October 9

The end of the law.—Romans 10:4.

THIS passage may either be applied to the ceremonial or moral law. All the institutions of the Levitical economy, were clearly types of Jesus, his person, sufferings or benefits. Every sacrifice, and every offering, and every rite, met with their complete consummation in him. At his death the whole dispensation vanished, and all its ordinances were abolished for ever. The tabernacle, altars, and priesthood, have all now passed away, and the true tabernacle, the real altar, and the great high priest Jesus, is the end and antetype of the whole. But Christ is the end of the moral law—a law which was a perfect transcript of the mind of God—a law, holy, pure, and good. To be acceptable with God, perfect conformity to this law was necessary. Fallen man could not yield the obedience it demanded. It made no provisions for failure, or imperfection. To the disobedient it pronounced the dread sentence of death. Jesus came and fulfilled all its requirements,—he obeyed all its claims,—he embodied the whole of its enactments in his life, and exhibited that law in all its holy beauty and sacred splendour when he tabernacled in our flesh,—his obedience was perfect, constant, and persevering. The law of God was indeed within

2 11 his heart, and he fully magnified it, and made it honourable. Its penalties he also endured as the substitute of sinners: though really holy, yet he became, by imputation, the bearer of all the guilt of a ruined world: it was all laid upon him, he endured the whole curse, felt all the wrath sin had incurred, and thus made a way for the justification of the ungodly sinner, who should believe in his name. Here then is the foundation of my hope, the law is not cancelled, it has not become a dead letter, but it has been fulfilled in my nature and on my behalf, by Jesus, who is "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."