The Glory of Salvation

Romans. We find ourselves once
again in this powerful passage that Paul has opened. Following the almost very passage
in chapters one and two that really laid out the depths of
our depravity and the sinfulness of man, the sinfulness of Gentiles
first and then the sinfulness of the Jews likewise. And then
Paul opens with the almost a light of glorious dawn there in chapter
three, In verses 21 through 26, which verses we spent several
weeks considering, the whole doctrine of salvation opens before
us and it has been good and rich and encouraging. But Paul wants
us to know just how good, just how rich, just how great is the
salvation that he has provided to humanity. It’s always difficult when you
start your week and the first commentary that you pick up speaks
of the upcoming passage in these terms. This short section is
especially difficult. While its general sense and its
function in the overall structure of the main division are clear
enough, it is extraordinarily difficult to define the internal
articulation of its argument precisely. Well, first, I had
to figure out what it meant by the internal argument. That was so difficult to articulate,
but I think we’ve closed the gap. Basically, in this and the
following verses, what Paul presents to us is the tendency, the fruits
What is behind the scenes of this great plan of salvation
that Paul has just unfolded to us? Paul had told us about the greatness
of the salvation, and if you look back to verse twenty one,
the simple sentence was that the righteousness of God has
been manifested, that that righteousness that we so desperately needed
has been provided and that it’s a new kind of righteousness,
not new in the sense of God lowering or changing his standard, but
new in the sense of accessible to us for the first time, that
it is now a righteousness that’s apart from the law. No longer
do we have to try to live up to a set of standards and rules
in order to access heaven. That righteousness that is so
desperately needed has been provided. That righteousness, as I said,
wasn’t new because Paul goes on to tell us in verse 21 that
it was witnessed by the law and the prophets. God didn’t switch
to plan B. God had all along been laying
down this plan of salvation. Through the righteousness of
God, the righteousness which came through Christ, which is
his third sub point there in verse 22, that this righteousness
was through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that not only
was it through faith. And not only was it through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, it was a faith that was available
for all who believe. Well, Paul went on from there
to discuss, as we said, three different ways of articulating
the great theme of salvation with three different words that
we rarely use. Redemption. The purchase out
of sin justification where we are now made to stand before
God in righteousness, not in a righteousness of our own, but
in Christ’s righteousness. We are justified. We are redeemed,
purchased out of slavery. And then he uses the word that
we spent two weeks on propitiation. Which word we hardly ever use.
Where God’s wrath is literally satisfied by the sin offering
that was made on our behalf. Any one of those terms would
have been enough to discuss the gospel and to relish in it and
to glory in it. And so for Paul, it is utterly
astounding that having walked through the gospel, verses 21
through 26, the righteousness of God manifested faith in Christ
available to all. Absolutely astounding that Paul
could conceive of someone yet boasting in their salvation,
boasting in their accomplishments, boasting in what they had lent
to God by way of Securing their salvation. It’s a very common
theme, it was common with the Pharisees. Jesus told this short
little parable. In Luke 18, he said he told the
parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were
righteous. And even as you hear that, you
think, well, those must be rarities. They’re not. There’s some probably
even here in this building this morning who trust in themselves
that they are righteous. They’re good enough to get into
heaven. You ask the average person why God will let them into heaven,
they will tell you, I’ve been a good person as if God grades
on grades on some kind of a bell curve and that he only takes
that middle 60 percent. Well, that’s not the case. He
told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous and viewed others with contempt. You see, there’s
two parts to this. Not only were they proud of their
own spiritual accomplishments, they viewed others with contempt
for those that hadn’t risen to their high level of spiritual
attainment. They looked down their noses
at them. They criticized and were harsh towards others. Here’s
the parable. He told this parable to some
people who trusted themselves, that they were righteous and
viewed others with contempt. Two men went up to the temple
to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee
stood and was praying thus to himself, God, I thank you that
I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers or even this
tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pay tithe
of all I get. But the tax collector standing
some distance away was unwilling To lift up his eyes to heaven. But was beating his breast, saying,
God, be merciful to me. The center. And Jesus caps it
off with this. Telling state. I tell you, this
man went to his house, justified rather than the other. For everyone
who exalts himself will be humbled. But he who humbles himself will
be exalted. There is a tendency And it’s
an all too common tendency to boast in our spiritual accomplishments. And it’s much more common, as
I said, than we might like to think. We become proud of our
religious heritage, what our parents or our grandparents accomplished. We become proud of our own accomplishments. We become proud of our denominational
affiliation. We become proud of our having
believed. You know that I was in a church
one time that really they were exclusive. They didn’t want to
invite visitors into church because. It was those people, all of those
people in the town and the city that had not believed were outsiders. And they would literally wait
for God to save the people on their own and for God to relocate
people into their community who already believed they did not
believe that those people were worth saving because they had
already disbelieved. We’ve become proud. We’re far
too proud. We have an overactive confidence
in our own abilities. We have an overactive confidence
in our own accomplishments. We have a tendency to think that
we control our own destiny. Even James is rebuked to us.
