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.
So what is saving faith? What does it look like in real life? First, I follow Macarthur (not directly quote him) in giving you a list of things it is not:
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It is not visible morality. Recall the rich young ruler Jesus encountered. He had kept all the commandments, at least he thought he had. But his heart was not right. He was all about himself.
It is not just a bunch of Biblical head-knowledge. The scribes and Pharisees had that. “You search the Scriptures… but you won’t come to Me,” Jesus said to them. They had memorized Torah from a child. Not saved.
It is not religious involvement. Keeping all the rules of Christianity. You are in church, you read, you pray.
Being in the ministry is not saving faith. Judas was treasurer of the first Jesus ministry on earth. Many false teachers and false prophets came on the scene early on, busily converting people to themselves.
Conviction of sin is not being saved. Mental institutions are filled with guilty people.
Assurance of salvation is not your ticket. Many are basing their salvation on the wrong thing and are assured they are saved. Signed a card. Joined a church. Got baptized. Made a decision. Went forward in the meeting. Shook a pastor’s hand. Said the sinner’s prayer, whatever that is.
Sincerity, confidence in your position is not enough.
It is not a no-doubt experience. Think of all the people who had experiences that were not God. Joseph Smith and Muhammad come to mind.
Please understand, any one of these things, and all of them, are good things and probably will happen to you. But none of them is proof you are saved. How can you know?
Once more, Macarthur has a list. I am paraphrasing his words, actually turning the list into a series of self-test questions. Please note, this is not a
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how-to-be-saved list. This is a list of fruits of salvation, so you can perhaps let yourself know whether you truly are in the faith.
• Do you really love God?
• Do you delight in His Word?
• Do you rejoice in spending time with Him?
• Is His glory your aim in life?
• Do you really hate sin?
• Have you truly repented from it, and do you do so regularly?
• Does sin bother you?
• Do you pray regularly, often, and with passion?
• Do you have selfless love for others?
• Are you separated from the world?
• Are you walking in obedience?
For new believers, you will see all these things, but as a budding springtime tree. If you’ve been in this for a while, you should see a much greener and fuller tree. If I just described a series of things that are totally foreign to your experience, may I suggest that there are probably people in your church who are willing to pray with you for your salvation. (If not, a search for another church is in order!)
Saving faith produces good works. But back to the main path and the point of this argument at present: works, before you are born again, are fruitless, if salvation and being right with God is your goal.
3:28
“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
There have actually been several conclusions Paul has come to, several truths he wants his readers to know.
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Chapter 1 states the original premise: The Gospel is the power of God to save Jews and Gentiles. Chapter 1 also demonstrates the clear need of that Gospel since all men are sinful.
Chapter 2 concludes that we must never judge anyone because all are guilty. Chapter 2 also concludes that God will judge all men, whether or not they have the law of Moses. Chapter 2 concludes that true Jewishness means an inward cleansing by the Spirit of God.
Chapter 3 concludes that righteousness before God means something outside the law.
And here Paul summarizes his conclusions. There will be no right standing for any man or woman or child except by faith in Jesus Christ. The law will justify no one.
Then he adds a final argument, as though he needed one, to bolster his conclusion:
3:29
“Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,”
This question seems oddly placed, but it goes back to a series of questions Paul has been asking:
3:1, “What advantage does the Jew have?” Answer, the Word of God.
3:3. “What if some did not believe?” Answer, it doesn’t matter. The Word is the Word, and Israel disobeyed it.
3:9. “Are we Jews better than the Gentiles?” Not at all. All have sinned. 3:27. “Who has a right to boast?” No one.
3:29. “Is He the God of the Jews only?” The Jews have an advantage, but they are no better than Gentiles, and have no right to boast any more than Gentiles do. Because of their unique calling they began to think that
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they were the only ones God loved. Jonah resisted his call because he didn’t want God to have mercy on a Gentile nation. Even Peter, under the new dispensation of grace, had to be convinced dramatically that it was okay to visit a Gentile house and proclaim God’s forgiveness to it! So Jews do not have an exclusive right to God.
