and their persisting in confiding in their own merits and advantages as the ground of their acceptance with God.
(4) For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. The general import of the passage is sufficiently obvious, but its exact sense is not so easy to determine, on account of the ambi- guity of the word translated end. The word may signify, 1. The object to which any thing leads. Christ is, in this sense, the end of the law, inasmuch as the law was a schoolmaster to lead us to him, Gal. 3 ; 24 ; and as all its types and prophecies pointed to him, " They were a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ," Col. 2 : 17. Heb. 9 : 9. The meaning and connexion of the passage would then be, ' The Jews erred in seeking justification from the law, for the law was designed not to afford justification, but to lead them to Christ, in order that they might be justified.' 2. The word may be taken in the sense of completion or fulfilment. Then Christ is the end of the law, because he fulfils all its requisitions, all its types and ceremonies, and satisfies its preceptive and penal demands. See Matt. 5: 17. Rom. 8 : 4. 3. We may take the word in its more ordinary sense of end or termination, and understand it metonymically for he who termiiiates or puts an end to. The meaning and connexion would then be, ' The Jews mistake the true method of justification, because they seek it from the law, whereas Christ has abolished the law, in order that all who believe may be justified.' Com- pare Eph. 2 : 15, " Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments ;" Col. 2 : 14, " Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us," &c. ; Gal. 3 : 10 — 13. Rom. G : 14. 7 : 4, 6, and the general drift of the former part of the epistle. In sense this interpretation amounts to the same with the preceding, though it differs from it in form. Christ has abolished the law, not by destroying, but by fulfilling it. He has abolished tiie law as a rule of justification, or covenant of works, and the whole Mosaic economy having met its completion in him, has by him been brought to an end. Either this or the first interpretation is probably the correct one. In favour of the for- mer is the ordinary import of the word here used by the apostle ; and in favour of the latter is the drift of the early part of the epistle, which was to show that through Christ we are delivered from the law, and intro- duced into a state of grace. It matters little which view is preferred. The word law is obviously here used in its prevalent sense throughout this epistle, for the whole rule of duty prescribed to man, including for the Jews the whole of the Mosaic institutions. The law is intended in every sense in which law has been fulfilled, satisfied, or abrogated by Jesus Christ. For righteousness to every one that believeth. The ge- neral meaning of this clause, in this connexion, is, ' So that every believer may be justified.' The Jews, then, did not submit to the method of justification proposed by God, or to the righteousness which he had pro- vided, for they did not submit to Christ, who is the end of the law. He