Woe to you who say that you’re going to go to such and such
a city and earn a certain amount. We have way too much confidence
in our own ability and far too little in God’s. Because if we can accomplish
it on our own, or so we think, then we can take all the glory,
all the credit. It’s that very sin. It’s that
very attitude that Paul seeks to obliterate here. He’s already
laid the groundwork with the whole doctrine of justification
by faith. That this righteousness that
comes is not something that we accomplish, he’s going to make
the case and he does so even in the opening words, when you
go to verse twenty seven so that we can look at this passage in
full and watch what Paul does. As he follows on the heels of
his simple statement, the righteousness of God has been manifested. Where,
then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind
of law? Of works? No, but by a law of
faith. For we maintain that a man is
justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God
the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles
also? Yes, Gentiles also, since indeed
God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised
through faith is one. Do we nullify the law through
faith? May it never be. On the contrary,
we establish the law. Paul. was sick of his own spiritual
pride. That’s exactly what he disavows
himself of in Philippians chapter three. All of those things, that
trophy case full of spiritual accomplishments, Paul looks at
and says, these are worth nothing compared to Christ and that I
may lay hold of Christ is my great goal. Paul had repudiated
the boastful and proud lifestyle of the Jew. But it isn’t just
the boastful, proud lifestyle of the Jew that he is aiming
for here, it is boastfulness before God by any person. It is that proud attitude that
thinks that we can lay hold of or add to or purchase by some
act of obedience this great salvation that is offered. If you would,
I want you to go back to the passage back to verse twenty
seven. This newly revealed means of salvation. Salvation had been
by faith, salvation had always been by God’s righteous standard,
but now this righteousness is open to us through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ in that sense new. And so this newly revealed
means of salvation through faith in Jesus God’s righteousness,
first and foremost, it declares that salvation is holy of God. It declares that salvation is
holy of God. I want you to look at one little
word. For most translations, it would be the second word in
the new American standard. It is the word then where then
is boasting. I want you to look at that word
then. The first thing that we have to deal with, which will
set the tone of this entire understanding of this section versus 27 through
31, is this word then. Where then is boasting? Essentially,
this word points us back to the discussion just concluded 321
through 26, the argument proceeds like this, and you could even
take it back further than that. Because if you take into consideration
the sinfulness of humanity. That lays the groundwork as well,
since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, since
the righteousness of God has now been manifest, since this
saving righteousness is completely apart from the law and adherence
to it, since it was proclaimed throughout the Old Testament
As we saw, since it comes only through faith in Jesus Christ,
since it comes to any and all who believe, since there is no
distinction between Gentile and Jew in the need and the. Desperate need of salvation,
since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, since
we are justified only and purely by a gift of His grace, since
justification, redemption and propitiation are all accomplished
through and by the Lord Jesus Christ, where then is the cause
to boast? No wonder the hymn writer said,
nothing in my hands I bring. And he didn’t mean a little something.
He didn’t mean a little righteousness. He didn’t mean a little heritage.
