In Defense of the Faith

Christ Is the End of the Law

Mr. Canright the Baptist uses as another proof text to show that the moral law ended at the cross, Paul’s statement in Romans 10:4, that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.” He sums up his argument on this point by declaring, “That ends the Ten Commandments.”—Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, p. 334. But Mr. Canright, while still a Seventh-day Adventist, clearly answered his own argument on this text as follows: DOF 63.1

“We agree that this means the Ten Commandments, but we do not agree that it means that Christ has put an end to that law. End does not always mean termination. It is very frequently used as meaning the object of a thing, as in James 5:11: ‘You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord.’ This certainly does not mean that the Lord died in the days of Job. James means to say, You have seen the object of the Lord in the afflictions He brought on Job. The word ‘end’ is used in that sense in the text. Christ is the object of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.”—The Two Laws, pp. 43, 44. DOF 63.2

That is to say: What the law demands of me, Christ is. The law finds complete expression in His life. He came to fulfill, or to live out its every requirement. The moral standard demanded by the law and that revealed in Christ are the same. Therefore the purpose, or end, of the law is that I should be like Christ; and it is evident that this standard can be reached only through faith and obedience. DOF 63.3