that he who believeth shall be exempt from anxieties, but that, upon this foundation he shall be secure, and that, be those anxieties what they may, he shall not, by seeking "in haste" for any other resource, stumble at that stumbling-stone ! No, brethren, amidst all the trials which he may have to encounter, the believer will learn to say, with Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life;"2 or, with Job, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." 3 I know, says the true disciple of Christ, that every other dependence will fail, and that every other hope will end in shame and confusion: I know that, in the hour of death, the soul, which has no reliance upon the Son of God, will "make haste" to possess itself of any shelter from the terrors of his wrath; and I know that, in the day of judgment, those, who have no interest in a Saviour, will be ready to "call upon the mountains and the rocks to fall on them :"4 but my hope will never deceive me; for I am fixed upon the rock of ages, and the end of my faith will be the salvation of my soul! 5

2 John vi. 68.

3 Job xiii. 15.
5 Dr. Dealtry's Sermons.

4 Rev. vi. 16.1

SECTION XXXI.

CHAP. X. ver. 1-13.

CHRIST THE END OF THE LAW FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS TO EVERY ONE THAT BELIEVETH.

Our apostle has told us, that "the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;" but that "Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness." He has also reminded us, that the ground of the Jews' miscarriage was, that "they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law; for," (as it had been declared in their own prophetic scriptures,)"they stumbled at that stumbling-stone." Feeling the supreme importance of this subject, he suspends, for a while, the direct prosecution of his argument respecting the conversion of the Gentiles, in order that he may affectionately urge upon his countrymen the only way of justification for fallen man! Brethren, my heart's desire for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them

record, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 1

Pursuing the subject of the Jews' miscarriage, our apostle here tells us that they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And there is a peculiar emphasis in the language which he here employs. For the expression of establishing their own righteousness, or making it to stand, 2 seems to refer to the case of a person, who allows that his house is out of repair, and in some danger of falling, but who will not be convinced that it requires a new foundation. He endeavours, therefore, by props and buttresses, and various repairs, to make the house stand, but all his expense and labour are thrown away; and, if he persists in his vain endeavours, it will be likely to fall down, and bury him in its ruins. Thus it was with the Jews, brethren, and thus it is with multitudes of professed Christians in every age. When convinced of defects in their moral righteousness, they endeavour to repair those defects by some superstitious observances of their own, entertaining, at the same

1 Ver. 1-4.

2

στησαι

Vide Scott in loc.

time, some indistinct notion of Christ's making up the rest. But they will not be persuaded that they are building on a false foundation; nay, they are offended at the humbling doctrines of free grace, and they actually make that precious foundation for our hope, which God himself has "laid," and on which whosoever trusts shall never be "ashamed," "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence !"

*

But Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth: and as we dwell on the language of this and the preceding verse, we shall plainly discern the difference between a true and a false zeal; between a zeal which is, and a zeal which is not, according to knowledge. The man who, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish his own righteousness, has not submitted himself to the righteousness of God, has a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. He is ignorant of the deep corruption of his own nature, and of his own utter inability to obey God's blessed will; and he knows not, therefore, that he needs the blood of Jesus to wash away his guilt, or that he needs his Holy Spirit to enable him to "abhor that which is evil," and "to cleave to that which is good.” 3 But the man who feels that it is not in himself, but in Christ Jesus, that he is to be accepted with his God; the man who is looking to Jesus, as the end of the law for righteousness; the man who is looking to Jesus, as the Chap. xii. 9.

*See Note 59.

66

accomplishment and the truth of the promises; as the substance of all the types and figures of the law; as the victim which was foreshadowed by all the sacrifices; and as the fountain of that grace which enables us to run the way of the divine commandments; this man has a zeal of God, which is according to knowledge, and which warms his heart with a flame of holy love, which many waters cannot quench!” 4 I have thus taken occasion, brethren, to speak of the marks by which we may distinguish between a true and a false zeal, because I know how apt we are to fall from one extreme to another; and because it has been said, with truth, that if the Jews erred in having a zeal without knowledge,' Christiaus are too often found to err in having knowledge without zeal.'

We shall now find that the declaration contained in the fourth verse, viz. that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, forms the ground-work of the remaining part of the present Section, which seems to divide itself into these two propositions; viz. that Christ is the end, the fulfilment, and the perfection of the law for justification; and that this benefit extends to all believers, Gentiles no less than Jews.

1. The former of these two propositions, viz. that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, is thus confirmed and illustrated in the fifth and Sol. Song. viii. 7.