He didn’t mean a little denominational preference. Nothing in my hand
I bring simply to the cross, I claim where then is boasting.
There is no cause. For boasting. One commentator
said the greatest lie in the world. And the lie common to
all false religions and cults is that by certain works of their
own doing, men are able to make themselves acceptable to God.
The greatest lie in the world. It goes on to say the greatest
error is in that belief is its sheer impossibility. They are
deceived who think, like the Pharisee did, that he can do
enough, be enough, accomplish enough, be obedient enough to
live according to God’s standard. And he concludes with this statement,
but the greatest evil. If the greatest lie is believing
that we can make ourselves Acceptable to God and the greatest error
is overlooking the impossibility of that. The greatest evil of
that belief is that it robs God of his glory. Did you get that? You take credit for what God
has done. What Paul has said. Whether you
think of only verses 21 through 26, Or you go all the way back
and talk about salvation and its fullness. 118 through all the way down
through 326, whatever section you want to look back to, there’s
no doubt about it. We have absolutely nothing to
offer to God. We come empty handed, if at all. Paul says where then is boasting?
Let’s ponder that little word for a moment. Typically, it’s
used to express the idea of patting oneself on the back, self-congratulation,
whether you have any cause to or not, standing up, taking a
bow, boasting, bragging, rejoicing in your own goodness. Paul uses
the word many times, Romans 2, 17, we’ve seen it, Romans 2,
23, 4, 2. 1 Corinthians 1, 29, that no man
may boast before God, and so there is that tendency. As one
pastor said, to boast your glory in any person or thing is to
rejoice in him as a source of honor, happiness or profit to
ourselves. We are boasting in something
because of that. It goes on to say that because
of that, we are forbidden to glory in ourselves or any creature
is the ground of our confidence and the source of our blessedness.
It is a sin, it is sinfulness. Still, another said to boast
your glory in God is a thoroughly good thing. And so there is good
boasting and there is bad boasting, there is sinful boasting and
there is boasting that is essentially worship. Paul differentiates
these throughout his epistles. Romans 511, he says, we exalt
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we boast in our Lord
Jesus, we boast in Christ. Philippians 3.3. We worship in
the Spirit of God and glory, boast in Christ Jesus. We boast or glory in the hope
of the glory of God, Romans 5, 2. We exult in the hope of the
glory of God. We boast in the cross of Christ,
Galatians 6, 14. But may it never be that I would
boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so
there is a good boasting and there is a bad boasting. And
here it’s obviously bad boasting. It is exaltation in ourselves,
it is exaltation in our accomplishments, it is a boasting, a bragging
in what we have done to commend ourselves to God. God says there’s
absolutely no room for it. Absolutely no room at all. This
is what the Jews were so often chastised for by the Lord Jesus. Jesus said to the Jews in Matthew
three, nine, you say that we have Abraham for our father,
I say to you from these stones, God is able to raise up children
from Abraham. Don’t boast. Don’t be boastful
and arrogant. Repeatedly, Jesus rebuked the
Jews for such behavior, and here in this sense, he does it again
of all men. This boasting refers to an assertion
of having a claim upon God is putting God in debt is what it
is. I’ve lived such a way and we all do this. Whenever you
suffer some kind of disappointment, whenever you are discouraged
or angry at God, what you’re really throwing up to him is
your bankbook. Your spiritual bank book and
saying, look, I’ve done this and this and this and this. I’ve
lived this long a Christian. I have grown. I’ve been, you
know, in this committee and on that board and I’ve done this
and gone here to this conference. Look at all that I’ve done. And
now you are letting me down. It’s like I said, it’s much more
common than we would like to think. One pastor said it this way,
a constant reflection on meritorious accomplishments makes a person
proud, not humble. The sinful habit encourages rather
than discourages boasting. It feeds that pride that is so
natural and endemic to our natures. It is active exaltation and self-congratulation,
it is a constant patting oneself on the back. Now, there is a question here. Because Paul had so roundly chastised
the Jews for their pride. It’s a question whether he has
