Romans 3:26. Justifying those who believe in Jesus, 3:26," To declare at this time His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus." When He was on earth, Jesus often forgave people their sins based solely on their faith in Him. His Father does the same. In fact, God not only forgives sins, but He also justifies or pronounces righteous those who believe in His Son. Chrysostom writes," What does it mean to declare His righteousness?
It is not only that He Himself is righteous, but that He also suddenly makes righteous those who are filled with the rotten sores of sin." Again, this is all through grace. Romans 3:27," Salvation Through the Law of Faith." 3:27: Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? That of works? No, but by the law of faith. Where is boasting then?
Theodoret writes," By boasting," Paul means" the haughty pride of the Jews, who exalted themselves as the only ones who possessed God's favor." However, now, divine favor has appeared everywhere, and has been shed among all nations. On this same theme, Paul told the Galatians," For even those who receive circumcision do not keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.
But far be it for me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Furthermore, back in chapter 2, Paul had described the unbelieving Jew in these words:" Behold, you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make your boast in God." Centuries after this letter was written, Augustine re-explained this verse to apply Paul's words to anyone who rejected his new doctrine of total depravity.
He accused Christians of boasting if they believed that God requires humans to cooperate in our salvation. Luther extended Augustine's teaching even further by claiming that anyone who thinks that works play a role in our ultimate salvation is boasting. Those interpretations came about because both Augustine and Luther disconnected this verse from the overall context of Paul's great argument.
Paul's controversy was not with Christians who believe in free will, or with Christians who believe God requires righteous living after our initial salvation. After all, Paul taught these very doctrines himself. Paul's controversy was with the Judaizers who boasted in their circumcision and in the Mosaic Law. In contrast, the early Christians read chapter 3 in the context of Paul's great argument. Paul is silencing the Jewish claims of superiority.
To believe that God requires our cooperation in our salvation hardly constitutes boasting. When we are theologically humble, we embrace the entire message of the New Testament, not just isolated proof texts, it is excluded. The Greek word that is translated as excluded is eclio. Chrysostom explains the meaning of this word. The word eclio expresses untimeliness. That is, the grounds for boasting no longer exist. For example, when the judgment has come, it is too late for anyone to repent.
Similarly, for those under the law, the sentence has already been passed. Paul says," All are upon the point of perishing. Nevertheless, the deliverer is now at hand." By His grace, Jesus will break these fears. So the Jews no longer have time for pleading that they will improve their lives through the works of the law. For if it had been possible to save themselves through the law, it needed to have been done before Christ's coming.
But now that he who saves by faith has come, the time for those efforts through the law has been taken away from them. To use a modern illustration, imagine a volleyball team who has just lost a game. Rather than acknowledging their defeat, they go around boasting that they were the better team. And if they just had not run out of time, they would have won the game. We would laugh at such a claim and could readily see the absurdity of their boasting. Their boasting is excluded. It is too late.
Likewise, it was too late for the Jews to boast about their observance of the law. They had had over 1, 500 years to demonstrate they could live righteous lives through the law. Yet they had utterly failed. So Jesus came, presenting a better way. Therefore, the Jews boasting about their works under the law is now forever excluded. By what law? That of works? The law of works refers to the regulations of the Mosaic Law. Ambrosiaster writes," The law of works has ceased.
That is, the observance of the Sabbaths, new moon, circumcision, distinction of foods, and offerings of dead animals. Irenaeus comments," He gathered into the one faith of Abraham, those persons from both covenants who are eligible for God's building. For as I have shown, this faith lived in Abraham prior to circumcision. It also lived in the rest of the righteous ones who pleased God. But circumcision in the Law of Works occupied the intervening period.
As Paul has shown in the previous verses, the regulations of the Mosaic Law, the Law of Works, made no one righteous, no but by the law of faith. Why does Paul refer to the gospel as the law of faith? Theodoret answers," Here, Paul does not carelessly call faith the law.
Rather, he is reminding us of the prophecy of Jeremiah." For in those days, says the LORD, and at that time, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers." Jeremiah 31:31-32. So Jeremiah calls the Mosaic Law a covenant, and the New Covenant likewise bears the same designation. Christians are under the New Covenant, and the New Covenant contains the laws of Jesus and His apostles.
Under the New Covenant, God says," I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart." So the new covenant, the covenant of faith, indeed has laws. That is why Paul calls the gospel the law of faith. It is also why Paul closes Romans by speaking of the mystery that has been made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
Clement of Alexandria writes," A faithful person is he who sacredly keeps what has been entrusted to Him." And we are entrusted with the utterances concerning God and the divine words. That is the commandments. So Paul never pits law against gospel. Rather, he pits the law of Moses against the gospel. The gospel contains laws, for it is the law of faith. However, the gospel commandments are nothing like the fastidious regulations of the Mosaic Law.
Speaking about the law, Peter protested to the Judaizers," Now therefore, why do you tempt God that you should put a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear." In contrast, Jesus says," Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is kind, and my burden is light." John says," For this is loving God, that we keep His commandments." Yet His commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3.
So Jesus did not say He had no yoke nor any burden for us to carry. Rather, He said His yoke is kindly and His burden light. Likewise, John did not say that Christians have no commandments. Rather, he said that Christ's commandments are not burdensome. That is, they are not oppressive. Romans 3:28 through 31.
Justified by faith apart from the Law of Moses 3: 28:" Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." Theodoret writes," By law here, he means the law of Moses." So Paul is simply summing up what he has been saying throughout this entire chapter. A person is justified by faith, not by the works of the Mosaic Law. As we have said, this is one of the primary themes of Paul's great argument.
