Harmonizing Justification by Faith with the Mosaic Covenant

PRAY & INTRO: We have a saying in our society, “Do whatever floats your boat,” by which we mean that you should do whatever makes you happy or whatever you feel led to do. That sentiment also reflects a wrong notion in our society that all religious paths lead to God. The Bible teaches that nothing could be further from the truth. Not just any old religious boat will lead us to God. However, God has provided a means to be right with him; there is one vessel that we can be on which will lead to final salvation.

Specifically, when we learn the theological truth Paul presents of justification by faith alone in Christ alone, in this paradigm-shifting section of Romans chapter 3, we face the realization that there is only one ship (one vessel, one means) which grants us right relationship to God. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises of a coming means of salvation, a promise which previous generations had to trust in by faith. Faith in God’s promise is the opposite of thinking that it would somehow be something they could achieve.

And now, Paul says, God has demonstrated through the perfect sacrificial atonement of the Lord Jesus exactly how God has achieved remaining perfectly just while justifying undeserving sinners by his grace, how God graciously grants the righteous achievement of Christ to the account of the one who has faith in Jesus.

So that’s the context for the end of Romans chapter 3, where we are now. Having established justification by faith in Christ, Paul continues to make it clear, to his fellow Jews and to all of us, that justification by faith makes more sense of God’s purpose for the law than does trusting in our achievement, and that what Christ achieved is the fulfillment of that law. Our only way to “fulfill the law” is to be in Christ by faith.

Romans 3:27–31 ESV

27 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. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Paul here returns to using the rhetorical style of diatribe, undoubtedly due to ways he normally receives pushback from this explanation of the gospel. Paul has had a LOT of practice presenting the gospel to Jews and Gentiles both at this stage of his missionary endeavors!

[title slide] And as I try to understand and describe Paul’s flow of thought, I see Paul here harmonizing justification by faith with the Mosaic Covenant before then going back further still to harmonize and explain justification by faith with the Abrahamic Covenant (chapter 4, also tying in the Davidic Covenant by quoting David). Paul there uses Abraham himself, the ancestral father of the Jewish faith, to illustrate that faith (in God and his spoken promise) has always been the only way to be “counted as righteous,” to be justified. Being counted as righteous has always been by grace through faith, and not by circumcision (simply by virtue of being a Jew), nor by works of the Mosaic law, or by any means of our works somehow achieving God’s approval.

Furthermore, the emphasis in these verses now leans into the faith side of justification, whereas the immediately preceding part (vv. 24b-26) was on how God justifies through Jesus. In the substitutionary atonement of Jesus in his death and resurrection, the judging righteousness and saving righteousness of God meet. God propitiates his righteous wrath against sin while also providing the righteousness of Christ to the one who believes. In so doing, the Triune God proves Jesus to be the substance of the shadows in previous covenant promises.

But again, here now we see Paul anticipating questions from the religiously pious in terms of this justification by faith alone. The overall question anticipated is something like: How then are we to understand the law in relationship to Christ, to this justification by faith, which you also argue is the same for both Jews and Gentiles?

Paul harmonizes justification by faith with the Mosaic Covenant (the law), by demonstrating three key points:

If justification were by works, we would glory in self and not in God.

And that justification by faith makes sense of God being the one true God over all people.

And that the true purpose of the law is not invalidated but established through faith in Christ.

The first of these three we see in vv. 27-28.

Justification in Christ excludes boasting because it is by faith apart from our works. (verses 27-28)

Justification by faith excludes all boasting (glorying in self) because it is not by any works of our own but only by faith in God’s promise through Christ’s work. [repeat]

Paul is almost certainly angling at “what becomes of our boasting [as Jews].” (v. 28 says “apart from works of the law,” and see Ro 4:1 a handful of verses later). But regardless the concept extends application to everyone. Any human boasting is excluded. If justification were by works, we would glory in self and not in God.

I’ll come back to this exclusion of glorying in self, but as Paul speaks of “law” and “the law” in these verses, we can briefly discuss a matter of semantic disagreement in interpretation. What exactly does Paul mean the way he uses “law” in v. 27? The reason there is disagreement is that we aren’t 100% sure if Paul means the Mosaic law every time he uses the word law. Some argue that such is the case every time there is a definite article “the,” while others remain unconvinced that such a distinction is clear. It seems that Paul can sometimes mean the Mosaic law (most often), sometimes the whole OT, and sometimes just the concept of law (meaning a governing principle or rule).

