Romans 10:4

Romans 10:4, in plain English

Christ brings the entire purpose of the law to its completion—He is what the law was always pointing toward, and now everyone who trusts Him can be made right with God.

Why it's here

You might think Paul hates the law, but he doesn't. He's saying the law was meant to lead people to recognize their need and ultimately point them to Christ. Once Christ arrives and does what He does, the law's job is complete. He's the destination; the law was the journey.

Who's speaking

Paul

Where it sits in the story

From the Ten Commandments to the sacrificial system to the prophets—all of it was God's way of preparing people to recognize and receive His Son. Jesus is the culmination of everything God had been doing.

The scholarly reading

Christ represents the culmination and purpose of the law; through faith in him, righteousness is made available to all who believe, rendering the law's former role complete.

Language and setting

The Greek τέλος can mean both 'end' (termination) and 'goal' (purpose)—a deliberate ambiguity that Cyril of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, and later Reformed commentators seized upon. Paul argues that Christ is not the law's negation but its τέλος: the endpoint toward which it pointed and the fulfillment of its intention. In the first-century Jewish thought-world, the law was understood as the pathway to righteousness and life (as verse 5 will reiterate from Leviticus 18:5); Paul reconceives Christ as the true pathway, making faith the medium through which righteousness is appropriated.

Voice

The Apostle Paul, articulating the christological fulfillment of Torah.

Significance

This statement crystallizes the Reformation's sola fide principle—faith, not works, becomes the instrument of justification—while maintaining fidelity to Scripture's promise that the law leads to life. Christ is simultaneously the law's abolition (in terms of its binding obligation for believers) and its vindication (its ultimate purpose realized).

2For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge.

3Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

4For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.

5For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”

6But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down)

Read all of Romans 10 — Salvation is not far away or hard to reach. It's as close as your mouth and your heart. But how can they believe unless someone is sent?