only the Jews specifically in mind in this boasting. It certainly makes sense. It
certainly would include the Jews, the very minimum. Or whether it’s more general,
whether it speaks to the pride that is common to all men. And
I believe that what Paul is pointing to here, what Paul is referring
to, is not specifically to the boasting of the Jews. He’s already
dealt with that. He’s not talking necessarily
about the Jews boasting over the Gentiles, but the boasting
of the sinner before God. It is that frame of mind, that
boasting That is completely out of sync, completely inconsistent
with the truth of salvation that is common to all what Paul had
just walked through in Romans 321 through 26. As Robert Haldane said at the
Puritan, this way of justification clearly shows that a man has
no righteousness of his own. and that he can obtain nothing
by means of conformity to the law, which impels him to flee
out of himself and to lay hold of the righteousness of another,
and so leaves no room for glorying or boasting in himself or in
his own performances. His justification is solely by
faith, and it is clear that to believe a testimony and to rely
on what has been done by another furnishes no ground. for boasting,
and that’s why Paul says the second statement in verse 27,
where then is boasting? It is excluded. And this form
of the verb there indicates the exclusion referred to has been
accomplished once and for all. It’s over and done with. There’s
no more discussion. There is absolutely no cause, no warrant
for boasting of any kind by anybody. With regards to salvation. God has determined that all that
kind of glory and all that kind of boasting, all that arrogance
and pride is absolutely absurd when you consider what he has
done in Christ on our behalf. He’s proven it to be futile.
What Paul says here is that nobody, whether Jew or Gentile, nobody
can achieve any kind of acceptance with God. Nobody can earn their
salvation by means of his own works. Nobody has a right to
stand before God and boast in what he has done or what he’s
received. All all this boasting is utterly sinful. All this boasting
is completely absurd. One said this doctrine of justification
and the salvation by faith, which implies that there is no room
whatsoever for bragging. Faith is a gift of God, as all
also salvation is in its entirety, not even the tiniest part of
it is a product of man’s ingenuity. This truth, when applied to the
heart by the Holy Spirit, convinces a person that whatever good he
possesses has been received. And that he who boasts should
boast in the Lord, did you get what he says? We have nothing
to come and to put God in any kind of debt. We have no cause,
no justification to stand before God and make him obligated to
us in the least by how we’ve lived. This is a plan, this plan of
redemption that utterly strips us of all merit. One said it places sinners on
the same level before God It cuts off all assumption of superiority
of one class over against another. The result of the gospel plan
of salvation is to is to prevent all self-congratulation and exaltation
on the part of the sinner. He presented it as despoiled.
He presents us as despoiled of all merit. Deserving the displeasure
of God, he can attribute in no degree his deliverance from this
displeasure to himself. Paul says, where then is boasting
is utterly excluded. By what kind of law? Now, this
is this is one of the trip ups. To the understanding of this
passage, this is where they said it was so difficult because the
use of the word law, what you zero in on it, this is exactly
where Paul’s been since the opening words of this epistle. Right. We know what he’s referring to
when he brings up the law, but not here. What is the meaning
of the word law here? Some people saw that it’s the
most natural way to introduce the whole idea of works. And
Paul is referring to God’s law, the law, you know, the moral
law, the Mosaic law. Some people thought that others
thought that it must refer to some special law that the Christians
are under. And still others and this is
the way that I would take it. That it has a sense other than
law in the sense of God’s word, God’s Old Testament, the Old
Testament law. One described it this way, this word law is
used in a different sense from that used thus far in this epistle,
the law must mean a system, a principle, a rule. The contrast is between
the order of things in which works are the medium of justification
and that in which justification is exclusively by faith. And
so what Paul says here, literally, I believe, is by what principle?
Where do you get this? How do you arrive at this conclusion?