This final meaning seems most likely to me in v. 27, that here Paul is first using the broader concept of law as a governing principle, and then he still applies that to the Mosaic Covenant God made with Israel, codified in “the law” (v. 28). We know Paul applies the principle of faith over works even when not speaking of the Mosaic law specifically, as he does in 4:2 when talking about Abraham. Furthermore, we know from Paul that Gentiles sometimes do things that are consistent with God’s moral law even though they do not have the written code (Rom 2:14-15), and that they are therefore also breaking God’s moral law and are accountable for it (as we all do… we sin by and because we do not give God the glory he deserves).

So Paul says in vv. 27-28 that our boasting is excluded by the overarching principle of faith, because we can only be justified (declared right) by faith apart from our own works of the law. In other words, our good deeds can’t justify us, because as Paul has said, the law instead draws attention to precisely how incapable we are of measuring up to God’s glory.

What a great way then for Paul to make an applicational transition to his audience, and to whomever would understand the gospel and come to God on his terms (and not our own): “Then what becomes of our boasting [in our own achievement]? It is excluded!” It is shut out completely.

The door is closed, locked, sealed off. Your selfish pride taking credit for any of this is entirely locked out and cannot get in. Or again think of it as a watertight vessel. The only true justification is by faith in Jesus and our taking credit in any way cannot, must not, seep in.

Paul has stated the antithesis of this boasting/glorying in self elsewhere in other letters he has previously written. Here’s the only kind of boasting left for those who are justified by faith:

Galatians 6:14 ESV

14 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.

2 Corinthians 10:17–18 ESV

17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

And the one whom the Lord “commends/approves” is one who is declared righteous by faith in Jesus Christ.

That is the point of justification by faith alone apart from our works. Justification by faith completely shuts out any glorying (boasting) in self because it is not by any works of our own but only by faith in God’s promise through Christ’s work. To the contrary then, justification by faith promotes boasting/glorying only in Christ, only in God… which is just as it should be. We give credit, honor, and glory where it is due!

The only right way to relate to God is to glory in God and not self.

If justification were by works, we would glory in self and not in God. And that is no way to relate to God. The only right response to God is to glory in Him and not self. And such a way of relating to God is the only thing that will bring to your life true joy, true meaning, and true fulfillment.

So too, Paul continues in this vein of harmonizing justification by faith with the Jewish understanding of God, explaining that justification by faith and not by our works is what makes sense of God saving Gentiles as well as Jews.

Justification by faith alone harmonizes the one true God saving Gentiles and Jews alike. (verses 29&30)

v. 29-30a - “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one”

The fact that there is only one God and he is God over everyone is foundational to God’s self-revelation to the Jews. The central Jewish confession, the “Shema,” began with this statement of the unique oneness of God:

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

The Shema continues from there with Deuteronomy 6:5–9 “5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

But the fundamental truth to which they are to respond in this way, is that the Lord is one. He alone is God over everyone. Therefore we listen to and obey every word that proceeds from his mouth, because we trust in the one true God.

So Paul’s reasoning continues (v. 30b) that the one true and consistent God “will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.” By circumcised he means the Jewish people of the Abrahamic covenant (which he’ll address again in chapter 4), and therefore the uncircumcised are simply everyone else for these purposes, are Gentiles.

Here Paul uses two different prepositions before the word faith: “by faith” (ek, out of, from - faith), and “through faith” (dia, through, because of - faith). Rather than meaning to distinguish between the two here, Paul’s intent is to draw comprehensive connection. The intended meaning is the same: All have access to justification by God on one basis, which is faith.

God justifying sinners by faith and not by works makes sense of the one true God saving Gentiles also, who do not have the law.

For every person on the planet for all time, being right with God can only come through faith in God’s promised salvation.

And God’s prior promises have now been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, who is the means by which God always intended to make it possible to justify sinners before himself, a perfectly just God. Will you permit me to invite you right now, today, to submit yourself to God? To confess that you know your sin is the cause of completely breaking your relationship with God, and is leading to your eternal destruction… and to confess that God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, gave himself as a sacrificial payment for your sin in dying on a Roman cross, and by his resurrection life he is the Lord who can grant forgiveness of your sin debt and grant you his righteousness to be in the presence of a righteous God. Will you put away trusting in yourself and trust only in the Lord Jesus?

