. But when you come to his death upon the cross, they're not interested.

That to them was a tragedy, it was a mistake, it was men doing a stupid thing. It's not vital to their position. They don't see that if that were not there, there'd be no salvation. Very well, this verse condemns them. Any ideas they may have about him and his person and his work and their relationship to God, if it bypasses the death upon the cross, it is error, it is a lie, it is not the Christian gospel. There are some three general points that seem to me to stand out on the very surface of this glorious statement in this fourth verse. But come now, let's look at it in a more detailed manner.

The Apostle says first of all that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. What does he mean? In what sense is it true to say that Christ is the end of the law? Now, this is a most important question. We must be very careful with it. There are those who misunderstand this verse and think that it's telling us that the law's been done away with, that God gave the law in the Old Testament dispensation, but that once Christ came, the law's finished, that it no longer applies, that it's no longer in existence. It's been entirely abrogated and abolished.

But that is very serious error once more. It doesn't mean that. Christ is not the end of the law in the sense that he has completely done away with it and that it no longer applies in any sense whatsoever. Now, we've got our Lord's own word with regard to that in Matthew 5:17. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled."

Now, that surely should be enough in and of itself. The law of God which he gave to the children of Israel through Moses is a permanent expression of God's holy character and of what God expects from mankind. The law is not temporal, the law is eternal. The law is still the expression of how God would have men and women live in this world.

Now, you remember how we saw back in the second chapter, the Apostle makes a great thing about this and he points out that everybody has to face this law of God. He says that the Jews had the law given to them explicitly. But even the Gentiles who hadn't had the law given to them in that explicit manner, he says that they have got the law in their hearts. The law, he says, is written in their hearts. "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another."

So that everybody is subject to this law, Jews and Gentiles. The law is God's expression of his holy character and what he expects from the human race. So we must never say that the law has been abolished by the coming of our Lord. We must never say that God no longer demands the fulfillment of the law. He does. He demands it still of everybody. There's no greater error than to contrast law and grace. You take that 17th verse in the first chapter of John's Gospel. "The law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." It's terribly misunderstood. I spent several Sunday mornings here before Christmas trying to show that and to show the error. It doesn't mean that at all. It isn't putting them in contrast in that sense.

Very well then, we must never say that the law's been done away with and that nobody is now being judged by the law. That is not the case. There is a teaching which says, ah, now we are no longer judged by the law, we are simply judged by whether we believe or disbelieve in the Lord Jesus Christ. That isn't true. We are still judged by the law of God. That is the eternal standard of judgment and always will be.

And indeed, we must go further and say this: that even though we become Christians, we don't say farewell to the law. We still have got to keep it. It still makes its demand. It is still the kind of life which you and I should be living. And indeed, one of the purposes of salvation is to enable us to live a life such as is demanded by the holy law of God.

It's a terribly dangerous teaching to say that the Christian has got a lower standard now. There are many who hold that view. They say, you see, law's gone, we are under grace now. And of course, because we are under grace, the standard is lower and we are forgiven doesn't matter what we do. Now, that's sheer antinomianism. And it's a terrible sin, antinomianism. Christ didn't die in order to lower the standard. That isn't what he's done at all, as I'm going to show you. The standard remains. The gospel doesn't lower it. It hasn't made things easy as regards the demands of the law. They're there and they're absolute and they're eternal. He isn't the end of the law in that he's done away with the law altogether.

Well, very well, how is he the end of the law? Well, he's answered it there in the Sermon on the Mount. Christ is the end of the law in this sense: that he has fulfilled it, and that he has fulfilled it for those who believe in him. He is the end of the law in that he carries out the dictates of the law, absolutely, perfectly, and in every respect. Christ is the end of the law in that he satisfies all the demands of the law and all its calls for righteousness.

Now, it is in that sense that he is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Not by doing away with it, but by fulfilling it, by carrying it out, by satisfying its every demand. How did he do so? Well, we know how he did so. You see, this is a great summary of Christian doctrine, this verse. The whole of the gospel's in it.

