Doesn’t Romans 10:4 teach that Christ put an end to the Ten Commandments?

This text has been interpreted in a number of different ways. Some take it to mean that Jesus put an end to the moral law. In other words, He terminated the Ten Commandments. Yet we know, based on many other Scriptures, that the law is good and to be upheld. For instance, Paul writes, “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12).

Another view is that Christ is the fulfillment of the law. He came to complete the law. “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). In other words, Jesus gave richer and deeper meaning to the law.

But what does the passage mean? How is Christ the “end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes”? As with other difficult passages, it’s best to look at the context in the surrounding verses. The apostle Paul is making an appeal in Romans 10 to his fellow Jews. He desires for them to be saved (v. 1). Verse 3 is especially enlightening: “They being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”

The problem many Jews needed to face was their fruitless attempt to make themselves righteous by keeping the law. Rather, it is through faith in Christ that we obtain righteousness, not by any of our own efforts. The purpose of the law is to point us to Jesus (Galatians 3:24), not as a means of being saved.

People are always tempted to “establish their own righteousness” (remember Cain’s offering), and what could be more tempting for doing this than trying to keep God’s law through solely our own efforts. When we look to Christ who died for us, this type of “using the law” will end because it’s fruitless.

Key Bible Texts

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (Romans 10:4 KJV)