In conclusion to this argument of harmonizing justification by faith with the underlying truths of the Mosaic Covenant, Paul emphatically contradicts anyone who would accuse him of being antinomian (against the law), by explaining that…

Justification by faith alone upholds the true purpose of the law. (verse 31)

Again Paul anticipates a question: If God saves by faith and not by works of the law… “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! [May this thought never enter one’s mind.] On the contrary, we uphold the law.”

Based on this context in Romans 3, Paul is saying explicitly that justification by faith in the accomplishment of Christ upholds (or establishes) the law. How does this teaching of justification by faith uphold or establish the law? Well, there are at least two key things to note for us to have a clear biblical understanding: First, how faith is the actual purpose of the law, and second, how Christ fulfills the law by being the substance of God’s promises.

Perhaps some of you remember us previously touching on this, that even our own laws are intended to remind us to be good citizens, and not actually simply a list of do’s and don’t’s, to toe the line and jump through hoops. I’ve used traffic laws as an example: We might think of them as only existing for the overall safety of the public while driving. And that is partly the case, but the ultimate goal, the spirit behind those laws, is to make us be careful and considerate drivers. Like our other laws, the spirit behind it is that we should be good citizens who care for others as well as ourselves. (the golden rule!) My point here is simply to draw our attention to the real purpose of the law.

Faith in God as a way of life was always supposed to be the essence of how Israel would relate rightly to God. The law and the levitical system pointed to the holiness of God and shone a bright light on the people’s desperate need for God’s saving grace (demonstrating the fullness of human depravity [sinfulness], culpability [the consequence sin deserves], and inability [not a problem we can solve]). [repeat]

The law draws attention to our desperate need for God to be gracious, which is why being right with God is based on faith… faith in his willingness and ability to fulfill his promise.

Rather than invalidating the law, justification by faith in Christ actually gets to the core of where the law leads, which is to point us to our need to trust in God and not in our achievement.

So too, justification by faith in Christ does not invalidate the law, but rather…

Jesus fulfills the law and is the substance of God’s saving promises.

Jesus is the substance (the end) to which the law tutors us (Galatians 3:24 “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”). The law reveals that man is unable to live sufficiently righteous before God, and must believe in God’s grace to save according to his promise. Jesus is the substance of former shadows of God’s promise. He is God’s means of salvation.

[Furthermore, in terms of this faith in Christ upholding or establishing the law…] Jesus did obey God’s law perfectly, enabling him to be the perfect lamb of God to truly take away sin.

Jesus pays the death penalty for sin (a requirement codified in the law for failure to keep it).

(As Christians… those who know that by faith we are in Christ) Because of what Jesus accomplished, and by the Spirit he has given us, we are now enabled by God through faith to fulfill the spirit of what God’s moral law requires, when we walk by the Spirit on not the flesh (Rom 8:3-4).

Let’s return to my metaphor to draw this to a close for this morning.

Conclusion: Glorying in Christ Our Righteousness

Are you on a vessel of your own making, or are you on the only true vessel of justification that leads to salvation, which is Jesus Christ? The only means to be on this vessel is faith in him alone—to submit entirely to his achievement and his Lordship. Everything else is trying to build your own vessel.

A vessel of your own making cannot withstand the storms of doubt and temptation and suffering, and a vessel of your own making cannot withstand the onslaught of the Arch-enemy and all the enemies of God. And any vessel that this not the Lord Jesus most certainly does not lead to final salvation.

But the vessel which is Christ Jesus and captained by Christ Jesus is both the vessel which leads to our salvation and it is the vessel in which we are secure and are being sanctified. On this ship we know that we belong to God, we know that what we do is in service to our King, and we know that whatever we endure like Christ Jesus, by the Spirit he has given us, is in fact making us more like him and bringing glory to God. And therefore in him we can also be fully satisfied. Everything else in our lives becomes a means to serve our King, who is leading us to eternal glorying in the presence of the One True God.

By faith alone we glory not in our own achievement, but we glory in the cross of Christ because we glory in God and his work to save us.

PRAY

COMMUNION: Use this opportunity of participating together in the Lord’s Table to glory in the sufficiency of Christ. He gave his life for us—his body broken, his blood spilled out for us… that he might bring us to God.

Our Lord’s Supper is reminder that we do not trust in our achievement, but only in the sufficiency of Christ’s achievement. And at this table, in communion with Christ and one another, we confess our sins of self-trust, and we sharpen our focus again on abiding in Christ, who alone is our vessel of justification, bringing us to final salvation with God.

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