For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Parallel translations
- WEB For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
- KJV For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
- BSB For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.
- NKJV For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
- NLT For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. He is the goal to which the law pointed and the source of righteousness for all who trust him.
Overview
Paul states a key truth: Christ is the end, or culmination, of the law for righteousness to all who believe. The Greek word can mean both goal and termination; faithful interpreters see Christ as the law's intended aim and the one who brings its righteousness-by-works era to its appointed close. Either way, righteousness now comes through faith in him, not through law-keeping, making Christ the heart of the gospel Paul preaches.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Gal 3:24So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
- Rom 8:3–4For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
- Matt 5:17–18“Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.
- Acts 13:38–39Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins,
- John 1:17For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
- Heb 10:14For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
- Isa 53:11After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.
- Col 2:17which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.
- Col 2:10and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;
- Rom 7:1–4Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?
- 1 Cor 1:30Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
- Rom 3:25–31whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance;
- Rom 3:22even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction,
- Heb 10:8–12Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those which are offered according to the law),
- Matt 3:15But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him.
- Heb 9:7–14but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the people.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 10:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.