Well, he began in this way. He was made of a woman, he was made under the law. He didn't come into the world as God, he came into the world as God-man. He took unto him human nature, he was born of a woman. Yes, but he put himself under the law. He was subject to the demands of the law. His incarnation is a part of his fulfilling of the law. He couldn't do it unless he had taken on our nature. He can't be our representative unless he's one of us. So he has taken unto him human nature. So you have the incarnation and the virgin birth.

The second great step is when he was baptized. You remember he went to John to be baptized and John said, "No, no, I don't baptize you, you baptize me." He said, "No, suffer it to be so, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." What is he doing? Well, he's again identifying himself with us. Here is the taking up really of his work as the Messiah and as the Savior. He's putting himself into our position. He is under the law and he's identifying himself with all the demands of the law upon us. So the baptism is of crucial importance.

Then he goes on to live a life of perfect obedience to the law of God. The law of God made all the demands that it makes on us on him. And he satisfied every single one of them. He never broke the law in any respect. He carried it out every jot and tittle. It was absolutely perfect. All the demands of the law he satisfied in his positive life of obedience.

But it didn't stop at that. He went to the cross. He set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem. Why? Well, because the demands of the law upon us have got to be met. We are guilty before the law and the law demands punishment. So before he completely fulfills the demands of the law, he's got to do something about our guilt, about the condemnation of the law on our transgressions.

And there on the cross, he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He received the punishment decreed and meted out by the law upon every sin of man. He was punished for our transgressions. He received what the guilt of our sin demanded from the law and received from the law. The vials of God's wrath were poured out upon him there on the cross on Calvary's hill.

And you see, it is in this way that he's the end of the law. He is carrying out the ultimate demands of the law. All that the law demands is fulfilled in him. How am I sure that it was fulfilled? The resurrection is the answer. Romans 4:25: "Delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification." He has completely fulfilled and satisfied and carried out every single demand of the law in every conceivable respect.

He has ascended, he has presented his blood in the presence of the Father. It has been accepted. He is seated at the right hand of God in the glory everlasting. All the demands of the law have been fulfilled in him. That is how he is the end of the law. Not by doing away with it, but by fulfilling it, by satisfying it, by answering it, by giving a complete answer and satisfaction to it. That is what he meant by saying on the cross, "It is finished." All the demands of the law upon us he has dealt with. It is finished. That's the meaning of the word. He satisfied every single demand.

Very well, you see this is the way of salvation. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. The law comes to us and it says, "Unless you produce the righteousness that I demand, you are damned, you are lost." Christ has done it for us. And it is in that way he is the end of the law for us. By having fulfilled its every demand on our behalf, the law has nothing against us. He is the end of the law in that sense and in that sense only.

He gives us his own righteousness. God the Father gives us the righteousness of his own Son. Did you notice how it was put there in 2 Corinthians 5? "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." He's imputed them to him. "He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that"—in order that—"we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Now then, he is the end of the law for righteousness in that way and in that way alone. That's the first particular statement.

But come to the second statement. Christ alone is the end of the law for righteousness. He is the end of the law for righteousness and he alone is. And this is equally important. Put your emphasis on Christ. In the first we put it on "the end of the law," we put it now on "Christ." Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Nobody else.

The Apostle in chapter three gave us abundant evidence and proof of the fact that nobody else could possibly do this. There it is in those tremendous verses: "We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." No man can keep the law, no man has ever done so. All mankind had failed. All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.

We've seen it again in the eighth chapter, in the third verse: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." You see what all that means is this: the whole of humanity had failed to keep the law of God. Adam was the first to fail and all his progeny failed after him. There was none righteous, no, not one.

So it is Christ alone who is the end of the law. It is Christ alone who can fulfill the law and satisfy its every demand. That is why he's absolutely essential. That is why God didn't create a second man like Adam. Adam the first was perfect, but he couldn't keep the law. He failed. If God had created another Adam, he in exactly the same way would have failed. The devil is too strong. There's only one way of salvation.

God must become flesh. And God did become flesh. The incarnation is an absolute necessity. Christ came into the world because he had to. "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost." No man can save himself, no man can save anybody else. Even a new, perfect man can't save himself. He'd fall. There is need of someone stronger. And someone stronger has come.

