For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Romans 10:4 (ESV)
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he deals with two ways of achieving a righteous standing with God. The first is through obedience to the Mosaic Law found in the Torah. This was how the Jews of Paul’s day unsuccessfully sought right standing with God.
The other way to righteousness is through faith in Jesus. And, in this case, it is a matter of imputed righteousness. The righteousness of God is given to all who have faith in Jesus.
Paul addresses both of these in this verse. He begins by saying that Christ is the end of the Law. The word translated as “end” in this passage can have a couple of related meanings. It can mean “termination,” as in “Christ has brought the law to an end.” It can also refer to reaching a goal, as in “Christ is the goal toward which the law pointed.”
Paul may have had both of the usages in mind here. Jesus brought to an end the law as a means of attaining righteousness. And he was what the law had pointed toward all along. Jesus was the fulfillment of the law (Matt. 5:17).
The end result is that righteousness is available, not to those who have the law and follow it, but to all who believe, Jews and Gentiles alike. Christ has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. And now all who will profess him as Lord, and place their trust in him and what he has done will be saved (Rom. 10:9-10).
