Romans 3:27-31 (NIV)
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
Paul has just pointed out that the true source of atonement, restoration of our relationship with God, and of justification, a clean record and a fresh start, is faith in Jesus’ death. And if that is the case, as it demonstrably is, this has serious ramifications for the Jewish people of his day.
In many ways, the faith of the Jewish people had become one of self-made righteousness (although it didn’t start out that way). Thus, the ones who were the most “holy” on the sliding scale had bragging rights before men, and even before God. If a person was righteous, it was all due to their own efforts, their own grit and determination. This was one reason for the sneering contempt that the Pharisees had for the sinners, tax collectors, and “’Am ha’aretz” or “people of the earth”, as they termed those who didn’t have the time or resources to study and implement every fine point of the law (Luke 18:9-14).
But if true atonement, justification, and even righteousness comes only through faith in Jesus, that does away entirely with pride and self-righteousness. Thus, the path to God’s throne is not navigated by legalism and self-flagellation, but by faith properly directed toward the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
The key implication of this corrected viewpoint is that no one can be truly justified by observing the law, no one could be so good at learning and keeping its requirements that they don’t need the Savior. But, in addition, it also means that the door to atonement, justification, and even true righteousness is open to the gentiles, since faith in Jesus only requires them to know about Jesus, who He was, what He did, and what He taught.
It was this reality that inspired the Jerusalem council to NOT require of the gentile believers obedience to the ritual of circumcision and the dietary and ceremonial portions of the law. Instead, they pointed out only four things to be avoided in accordance with God’s law: food sacrificed to idols, meat from strangled animals, consuming blood (all of which existed all over the world around them as part of pagan rituals), and sexual immorality of every kind (Acts 15:29). Even obedience to those points of the law were not intended to “save” the gentiles, but to keep them morally straight as they walked with God, and from being dragged back into paganism.
Paul anticipated that some Jewish people would think that he was nullifying the law, or at least disregarding it, making it an object of contempt among the gentiles. But he would next provide evidence that salvation by grace through faith, not by legalistic obedience to the ceremonial law, was not only compatible with the law, but was clearly demonstrated in the life of the father of the Jewish nation, Abraham himself.
Father, Paul is threading the needle here, and doing so very skillfully. He is pointing out that salvation is not a do-it-yourself project but comes only by grace through faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus. But at the same time, he is leaving in place the terrible picture he painted in the first two chapters of Romans of the degradation that takes place in the human heart and mind when we turn away from aligning ourselves with Your moral standards and requirements. This is one of those places where context is everything – reading some of chapter three in isolation could lead people to believe that Paul is advocating complete antinomianism, complete independence from any part of the law. In essence, we need to read chapters 1-8 as a single discourse, since that his how Paul develops his argument, and then keep this whole context in view as we break down the individual pieces. Help us always read Your word complete, so that we are not misled, Lord. Amen.