The second person in the blessed Holy Trinity was the one who was born as the baby in Bethlehem. Man is not enough. We must have God-man before we can have deliverance and salvation. And he's come. There was none other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gates of heaven and let us in. "O loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame, a second Adam to the fight and to the conflict came." Yes, but the second Adam was God as well as man. And he alone can fulfill the righteous demands of God's holy law.

So you see what we are told is that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. And Christ is the eternal Son of God. You see, there is no salvation apart from him. This is where the whole thing is so tragic: that people talk about being related to God and loving God and having God's love and forgiveness, and they never mention the Son of God, and they never mention his death. But there is no salvation apart from him.

"There is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me." The thing is obvious the moment you bring in the law. And it's because they don't bring in the law, as I was showing you, that people don't see the need of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the moment you realize the demands of God's holy law upon you, you not only see your own helplessness, you see that nothing but a God-man can deliver you.

So my second statement the Apostle makes is that Christ alone is the end of the law and none other. He is unique, he stands alone. The God-man was essential to our salvation. Without the incarnation, without the perfect life, without the atoning death, without the resurrection, there is no salvation, none at all. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

And that brings me to my third statement, the third statement which is made by the Apostle, which is this: Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, but to nobody else. Christ is the end of the law only for those who believe. Now, here's another thing that needs to be emphasized at the present time. You see, this one verse is answering all these modern heretics and blasphemers.

There is no universalism taught in the Bible. But that's what people believe today, as I've already reminded you. What they believe today is that God loves everybody and that everybody's going to heaven at the end. The tragedy is that they don't know this. So the business of the church is just to tell them that God loves them. He loves everybody. Universalism. Universal fatherhood of God, universal brotherhood of man, universal salvation for everybody. They don't believe in the wrath of God, they don't believe in law, they don't believe in judgment, they don't believe in hell. No, no. God loves everybody. We're all going to be saved.

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, but to nobody else. That's why he's worried about his fellow countrymen. That's why he could almost be accursed for them. He bears them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. He has a continual sorrow in his heart with respect to them. Why? Well, because they're lost, because they're damned, because they're going to perdition, they're going to hell. They're not saved. "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved."

He doesn't say that they might know that God loves them and that all is well with them. No, no. They need to be saved, they need to be delivered because they're lost. But you see, we are taught this universalism today. And it not only denies the doctrine of the Apostle Paul, it denies the specific words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself in one of the most exalted statements we have from his lips: his own prayer to God as recorded in John 17. Let me quote some of the verses. Take the second.

"As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." Not to all, but to as many as thou hast given him. Take verse six: "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word." Not all, only these people. Take verse nine: "I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine." Not all, only these people who have been given to him.

Then he goes on: "Mine—all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them." Not in everybody. "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are." And verse 20: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." Not everybody, but only those who believe on me through their word.

And finally verse 24: "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." Surely that's enough. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Oh, yes, if you believe in him, you are saved. He is the end of the law for righteousness to you. But only if you believe.

What does that mean? Well, it means as we've seen, that you recognize your utter condemnation. It means that you realize that all your goodness is vile, that all your righteousness is as filthy rags and is dung and manure. It realizes that you are utterly condemned by God's holy law and that you have no hope and no standing whatsoever. Though you may be the best, the most moral, and the most religious person in Great Britain, you've got to recognize that it's useless.

Those who believe are those who submit utterly to him and to his way and who rely alone upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who believe are those who say out of a true heart, "Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling." Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. And he not only believes that, but he gives proof that he believes it. "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up the cross, and follow me."

It isn't a believe-ism, it isn't just saying, "Yes, I believe." It isn't just uttering words. It—believe means that you believe in your heart. We'll see that later on in this tenth chapter. It's a genuine belief that comes from the very heart of the man. He doesn't just say it, he really believes it. And he gives proof of it by denying himself, taking up his cross, and following after Christ, living this life of righteousness which Christ has made possible for him.