Our God is the God – though not the Father – of all men. All will stand before Him as responsible and accountable. He is in fact the only God. Paul says elsewhere that there are many “so-called gods whether in heaven or earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords. Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”
One God, in spite of the Kenneth Copelands – and others – of our day who want to teach us that really, we are little gods too. Their blasphemies will one day be revealed for what they are.
One and only one God, and one and only one way of salvation, as in the next verse:
3:30
“since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”
All men are equally condemned. We learned that through nearly three chapters of this difficult portion of Romans. But all men are equally offered salvation, and have been offered that salvation for many centuries. The message of salvation got buried and perverted and twisted, but those who called upon the name of the Lord, from as early as Genesis 4, had some measure of that message revealed to them.
Let’s look at some Greek in this text. Not to be erudite but to see what Paul was saying. The KJV has “seeing” at the beginning of this verse. The NKJV has “since.” The word is epeiper. The “epei” part does indeed mean
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“since” but the “per” is an emphasis word, that means “much” or “indeed.”
Yes! says Paul. He is the God of the Gentiles for sure, since indeed there is only one God. It’s a wake-up call to the Jew who believes that somehow there is a God of the Jews and maybe another god for everyone else! Our God is indeed the God of the Gentiles since indeed He has found a way to justify everyone who is willing.
How so? Faith. Faith covers it all. But not so fast. More Greek to deal with here. Why doesn’t any translation say that God will justify circumcised and uncircumcised by faith, or circumcised and uncircumcised through faith. Why are two different prepositions used in the Greek, ek and dia , when talking about the Jew and the Gentile?
Ek signifies origin. The Jews are to be saved out of (one of the main translations of ek) that faith which was given to them first. Paul will show soon that faith actually came before the law, if they could have seen it. It is that original faith by which they will be saved. The faith that was already there in their origins.
Dia, through, has to do with the channel of an act. The reason for the act. This faith was already out there, and the Gentile will be saved by jumping into that same channel that was originally opened for the Jew. Only a slight difference, but one more small indication that it’s the Jew first, and also the Greek.
Bottom line. Anyone who is to be saved is to be saved by faith. So, the law is worthless and to be ignored, right?
3:31
“Do we then make void the law through faith?”
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What is Paul asking here? This word “void”, what does it mean? In English, one of several meanings is “of no legal force or effect,” as in a contract, or “vain, useless.” I think that best sums up the Greek word here, katargeho. It’s translated elsewhere “abolish”, “cease,” “do away,” “make of no effect,” “put away”.
Paul has been telling these Roman Jews that the law will not save them. He’s let them know that faith does save, by contrast. Faith saves, law doesn’t save, so let’s “void” the law, do away with it. It’s vain. It’s useless. It has no effect. Destroy it! Abolish it! Yes?
Paul says no! And he says it in the same way he says it in verses 4 and 6, though not as the King James has it, “God forbid.” That’s close to using God’s name in vain, and the Greek text will have none of it. That’s why the NKJV says simply “Certainly not!” with an exclamation point. But that’s not the Greek either. Better to say just what the Greek says in all three places: “Let it not be!” We might say, “Perish the thought!” Or “Don’t even think such a thing!” That idea does not exist and never should and never will! That’s the force of the Greek word.
What! Get rid of the law? Unthinkable! No, “…on the contrary, we establish the law.”
We “stand it up”. We don’t tear it down. But wait. That same word is used in Hebrews, where the writer says that God takes away the first (covenant, Moses’) that He may establish the second (the New Covenant under Jesus).
Paul here wants to establish the first, not to tear it down. Listen carefully:
The law was never meant to save us or anyone. Faith in the Gospel was always the plan. The law came for other reasons, that we will get into. And it did what it was supposed to do. So we glory in the law for what it
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did. We don’t trash it. It was a huge success. Let’s not destroy it, abolish it, say it was of no effect.
But it cannot save us. Ever. Anyone. Faith does that, and that faith goes all the way back several thousand years to a man living in old Babylonia among the pagans there. He found something long before Moses came along that we need to look at very carefully!