Clement of Alexandria writes," The gifts granted through a faithful servant are not equal to those bestowed by the true Son. If then the law of Moses had been sufficient to confer eternal life, it would have been pointless for the Savior Himself to come and suffer for us." Faith alone? Martin Luther was not satisfied with Paul's statement. A man is justified by faith, apart from the works of the law.
So Luther famously changed it to say," A man is justified by faith alone, apart from the deeds of the law." When the Catholics called his hand for adding the word alone, Luther refused to admit that he had improperly tampered with Scripture. Instead, he arrogantly brushed his critics aside in a public letter. If your papist wishes to make a great fuss about the word alone, say this to him:" Dr. Martin Luther will have it so." And he says that a papist and a donkey are the same thing. I will it. I command it.
My will is reason enough. For we are not going to become students and followers of the papists. Rather, we will become their judge and master. We too are going to be proud and brag with these blockheads. And just as Saint Paul brags against his madly raving saints, I will brag over these donkeys of mine. They are doctors. Me too. They are scholars. I am as well. They are philosophers, and they are dialecticians. I am too. They are lecturers, so am I. They write books, so do I.
I will go even further with my bragging. I can exegete the Psalms and the prophets, and they cannot. I can translate and they cannot. I can read holy Scriptures, and they cannot. I can pray they cannot. Coming down to their level, I can do their dialectics and philosophy better than all of them put together. Plus, I know that not one of them understands Aristotle. If, in fact, any one of them can correctly understand one part or chapter of Aristotle, I will eat my hat.
So this can be the answer to your first question. Please do not give these donkeys any other answer to their useless praying about that word" sola," then simply Luther will have it so. And he says that he is a doctor above all the papal doctors, like Dr. Schmidt and Snot Nose and others like them. In addressing his followers, Luther went on to claim that the word" alone" had to be added in German for Paul's words to have the same sense in German as they did in Greek. However, that is simply not true.
Luther added" alone" because it fit his theology. 3:29: Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. 3:30," Seeing it is one God who will justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith." Throughout the great argument, Paul constantly repeats this theme. Jews and Gentiles stand on equal footing before God. They are both justified through faith, not through circumcision or the law. Paul is not writing an invective against godly works.
He is refuting the Jewish claim that the Gentiles had to be circumcised and keep the law to be saved. As Paul told the Corinthians, neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. Chapter 3:31: Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. On the contrary, we establish the law. Faith in Christ does not make the Mosaic Law void. For Jesus said," Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.
I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill." In today's English, people often think of fulfill in the sense of" to bring to an end." However, originally, the English word" fulfill" meant to" fill up" or" to make full." Similarly, the Greek word used in this verse has two primary meanings. First, to complete, and second, to fill or make full. The early Christians understood that Jesus fulfilled the law in both ways.
He filled out the law, which included amplifying the righteous moral principles contained in it, and he completed and brought to an end the ceremonial parts of the law.
Irenaeus writes," Those things in the law that were given to the Israelites for servitude, and as a sign uniquely to them, he brought to completion in the new covenant of liberty, but he has increased and widened those laws that are natural, noble, and common to all humans." Tertullian explains that Jesus was modifying the law by reformation, amplification, and progress. He continues," Although fruit is separated from the seed, fruit comes from the seed.
Likewise, the gospel is separated from the law, although it comes forth from the law." In short, faith in Christ does not make the Mosaic Law void. That does not mean that Christians are still under the dietary, sanitary, and ceremonial parts of the law. No, the purpose of those regulations has been completed. Instead, we are under those righteous moral principles of the law that have been incorporated into Christ's teachings. On the contrary, we establish the law.
Faith in Christ establishes the law by fulfilling its purpose. Paul told the Galatians," The Law has become our guardian to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." Chrysostom writes," How does faith establish the law?" First, we must ask, what was the object of the law? What was the purpose of all its requirements? Its purpose was to make man righteous.
However, it did not have the power to do this, for Paul says," All have sinned." In contrast, when faith in Christ came, it accomplished this very thing. For when a man becomes a believer, he is immediately justified. So faith established the purpose of the law. Summary: Paul has now addressed all six of the key points of his great argument. Point 1: All mankind lies guilty before God and needs salvation. Point 2: The Law of Moses is unable to save or justify Jews, let alone Gentiles.
Neither circumcision nor obedience to the law of Moses are necessary any longer. Point 3. All humans, Jews and Gentiles alike, are saved and justified only by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Point 4: There is no partiality with God. Jews and Gentiles stand as equals before Him. Believing Jews and believing Gentiles together make up the new Israel of God. Point 5. God has not been unfair to the Jews in bestowing grace and salvation on the Gentiles. Point 6.
Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, after our initial salvation by grace through faith, God requires us to walk faithfully with Christ, producing godly fruit for the remainder of our lives. However, we do not do this solely on our own strength, for we have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Having established these six key points, Paul devotes the rest of his great argument to restating these points over and over, but not in any particular order.
Each time, he states his points a little differently, or he approaches them from a different angle. Several times, he returns to a dialogue with his fictional opponent. This results in Paul thoroughly establishing his points. However, after several chapters, the reader can easily lose sight of Paul's overall thesis in Romans. Paul's overarching thesis is that neither Jews nor Gentiles need to obey the Mosaic Law to be saved, and that Jews and Gentiles stand as exact equals before God.
Because this is his primary thesis, Paul continually refers to Jews and Gentiles, circumcision, and the law throughout his letter.