Romans 10.4-Faith In Christ Is The Purpose Of The Law Resulting In Righteousness For Everyone Who Believes
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday May 12, 2009
Romans: Romans 10:4-Faith in Christ Is The Purpose Of The Law Resulting In Righteousness For Everyone Who Believes
Lesson # 333
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 10:1.
This evening we will complete the first paragraph that appears in Romans chapter ten by noting Romans 10:4 in which Paul teaches that faith in Christ is the goal or purpose of the Law, which results in the imputation of divine righteousness for the benefit of everyone who believes in Christ.
Let’s read the first paragraph in the chapter, which appears in verses 1-4 and then concentrate on verse 4 for the rest of the morning.
Romans 10:1-4, “Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
In Romans 10:4, Paul is presenting the reason for what is implied in Romans 10:3, namely, that the Jews were wrong for not submitting to God’s righteousness because they zealously sought to establish their own righteousness.
They were wrong “because” faith in Christ is the goal or purpose of the Mosaic Law resulting in the imputation of divine righteousness to everyone who believes in Christ as Savior.
“Christ” is the nominative masculine singular form of the proper name Christos (xristov$), which contains the figure of metonymy where the person of Christ is put for faith in Him.
This is indicated in that in context in Romans 9:30-10:21 Paul is addressing Israel’s relationship to the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ to vindicate God’s righteousness in relationship to Israel.
Also, the prepositional phrase that follows it eis dikaiosune, “for righteousness” denotes result indicating that faith in Christ is the goal of the Law “resulting in” (imputed) righteousness (Compare Romans 3:19-31; 4; 5:1-2; Galatians 2:16).
Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
“The end” is the noun telos (tevlo$) (tel-os), which refers to faith in Christ as the “goal” of the Law.
This is indicated by the context in which Paul is pointing out to his readers the reason why the Jews were wrong to reject God’s righteousness and for seeking to establish their own righteousness by obeying the Law and for never submitting to God’s righteousness by exercising faith in Christ.
Though it is true that Christ is the fulfillment of the Law (Matthew 5:17) and that Christ’s death brought an end to the Law condemning the believer for sin (Galatians 3:13-14; Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:13-14), and that He ended the Law as a rule of life for the believer, this is not Paul’s emphasis in Romans 10:4 when he uses telos.
Rather, in context in Romans 9:30-10:4, he has been making clear that Israel misused the Law because they fail to understand the purpose of the Law.
Thus, Paul is making a statement here that addresses the problem of Israel’s relationship to the Law, namely, they failed to see that it was designed to lead them to faith in Christ.
In Romans 10:4, the noun telos does not mean that Christ Himself is the goal or purpose of the Law but rather it denotes that faith in Christ is the goal or purpose of the Law since Paul is speaking in the context (Romans 9:30-10:21) of Israel’s failure to adhere to the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ.
The goal or purpose of the Law was to lead sinners to exercise faith in Christ as Savior.
It was designed to show sinners their need for a Savior.
Therefore, Paul is essentially teaching in Romans 10:4 what he taught in Galatians 3:24.
Galatians 3:24, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”
Further indicating that telos means that faith in Christ is the “goal” of the Law is that the context uses language of zealously pursing the Law, which suggests this (Romans 9:31-32a).
Also, Paul employs Old Testament passages to describe Christ and the righteousness he has brought (9:32b-33; 10:6-8, 11, 13) indicating that Paul is thinking of faith in Christ as the true meaning or intent of the law.
Therefore, when Paul uses the noun telos of Christ, he is saying that faith in Christ is the goal of the Law.
In the study of the Bible, there are three specific purposes that surface in the proper use of the Mosaic Law.
First of all, in a general sense, the Mosaic Law was given to provide a standard of righteousness (Deuteronomy 4:8; Psalm 19:7-9).
In the process, it revealed the righteousness, holiness, and goodness of God (Deut. 4:8; Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7; Rom. 7:12-14).
The Law given at Mount Sinai to Israel was to reveal a holy God and to demonstrate the reality of an infinite gulf that separated man from Him.
Secondly, the Law was given to identify sin and reveal man’s sin and bankrupt spiritual condition as guilty before God (Rom. 3:19f; 7:7-8; 5:20; Gal. 3:19).
God’s holy Law reveals to man just who and what he is, namely, sinful and separated from God by an infinite gulf that he is unable to bridge in his own human strength.
Lastly, the Law was given to shut man up to faith, i.e., to exclude the works of the Law (or any system of works) as a system of merit for either salvation or sanctification and thereby lead him to Christ as the only means of righteousness (Galatians 3:19-20, 20-24; 1 Timothy 1:8-9; Romans 3:21-24).
Therefore, as Paul says in Galatians 3:19-24, the Law was designed to be a temporary guardian until the coming of Christ, the Suffering Messiah Savior.
However, Israel approached the Law as a system of merit, shifting from a faith basis to a works basis (Exodus 19:8; Romans 10:3).
So ultimately, the purpose of the Law was to lead people to Christ (Gal. 3:24).
The argument that telos in Romans 10:4 has a “temporal” nuance, i.e. Christ brought the era of the Law to a close, can be rejected based upon Paul’s statements in Romans 3:31, 7:7-14; 8:4; 13:8-10.
Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
“For righteousness” is composed of the preposition eis (ei)$) (ice), “for” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun dikaiosune (dikaiosuvnh), “righteousness.”
As was the case in Romans 10:3, the noun dikaiosune here in Romans 10:4 refers to the righteousness of God that is offered in the gospel as a gift from the Father and is received by the sinner and is imputed to the sinner the moment the sinner exercises faith in His Son Jesus Christ, which in turn results in justification.
The noun serves as the object of the preposition eis, which functions as a marker of result indicating that faith in Christ is the purpose of the Law “resulting in” receiving the gift of divine righteousness through imputation.
“To everyone” is the dative masculine singular form of the adjective pas (pa$), which functions grammatically as a substantive and is used in a distributive sense referring to each and every member of the human race, both Jew and Gentile.
The adjective pas functions as a dative of advantage meaning that it is in the best interests or advantage of each and every member of the human race that faith in Christ is the purpose of the Law resulting in righteousness since no one can render the perfect obedience that the Law requires because of the sin nature.
This word emphasizes that faith in Christ is the purpose of the Law, not only with respect to the Jew but also to the Gentile, which Paul has argued throughout this Roman epistle in the first nine chapters.
Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
“Who believes” is the articular dative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb pisteuo (pisteuvw) (pist-yoo-o), which means to “to believe to the extent of complete trust and reliance,” thus, “to trust, place complete or absolute confidence in” someone or something.
The verb pisteuo refers to making the non-meritorious decision “to trust” or “place one’s absolute confidence in” the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ and His substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the Cross in order to receive the gift and imputation of divine righteousness resulting in justification.
Completed corrected translation of Romans 10:4: “Because (faith in) Christ is, as an eternal spiritual truth, the purpose of the Law resulting in righteousness for the benefit of each and every member of the human race to those who at any time do exercise absolute confidence (in Christ).”
So in Romans 10:4, Paul is teaching that the reason why the Jews were wrong for never submitting to God’s righteousness because they zealously sought to establish their own righteousness was that faith in Christ is the purpose of the Law resulting in the imputation of righteousness to everyone who believes in Christ as Savior.