Sermon Tone Analysis

Wenstrom Bible Ministries

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Tuesday December 11, 2007

www.prairieviewchristian.org

Romans: Romans 3:31-Faith in Jesus Christ Upholds the Law

Lesson # 110

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 3:19.

This evening we will complete the final paragraph in Romans chapter three, namely, Romans 3:27-31.

In this passage, we have seen that Paul argues that since the sinner whether Jew or Gentile is justified on the basis of God’s grace policy through faith in Jesus Christ, then the sinner has no merit with God, which would exclude boasting on the part of the sinner.

Thus, Paul argues that to deny this spiritual truth would imply that God is God of the Jews only.

However, that would be a denial of a fundamental, doctrinal teaching of the Old Testament that He is the God of the Gentiles also.

Thus, Paul declares that God will only justify Jews and Gentiles alike through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

In Romans 3:27, Paul teaches that the law or the principle of faith in Jesus Christ in order to be justified before God excludes human merit and pride.

Then, in Romans 3:28, he teaches that justification is by means of faith in Jesus Christ, independently of actions produced by obedience to the Law.

In Romans 3:29, Paul teaches that God is not the God of the Jews only but also the God of the Gentiles as well.

Sunday morning we noted Romans 3:30 in which Paul writes that there is one and the same God for both Jew and Gentile and who therefore has only one means of justifying both groups, namely, faith in Jesus Christ.

This evening we will note Romans 3:31 and in this passage, Paul teaches that faith in Jesus Christ upholds the Law rather than rendering it useless.

Let’s read Romans 3:19-31 and then concentrate on verse 31.

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.”

In Romans 3:30, “since” is the emphatic conditional particle eiper (ei&per) (i-per), which is employed with the indicative mood of the verb dikaioo, “will justify” in order to explicitly convey a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.

In Romans 3:31, the apodasis is introduced explicitly with the inferential use of the conjunction oun, “then.”

The basic relation that the protasis has to the apodasis is “evidence-inference.”

In the protasis that appears in Romans 3:30, Paul presents the evidence that both Jew and Gentile are justified by means of faith in Jesus Christ.

Then, in the apodasis that appears in Romans 3:31a, Paul infers from this evidence by asking the rhetorical question if this evidence renders useless the Law.

Romans 3:31a, “Do we then nullify the Law through faith?”

In Romans 3:31b, Paul answers this rhetorical question emphatically negating any idea that justification through faith in Jesus Christ renders useless the Law and states that in fact, it upholds the Law.

Romans 3:31b, “May it never be!

On the contrary, we establish the Law.”

The rhetorical question and its negative reply are designed to refute Paul’s opponents who were the Judaizers who claimed that Paul rejected the Law.

Romans 3:31a, “Do we then nullify the Law through faith?”

“Then” is the “inferential” use of the post-positive conjunction oun (ou@n), which introduces the apodasis of a first class condition, which indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.

The word introduces a rhetorical question that demands a negative response from Paul’s Jewish audience and has its inference from Paul’s previous statement in Romans 3:30.

Paul asks this rhetorical question at this point since it could be inferred by his opponents the Judaizers that since he teaches that justification is by means of faith in Jesus Christ and not by means of actions produced by obedience to the Law, i.e. the works of the Law, then he must be against the Law.

Paul was accused of antinomianism by the Judaizers, thus he felt it necessary to present this rhetorical question.

He emphatically refutes this hypothetical charge as outrageous.

“Do we nullify” is the verb katargeo (katargevw) (kat-arg-eh-o), which means, “to render useless,” thus, Paul is asking, “Do we then render useless the Law?”

In Romans 3:31, the verb katargeo is in the 1st person plural form and is identified by grammarians as an “exclusive we” referring to Paul, the other apostles as well as other communicators of the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ such as Titus and Timothy and also includes Christians in general.

The Law” is the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), which refers to the entire Old Testament canon since in Romans 4 Paul employs two men as illustrations, Abraham and David to illustrate that justification is by means of faith in Jesus Christ does not render useless the Law.

Abraham lived four hundred thirty years before the Mosaic Law was given, thus before there was any written revelation from God since the Mosaic Law was the first piece of written revelation from God.

Also, the Old Testament Scriptures make it clear that David broke the Law by committing adultery with Bathsheba and murdering her husband Uriah in order to cover up the fact that he got Bathsheba pregnant.

In both cases, God saved them because of their faith in the future Messiah.

Abraham didn’t have the Mosaic Law in writing when he lived and David broke the Law and yet both are in heaven today.

