#15. Romans 3:27-31 - Objections from the Pews- er, Jews (Justification Series, Part IV)

Part III: Our Justification, Confirmed

Where, then, is boasting? It is debarred! Through what law? Of works? No! But through faith’s law.

Where’s boasting? Around here somewhere, hmm? Not according to Paul, who states here that boasting is debarred. Not as though it would be condemned in justification, but that it literally makes no sense. “Debarred” is “excluded.” Man has this issue with pride that implies we must be taking credit for our faith, lest we come across as weak, or dependent. Little do those with this prideful stance realize: all require this realization of Christ’s sacrifice!

This would be the equivalent to saying, “Yeah, I watched The Avengers with my friends! It was so fun making that movie!” Anyone who hears you say that will obviously go, ‘uh, no dude, you clearly didn’t make one of the highest grossing movies ever made, because if you did, you wouldn’t be a cashier at Dollar General.’ It’s this very clear, obvious taking credit for another Person’s faith. In this case, the Person happens to be someone that’s helping you, not just by extending a helping hand, but by completely exonerating you, spiritually, in God’s sight, from His coming indignation.

Boasting, here, is not merely in relation to “boasting in flesh.” Keep in mind the topics of discussion so far: one of the primary objectors to this evangel has been the Jews, hating that God, though sharing the evangel with them first, is not giving them the top spot in the evangel, but placing them on par with everyone else. Jews don’t have the same religious supremacy, the way they did before Jesus’ arrival.

Thus, we are dealing with a religious boast, one that people have been using for thousands of years to stand above other people. The faith referenced is not our faith, but Christ’s faith, and this faith is bestowed upon people, justifying them in God’s eyes. Boasting is debarred in this faith, because it’s not your faith, is it? You didn’t justify yourself, did you? You don’t boast in things you don’t create, do you? You didn’t make it, so, what would be the point? Taking credit for it may earn you points in a Catholic church, but certainly sets you on the wrong foot with God, making you an unbeliever in Christ’s works for you. It’s a paradox to presume it’s of you but from God!

The law has nothing to do with this, as a result. For the nth time, the law is designed for you to recognize something, not to be justified by anything. It’s impossible for your works to accomplish this goal. Law recognizes sin – making it a ‘just’ ruling stick. Yet it is also the power which sin uses to rule over an individual (1 Cor. 15:56.) If you cannot achieve perfection, you’re naturally ruled by sin through law (sin has the Greek element “UN-MARK,” thus when translated literally, to “miss.” This is to “miss the mark” of righteousness.)

In contrast, faith’s law is to be ruled by Christ Jesus, instead. It doesn’t disregard you as a human being, but disregards the self-pride – not the pride itself, as we’ll see toward the end of this letter, but the self-pride.) Paul has to point out here that “not boasting” as an all-encompassing idea isn’t the goal, here, because that, by definition, is a work, and if you’re being told “don’t boast,” ever, then we’d still be operating under a strict ruleset. Not boasting in yourself, or your faith, or your deliverance, but knowing that God gives you your faith, He gives you any ability, and is the One that delivers you into this justification, is the point. Again, you can’t really boast in something you didn’t accomplish.

This reveals a major disconnect between men and God today. Most that proclaim belief cannot recognize that it is Christ’s faith that has any power, in His ability to fulfill the law, from God giving Christ this ability. The fact that they believe they are saved simply through their faith is not the truth of the matter, as they believe the power is in their faith, and not a measurement of Christ’s faith. They are not believing truth and thus, not justified from their moral codes.

Yes, it is this black and white (ref. 1 Cor. 15:1-4.) If it weren’t this black and white, God wouldn’t write it in His evangel. It’s impossible to reconcile these two viewpoints, because one defines the spirit of God, and the other defines the spirit of man. The only mediator between these two is Christ, which in and of Himself is God’s revelation of His olive branch toward man.

For we are reckoning a man to be justified by faith apart from works of law.

This is the natural result of everything that’s been said so far! If you’re justified, by faith, then you’re not proceeding with works of law, because works of law are, naturally, something to boast in. If you’re focused on your actions (which the law forces you to do,) then in effect, you aren’t justified, but recognizing your shortcomings (and in my opinion, a hyper-focus on everyone’s actions today naturally plays a large role in the staggering increase in societal levels of depression and anxiety to be someone ‘better,’ when all are flawed.) It is not your actions that save you, but God’s justification, through faith.

There’s something even cooler here that I never knew until George Rogers pointed it out in his incredible study. The term “works of law” doesn’t only apply to rituals found in Genesis to Deuteronomy! Yes, ‘law’ pertains to Mosaic law, but in Romans 2:14, ‘law’ took on any moral stance from the heart of man. We haven’t been talking about a major Ten Commandments deal, or a specific portion of the law, but morality as a whole, shown by Paul’s use of “boasting” in this passage, as well as his assertion of man in 3:10-20, which, while these topics are discussed in great detail in the Old Testament, are not central to the rules laid out in the Pentateuch, as man’s inability to retain the law had not been fully founded, as we learn from the rest of Israel’s long history.

No, I’m not talking to you about James, right now. I’m not going to talk about James.

Dammit, I’m going to talk about James.

Observe the following verse, from James 2:24:

“You see that by works a man is being justified, and not by faith only.”

I know, I know. WTF? All of a sudden, the above words of Paul are blurry. How, oh how could this make sense?

