Roberto Badenas
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Romans 10:4.
Romans 10:4 has in modern times become one of the most controversial statements in the Pauline Epistles. It is frequently quoted to prove that Christ has put an end to the Old Testament law, including the Decalogue. Dispensationalist writers, who emphasize the difference between “law” and “gospel” and the superiority of the New Testament over the Old, especially make use of Romans 10:4 as the classic proof-text for defending the discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments.
The ambiguity of the terms used by Paul – The uncertainty of the meaning of Romans 10:4 is due, partly, to the ambiguity that surrounds Paul’s use of the term “law” (nomos) in his writings but, principally, to the complexity of the word telos, translated in most of our Bibles as “end,” which in Greek has a large range of meanings, from “climax” and “goal” to “fulfillment” and “termination.”
Assuming, therefore, that the word nomos (“law”) always described for Paul a negative reality and giving to telos the absolute meaning of “termination,” the statement “Christ is the end of the law” in Romans 10:4 has often been interpreted to mean that “Christ has put an end to the law” either because “He has abrogated the Old Testament laws” or because “He has set aside the law as a way of justification.”
The context of Romans 10:4 – Romans 10:4 belongs to 9:30-10:21, the central part of the literary unit formed by chapters 9-11. The background of this section is the theological problem of the self-exclusion of most Israelites from the remnant, through their rejection of the Messiah. Basing his arguments on the consistency of God’s Word and action, Paul shows that righteousness in the Messianic era–as election in the patriarchal era—does not depend on merits or works, but only on God’s grace, manifested through faith in His Messiah. Paul shows, by means of many references to Scripture, that the new situation in Israel was foretold both in the Law and in the Prophets. Therefore, the gospel is not contrary to God’s promises but rather the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Christ became for some Israelites the stumbling stone announced by the prophets (Rom 9:33), because they did not follow the law from the perspective of faith but from a perspective of works (9:31, 32) and did not submit to God’s righteousness (by acceptance of Christ, 10:2-4). Gentiles, however, believed in Christ and received righteousness (9:30) and status within the new people of God.
The use of the term “law” (nomos), in this context (9:31; 10:4, 5), suggests that it refers to the Torah (the Law), as it was generally understood by Paul’s Jewish contemporaries, and designates the whole Old Testament, including its revelatory aspects.
The meaning of telos “end” – A study of ancient Greek literature shows that telos is a dynamic term, with several meanings, but its basic connotations are primarily “teleological” (i.e., indicating direction, purpose, and completion), not temporal. In the time of Paul, telos was mainly used for designating the goal, the purpose or the climax of something.
The term telos, followed by a word in the genitive form (e.g., “of love”), is a phrase specifically used to indicate aim, objective, outcome or result, but not termination. Thus, in 1 Timothy 1:5 it is used in the phrase “the goal of this command is love” (NIV), and in 1 Peter 1:9, it is translated “the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
In the ancient Greek literature the phrase telos nomou, “end of the law,” and related expressions always denote the object and purpose of the law, never its abrogation. Therefore, the current translation of Rom 10:4 as “end of the law,” in the sense of termination/cessation/abrogation, would be, linguistically speaking, exceptional and hardly—if at all—correct.
Christ as the fulfillment and climax of the law – The first problem with the widespread interpretation “Christ is the end to the law,” in the sense that Christ has abolished it, is that the Bible itself contradicts it: Christ clearly stated “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt 5:17); and Paul strongly argues in the beginning of his epistle to the Romans, that faith does not nullify the law but rather upholds the law (Rom 3:31).
Second, those who translate the text as “Christ is the end of the law” need to interpret the word nomos as though it stood for something more than “law,” which must consequently be supplied: “the validity of the observance of the law,” “the law understood as legalism,” “the law in its ritual aspects,” etc. Thus, many scholars interpret Romans 10:4 as “Christ is the end of the law as a way of salvation” or something similar. However, this interpretation contradicts a main theme in Romans, namely, that salvation has always been by grace through faith (see especially Rom 3:21-4:13). Therefore Christ could hardly put an end to what never existed.
In fact, the thrust of the passage in its context (Rom 9:30-10:21) does not present Christ in contrast to the law. Thus to translate the phrase as “Christ abrogates the law” (in whatever sense it may be understood) is inconsistent. Christ is, on the contrary, presented as the fulfillment of God’s design, in the sense that He is the climax of the law to bring righteousness to all those who believe, both Jews and Gentiles.1
This interpretation of Romans 10:4 goes better with the theological argument developed in Romans 9-11, for several reasons: (1) it confirms that “the word of God has not failed,” since the Old Testament already pointed to the Messiah for righteousness; (2) it implies that no Israelite has been rejected by God, since in Christ righteousness is available to anyone whoever believes; and (3) it appeals to the unity among Gentiles and Jews, within the new people of God, since in Christ all the believers are united as the eschatological people of God.
“This verse [Rom 10:4] becomes the key statement and the logical conclusion of the whole passage [10:1-5]. It means that this righteousness that Christ has brought for all is the object and goal to which all along the law has been directed, its true intention and meaning” (R. Badenas, Christ the End of the Law: Romans 10:4 in Pauline Perspective [Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1985], 117).
It is therefore biblically and linguistically preferable to take telos in its normal meaning of “purpose,” “aim” or “object,” and to read Romans 10:4 in the sense that the law points to Christ as the climax of the whole Old Testament revelation, both in its ritual and moral ordinances. Christ was the fulfillment of the Old Testament figures and symbols, the culmination of the Torah, the One who was established to bring righteousness to all those who believe.
1 See R. Badenas, Christ the End of the Law: Romans 10:4 in Pauline Perspective JSNT Supplement Series 10 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1985).
I ONLY KNOW HE DID
I stood beneath a mighty oak
And wondered at its size
How from an acorn it could grow
I never could surmise–
I only know it did.
How God could make the heavens,
The water and the land,
The animals and vegetables,
I cannot understand–
I only know He did.
I do not know how God could come
And cleanse my heart from sin
Through Jesus Christ, His blessed Son,
I only know He did.
Author unknown