The subject of this chapter is ‘the Law.’ It’s mentioned 35 times from Romans 7:1-8:4 — and almost in every verse from Romans 7:1-13. For many of us it’s a confusing subject. E.g. what do we mean by the law? Is it the whole of the Old Testament; or the 10 Commandments; or the Pentateuch; or something else? What is our rela­tionship to the law? There are con­flicting opinions among Christians. Some say that the law is no longer relevant to the Christian because we are not under law but under grace — and law and grace are like oil and wa­ter — they don’t mix. Others say that though the law does not save, yet we ought to obey it once we are saved in order to show our grateful response. As we approach this big subject we are not going to learn everything about the place of the law in the Christian life — but hopefully enough to give us a handle.

I have given this chapter the simple title, ‘The End of the Law.’ At one level it is very obvious what that means. ‘The end of the law’ is the fin­ish or termination of the law. There is a sense in which this has happened. Jesus said He came not to abolish the law but to fulfil it. He fulfilled it by keeping it on our behalf. He fulfilled its penalty when He died upon the Cross. He fulfilled the ceremonial and ritual law (including sacrifices, priests, tem­ple and circumcision). He fulfilled it by filling out its meaning.

But, ‘the end’ can also have another meaning; it can denote the purpose of something. When we ask, ‘what is the chief end of man?’ — we are really asking, ‘what is man’s chief purpose in life?’ It may be only a three letter word, but it can mean different things in different contexts. So let’s see if we can get to the end of this! In the opening section of the chapter Paul explains:

1. The End of the Law as a Way of Making us Right with God (vs 1-6)⤒🔗

‘The end’ here means — the finish — the termination — the completion. The law cannot make us right with God. The marriage illustration makes one simple point. It’s not about divorce and remarriage — we need to look elsewhere for that. The point is that law has limits. Law is only binding so long as there is life. When death oc­curs, the law no longer applies. You can’t be fined for speeding if you’re in the cemetery. You can’t prosecute a corpse. Death releases us from all our debts. The law is for the living. Mrs Jones whose husband has died is no longer under the contract of marriage. She is free to remarry; she is released from the law be­cause there has been a death. Death spells the end of the law. Paul now applies the illustration to the law of God. ‘You also died to the law through the body of Christ’ (v. 4). That is what we also learned in chapter 6:2-5, 8 and 11. When the Lord Jesus Christ died — we died with Him. Everything that the law demanded of us was met in Him. He obeyed the law of God perfectly and He paid the penalty for our broken law. He paid the wages of sin — death. As a result we are now re­leased from the law.

There are two (theoretical) ways for us to be right with God. The first is to keep the law of God perfectly. How many have done that? Only one — only Jesus Christ. This way for us then is no longer possible. The other option is the way that Paul has written about in that most important paragraph in chapter 3:19-22. ‘But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known ... This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ.’ Christ has fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the Law for everyone who believes. I can never be made righteous by trying to keep the commandments — it is only by saving faith in the Lord Je­sus. In Him, my justification is com­plete. ‘It’s just if I’d never sinned; it’s just if I’d kept the law perfectly’! I contribute zero; nil; nothing toward my justification. God has provided everything in Christ. ‘Christ has become for us wisdom from God — that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption.’ (1 Cor. 1:31). Christ is the END of the law!

Does the fact that we have now died to the Law make us footloose and fancy free? Does the fact that we are now Christians mean that we are free to do whatever we want? Now that we are single again are we free to date whosoever? No! Paul states, ‘You died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another ... In order that we might bear fruit to God.’ (v. 4). Our old marriage to the law is over. But we are not unmarried. We are not single. We are now married to Christ in a living intimate union. This is so ‘that we might bear fruit to God.’ We are free from the slavery and con­demnation of the law — to serve the Lord by a new Spirit within us (v.6). God has united us to Christ that we might live a holy life.

I like the illustration that Stuart Olyott uses.

Imagine a single man who decides to employ a housekeeper. Afraid that she might not do what she is paid to do, he puts up a list of rules on the kitchen wall. Meals are at 8.00, 1.00 and 6.00. Washing up is to be done immediately after each meal. Teabags are NOT to be left in the sink. Beds are to be changed once a week. And so the list goes on! ... Eventually this well-off man falls in love with his housekeeper and marries her. Now what do you think he does with the list of rules on the wall? You are right: he takes them down. But his wife still pro­duces the meals at 8.00, 1.00 and 6.00. She does the washing up after each meal; she puts the tea bags in the bin and changes the beds every week. Why does she bother since there are no longer any rules? It is because she loves him and knows that these things please him. The whole dynamic has changed!

This helps us to understand the change in our relationship. Once we were bound to the Law and resented it. Then we died. Now we are bound to Christ. We are married to Christ. Why do we serve Him? Not because we HAVE to, but because we WANT to! We love Him — because He first loved us. We can say with the psalm­ist, ‘In doing your will I find delight.’ We find His yoke easy and His bur­den light. We want to follow Him with wholehearted love and obedience.