Very well, there is the next statement. Christ, you see, is the end of the law for righteousness. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. What does it mean for us? Well, you see, it works like this. This is how it happens. The moment you believe in him, all that he is and that he's done on your behalf becomes true of you.

The Apostle has already been telling us this, and particularly in chapter six. He introduced it in that great fifth chapter where he talked about our union with Christ and how we are in Christ and no longer in Adam. So he goes on to say this: "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection" (Romans 6:3-5).

What does all this mean? Well, it means this: to believe in Christ means that you've died with him, you've been crucified with him. Your old man, knowing this: that our old man was crucified with him. If you're a believer in Christ, your old man was crucified with Christ there on the cross on Calvary. You needn't try and crucify your old man; it's happened. What happened to him has happened to you. So the result of that is that you are dead to the law. The Apostle keeps on telling us this.

We are dead to the law. "Wherefore, my brethren," Romans 7:4, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ." And this is how he's the end of the law for us. Our position is that having been crucified with him, we are dead to the law. We are no longer under the law. Romans 6:14: "Ye are not under the law, but under grace." You see, we are not under it in the sense that it condemns us. That's what that means. It doesn't mean it's done away with. We are not under it in the sense that it's demanding the impossible from us and condemning us. No, no. We are no longer under the law but under grace. We are dead to the law.

We are forgiven completely, we are justified absolutely, we are reconciled to God in Christ. He is our Father, he's adopted us into his family and given us the spirit of adoption. We are well-pleasing in his sight. We are alive unto God, risen with Christ in a new realm. We are seated even in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus at this moment. Not only that, we are eternally secure.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. There never can be. That's the opening statement of chapter eight. And we've seen how that great chapter closes: "What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."

Very well. I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Christ is the end of the law. There is no condemnation, there never can be. He's dealt with it and I am in him. And being justified, I am already glorified.

Very well, that is what this great and glorious verse tells us. And the tragedy of the Jew was he didn't know this. He was ignorant of it. Are you all clear about it? Do you realize that this is the charter of your salvation, the charter of your deliverance? Let every devil in hell and the devil at the head of them rise up and try and condemn you. Answer him.

He says the law demands this, God is holy. Quite right, sir. But Christ is the end of the law to me because I believe in him. He is my righteousness. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness my beauty are, my glorious dress; 'midst flaming worlds, in this arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head. There is no one and nothing who can bring a charge against me.

So we leave it with the words of Augustus Toplady: "A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I sing; nor fear, with thy righteousness on, my person and offering to bring." Listen: "The terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do; my Savior's obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view. The work which his goodness began, the arm of his strength will complete; his promise is yea and amen and never was forfeited yet. Things future nor things that are now, nor all things below nor above can make him his purpose forgo or sever my soul from his love. My name from the palms of his hands eternity cannot erase; impressed on his heart it remains in marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure, as sure as the earnest is given; more happy, but not more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven." Why is all this true? Here's the answer: Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Praise God.

O Lord our God, we do indeed come unto thee that we may offer our unworthy and feeble praise. We bless thy name for this glorious word, the word of emancipation and of deliverance and of freedom. O Lord, tune our hearts to sing thy praise aright. We long to praise thee with the whole of our being. We pray that thou wouldest therefore by thy Spirit enable us to see him and to know him and to realize what he's done for us as we ought.

O God, imprint these things, we pray thee, upon our minds and hearts and spirits in such a manner that we shall be thrilled to the very depth of our being, lost in wonder, love, and praise, and live the remainder of our lives to thy glory and to thy praise. Lord, that is our heart's desire. Receive this our offering. Continue to work in us, O Lord, we know thou wilt, until thou hast brought us to that final perfection, that ultimate glory everlasting.

O God, we leave ourselves in thy hands and pray that thou wouldest go on to perfect that which thou hast already begun. And grant that we may know it more and more, that we may rejoice in thy dear Son with a joy unspeakable and full of glory. Hear us then, O Lord, as we come and offer this prayer in his most holy name.

And now, may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us, now this night, throughout the remainder of this our short and uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage, and until we shall be safely in that glory land, shall see him as he is and be like him. Amen.