The Gospel and Boasting

Introduction

There are very few things you could name that are more contradictory in their meaning than a boastful Calvinist, or a boastful Christian for that matter. We can see how Arminianism can cause some boasting, boasting in the small but not insignificant fact that I chose God and others didn’t. Ultimately what separates the Arminian or Free-will Christian in their thinking from the lost is their choice, and so there is reason to boast.

But for a Calvinist to be boastful at all is completely beyond any reason whatsoever. To believe that God chose me before the world began for no reason other than saving me from my sinfulness would bring him glory, for him to then go and die for me while I still rejected him and spill his blood for someone whose sin added to it, and on top of that to believe that nothing but God’s sovereign grace led me to know and believe in him and that if it were up to my own free will I would have rejected him, and then to boast about it is nonsense of the highest degree.

Salvation in Christ leaves no room for boasting. No matter how young I was when I was saved, no matter how many temptations I’ve overcome, no matter how well I obey God and his law, there is no room for boasting because I am responsible for none of it.

What we see Paul argue from what we’ve just covered in looking at Justification by Grace alone through faith in the atoning propitiation in Christ’s blood shed on the cross is that boasting is impossible for the Christian. That is because God alone is responsible for salvation, and thus God alone gets all the glory.

Boasting and Its Illegitimate Claim

Circumcision and the Law

As you may have noticed going through our text here in the beginning of Romans, circumcision is closely tied to the law.

Circumcision was a big issue that came up in the early church, with the church ultimately saying that Gentiles were not under the obligation to be circumcised or keep the customs of the law of Moses.

To the Jews during this time, circumcision was a way of identifying yourself with God and his people, and submitting to the Old Testament law. We see this clearly in the book of Galatians. So when Paul goes to Abraham, he is still dealing with the law, or rather the way in which a Jew submitted themselves outwardly to the law.

The decision by the counsel at Jerusalem reflects this. A Gentile doesn’t need to become a Jew to be saved because salvation isn’t by the law, but by faith alone.

Acts 15:1 ESV

But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Notice that their argument does not come from Abraham, where circumcision was first commanded, but from Moses.

Paul is beginning to break down this argument and will go to Abraham, where circumcision started,

Since justification happens by faith alone, the law is not necessary for salvation. If this is true, does this nullify and ultimately exclude any use of the law for the believer? We will come back to that later in the message.

Boasting

Paul brings up boasting and tells us it is excluded, that is, boasting is taken out of the equation of salvation. Why does Paul bring up boasting at this point?

Justification by the law introduces a synergistic view of salvation. That means a view of salvation that includes two parties, not just one. It is God who saves, but also man who saves himself by works of the law and by circumcision.

So if we were justified by the law, by doing its works and fulfilling its standards, than not only would no one be saved as Paul has argued, but if one were to be saved in such a way the person would have a reason to boast. That is, some credit would be due them because of their works.

Does the same apply to faith?

Faith is not an act, but a disposition to believe someone. Faith is a state of certainty in a promise, not an action we can take. There is nothing you can do to be saved, salvation comes through a change of mind that now believes God rather than rejecting him.

Faith is a gift from God. You cannot generate faith anymore than you can make yourself believe something that you don’t believe. God must provide the grace to seed faith into a heart so that they will believe. This is the converting work of the Holy Spirit and removes all measure of boasting from faith.

The thing about human nature is that if we have something to boast about, we will, and in doing so take away from God the glory he deserves. God has never designed any of his works to be done sharing the glory with another. He alone is worthy of all glory, and so must display that glory as being only his and not another. Otherwise, he would be showing himself in a way that is not true to himself and his glory would not really be all that glorious.

The human tendency to boast is evident. We boast in our careers, in our social circles, in our families, in our personal achievements, in our possessions, in anything we can. There are people who live only for boasting. Professional sports gives athletes a chance to boast in their athletic achievements while providing entertainment to many who give them the glory for those achievements. Sometimes we don’t boast actively, but rather make sure that our achievements are visible so that others may boast on our behalf.

Lewis helpfully points out

Praise is boasting about what you enjoy.

C. S. Lewis

So when we say “let God alone be praised” we cannot mean that if we are boasting. How often are those words said to increase, rather than decrease, our boasting?

So God has made a way of salvation that excludes boasting by excluding the law in its ability to be able to justify. If we are to boast in the law, we will end up humiliated because such boasting is illegitimate.

Boasting Compared with the Law of Faith

So how is boasting excluded from our salvation?

The cure of boasting is to boast in the Lord all the day long.

