Christ Is the End of the Law

In a perfect world all Christian converts would be taught the concepts of Romans 10 prior to being given a Bible. Also, those raised in churches would be established in the same theological principles from this text to help ensure the foundation on which their faith is based is in Christ ALONE.
Let's read Romans 10:4 from the Amplified Bible. "For Christ is the end of the Law - the limit at which it ceases to be, for the law leads up to Him Who is the fulfillment of its types, and in Him the purpose which it was designed to accomplish is fulfilled, - That is, the purpose of the Law is fulfilled in Him - as the means of righteousness (right relationship to God) for everyone who trusts in and adheres to and relies on Him."
Well, you'd think that would just about settle it. However it doesn't.
For thousands of years people have been wrangling and fighting, arguing and dividing themselves from one another over this matter.
Adhere to the Law, or trust in Jesus?
How about a little Law, a little Jesus? Better?
How about... follow the laws that matter to me and trust in Jesus to help me do it?
How about... follow and uphold the laws that I'm strong in... thing that I KNOW I won't break, like adultery and murder or homosexuality, and when I stumble and fail in less severe areas, I can remind myself and God that I'm not TOTALLY depraved. I AM A GOOD PERSON!
Unfortunately, this is exactly the means by which so many so-called "christians" have been taught to function in their relationship with God. Which is completely dysfunctional. Since I was raised in a church that openly taught this manner of relating to God, where even the non-verbal communication smacked with the same focus on our works and performance, I found that in my own walk with God, the most difficult thing for me was TRUSTING Christ. It wasn't sufficient.
I was from a church whose members didn't "rededicate" but would completely backslide and get "saved" all over again. It was a vicious cycle. And it didn't take long for me to grasp the fact that everyone was watching to see if I would live my life according to THEIR expectations and Biblical prescriptions. Soon enough I was fully aware that I couldn't pass inspection with my peers or with God. I was forever being reminded by those around me and therefore getting "saved" again at least once a year. Always at campmeeting... didn't everyone?
Still, I needed something greater than "be good and go to church" to anchor my soul and provide a means of daily assurance that God loves me. Every week in Sunday school as children we joyously sang, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so..." and yet was taught to live without the assurance of that very fact and to embrace the fear that comes with poor performance.
As a youngster and even a young adult who had been so steeped in this theological tradition, it all seemed to make sense. Verses from the Bible, "Be ye holy as I am holy." (Strong command.) To hear the requirements of the Law and commandments read from pulpits and Sunday school teachers followed by the fierce threat of retribution in passages like Deuteronomy 29:20 "The Lord will not pardon him... and all the curse that is written in this book shall settle on him; the Lord will blot out his very name from under the heavens... single him out for ruin and destruction... " was certainly what being in a relationship with God is all about. I mean, there it was in black and white.
When children hear "Jesus Loves Me" from an early age accompanied by the requirement to adhere to the Law with the punishments featured in Deut. 29 as the consequence for disobedience all in the same breath, the end result is often disasterous. It was for me.
This theological mentality followed me throughout childhood into my teen years and eventually into adulthood. I would try and do good and go to church. If I sinned, or even missed church for that matter, I was hanging from a cliff by a broken sapling with a short root system. Doomed. The cycle was endless, viscious and merciless.... it left me with no alternatives than to try and do BETTER and go to church more often! Pray harder, do more! I would pray and remind God of the good that I HAD done, believing that God was a rewarder of our works. I lived under the guilt of my sins and offenses continuously because I took the Law and commandments seriously. "Thou shalt not..." was often "Thou just did!"
After years of being as "good" a Christian as I could be, faultering all along the way, I had to face the fact that something wasn't working. I decided to step aside from my traditions and read the Bible for myself but differently this time. Asking the Holy Spirit to take off the denominational filters that kept my views locked tightly into these spiritual prescriptions of required obedience to the Law as my means of obtaining "heaven" as the reward, I picked up my Bible and started again. I searched the scriptures for something more than I had been taught. God, in His mercy, began opening my eyes to the truth about GRACE.
The book of Romans in the New Testament finally began to reveal the reality of "Jesus loves me this I know.... For the Bible tells me so" from the viewpoint of God Himself. Romans 3:20 "For NO PERSON will be justified - make righteous, acquitted and judged acceptable - in His sight by observing the works prescribed by the Law. For (the real function of ) the Law is to make men recognize and be be conscious of sin. v. 21 But NOW the righteousness of God has been revealed independently and altogether apart from law..." v. 22 " Namely, the righteousness of God which comes by believing with personal trust and confident reliance on Jesus Christ, the Messiah, for all who believe. For there is no distinction, v. 23 Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives. v. 24 All are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the redemption which is provided in Christ Jesus."
Reading those words was both wonderful and tormenting at the same time when I began to face the fact that I had never allowed myself to "take the plunge" and place the whole of my faith in Christ alone without depending on myself to add anything additional to the equation for being saved. It was terrifying because my former traditions had me locked into the mentality of "I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!" But reading the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:28 "For we hold that a man is justified and made upright by FAITH independent of and distinctly apart from good deeds (works of law). - The observance of the Law hand nothing to do with justification." and further in Romans 4:5 "But to one who not working (by Law) trusts (believes fully) in Him Who JUSTIFIED THE UNGODLY, his faith is credited to him as rightouseness - the standing acceptable to God."
I could go on forever, but know I must stop somewhere and pick up on this again later...
Needless to say, in my story, I learned that it is vital to life itself to cease from trusting in my own useless and unfruitful efforts, works, deeds, rules, regulations, etc. and find the value and freedom in being acceptable with God on HIS terms through simple faith in Christ.
We will never be good enough to merit favor, blessings, gifts, or right standing with God. It's impossible. It's like a three year old climbing onto a ten inch step stool to try and reach the ceiling. But what is impossible with man is POSSIBLE with God through trusting Jesus.
The Law was simply meant to show us our inability to EVER be right with God. It showed us our failures and need for something that we could never provide for ourselves.
God knows this fully... we often act as though it somehow surprises Him that we miss the mark. It doesn't.
But He loves us anyway and sent Jesus to prove it and be the means to bridge the gap between the Laws requirements and our inability to meet them.
By placing the whole of our faith in Him... Christ is the end of the Law.
If you're caught in the same endless frustrating cycles like I was, give consideration to the
message in this blog.... the Law is not your master, and following it's endless demands and requirements is not your means to acceptance with God.
You're free from it.
Consider that your need to believe that personal goodness is necessary to go to heaven later is not as important as trusting Christ for a right relationship with God here and now. Heaven is the outcome of that simple faith.
Drink deeply.
JP