Romans 3.27-The Law of Faith Excludes Human Merit and Pride
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday December 4, 2007
Romans: Romans 3:27-The Law of Faith Excludes Human Merit and Pride
Lesson # 106
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 3:19.
This evening we will study Romans 3:27 in which Paul teaches that the law or principle of faith in Jesus Christ in order to be justified before God excludes human merit and pride.
Let’s read Romans 3:19-31 and then concentrate on verse 27.
Romans 3:19, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.”
Romans 3:20, “Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
Romans 3:21, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”
Romans 3:22, “Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe for there is no distinction.”
Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:24, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:25, “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.”
Romans 3:26, “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Romans 3:27, “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.”
Romans 3:28, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.”
Romans 3:29, “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also.”
Romans 3:30, “since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.”
Romans 3:31, “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”
Let’s look at verse 27 in detail.
Romans 3:27, “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.”
“Where” is the interrogative particle pou (pou) (poo), which functions as a relative reference to conditions and situations and asks a rhetorical question that demands a negative response and should be translated idiomatically as “under what conditions.”
“Then” is the “inferential” use of the post-positive conjunction oun (ou@n) (oon), which denotes that what is introduced at this point is the result of an inference from Paul’s teaching contained in Romans 3:19-26.
In Romans 3:19-20, Paul teaches that the Law only serves to condemn the sinner and make him aware that he is under the power of the sin nature.
In Romans 3:21-26, Paul teaches that independently of seeking to be justified by obedience to the Law, the sinner is justified undeservedly based upon God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Thus, the inference is there is no boasting in the human race since the sinner, whether Jew or Gentile is justified based upon the merits of Jesus Christ and His spiritual death on the Cross.
“Boasting” is the noun kauchesis (kauvxhsi$) (kow-khay-sis), which means to express arrogant self-confidence in one’s own merits when approaching a holy God in order to attempt to establish a relationship with Him.
In Romans 3:9-20 and 23, Paul demonstrates that there is no one in the human race that has merit with God and could get into heaven or enter into a relationship with a holy God based upon his own merits.
The Scriptures teach that there is only one appropriate and justified form of boasting, cited by Jer. 9:24 in 1 Cor. 1:31, “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord” (cf. 2 Co. 10:17).
In Romans 3:27, Paul employs kauchesis with his Jewish countrymen in mind who we noted in Romans 2 presumptuously and arrogantly thought that they would enter the kingdom of heaven based upon circumcision, the Law and the fact that they were biological descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and members of the nation of Israel.
In context, the word denotes the unsaved Jew seeking to be justified before God by attempting to enter the kingdom of heaven by means of actions produced by obedience to the Law since in Romans 3:28 Paul reminds his readership that a person is justified by faith independently of actions produced by obedience to the Law.
Romans 3:28 reiterates what Paul taught in Romans 3:20-21.
Romans 3:27, “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.”
“It is excluded” is the verb ekkleio (e)kkleivw) (ek-kli-o), which means, “to exclude” indicating that since justification is based upon grace through faith in Jesus Christ, all human boasting is “excluded,” or “ruled out” since the sinner has no merit with God.
For the unsaved Jew, the word means that seeking to be justified before God by attempting to enter the kingdom of heaven by means of one’s actions produced by obedience to the Law is “excluded.”
“By” is the preposition dia (diaV) (dee-ah), which is employed with the genitive form of the interrogative pronoun poios, “what” as a marker of the instrument by which human boasting is excluded.
The preposition dia with the genitive form of the interrogative pronoun poios is used in a rhetorical question that asks “by means of what kind of principle” is human boasting excluded?
“What” is the interrogative pronoun poios (poio$) (poy-os), which is used to ask the second rhetorical question in Romans 3:27 and means, “of what kind.”
“Law” is the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), which does not refer to the Ten Commandments, the Mosaic Law or the Old Testament Scriptures but rather it refers to “a rule governing one’s actions, principle.”
So Paul is saying, “By what kind of principle is human boasting excluded?”
“Of works?” is the noun ergon (e&rgon) (er-gon), which refers to “meritorious actions” that are produced by obedience to the Old Testament Scriptures.
Paul omits the genitive form of the noun nomos, “Law” even though it is clearly implied from the context since in Romans 3:28, Paul uses the terms nomos, “Law” and ergon, “meritorious actions” together.
Romans 3:28, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.”
He uses the terms together in Romans 3:20, which Romans 3:28 echoes.
