The End of the Law
On Sunday mornings we have been exploring the precious ministry of God's Law throughout Jesus' preaching in Matthew 5:17-48, (click here to access sermons). I hope that you have been enabled to see God's good and blessed purpose for you through his Law. The Law is not bad, nor flawed in any way. It is good, holy, right and true. But the Law was never meant to be our Savior, only to show a lost and sinful world how desperately we need a Savior.
Jesus is "the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes," (Rom. 10:4). As a doctor seeks the well-being of their patient by first telling them what is wrong and in need of mending, so it is with the Law. When a person receives the Law's first ministry, they receive a ministry of condemnation. That doesn't sound very encouraging or desirable does it? But this is the first step toward true healing. The Law does not create our condemnation, it merely reveals it to us in advance. It shows us now, while repentance and faith are still possible, that we need salvation and have no hope in ourselves. At the final judgment this door of redemption will be closed and never again opened. Thus, while the ministry of the Law can sometimes seem hard to bear, it is a great gift of love from the God who desires to pour out his mercy upon his enemies rather than his wrath. He offers the guilty a way of escape before the heavenly gavel is finally and irrevocably swung.
So the Law is given to condemn the sinful world and to bring forth holy conviction upon our hearts. But why? To what end? For what purpose? The ministry of condemnation is given in order to lead us to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ; to bring us to salvation! When we ignore or distort the ministry of the Law, we commit the same perilous mistake that the Jews committed in the days of Christ. Because they made the Law say what they wanted to hear instead of receiving it as God had truly given it, they remained "ignorant of the righteousness of God" and unsubmissive to the truth, (Rom. 10:3). That ignorance caused them to look at the Lord Jesus as an unnecessary and unwelcome offense, rather than rightly beholding him as their one true hope of life.
"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." (Rom. 10:4)
The Law can never save, but it shouts to every sinner of their need of salvation. Jesus Christ alone is the righteous one; he alone is the fulfillment of the Law, (Matt. 3:17; 5:17). When the ministry of the Law is at work in a sinner's heart, they become "poor in spirit," "mournful" and "meek," (Matt. 5:3-5) Being emptied of all hope within themself they "hunger and thirst for righteousness" which they now recognize could never be produced on their own, (Matt. 5:6). It is these blessed souls, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit speaking to their heart through the judgment of the Law that are thus sovereignly "satisfied" by the merciful hand of God with forgiveness, redemption, and life everlasting, (Matt. 5:6). The Law leads us to such saving spiritual hunger by showing us who we truly are when measured by the holiness of God; the ministry of the Law leads us to Christ.
In view of these things, I want to encourage you to take time this week to read Romans 3:9-31 afresh. Look and see these very truths explained as Paul writes of the heart of the gospel of our salvation. The Law is not opposed to Christ; rather it is the very light which illumines the immeasurable glory and grace of what Jesus has accomplished for his people’s everlasting redemption. The Law shows every sinner what we deserve for our sin; it unapologetically and impartially points to the hopelessness of our depravity. But for those who, through the ministry of the Law, turn unto Christ in faith, we can say with Paul that God "has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," (II Cor. 4:6). This “glory” is that God is a rescuer and redeemer of his enemies; that he is the Savior of those who have no claim whatsoever to his free gift of salvation. Nevertheless, he offers it to the world in the gospel of his Son.