In a section immediately after what some biblical interpreters call “The most important paragraph in the Bible” (Rom 3:21-26), Paul asks the rhetorical question: “What then becomes of our boasting?” The question was prompted by his previous discussion of man’s desperately sinful state (Rom 3:10-19) and God’s remedy for it in Jesus Christ (Rom 3:21-26). Paul answers his own question by stating that the very means by which we receive salvation undercuts any boasting in ourselves.
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Rom 3:27-28
If we are justified by faith apart from works, then we cannot boast in anything we did to accomplish our salvation—we are simply believing in the One who procured our salvation on our behalf. Boasting, therefore, is excluded. Why? We have nothing to boast in except the cross of Jesus Christ (Gal 6:16; see also 1 Cor 1:31).
Paul continues by noting that faith is the means by which God justifies both Jews and Gentiles (vv. 29-30). Paul’s point is that God has never justified anyone by their works—a point he will take up in detail in the next chapter (see Rom 4:1-12). Given his emphasis on faith as the way one is justified, Paul then anticipates an objection: “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?” Paul knew that some Jews would question the validity of the gospel because it seemed to disregard God’s law with its claim that only faith is necessary to be righteous in God’s sight. “If I don’t have to obey the law in order to be in right standing with God, then what use is the law? Your gospel makes God’s good law useless.”
Paul responds to this suggestion with the strongest negation one can use in Greek: “May it never be” (NASB); “By no means” (ESV); “Not at all” (NIV). Quite the opposite is true: “On the contrary, we uphold the law” (Rom 3:31; ESV). What does this mean?
“But if God Justifies the Ungodly…”
The Jews who voiced this objection were concerned that Paul’s gospel attacked the goodness and usefulness of God’s law. If God justifies the ungodly, they concluded, then the law is pointless. But Paul was not undermining God’s law. In truth, the gospel exalted the law to the highest possible place. The gospel teaches that God’s law requires absolute perfection. If obedience to the works of the law is your path to salvation, then you must keep the law without the slightest mistake in word, thought, emotion, or action. Of course, this is humanly impossible, for we are depraved at the deepest level of who we are. The law is not a means of justification; it exposes our sin and shows us that we are wholly unrighteous (Rom 3:19-20; 8:7).
But, if one is bent on justifying oneself by works of the law, then the only way to accomplish this task is by reducing the requirements of the law and making obedience to it humanly achievable. You don’t have to be perfect, just really good. But that’s like claiming you qualify to play in the NBA because you score 50 points a game (you’re really good!) when you, a grown man, have been playing on a seven-foot hoop against ten-year-olds for the last five years. You’ve fooled yourself into thinking you’ve met the rigorous standards required to play at an NBA level.
The Gospel Honors the Law’s Requirement for Perfection
The gospel, however, maintains the law’s impossible requirement of perfection. The first part of the good news tells us that a sinner cannot hope to achieve his right standing with God through any attempts at law-keeping. “Perfection is impossible. Stop trying to attain it,” the gospel tells us. “Instead, look to one who has fulfilled it perfectly and trust him.” Jesus Christ did what is impossible for sinful humans: he obeyed the entire law in totality, pleasing the Father at every moment. His thoughts, emotions, actions, and words were always righteous and without a hint of sin (John 8:28; Rom 5:12-21; Heb 4:15).
Furthermore, Jesus yielded to the law’s penalty for law-breaking by dying on the cross (Gal 3:12-13). In this way, then, through his active obedience to the law and by yielding to the penalty for violating it, Jesus upheld the law in its absolute fullness. Receiving justification by faith apart from our works, then, does not undermine the importance of the law or compromise its strict requirements. Just the opposite is true: such a method of salvation upholds the law at every single point.
The Christian gospel, therefore, honors the law like no other approach to it can. While attempts to obey the law as a means of justification may appear to show respect for the law, people who approach it this way dishonor the law by reducing its requirements and providing a means by which sinful people can achieve righteousness through their works.
Conclusion: Submit to God’s Righteousness
If you are attempting to establish right standing with God by obedience to his law, you may feel like you are honoring God and his law. The truth is that you are dishonoring God by lowering his standards, and you are jeopardizing your soul because you are refusing to submit to God’s perfect righteousness which he has provided in Jesus Christ (see Rom 10:1-4). If you really want to respect God’s law, trust in Jesus Christ, the one who obeyed it perfectly and yielded to the penalty it requires for breaking it. This is the true path to a right standing with God and honoring his law (Rom 3:26; 4:5; 5:1).
