Today, we conclude our study of Romans 3 where the Apostle Paul asks three questions in order to show the believer in Christ the utter importance of the Law in his life. The Law was not given to make us right before God because we could not obey it enough to be made anywhere near right before God. He gave us His Law to break our will so that we would see our need for the Savior and trust in His rightness.
The three questions the Apostle Paul highlights in today's passage underscores the fact that the Law or the truth of God place a very important role in the believers life after he has been born again. It is largely through the Law that the believer in Christ realizes and enjoys the blessings God has bestowed on us.
The point of this second question is that the God of the Bible is the God of all soft-hearted enough to be defined by Him. Think of the first Jew, Abram, whom God renamed Abraham. In renaming him, God or YHWH, gave Abram a part of his name. God took "hey" from the middle of His name and placed it in the middle of Abram's name. Abram + hey = Abraheyam or Abraham. The purpose of the name change was to establish God's covenant with Abraham. You see, the only thing that makes any of us acceptable before God is God Himself. We can not begin to take credit for our right standing before God, ever. Our rightness before God is a gift. This gift is literally more than the forgiveness of our sin, the gift is Himself. And, by the way, before Abraham was a Jew, he was a Gentile who grew up in southern Iraq.
The point behind this third question is: The righteousness which the Law demands is the very righteousness that is given to us in Christ. So, if we have God's righteousness applied to us as a gift, we no longer need to fear the Law, because the demands of the Law have been met by the Lord Jesus. And, this is not something for which we can take credit because whenever we act upon our sin afterwards, the Law comes in again to do its work to show us that we are wrong. This is what the Bible refers to as conviction of sin. This is the primary purpose of the Law in the life of the believer in Christ. It is the Law, in tandem with the Holy Spirit, that shows us when we are wrong. This is when the Law is upheld or substantiated, when we respond to the conviction it renders and we turn back to the God of grace who is also the God of all truth.
In v.27-28 of today's passage reads, "27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law."
The point of this first question is: There is no ground for pride in the life of the believer in Christ and he has no ground upon which he can be self-righteous. This is why the worst sin is self-righteousness. When we look condescendingly down our noses on others who are involved in certain sins like homosexuality or drug addiction, when we begin to think that we are better than they are, it is then that we have cheapened what God has done for us through His Son. The only ground of God's acceptance for any of us is the gift of His grace. No one is excluded from God's grace, Jew or Gentile, good or bad. It is there for the receiving for all willing of heart to believe God's rescue story of sinful and rebellious man. The ground at the foot of the cross is level for all who will risk believing that Christ has procured God's forgiveness on our behalf.
It was arrogant pride that inaugurated sin when Lucifer decided to no longer lead others to worship God and to redirect their worship. And, when we believe his lie to make life a go without God, we have allowed him, Lucifer, to trap up into rebelling against God. So, pride and its prodigy, self-righteousness, gains the upper hand in our lives.
In v.29-30 of today's passage we read, "29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith."
The point of this second question is that the God of the Bible is the God of all soft-hearted enough to be defined by Him. Think of the first Jew, Abram, whom God renamed Abraham. In renaming him, God or YHWH, gave Abram a part of his name. God took "hey" from the middle of His name and placed it in the middle of Abram's name. Abram + hey = Abraheyam or Abraham. The purpose of the name change was to establish God's covenant with Abraham. You see, the only thing that makes any of us acceptable before God is God Himself. We can not begin to take credit for our right standing before God, ever. Our rightness before God is a gift. This gift is literally more than the forgiveness of our sin, the gift is Himself. And, by the way, before Abraham was a Jew, he was a Gentile who grew up in southern Iraq.
In v.31 of today's passage we read, "Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law."
The point behind this third question is: The righteousness which the Law demands is the very righteousness that is given to us in Christ. So, if we have God's righteousness applied to us as a gift, we no longer need to fear the Law, because the demands of the Law have been met by the Lord Jesus. And, this is not something for which we can take credit because whenever we act upon our sin afterwards, the Law comes in again to do its work to show us that we are wrong. This is what the Bible refers to as conviction of sin. This is the primary purpose of the Law in the life of the believer in Christ. It is the Law, in tandem with the Holy Spirit, that shows us when we are wrong. This is when the Law is upheld or substantiated, when we respond to the conviction it renders and we turn back to the God of grace who is also the God of all truth.
The cross declares God’s justice and His grace. His justice confirms His Law, and His grace confirms His Love. And, when we see His love for all that it is, we will love the brilliance of His Law. The cross of Christ put the perfection of God on display. Equally, it magnified the grace of God when His Son arrived to lay down His life as a ransom for you and me. This is the gospel, and when the gospel grips our souls, we gratefully choose to be defined by God, by His Law, by His truth. When this happens, God's Law is established in our hearts, not to make us right with God, but to make us wise.
