READ: Rom. 10:1–10: … For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” … The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. … For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Paul does not wish, by his argument, to give the impression that he rejoices over Israel’s downfall. On the contrary, he earnestly desires and prays for their salvation (v.1). For this, it is necessary that they know the righteousness of God: how they can be justified before Him. They indeed desire to be acceptable to God, but they pursue this in a wrong manner.
They think they can accomplish it themselves, yet in doing so they bypass what is truly righteous before God: perfect holiness and obedience. God Himself has provided for this by sending His own Son into this world, for the atonement of all our sins through His perfect obedience.
In this connection Paul calls Christ “the end of the law.” The law here is broader than the Ten Commandments. It also includes all the shadowy ceremonies and ordinances of the Old Testament, which pointed to the coming Christ (cf. Gal. 3:23–25).
All this was fulfilled through Him and His work. The law of the commandments has also been perfectly satisfied in Christ.
This does not mean that God’s commandments have been abolished, but that Christ has fulfilled in our place the full content and deep meaning of the commandments (Matt. 5:17).
This applies to everyone who believes in Him and wholeheartedly receives Him as Saviour. Therefore every sincere believer may, with full assurance, trust that he or she stands righteous before God. Christ, and He alone, has perfectly accomplished what Lev. 18:5 requires concerning the commandments: “The man who does them shall live by them.”
What is impossible for all people becomes reality through faith in Christ. For this there are no unreachable paths to follow; God Himself causes His preached gospel concerning the Christ, through our hearing, to reach our hearts and to bring us to faith in Christ, which we will also confess with gratitude. Thus we know ourselves to be righteous before God.
Why must we ourselves still keep the law?
Sing: Ps. 97:6