Romans 3:20, “Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
Nomos refers to the entire Old Testament Scriptures since in Romans 3:27-28, Paul is echoing his statement in Romans 3:19-23 where Paul used nomos to refer to the Old Testament Scriptures.
Also, the noun nomos, “Law” contains a figure of speech called “metonymy” where the Law is put for obedience to the Law.
The noun nomos, “Law” functions as a “genitive of production” meaning that obedience to the Old Testament Scriptures “produced” these actions.
The noun ergon functions in relation to the preposition dia as a “genitive of means” indicating that Paul is asking the rhetorical question, “Is boasting excluded by means of meritorious actions, produced by obedience to the Law?”
It continues the previous rhetorical question, “By what kind of law or principle is human boasting excluded?” and it asks, “Is it by means of actions produced by obedience to the Law?”
In Romans 3:20-21, Paul has already shown this is not the case.
Paul also refutes the idea that actions produced by obedience to the Law are the means by which human boasting is excluded by reiterating in Romans 3:28 what he said in Romans 3:19-24.
Now, the question arises, does not God want us to be obedient to His Word?
The answer is yes.
However, Paul is speaking in the context of unbelievers seeking to be justified before a holy God based upon their own merits.
He is not speaking in the context of believer’s obeying their heavenly Father as an expression of love for Him.
We must remember that the unsaved Jews were seeking to establish a relationship as sinners with a holy God who demanded perfect obedience, which was impossible for the unsaved Jews to do since they were under the power of the sin nature.
Therefore, faith in Jesus Christ is the only way an unsaved Jew or Gentile can enter into a relationship with a holy God since Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient and His spiritual death dealt with the sins of humanity.
So the concept of being obedient to the Law in order to be justified by God was impossible since the Law of God demanded perfect obedience, which a sinner has no capacity to do.
In fact, for the unsaved Jew to attempt to establish a relationship with a holy God through obedience to the Law was in essence attempting to enter into the kingdom of God based upon one’s own merits, which is impossible since mankind has no merit with a holy God due to the fact that man is a sinner by nature and practice.
Romans 3:27, “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.”
“No” is the adverb ouchi (ou)xiv) (oo-khee), which emphatically negates any idea that human boasting is excluded by actions or works produced by obedience to the Law.
“But” is the adversative use of the conjunction alla (a)llav) (al-lah), which introduces a statement that presents a concept that is in total contrast or is totally antithetical to the concept that human boasting is excluded by means of actions produced by obedience to the Law.
“By” is the preposition dia (diaV) (dee-ah), which is employed with the genitive form of the noun nomos, “law” as a marker of the instrument or the means by which human boasting is excluded.
Therefore, the preposition dia with the genitive form of the noun nomos indicates that the non-meritorious system of perception, called faith is the “instrument” or “means” by which human boasting is excluded.
“A law” is the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), which again does not refer to the Ten Commandments, the Mosaic Law or the Old Testament Scriptures but rather it refers to “a rule governing one’s actions, principle.”
The word functions as a “genitive of means” indicating that the principle of faith is “the means by which” human pride and boasting is excluded.
“Of faith” is the noun pistis (pivsti$) (pis-tis), which refers to the non-meritorious system of perception of placing one’s “trust” or “confidence in” Jesus Christ as one’s Savior.
The concept of a sinner exercising faith in Jesus Christ as the means of establishing relationship with a holy God is totally antithetical to the sinner attempting to establish a relationship with God based upon one’s own merits by means of actions produced by obedience to the Law.
The reason being is that the sinner who exercises faith in Jesus Christ is acknowledging that he has no merit with God and that the object of his faith, Jesus Christ, has all the merit.
The object of the Christian’s faith, Jesus Christ, saves him.
The object of faith must be the Lord Jesus Christ in order for a person to get saved and be justified before God since it is by His merits as an impeccable Person and the merits of His substitutionary spiritual death on the Cross, which provides mankind with salvation.
Therefore, in Romans 3:27, Paul is teaching that human pride and boasting is excluded by means of the principle of faith in Jesus Christ since the sinner is attempting to establish a relationship with a holy God based upon the merits of Jesus Christ and His spiritual death on the Cross rather than his own merits.
Whereas the sinner who attempts to establish a relationship with a holy God by means of obedience to the Law is seeking to approach God on his own merits.
Again, the sinner has no merit with a holy God because he is a sinner by nature who has no capacity to be perfectly obedient to the Law, which a holy God requires, thus he is a sinner by practice.
If the sinner could approach God and establish a relationship with God based upon his own merits, then the sinner would have reason for boasting, or bragging.