Christ Is the End (τέλος) of the Law for Believers

Last week I spent some time with a gambling addict, a believer in Jesus Christ, who recently found himself on the front page of our local newspaper for confessing to embezzling thousands of dollars from his employer (he's given me permission to tell his story).

A few weeks earlier this man had called me and confessed to his crime.

Having been accused of embezzlement by his employer, this man told me that he faced prison time if the courts convicted him of stealing. His attorney counseled him "not to confess, but to plead 'not guilty.'" The attorney was hoping to get a reduced sentence that could possibly include no prison time."

This man asked me, "What should I do?"

I responded, "Are you guilty?"

He answered "Yes."

I said, "Then go to the police station, turn yourself in, and tell them the truth."

He did.

His picture and the story of his confession appeared on the front page of our paper the following day.

Very few criminals turn themselves in and confess to a crime. To me, what this man did is evidence that God's grace is at work within him.

Anyway, back to the appointment with the gambling addict after his public exposure in the paper.

He told me he thinks he finally has come to an understanding of "why" he gambles.

Pay attention.

"Throughout my life, I've always had the goal of people liking me. I need people to accept and love me. I purpose to get acceptance from others. But most of the time I feel rejected. I feel lacking as a human being. Whenever I feel like a failure (which is most days), and whenever I feel rejected by people (which is very often), I find myself desiring to gamble. It's finally dawned on me that every time I win at the casino, lights go off, people praise me, and I get the "substitute high" of being good enough and being "approved of" as a human. I feel like a "winner," whereas in life I most often feel like a loser.  I'm not giving you an excuse for my gambling addiction; I'm only telling you that I believe I've put my finger on the source of why I gamble."

Wise words indeed.

I believe if all of us will take a close look at any maladjustments in our lives, we'll find the roots of our problems in our misplaced goals and purpose.

I tell people all the time:

"If you ever think, 'I just don't want people to think,' or if you ever say 'I don't want you to feel,' then you have a misplaced goal."

Those who are concerned and try to control what other people think or feel are addicts in waiting. And by the way, addiction to sugar, religion, beauty, work, and other legal (and good things) can be as harmful to the individual person as addictions to gambling, drugs, illicit sex, and other illegal things are. It should go without saying that the latter things (eg. "illegal things") often bring far greater pain to other persons.

With Wrong Goals and Purpose in Place, People Become Addicted

Everyone knows what goals and purpose are.

We all set goals, and we all think about purpose.

Without goals and purpose, a person becomes aimless. 

With wrong goals and purpose, a person becomes addicted.

Now, let's talk about our goals in terms of God.

What is your goal spiritually? What is your purpose in terms of your relationship with God?

99% of all people would respond to those two questions by saying:

 "My purpose is to be pleasing to God."

Then, when it comes to "how" one is pleasing to God, the answer is usually:

 "By doing what He commands."

I propose to you that any attempt to please God by obedience to His standards is a wrong goal that leads to addictions. 

To seek to become pleasing to God by your actions is a misplaced purpose.

You already are pleasing to God through the Christ, who is the end of the law to everyone who believes, for it is written:

"For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4). 

"But wait," you may say, "I read the Bible for myself and it says that God's acceptance, blessings, and favor are on us when we obey His Law!"

"Listen to this, Wade!"

"If you obey the Lord your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, both the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out…. The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you. The Lord will open for you his rich storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all your undertakings." (Deuteronomy 28:2-7; 11–12)

"And Wade, listen to these three paragraphs from the Law":

"However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. 

The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your countryinto dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you." (Detueronomy 28:15-29). 

"Wade Burleson, how can you read those two passages above and ever suggest to anyone that attempting to please God by a goal of obedience to Law is a misplaced goal or a meaningless purpose in life?"

Good question.

Let the New Covenant Scriptures answer that question:

Christ Is the End

"For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4). 

The word translated "end" is the Greek word τέλος which was used by ancient Greek writers to mean goal or purpose.

Most of the anti-Nicene Christian fathers (pre-3rd century AD) translated τέλος as "goal" or "purpose." 

What does it mean that Christ "is the goal or purpose of the Law"? 

Simply put:

"Jesus Christ is God's consummate goal and purpose for which God gave the Law."

The Law's purpose was not given for you to obey and to become "pleasing to God."

Nope.

 In fact, when God introduced the Law, all that did was make you a worse sinner by revealing even more of your sin.

"I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the Law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the Law had not said, 'You shall not covet'" (Romans 7:7). 

Any church, religious organization, or lifestyle that emphasizes obedience to Law to be pleasing to God has missed the Gospel. 

Christ is the purpose of the Law to everyone who believes.

The Law is about Him.

Whether it's His life which is a fulfillment of the Festival Law, or His death which is the purpose of the sacrificial Law, or His resurrection which is a fulfillment of the prophetical Law, the entire Law was given to point us to Jesus Christ. 

"Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." (Galatians 3:24).

So if you wish to ever be free from addictions in this life (legal or illegal), then get an understanding that you are pleasing to God by the performance and Person of Jesus the Anointed One (Messiah) on your behalf. 

Theologians call this imputed righteousness.

I call it living life feeling the pleasure of God independent of my performance.

"But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3:7-11).