How do I get there? And remember, he’s having this
running pretend dialogue. Where then is boasting? It is
excluded. By what kind of law? By what
principle? Where do you get this, Paul,
that boasting is excluded? Of works? Certainly not. Paul doesn’t even need to elaborate
on that one, since works would only feed the pride of man and
give cause for boasting, which point he will make again and
again throughout the epistle, particularly in chapter four. If Abraham couldn’t put God in
debt, How could we? Where then is boasting it is
excluded by what kind of law of works? Absolutely not. No, but by a law of faith and
see here again, Paul declares in is the operating principle,
the law, if you will, the principle that it is by faith. Faith is
what obliterates boasting that this whole means of salvation
is a salvation by faith. It is justification by faith.
It is the reception of the righteousness of God by faith. That is what
undermines. That is what erodes and obliterates
spiritually boastful attitude. That’s what does it. Paul says, where then is boasting
is excluded by what kind of law of works, no, but by a law of
faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from
the works of the law. It’s an interesting passage before
us, this verse 28. It has quite a history. You’re
certainly familiar with The solos of the Reformation. And this
is where Martin Luther got himself in a little bit of hot water,
a lot of the hot water. For adding one little word. Luther,
when translating this very passage. Stirred the disdain of the Roman
Catholic Church when he added one little word to the translation
of his New Testament, it was the word alone faith alone. One laid it out like this, he
said, when in his translation of the New Testament, Luther
reached this passage, he rendered it as follows. So we hold that
a person is justified without the works of the law through
faith alone. Now, it was technically wrong
for Luther to insert the word, you might even say that Luther
did And Luther wasn’t the first and unfortunately he wasn’t the
last to practice what we would call dynamic equivalence. Let
me tell you what it means. Let me do the interpreting for
you. And not what it says. You see, we would most of us
would prefer a literal translation of the Bible as far as possible,
word for word. We want the words that are added
in italics so that we know that this wasn’t in the original text,
but it helps us to understand it if it’s there. Alone, if I
were translating it would be in italics. If you’re following
along. Others were far more gracious
to Luther than perhaps even I have been. One said Luther’s version
is fully justified by the context. I believe that. I believe that
that’s what the context means. Another said it this way, in
the sense in which Luther intended the word alone, it summarized
accurately the apostles meaning. It is by faith alone and not
by legal works or by any other fancy means of justification
that men receive the righteous status which God by his grace
bestows. It is by faith alone. Another
still said Luther added nothing to the sense of the passage when
he said by faith alone. But. This made his critics. foam at the mouth. They made
a much bigger deal out of it than was biblically warranted.
Salvation is by faith alone. Salvation is or justification
is by faith alone. It is in Christ alone. That is what the reformers were
fighting all along. But as one recorded of the Romanists,
the Catholics, if you will, They made a great outcry against this
version as a gross perversion of Scripture, even though Catholic
translators, even prior to the time of Luther, had given the
same translation. The Nuremberg, 1483, only through
faith. The Italian Geneva in 1476 and 1538, per sola fide, through
faith alone. Now, Luther, Never one to be in line for a
diplomacy award replied to his criticism with these words. If you papists make much useless
fuss about the word Sola alone, tell him that once Dr. Martin
Luther will have it so. Are the papists doctors? So am
I. Are they learned? So am I. Are
they preachers? So am I. Are they theologians?
So am I. Therefore, the word alone shall
remain in my New Testament, and though all the papal donkeys
get furious, they shall not take it out. Fascinating Martin Luther, it
is by faith alone. He didn’t need to add that you
get the sense of that from the passage that Paul penned by.