2. The End of the Law as a Way of Pointing us to God (vs 7-13)←⤒🔗

By ‘the end’ here I mean the goal — the purpose of the law. ‘What shall we say then? Is the law sin?’ (v. 7). Paul is here replying to a possible objector; who may be accusing the apostle that teaching the law is a bad thing. What is Paul’s response? ‘Certainly not! No way’! Paul echoes Jesus attitude to the law when he affirms that it is holy, just and good. It shows us our sin; it drives us to our knees and then to Christ for pardon. Let’s follow his argument.

He tells us that the law reveals sin (verse 7 and chapter 3:20). The law is like a smoke detector which can warn us about a fire — but it can’t put out the fire. The law is like a cat scan that can reveal the tumour but can’t cure it. The law is like a mirror which shows my wrinkles and unshaven face — but it can’t make me any pret­tier! The law can diagnose our prob­lem, but can’t deliver us from it. It can show us how far we are away from God, but cannot bring us any nearer to Him.

Paul cites his own experience. As a model Pharisee he could tick the first nine boxes. It was, however, the 10th commandment which caught him out. How come? It was the 10th commandment which taught him that the law was inward: that the righteous­ness the commandment requires is inward, making him realise that he had never kept any part of the law. He realised for the first time that there was a lot more to the first nine commandments than just keeping them outwardly and physically. The 10th commandment became the lense through which he came to view all the commandments. As he looked at the commandments, he now saw his dirty finger prints had messed every one of them. He was not the saint he had thought. He had not obeyed any of the commandments from the heart. The law was God’s searchlight that had exposed him. The law then is good. It shows up our badness. We can’t know what sin really is unless we judge it against the perfect law of God. The tragedy of our age is that the Law and the commandments are no longer be­lieved, taught or preached in the churches.

Another function of the law is that it stirs up sin (v. 8a). The law actually provokes and aggravates sin! There is substance in the story of the pa­rishioner who objected to the reading of the 10 commandments in church, because she said, ‘they put so many ideas into people’s heads!’ How perverse and obstinate we are! When we are told not to do something, the human reaction is we want to do it. The prohibition in the Garden of Eden was a challenge. Rules are made to be broken! The housekeeper never thought of put­ting the tea leaves down the sink — until she read the rules. Put a sign on the church fence, ‘No climbing,’ and you can be sure of the result! In Bunyan’s Pilgrim's Progress, Christian comes to the House of Interpreter where he will be shown ‘excellent things such as would help him on his journey’. He was shown into a large room that was full of dust. Interpreter called for a man to sweep the dust. When he did so, the dust in the room was so thick that Christian began to choke. Some water had to be brought to settle the dust. What did this mean? Bunyan explains, ‘The room is the heart of man that was never sanctified by the grace of the Gospel; the dust is his original sin and inward corruptions. He that began to sweep at first is the Law ... but the water is the Gospel...’ ‘The Law instead of cleansing the heart from sin, doth revive, put strength into and increase it in the soul’. Another function of the Law is that it convicts us of sin and condemns it (vs 8b-11). ‘I once was alive apart from the Law; but when the com­mandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.’ (v. 9). Paul was once a proud Pharisee like the one who went up to the temple to pray. He prayed to himself, ‘God I thank you I’m not like other men — robbers, evil-doers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tithe of all I get.’ (Luke 18:11-12). He knew he was ‘alive.’ The tax collector could not even look up but prayed, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’ He knew he was ‘dead’ — a man con­demned by the law of God. Yet it was the tax collector who went home ‘justified.’

Finally, the law proves how sinful sin is (vs 12-13). The law is holy, righteous and good. John Stott remarks, ‘the extreme sinfulness of sin is seen precisely in the way it exploits a good thing for an evil purpose.’ Let me illustrate. Why do we find child abuse so reprehensible? Because it exploits some­thing good; it violates a child’s trust and innocence for a wicked, mali­cious, selfish purpose. Why are adul­tery and rape and incest so despica­bly wicked? Because God made sex as something essentially good to be enjoyed in the security and privacy of marriage, but the adulterer and rapist ignore the maker’s instructions and exploit it for their corrupt and evil ends. The Law is good but sin dis­torts, vandalises, ransacks and plun­ders it. Sin corrupts; sin abuses; sin distorts; sin is a robber; sin is a blas­phemer; sin is a liar; sin is selfish. Sin is exceedingly deceitful and sinful. Where is all this leading? John Gerstner, former Professor in Pitts­burgh Theological Seminary, was once preaching on Romans — ex­pounding on the law. One lady ap­proached him after the service and said, ‘Dr Gerstner you made me feel this big.’ (As she held up her thumb and index finger). Gerstner replied, ‘Madam, that’s too big. That’s MUCH too big. Don’t you know that that much self-righteousness will take you to hell?’ He was right. The law of God declares us dead in sin and un­able to save ourselves. We are cor­rupt and unable to heal ourselves. We are guilty and unable to exoner­ate ourselves. We are lost and help­less and hopeless. But there is an answer. The End of the Law is to show us up, convince us of our need, and drive us to Christ for pardon, who in turn points us, as forgiven and empowered disciples, back to the law for our wholehearted obedience.

The law of the Lord is perfect. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy. The precepts of the Lord are right. The law is holy, righteous and good.