Romans 10:4 reads, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Let’s look at this verse in context.

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:1–4).

Here, Paul wishes for the salvation of his kinsmen, the Jewish people. He knows their “zeal for God” is misguided, for they fail to recognize that right standing before God is not “of the law” but is “of faith” (verses 5–6), which means “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (verse 9).

The law is not and never was a means of salvation. Its purpose is to define sin and expose transgressors. In this same epistle, Paul says, “I would not have known sin except through the law. [The law tells us what sin is.] For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire [the law exposed Paul as a sinner]” (7:7–8). The law, then, by defining sin and exposing us as sinners, informs us of our “death” (verses 9–11) and of our need of deliverance. “Therefore,” Paul concludes, “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (verse 12).

So, now that we see that the law’s purpose is to expose sin, not redeem sinners, in what sense is Christ the “end of the law”? He is the end result—the goal, purpose, outcome—of the law, for He does what the law cannot do; He is the means whereby we may be declared righteous before God. The law reveals sin; Christ removes it. Where our right standing before God is concerned, then “Christ is the end of the law.”