The authority of the Holy Spirit, verse twenty eight, we maintain
that a man is justified by faith. Apart from the works of the law,
that’s exactly what it means, that it’s faith only and not
by works in addition to it. As one said, if by faith the
statement a man is justified by faith, it is not of works,
and if not of works, there can be no room for boasting. For
boasting is an assertion of personal merit. If justification is by
faith, it must be by faith alone. To be justified without works
is to be justified without anything in ourselves to merit this justification. We don’t add to it. We don’t
earn it. We don’t purchase it by our own obedience. See, there are really two methods,
if you will, of salvation. And there Setting contrast to
one another, one is a salvation by obedience to God’s law, and
the other one is purely salvation by faith. If by the first justification
and salvation is the product of human merit. If it’s the second,
it’s purely by divine grace. As one said, is it a faith? It
is by faith that we are justified. It is by faith that man is justified,
whether Jew or Gentile. And what Paul says here is what
he has said over and over again. He said it already. He’ll say
it again throughout the book of Romans. In 117, he said in
it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith of faith. As it is written, the righteous
man shall live by faith. Romans 322, the righteousness
of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And moving on from that,
Romans 5, 1, having been justified by faith, Romans 9, 30, Romans
10, 5 through 13, it is always. Proclaimed as a justification
of faith, justification by faith. The point is that if you’re saved,
if you sit here this morning. confident in your relationship
with God through Jesus Christ, you have nothing. Absolutely
nothing for which to boast. It wasn’t your upbringing, it
wasn’t your parents, it wasn’t the Bible conference you attended,
it wasn’t the Bible college you attended, it wasn’t anything
that you did at all, not even your faith. You have cause for
great humility. You gave nothing good, you brought
nothing noble, you produced nothing worthwhile. You are a sinner
who has been saved merely by God’s grace. He and he alone
has given you everything pertaining to life and Godliness, your Savior,
your Bible, your faith, your salvation, his spirit, all of
it. No room. No room for boasting
in anything. Secondly, this newly revealed
means of salvation through God’s righteousness not only declares
that salvation is holy of God, it is consistent with the nature
of God. It is consistent with the nature
of God. It just makes sense based on what we know of God. Look
at verse twenty nine. Paul says it simply, or is God
the God of the Jews only? Which would have been an immediately
recognized absurd statement to the Jew. Even as much as they
would have liked, like Jonah did, to have God, to have exclusive
access to God, they knew that God was the God of the whole
world. God was the God of all creation. Is God the God of the
Jews only? Absurd. Is he not the God of
Gentiles also? Of course he is. The bottom line
was. And think this through, if it
was true. The works which conforms to the
law were absolutely required. As a fulfillment for salvation,
then Gentiles who lived completely apart from the law didn’t have
the law, remember. There would be any chance of
them to be saved ever at all. God would indeed be the God of
the Jews and the Jews only the Gentiles would have to go elsewhere
if they wanted salvation some other way. Or they were hopeless. The God is. The God, not just
of the Jews, but the God of the Gentiles, that’s what Paul says
at the end of twenty nine, yes, of the Gentiles also. Also, since
God is one. Now, that’s the simple sentence
of verse 30, since God indeed is one. Who will justify the
circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith? What Paul points to. Is that
if this wasn’t true. Then God. Could not be the God
of all men in the sense that he seeks and desires the salvation
of all. But no Jew of Paul’s day would
have believed that. When Paul says, yes, of the Gentiles
also, Paul appeals to the almost the core of the Jews faith. Deuteronomy
6, for the Shema. Hero, Israel, the Lord, our God,
the Lord is one, one God. He wasn’t a splintered God, he
wasn’t scattered all over, there weren’t multiplicities to God
and to his program. Paul says it likewise in 1 Corinthians
8, 4. Therefore, concerning the things
sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as
an idol in the world and that there is no God but one, one
God. For even if there are so-called
gods, whether in heaven or on 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. There is one God. And the oneness
of God, as I said, was the first article that was the core of
the Jewish faith. If God is one, he is the God
of both Jews and Gentiles. There can be no diversity in
the method of justification. There isn’t one way for the Jews
and one way for the Gentiles. If there is only one God, then
he had to be the God of all men, Jews and Gentiles. And if there
if he is that God, then there is one means of salvation, and
that is by faith in the Lord Jesus. One summarized it in these terms
when he said, God deals with both classes on precisely the
same principles. He pursues with regard to both
