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NASB | Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law [it leads to Him and its purpose is fulfilled in Him], for [granting] righteousness to everyone who believes [in Him as Savior]. |
Bible Question: Is Paul saying that the Ten Commandments are obsolete? |
Bible Answer: No. What he is saying is that Jesus is the "telos" of the law. "Telos" here is not temporal but goal.* Jesus is the goal of the law in two ways: 1) The motivating power for the law is love and God is love, love is the fulfillment of the law. 2) When we do sin we have an advocate with the Father; so the Law drives us to Jesus as our Savior--it shows us our need. *"How can we determine what Paul was trying to say in this verse? To decide such a scriptural controversy, one ideally should take into account three kinds of information: 1) The history of the way the passage in question has been interpreted by the Christian community through the centuries. 2) The ways in which a questionable word is used in other texts, especially other biblical texts with similar grammatical constructions. 3) The meaning of the passage in its immediate context and in the larger context of the book in which it appears. Fortunately, all three types of information about Romans 10:4 are available in the book Christ the End of the Law: Romans10.4 in Pauline Perspective (JSOT Press, Sheffield, England, 1985), the doctoral dissertation of Robert Badenas, an evangelical New Testament scholar. In this article, I will summarize Badenas findings, which present a clear resolution to our question about the meaning of the phrase "Christ is the end of the law." To put the current debate about the meaning of Romans 10:4 in context, it will be helpful to look at the history of how this verse has been understood by Christians. Dr. Badenas surveys this history in the first chapter of his book. It is especially interesting to see how Rom. 10:4 was explained by the early church fathers. Being much closer than we are to Paul's own setting, patristic sources may be more closely in touch with the concerns that led Paul to write his epistle to the Romans." From http://www.graceandknowledge.beliefnet.com/telos.html |