Question Answered by J. H. W.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 16, 1872

Question Answered.

By J. H. W.

To J. M. G: There are three points in Rom. 10:4 to be considered. 1. Christ is the end of the law. 2. For righteousness. 3. To every one that believeth.

Now if end here means termination or cessation, then the second and third points can have no meaning. For, if he has abolished the law, it is abolished to the unbeliever as well as to the believer. If the law is abolished to one class and not to another, what shall we say of it when individuals pass from one class to the other? An idea so absurd needs no consideration.

“For righteousness.” What is righteousness? It is the opposite of unrighteousness. But unrighteousness is sin; and sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John 5:17; 3:4. Therefore righteousness is the opposite of transgression of the law, that is, it is obedience to the law. And Paul says in Rom. 8:4, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. This obedience to the law is only effected through Christ, for they that are not in Christ are carnally minded, and the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God. Verse 7. If Christ has released any one from obligation to obey the law of God, that action would have been unto unrighteousness; but he is not a minister of sin. Gal. 2:17. He came to “put away sin,” or transgression of the law. Not his own, for he had none to put away, but ours; which is effected in them that believe unto obedience, but not in them who make belief an excuse for disobedience. They are not in Christ, but only carnal professors.

James 5:11 says: “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord.” Webster says end is the object or design, and such must be its signification in Rom. 10:4; and James 5:11. The design of the law was to restrain from evil and lead into correct action; and had man walked thus he would not have died, for, “The wages of sin is death.” Therefore for Paul’s assertion is evidently true; the law “was ordained to life.” Rom. 7:10. See Lev. 18:5, &c.; Rom. 2:13; Gal. 3:12. But he said he found it “to be unto death,” because he was a transgressor. And all transgressors of the law will yet be brought to acknowledge the same thing; if not here, in conversion, as in the case of Paul, hereafter, when “God shall bring every work into judgment.”

The meaning of the passage is plainly this: Christ accomplishes the object of the law, which is to give life; this can only be done through obedience, for no one can be saved in sin; and this object is accomplished to or in the believer in Christ. For in him only can we be reconciled to God, and restored to full obedience.

For examination of other texts related to this, see pamphlet entitled Law of God.

J. H. W.