Charles Spurgeon

This is true in justification. Since we are justified by what Christ shockingly did for us on the cross, we are left without a word to say. There is no boasting in the cross, there is no boasting in election, there is no boasting for us in the resurrection. There is no boasting for God’s electing love to come and awaken us from our sinful death and bring us to newness of life, which Paul will cover when we get to chapter 6. Jonathan Edwards is quoted as saying, “The only thing I contributed to my salvation was the sin that made it necessary.”

This is why humility is a necessity for the Christian. There is no possibility to boast except in what Christ has done. All we can say of ourselves is that we are poor, wretched sinners who needed to be saved. In our shame and guilt, we admit our sinfulness, our filth, our weakness, our unworthiness and that is all. Only those brought low seeing their worthless sinfulness can rise up seeing the glory of God’s grace.

This is true in sanctification when God makes us more holy through the workings of the Holy Spirit. Since all out salvation is of God, this applies even in the things we do that are holy. For we know that if justification were by works of the law, than sanctification would be also. But since justification is not by works of the law but through faith, growing in holiness cannot be either. Paul will tell the Galatians the same thing.

Galatians 3:2–6 ESV

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

If justification is by grace through faith, than the way we will get more holy is not by reintroducing the law, but rather that same grace through faith. But what are we having faith in? It is in God who justifies, Jesus who purifies, and the Spirit who sanctifies. So we cannot live a life of sin because faith means trusting a God who makes us holy.

The Circumcised by Faith

If we were to look at those most likely to boast, it would be those who were united to the law of Moses, to the circumcised Jews. These circumcised are justified by faith, not by their circumcision or by any other relationship to the law of Moses. The law of Moses condemns, shows the conviction of the sinner, and brings that sinner into God’s courtroom to be judged. These, when they come to faith in Jesus, are circumcised by faith alone.

The Uncircumcised Through Faith

This comes to the naturally logical conclusion that the uncircumcised enter into the promises of God through faith, not by binding themselves to the law through circumcision. Since the law has no ability to justify, but only to condemn, the already condemned gentiles are free to enter God’s presence Justified. This is done without the law, because again the law condemns sin but has no place in the justification process. This is why the idea of making someone come under the law, undergo circumcision, or even have their life cleaned up before they come to Christ is absurd. The grace of God provided through the cross of Christ comes to the sinner wherever they are and says, “come believe me! come follow me!” There is no other necessity except sin itself that makes us able to take the grace of Christ and let it clothe us.

Faith Upholds the Law

Now we can wrap up the Gospel’s relationship with the law. Martin Luther says,

Let us conclude that faith alone justifies and that faith alone fulfills the law.

Martin Luther

What does he mean by “faith alone fulfills the law”? And what does Paul mean when he says “we uphold the law”?

This is a question that Paul is going to solve for us next week, but if I may give a bit of a spoiler for that text, Paul uses the establishment of the sign of circumcision in the story of Abraham to show that Abraham was justified before God by faith, even before circumcision was instructed (Gen 15). In this way, he will work out that justification was also separate from the laws work.

The law and the gospel work in a separate yet intertwined and symbiotic relationship to save. Since it is only the convicted and repentant sinner that is saved, the law does its work and humbles the sinner when they see their lawbreaking. They are horrified by the sight of themselves and eagerly seek a means of righteousness by which to attain justification. The law provides this, but after a time the sinner realizes their inability to keep the law and in this humbled, debilitated state, they are offered the Gospel. This Gospel justifies any convicted sinner who believes that Jesus Christ paid atonement for their sins, and with that the gift of Christ’s righteousness is given to the sinner to see them justified, and in such away the glory of God’s righteousness is revealed.

Conclusion

We are a people who, someone once said, are responsible for all of our failures and none of our successes. We have no reason to boast before God; the law convicts us of our imperfections and the heinous and ugly nature of our sin. Some may hear this and see Christianity as a hopeless and constantly self-deprecating religion. Self-humbling it certainly is, but hopeless is most certainly is not. Aware of our failures, we have him who successfully saves our souls. There is no room for pride and boastfulness in the Christian faith. Only humility that turns to adoration and praise, even boasting, of Jesus Christ and his work. This led the Apostle Paul to say,

Galatians 6:14 ESV

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Let us humble ourselves, quiet our mouths, stop every boasting that our sinful hearts want to spills out and take some of the glory of God, and let us marvel from a humbled place the way God has saved us by grace, through the death of Jesus his only begotten Son, and by faith in Him alone.