“Purpose”

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10.1-4)

This is just a snippet of a longer conversation that highlights the Jews’ rejection, by and large, of the very Messiah for whom they’d waited so expectantly.  They had been rejected in turn by God, and much of their rejection had to do with their misplaced confidence in the law—or more precisely, in their keeping of the law, “seeking to establish their own” righteousness. 

They had the tools.  The law was the foremost of these, since it provided the standard.  They also had God’s direct blessing and his presence, giving them strength or guidance as the situation required, and reminding them always that their battles were in his hands.  They didn’t make full use of the tools, and yet still claimed to have attained the standard.  Imagine a builder, who has ready access to a plumb bob and a level, yet prefers to just eyeball it.  Perhaps he’s gifted and experienced enough to pull it off in the eyes of a casual observer, but what good is that, if the joints fall apart and the building crumbles over time?  In the same way, the Israelites had left some important tools to gather dust in the toolbox—remember that one time, recorded in both 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34, when they lost the book of the law for who knows how long and then had the audacity to be surprised when it showed up, of all places, in the Temple?  Doesn’t that seem like one of the top two or three places they should’ve searched, upon realizing it was missing?  We’re left with the feeling that they didn’t actually notice its absence.  They didn’t care. 

To their credit, when they found the law they made valiant efforts for a while to keep it, including some uncomfortable changes to the status quo.  But it didn’t last long, and by the next generation they were being carted off to Babylon in punishment for disobeying.

Tools are created with a clear sense of purpose.  In fact, an explicitly defined goal and a method for reaching it, is what makes them tools.  In archaeology, primitive tools are dug out of the ruins of some ancient culture, and the archaeologists have the often difficult task of figuring out how these tools were used.  Sometimes it’s obvious—a spear is a spear, an axe is an axe, a knife is a knife, and so on.  While there may be subtle variations that indicate a specialized niche for one form or another of these basic tools, the fundamental identity is difficult to miss.  Then there are tools, made of stone, bronze, ceramic, bone, or other long-lasting materials, whose purpose is a mystery, and will likely remain so to the end of time.  The artifact known as the Antikythera Mechanism is one such tool.  We can examine more closely, and in different ways, considering the chemical makeup of an object, or using x-rays to look inside of it and analyze its structure.  Those sorts of efforts occasionally lead to a stunning revelation, an undeniable answer about how the tool was intended to be used; most of the time, we’re left to speculate.

If the Law of Moses was such an important tool provided for the Israelites, it’s sensible for us to wonder: what exactly was its purpose?  That seems like an odd question—it goes without saying that there are laws, both natural and man-made.  For most of us, it even goes without saying that there ought to be a system of laws.  But why?  The plant and animal worlds seem to get along in an orderly fashion without any code of conduct at all, let alone someone to enforce it.  So we can’t explain its presence by saying that humanity would self-destruct in its absence. 

What purpose did the designer of the law have in mind, when he created it?  We could engage in philosophical discussion, and appeal to various passages in the scripture about the law, or at least given by the one who made it.  But the answer is provided in the very same passage that started us down this pathway.  “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Ro 10.4).  This doesn’t mean that Christ brings the law to an end—that is, abolishes it.  It’s true that he does, in a sense (see Ep 2.14-15), but Jesus himself looks at it in a different way, telling his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt 5.17).  This verse helps to illuminate what Paul said: Jesus represents the fulfillment of the law.  This is true partly because he himself followed the law perfectly, thus fulfilling it in a way far beyond what even the most righteous Jew ever had done before.  But that’s not really what Paul means.  Rather, he means that Christ is the purpose—the τέλος-telos-“endpoint, goal” of the law.  It was given to the Jews, to point them to Christ, who demonstrated God’s righteousness so clearly in his mercy and faithfulness, opening up the way for us to attain the righteousness that comes by faith in his name.

We have a different set of tools than the Jews.  Ours are much better, including God’s Spirit, a much fuller set of revelations, and access to his throne through Jesus his Son.  If they were rejected for pursuing justification without using the purpose-built tool God lovingly designed and crafted for them, what will he do with us?  Let us use the tools in keeping with the their designer’s purpose.

Jeremy Nettles

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