In fact, James is teaching a separate evangel (see James 1:1, where it’s clear he is of the circumcision, teaching the twelve tribes in the dispersion. This is not Paul’s audience.) As such, actions are the focus, as law still plays a role in his evangel. This is where most teachers of Paul’s evangel would leave you, so instead of doing that (in case you run into some random pastor that knows a lot about James,) let’s run through this.

Paul hasn’t explicitly said that actions don’t matter, but that they don’t justify you with God’s righteousness in God’s current administration (Rom. 1:16, 3:21-23.) He’s fighting legalism, the idea that you must adherently follow the law and be moral in order to be saved. James, on the other hand, is fighting the notion that faith magically absolves you of morality entirely. There’s a build to what James is saying. He is denouncing a dead faith (James 2:17) on the notion that faith without subsequent action is dead.  He equates it to a demonic faith in verse 19.

James cites Abraham taking his son up onto Mt. Moriah to offer his son to God, at God’s command (spoiler alert: God stops him and says it was a test of his faith.) This isn’t to show how great Abraham was, but, as James says in verse 22, faith worked together with his works. His works reflected his faith – thus the faith was living. His works were proof of this faith, not a proof of Abraham’s inherent qualities of character. Hell, the law didn’t even exist when Abraham was on that mountain! It was just Abraham listening to God.

Contrast all of that with Paul’s directive, here. We, partaking in Christ’s faith, which is certainly alive, are justified by grace (Rom. 3:24,) by blood (5:9,) and by faith (3:28.) Grace of God makes our justification possible – it is the Source. The blood of Christ (His death, specifically,) is the ground, or foundation, that we can rest on as evidence – it is the cause. The faith is the blessing imparted to us to receive said justification. This would mean, naturally, that any work that we commit in faith is proof of that faith (and this follows for all faiths, really – your actions do reflect what’s written in your heart – Rom. 2:15.)

Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not of the nations also?

This verse is a little funny to think about, and not something I initially realized needed to be said, but it makes perfect sense, in the context of this study! Jews and Greeks are now equal, in the eyes of God. There’s still a distinction between them (which is why Paul’s gospel is sandwiched between “Acts” for the Jews, and “Hebrews” for the Jews,) but the faith is for all believers – unlike the law, which was only for the Jews.

Yes, of the nations also, if so be that God is One…

Hang on, pause, really quickly. His proof that God is for all nations is found in the statement that God is One. See, the salvation spoken of here, by faith, is proof of this as well, because God will go on to say that His will is that all mankind be saved (1 Tim. 2:4, 4:10.) We’ll learn more about that in this epistle, but in the meantime, this means that this salvation cannot occur through law, which was an exclusive rite to the Jews. He may have preferential treatment, in this regard, but it’s a means to an end. He made the Jews His chosen people, but made an example out of them to prove a point about humanity as a whole, to unveil these truths about His heart.

Who will be justifying the Circumcision out of faith and the Uncircumcision through faith.

These were my original notes on this verse:

Paul lost me. I guess I’ll never understand the entirety of Romans until after the Lord sits me down and instills the entirety of the wisdom of this verse in me. I’m serious! I only know so much, but I absolutely don’t want to rely on my own understanding of this verse, or make an educated “guess.” God, as we’ve read so far, is not about “guesses.” He keeps an entertaining element of mystery, but I don’t believe this is the atmosphere He’s going for in His evangel. As such I’ll say, this is another case where Paul clearly divides the line between Circumcision and Uncircumcision. It seems as though he’s disregarding the notion that the circumcision and uncircumcision are stand-ins for “believer” and “unbeliever,” and that both revolve around faith to some capacity and are both justified therein.

I want to keep them there, to highlight my infirmities, too. Now, I’d like to share what I could never have grasped otherwise, from George Rogers:

“The only difference between the faith of those who believe the gospel of the Circumcision and of those who believe the gospel of the Uncircumcision lies in the message which each believes. There was no difference in the quality of Peter’s faith and Paul’s. The difference lay in the character of their respective gospels. If a circumcisionist believed Paul’s gospel he lost his Jewhood, his fleshly distinctions, and his covenant relation to law and was justified out of the same faith he had before. But a gentile, without circumcision or law, is justified through faith, the same faith by which the Jew was justified, coming through from his place of distance immediately into Christ, his righteousness. The Jew had no need to forsake circumcision and law works to follow Christ; but he must break with both, as Paul did (Phil. 3:1-8), if he would be justified by faith.”

This… answers my initial confusion to such a perfect degree!! Wow! So, as both circumcision and uncircumcision are members in Christ (one covers Christ’s faith from Israel’s terrestrial perspective, and the uncircumcision from the celestial perspective – 1 Cor. 15:40-41, and most of what we’ve read so far delineates between the two,) we can see that the faith exists, but justifies both in different ways. Circumcisionists are justified out of faith, while the uncircumcision is justified through Christ’s faith immediately. Gotta love it.

Are we, then, nullifying law through faith? May it not be coming to that! Nay, we are sustaining law.

Do we nullify the law, or, is Paul making the Scriptures that teach and authorize the law useless? Am I taking the law and rendering it pointless?

No. Definitively, according to God, no. Many Christians that hear of what Paul is truly teaching on this topic get mad if they are proponents of the law, or imply that, through faith, you must uphold law, or anything of this sort. As I’ve said before (and as Paul says now,) law is not erased. It has no power over true believers, but it is not ignored entirely.

We “sustain” law. The Greek elements of this word “sustain” is simply, “ESTABLISH.” We establish the law’s context. The law was sustained by Christ, up until His death. Thus His faith sustains the law, and His faith is what’s placed in those walking in spirit today, thus establishing the law – fulfilling it, in spirit – in each believer.