We’re working our way through one of Paul’s most spectacular pieces of writing – namely, Romans 3:21-31. Paul has announced that God’s very own righteousness has been revealed. In other words, God has unveiled his unstoppable plan to set all creation right again. And this great rescue has been implemented through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus is genuine human being, the faithful king of Israel, who will not only redeem Israel but bring blessing to all the nations as well.
In verses 25 and 26, Paul specifically shows how God’s righteousness is revealed through the death of Jesus. God’s justice demands that sin must be punished. This punishment was poured out upon Jesus on the cross, so that those who trust in his faithfulness can be set right with God.
Here is where things get tricky. In verse 27, Paul asks “So what happens to boasting?” Most Christians reading this verse assume that Paul is referring to anyone who might boast about their own good behavior in order to thereby achieve right standing before God. But that is simply not the case.
Paul very explicitly explained what he means by “boasting” in Romans 2:17-23. Paul is exclusively talking about the Jews. Even though the Jews had been called as God’s covenant people and given the gift of Torah, they had forfeited the right to boast because they had failed to keep the law. “If you boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? This is what the Bible says: ‘Because of you, God’s name is blasphemed among the nations!” When Paul is talking about “boasting,” it’s crucial to recognize that he’s referring to Israel “in the flesh.”
Paul goes on: “So what happens to boasting? It is ruled out! Through what sort of law? The law of works? No, but through the law of faith! For we calculate that a person is justified by faith, apart from works of the law.” We’ve now arrived at one of those crucial moments where Paul very clearly states that our justification (our right standing before God) comes through faith, not by works.
We’ve established that “boasting” is not the generalized boast of anyone who hopes to obtain right standing through good conduct. It’s specifically the boast of the Jew. The Jews were the only ones who had been given the Torah. But now, Paul says, the boast of the Jew is ruled out. Stuck “in the flesh,” Israel had been unfaithful to the law’s requirements. They were (like the rest of humankind) sinful & rebellious.
Therefore, justification cannot come through works of Torah, for two reasons. 1) Gentiles could never be justified through the Torah because they were never given the Torah. 2) Jews couldn’t be justified by “works of the law” because they were “in the flesh.” Please note yet again that “works of the law” does not denote human behavior in general. It’s always Paul’s way of referring to Israel’s efforts to keep the Torah; efforts which were doomed to failure by their fleshly nature.
Paul announces that the boast of the Jew is now nullified through “the law of faith.” You might even translate this as “the Torah of faith.” For many Christians, this sounds like a contradiction in terms! Aren’t “the law” and “faith” complete opposites? But for Paul this makes perfect sense. God’s people, the children of Israel, had always been defined by Torah. The Torah had set them apart from all the other nations (including the visible mark of circumcision).
But now God has raised Jesus from the dead, thereby spectacularly confirming that he is the Messiah, the true king of Israel! The people of God are no longer marked out by Torah, but by their loyalty to Jesus. Israel itself has been radically redefined. Israel is no longer composed of ethnic Jews, but by anyone who gives their allegiance to Jesus the Messiah.
Many Christians believe that Paul’s purpose in declaring “justification by faith, apart from works of the law” is to show that salvation must come about by abandoning any effort on our part in favor of simple trust or belief in Jesus. But it must be said as clearly as possible: this is not Paul’s point!
For Paul, the main point of “justification by faith” is that right standing before God is now available to all people, not simply Jews. This claim is dramatically confirmed by Paul’s very next sentence: “Or does God only belong to Jews? Doesn’t he belong to the nations as well? Yes, of course, to the nations as well since God is one. He will justify the circumcised (Jews) by faith and the uncircumcised (Gentiles) through the same faith.” (3:29-30)
Paul is clearly explaining why justification could not have come through “works of Torah.” If that were the case, then justification would be available only to the Jews! But God is the one true God who created & loves all people. His good purposes could never have been limited to ethnic Israel alone.
Note that Paul says nothing to encourage his readers to abandon their moral efforts & “trust Jesus” instead.
Paul’s final comment further confirms our interpretation. He asks, “Do we abolish the law through faith?” At this point, those who interpret “justification by faith” as “trusting Jesus alone versus pursuing your own efforts through works” have a real problem. They are eager to exclaim, “Yes! The law has been abolished! Your efforts are futile; a spiritual dead-end!”
Paul’s answer, however, is emphatically the opposite: “Certainly not! Rather, we establish the law.” What in the world does he mean by that? Well, the Torah was the code of conduct for God’s people. It commanded them to love the LORD their God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love their neighbor as themselves. Such behavior is no less essential for God’s people in Christ.
The key difference is that those who have given their full devotion to Jesus the Messiah have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. As Paul emphasizes in Romans 8:9: “You’re not people of flesh; you’re people of the Spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit lives within you.” So even though there’s a real sense in which the Torah has been left behind, the Spirit-empowered transformation of our conduct is the fulfillment of the Torah. At long last, the Spirit allows Christians to become genuine human beings, reflecting the image of God.
We’ve now succeeded in working our way through Romans 3:21-31, where Paul has announced that justification is by faith, not by works of the law. Hopefully readers have absorbed Paul’s main point: because justification comes through loyalty to Jesus the Messiah (“faith”), all people – not just ethnic Jews – are now welcomed into the family of God.
It’s notable that in both passages where Paul writes about “justification by faith” (Romans 3 & Galatians 2), his main subject is the welcome of Gentiles into the new covenant family. Most evangelical Christians are not at all accustomed to thinking in this way. Hopefully this blog will help you see things more clearly – and more biblically.
This is such an important passage, I think it might be helpful to summarize the key principles we’ve learned over the last two weeks.
- Paul’s main assertion in Romans 3:21-31 is that God’s righteousness has been revealed. In other words, God has unveiled his grand rescue plan to rescue his entire creation. The divine purposes are now reaching out beyond the confines of ethnic Israel in order to bless all nations.
- All people (not just Jews) can now be justified; that is, they can be made righteous before God, welcomed into the covenant family, forgiven of their sins & filled with the Holy Spirit.
- This justification comes when people put their faith in Jesus. Such faith certainly includes the idea that we believe certain key facts about Jesus. (For instance, we recognize that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, etc.) However, true Pauline faith goes far beyond mere mental agreement to include the crucial notion that we must give our full allegiance to Jesus as the world’s true Lord and King.
- Such faith requires a re-orientation, not just of our thoughts and beliefs, but our behavior and conduct.
- Justification no longer involves “works of Torah.” Before the coming of the Messiah, membership in God’s family was limited to ethnic Israel marked out by Torah. But God is the God of all the earth. He created all nations & all peoples. His gracious purposes were never limited to Israel alone.
- Thus, Paul’s main purpose in teaching “justification by faith, not by works of Torah” is to demonstrate that membership in God’s family is now available to everyone.
- The contrast between faith & works has nothing to do with simple belief in Jesus versus “the things we do.” Behavior is still essential. But now the faithful followers of King Jesus are enabled by his Spirit to live in a way that’s pleasing to God.
- Even though we’ve left the Torah behind, the Spirit-empowered transformation of our conduct is the fulfillment of the Torah. At long last, the Spirit allows Christians to become the genuine human beings that God always intended.