the same plan. He offers salvation to both on
exactly the same terms. This is the only doctrine which
suits the character of God in his relation to intelligent creatures. God is a universal and not a
national God. And this method of salvation
is universally applicable. See the abundance of God’s plan
of salvation. which touches even the Gentiles,
most of us included, touches even the Gentiles is perfectly
in harmony with who God is. He is one God. He is God. He
is not a fractured, splintered, scattered God. He is one God
with one plan of redemption and one means of salvation for all
justification by faith in Christ alone. Thirdly, This newly revealed
means of salvation through God’s righteousness not only declares
that salvation is holy of God, it is consistent with the nature
of God, but it thirdly affirms the law of God. Look at verse
thirty one. Because of its salvation by justification,
by faith, then what do we need the law for? Doesn’t it nullify
the law? Doesn’t it just get rid of the
law completely? Can’t we just go with just our
New Testament now from this point forward? Paul says, may it never
be. It’s an utterly absurd thought. On the contrary, we establish
the law. There are a couple of different questions that be considered
here. Some people thought that I think that verse thirty one
appends to chapter four better than it does here. To me, it’s
absolutely clear that this forms the conclusion of this section. What Paul had been saying about
faith, as one said, is not in any way inconsistent with the
law, but upholds it. What Paul is declaring is that
his teaching about faith is confirmed by the law. So this he anticipates this question. So what you’re saying, Paul,
is that we need to get rid of the law now. Scripture confirms
itself by the law, scripture is confirmed by this plan of
redemption that God has carved out with the apostles saying
is that. Since I know by works, no mortal will ever be justified,
and since It’s completely apart from the law that the righteousness
of God has been revealed since a person is justified by faith
completely apart from the works of the law. Are we depriving
the law of its value? Not at all. These works, even
if they’re done. They don’t lend to justification,
they don’t add to it. Paul says we establish the law
in what way? How is the law established? Paul
had said this repeatedly. Paul had affirmed the value of
the law repeatedly through the Scriptures. He had just done
so in 320. Through the law comes the knowledge
of sin. That’s a great way. Romans 7, I would not have come
to know sin except through the law. Romans 7, 13, through the
commandments, sin would become utterly sinful. Galatians 324,
the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ. Why on
earth would we have to set aside the law, Paul says. From the standpoint of salvation,
the gospel doesn’t obliterate the law or do away with the law
at all. The gospel doesn’t nullify the law. Justification by faith
doesn’t do away with the law. It must not. It cannot. The law
was given to show the impossible standards. It makes us to long
for Christ. How does it establish the law?
One summarized it in three quick little points. The law is established
by paying the penalty of death, which the law demanded, you know,
the Lord Jesus Christ in his coming was a perfect sacrifice
for sin. Is there any greater way to show
honor to the law than that? God didn’t bend the rules, God
didn’t grade on a curve, God didn’t throw out the law himself. He judged Christ based on that
law. He honored it. And in doing so,
he calls men to faith in Jesus Christ. He tells us that if we don’t
do all the law, then we are dead, and that is the great prompter
to Christ. And thirdly, by providing the
believers the potential for fulfilling it, not in this life, but ultimately
we will be glorified. We will live according to the
law. We will be perfect one day. But until then, there is the
mighty standard, the sanctification of which forms the great part
of the middle section of Paul’s epistle. The great call to live
and to walk in righteousness, true righteousness, according
to the law. Close with a summary quote. Of
one pastor who said the doctrines of justification, salvation by
faith, the usefulness of God’s law coincide beautifully. For
though the law for through the law comes the consciousness of
sin and this very consciousness, when it is sanctified by the
Holy Spirit, causes one to cry out for help and deliverance.
That deliverance is fully supplied when a sinner surrenders his
life to God. When by genuine faith he welcomes
into his heart and life the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, I affirm
the law. Justification by faith doesn’t
do away with it. Let’s go before the Lord in rejoicing. A merciful king, we humble ourselves
in your presence thanking you. We knew when we heard those words
of Romans three, twenty one through twenty six, that this was a good
gospel and a good message. This justification by faith,
this propitiation. Paul makes it clear just how
good this is to us that we have no room to boast at all. This
salvation is consistent with who you are. And it underscores
and affirms your very law itself. We thank you. And we praise you
by your grace for the salvation that we have come to enjoy. It’s in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.