Preached on the 3rd of July 2011
Text: Romans 10:4
The end of the law.
Dear friends in Christ.
Recently I read this story and I want to share it with you this morning.
It is a story about how the news of the victory at the battle at Waterloo arrived in England. There were no telegrams or telephones in those days, nobody could send an SMS or put it up on Facebook or Youtube, of course, but everyone knew that Wellington was facing Napoleon in that great battle on the 18th of June 1815, and that the future of England was in great uncertainty.
A sailing ship semaphored (signalled with coded flags) the news to the signalman on top of Winchester Cathedral. He signalled to another man somewhere on a hill, and this way the news of the battle was passed on by semaphore from one place to another all the way to London and across the whole land.
When the ship came in, the signalman on board semaphored the first word: “W e l l i n g t o n”. The next word was “d e f e a t e d”, and then the fog came down and the ship could not be seen. “Wellington defeated” went across England, and there was great gloom all over the countryside.
After two or three hours, the fog lifted, and the signal came again: “Wellington defeated the enemy.” Then all England rejoiced.
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There was that day, when they put the body of the Lord in the tomb, that the message appeared to be Christ dead, defeated…. But three days later, the fog lifted.
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:54-57
"Death is swallowed up in victory. "Death, where is your sting? Hades (hell), where is your victory?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
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Today I have a simple message for you. I want to explain one word to you this morning: the word ‘END’. No, this is not ‘Amen’. I have not finished my sermon yet; you are not that lucky today; I really want to talk about one word: ‘end’.
“Christ is the end of the law”
– says Paul in Romans 10:4. The law is finished! Jesus defeated…. the enemy! The enemy is done; he is dealt with; the fog is gone; it’s lifted; the law it is not enforced anymore on anybody. The time we live in is not the time under the law, but it is not a lawless time either. We do not live under the law, but we live under the ……… (what?) Grace.
Biblical opposite of the law is not chaos, lawlessness, but grace. In the world where there is no law there is anarchy. Every revolution in the history of mankind started in the same way. People dissatisfied with the status quo destroyed the existing system, the current order of things and through chaos, war, and revolution, through destruction they created something new - or at least in most cases that’s what they tried to do.
When the apostle Paul says that Christ is the end of the law, he is saying that a new era, new seasons has started. Something had finished and something new has started. The end of the law brought the beginning of mew rule; new government; new constitution – Jeremiah (31:31) calls it a new covenant. Every end means also a new beginning.
However the Greek word used in here – ‘the end’- ‘telos’ might in itself mean more then just end. It has multiple meanings, so I want to discuss these meanings with you. These are the meanings of the word “end” (telos):
1) termination
2) fulfillment
3) aim
4) purpose
So we can say with apostle Paul:
1) Jesus is the termination of the law.
2) Jesus is the fulfilment of the law.
3) Jesus is the aim of the law.
4) Jesus is the purpose of the law.
When we say it like this, it gives us much better understanding what it meant for Paul and for the readers of his epistle, because he wrote it in Greek that was spoken and understood by all his readers (or at least most of them). We have great disadvantage, because we are limited by our own translations that often become mistranslations of the original meaning of the word.
So let’s just explain these four meanings of this one word of the Greek Bible. Shall we?
1) Jesus is the termination of the law.
This first meaning of the word ‘end’ means that: There is a limit to what the law was capable of achieving. There was a time for it. There was a season of the law. There was a period when God operated in this mode for the specific purposes (we will speak of those purposes in a minute). There was an expiry date printed on a label attached to the law. Jesus’ cross was ‘Use by date’ printed on the label of the law.
The word ‘telos’, ‘teleo’ means to complete, execute, conclude, discharge (a debt), accomplish, make an end, expire, fill up, finish, go over, pay, perform.
Impost or levy, (as paid) toll on goods or travel.
What does it mean in practise for us? It means: We are not saved by doing good! Full stop! Law was saying: Do this, don’t do that. Follow these rules, fulfil these obligations and you might find favour in the eyes of the Lord.
The Grace says: You found favour in the eyes of the Lord, because He looks at you through Jesus hanging on the cross. And since He does that e sees you as His beloved son, beloved daughter of the most High. You are highly favoured – not because of what you have done, but because His Son has already done and you can add nothing to that at all. And you can’t even take away from it, either! That’grace.
Law was executed – literally when Jesus was executed. The cross is the execution of the law.
Galatians 3:10-13
10. “For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who doesn't continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them."
11. Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, "The righteous will live by faith."
12. The law is not of faith, but, "The man who does them will live by them."
13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,"
And Paul explains it even in more detail in 2 Corinthians 3:6-18 where he compares the difference between the two.
If even the old service of the letter, the law was glorious, how much more the service of the spirit? Now we see as in the fog (mirror) but we’ll see the glory of the Lord and the fog is lifted.
Jesus is the termination of the law.
2) Jesus is the fulfilment of the law.
We have studied the first gospel in January this year and we’ve heard again and again that Jesus came to fulfil all the prophecies, all that was foretold through the prophets. Jesus Himself declared in Matthew 5:17
"Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
So the law, although it is terminated, although its time, its season has finished, the law itself was not destroyed as evil, bad or unsatisfactory. The law was given by God. It is Divine law. The commandments, ordinances, stipulations were all ordained by God and James says that only good gift, only good things come from God. So the law was good. But it was fulfilled by Jesus. Its legal requirements were all satisfied.
Jesus did obeyed all the commandments. That’s why we do not have to worry about 613 dos and don’ts as the Pharisees. We have one law.
Galatians 5:14
“For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself."
Romans 13:8
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the law.”
Romans 13:10
“Love doesn't harm a neighbour. Love therefore is the fulfilment of the law.”
Although even this new testament commands were only reinterpretations of the ancient ones:
Joshua 22:5
“Only take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."
Jesus is the fulfilment of the law.
3) Jesus is the aim of the law. (‘telos’ ‘to end’ - meaning - to set out a definite point or a goal)
This is in the sense that everything in the law was like an arrow, like the street signs pointing all in one direction – to the Messiah. Every book of the Old Testament, every spiritual mystery, every ceremony, religious festival, all the feasts, sacrifices etc. etc. were pointing one way and one way only – they all point towards Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Luke 24:44
“He said to them, "This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled."
When Jesus mentioned “All the things” in the Law of Moses and in the prophets and in the psalms it means all things. He is not talking only about the prophecies as such – they were fulfilled as we have already said, but clearly it means more. Jesus purposefully mentioned all three parts of the Jewish Bible, the law, the prophets and the writings (that included Psalms) – in other words Jesus was just confirming that the whole of the Bible has one aim – it all points to Him.
1 Peter 1:10-12
“Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them. To them it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you, they ministered these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.”
And it’s all written there from the times of Adam and Abraham till now that we might all believe that Jesus is the One.
Romans 3:31
“Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.”
So even as we read through the pages of the Old Testament we should always see Jesus in there, that’s the whole idea of the Old Testament.
Jesus is the aim of the law
And just briefly:
4) Jesus is the purpose of the law. (‘telos’ – ‘the end’, meaning the point aimed at as a limit)
For this let’s just read the word:
Romans 8:3-4
“For what the law couldn't do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
2 Timothy 1:9
(God) “who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,…”
Ephesians 3:8-11
8. To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
9. and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ;
10. to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places,
11. according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord;
Or as it is beautifully expressed by the writer of the Hebrews.
Hebrews 10:14
“By one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
Sacrifices are done forever; we are perfected forever; we are sanctified forever; because Jesus is the last sacrifice that was needed; that was required. He is the end of the law.
Amen.
