No Boasting Allowed! Series

3:27

“Where is boasting then? It is excluded.”

Why does Paul bring this up to begin with? Why suddenly talk about boasting? You have to go back to verse 1. He asks, “What advantage does the Jew have?” And the ordinary Jew will answer, “I’ve been circumcised,” or “I have the law,” or “My people were called directly by God,” or “God spoke to our fathers, God Himself made us special.”

But Paul, though he would agree that all these things happened, asks another question in verse 9: “Are we Jews better than the Gentiles?” Astonishingly – to the Jewish mind – Paul says , No. We’re all included under sin.

No one has bragging rights! I’m not better than you. You’re not better than me. I have no right to brag about my accomplishments, my history. Neither do you.

The world used to love to say, “I’m OK, you’re OK.” Paul says, “I’m not OK. And you’re not OK either.” Nobody gets to boast.

“By what law? Of works?...”

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I say no one gets to boast, and you Romans might ask me, Show me your logic. What principle are you acting upon here? What’s your basis for believing that people cannot boast?

There are only two bases upon which man can stand before God justified. Only two types of religion in the world. One is based on what I do, the other is based on believing in what He did, and does.

Let’s look at option number one: works. What I do. Can we exclude the possibility of boasting, taking personal credit for our salvation, by the whole works idea? Paul says no. It is works that is the very thing that makes people boast.

Look what I did, they say. I was good enough to choose Jesus for myself. I started going to church. I started giving my money. I started singing in the choir. I got a haircut and a shave. I started wearing the right kind of clothes. I got elected to the board. I give to charity. I fast twice in the week. And every time these people tell you something they did, they are expecting you to say, in some way, why you dear person! Aren’t you special!

Worse, they are expecting God to do the same. Look what I did! I picked myself up and reformed my whole personality. Sure, God helped, ‘cause God helps those who help themselves. Sure God gets credit, but so do I.

The Jew of course would point to his circumcision, his heritage, his history, as we pointed out before.

Obviously works is not the way to exclude boasting and pride. The more you do to earn your salvation, the more you boast about it, and God does not receive the glory. And by the way, you are lost.

There’s another religion. Another way. Paul calls it the law of faith. A principle, a rule, that if followed, eliminates all pride all boasting.

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Faith. Faith that what God did at Calvary is enough. Faith that the price Jesus paid for your sins was the right price. Faith that when Jesus said it was finished, He meant it. Faith that the law that accused us was nailed to the cross when He was. Faith that the sacrifice for evil was offered and accepted. No faith in my ability to save myself. No faith in my fleshly attempts to please God. No faith in the world system of justice. No faith in Satan’s empty promises of power, things, satisfaction.

Made just, made whole, made right with God, by simply believing God. Not in God, but God. Believing that what He said He’d do, He did and is doing.

There is such a people in the world. They are mixed into most of the church’s congregations, alongside the works people. There are people doing similar works as their fellows, some because they are saved and love the service of Jesus, some in a desperate attempt to prove to God that they are worthy of His approval and salvation. Two men give the same ten-dollar bill, one from love, one from guilt.

Two women give the same sacrificial service, one hoping to advance the Kingdom of the Jesus they appreciate so much, one hoping that Heaven and Earth are watching, and that they will be rewarded with some well- deserved attention.

For sure, no “faith” people can be heard in the church boasting about what they did and who they are. Most of them are tight-lipped about their own achievements and striving to bless others.

Many of the clashes in a congregation are not between skin colors or culture types or even political differences, but between works people and faith people. Securely saved people, and wannabe saved people trying to work their way to the pearly gates.