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We must not imagine that the Apostle is teaching that a believer in loving fulfils the
law and therefore does not need the salvation or justification. One breach alone of the
law is sufficient to come under its condemnation, as this epistle and Galatians clearly
testify, and the Apostle here is certainly not contradicting himself.
Dr. 100: K. Barrett writes:
"Love is not the completion but the performance of the law. Verse 9 shows that by
the law Paul means the Old Testament law in its preceptual character. Love fulfils all the
negative and positive commandments inclusively, from Lev.19:18 downwards. When
Paul says this, however, he is not instituting a new, though simplified, legalism. He does
not say that a man is justified by fulfilling the law through love, rather he is pointing out
the ethical expression of the true meaning of the law, which, when rightly understood,
itself points the way of faith which expresses itself in love (Gal.5:6) . . . . . it is not a
means of salvation, but the ethical channel through which the new life in Christ Jesus
flows" (The Epistle to the Romans, p.251).
The next practical section of the epistle is coloured by the nearness of the end of the
age which culminates in the Second Advent of Christ:
"And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up
from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The
night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and
put on the armour of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies of
drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to
gratify the desires of the sinful nature" (13: 11-14, N.I.V.).
We must never forget that Romans is an Acts period epistle when the Second Advent
of Christ was a glorious possibility according to the divine offer of forgiveness to Israel
and the promise to send back the Lord Jesus Christ if only the nation would turn back to
God and repent (Acts 3: 19-26). It is significant that all the epistles written during this
time mention the nearness of the Lord's Second Coming as the hope of the churches. For
further details the reader is referred to The Unfolding Purpose of God by the author,
pp.42-44.