“Through faith” indicates that Paul and other communicators of the Gospel taught that faith in Jesus Christ is the “instrument” or “means” by which the sinner can be declared justified by God the Father.

“May it never be!” emphatically denies any possibility or thought of the Old Testament Scriptures entering into a state of being useless as a result of the Christian doctrine that justification is by means of faith in Jesus Christ and not by the works of the Law, i.e. actions produced by obedience to the Law.

Romans 3:31b, “May it never be!

On the contrary, we establish the Law.”

“On the contrary” 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 the Christian doctrine of justification by means of faith in Jesus Christ renders useless the Old Testament Scriptures.

“We establish” is the verb histemi (i%sthmi) (his-tay-mee), which means, “to uphold, or maintain the authority” of the Old Testament Scriptures.

Thus, Paul is saying that his teaching that justification is by means of faith in Jesus Christ and not by means of actions produced by obedience to the Law “upholds the authority” of the Scriptures rather than renders them useless or without purpose.

The Law” is the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), which retains the same reference as it has earlier in the verse, thus, it refers to the entire Old Testament canon of Scripture.

Justification by means of faith in Jesus Christ upholds the Law since one of the purposes of the Law was to lead the sinner to faith in Jesus Christ.

In the study of the Bible, there are three specific purposes that surface in the proper use of the Law.

First of all, in a general sense, the Mosaic Law was given to provide a standard of righteousness (Deuteronomy 4:8; Psalm 19:7-9) and in the process, it revealed the righteousness, holiness, and goodness of God (Deut.

4:8; Lev.

11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7; Rom.

7:12-14).

The Law given at Mount Sinai to Israel was to reveal a holy God and to demonstrate the reality of an infinite gulf that separated man from Him.

Secondly, the Law was given to identify sin and reveal man’s sin and bankrupt spiritual condition as guilty before God (Rom.

3:19f; 7:7-8; 5:20; Gal.

3:19).

God’s holy Law reveals to man just who and what he is, namely, sinful and separated from God by an infinite gulf that he is unable to bridge in his own human strength.

Lastly, the Law was given to shut man up to faith, i.e., to exclude the works of the Law (or any system of works) as a system of merit for either salvation or sanctification and thereby lead him to Christ as the only means of righteousness (Galatians 3:19-20, 20-24; 1 Timothy 1:8-9; Romans 3:21-24).

The Mosaic Law cannot: (1) Justify an individual before God (Romans 3:20-28; Galatians 2:16) (2) Provide eternal salvation for men (Galatians 3:21-26).

(3) Provide the Holy Spirit and could not solve the problems of the old sin nature (Romans 8:2-3) (4) Make perfect, or permanently deal with sin (Hebrews 7:19) (5) Sanctify (Galatians 3:21; 5:5; Romans 8:3).

Therefore, as Paul says in Galatians 3:19-24, the Law was designed to be a temporary guardian until the coming of Christ, the Suffering Messiah Savior.

However, Israel approached the Law as a system of merit, shifting from a faith basis to a works basis (Exodus 19:8; Romans 10:3).

The Word of God emphatically teaches us that the Law brings a curse (Galatians 3:10-12), brings death, it is a killer (2 Corinthians 3:6-7; Romans 7:9-10), brings condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:9), makes offenses abound (Romans 5:10; 7:7-13), declares all men guilty (Romans 3:19), and holds men in bondage to sin and death (Galatians 4:3-5, 9, 24; Romans 7:10-14).

This is because man possesses an old Adamic sin nature that can never fulfill the righteousness of the Law, especially in the spirit of the Law.

Therefore, mankind always falls short as Romans 3:23 tells us, and becomes condemned or guilty before a Holy God (Romans 3:19).

Several passages of Scripture clearly establish that the coming of Christ has brought an end to the Mosaic Law.

Romans 10:4, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

Christ fulfilled the Ten Commandments by living a perfect and sinless life and so when man trusts in Christ as his Savior, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to that individual so we have justification (Romans 4) resulting in the fact that the Law can’t condemn us (Romans 8:1; 7:1-6; Romans 5:1; 4:4-8).

Christ fulfilled the ceremonial ordinances, the shadows and types of His person and work, by dying on the cross for us and in our place.

Christ also fulfilled the Social Law, but now He replaces it with a new way of life fitting to our new salvation.

The church age believer is under God’s new law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2-4).

Therefore, the doctrine of justification by means of faith in Jesus Christ upholds the Law, i.e. the Old Testament Scriptures for three reasons: (1) Jesus Christ’s spiritual death on the Cross satisfied the demands of God’s Law that required that human sin be judged (Romans 3:26).

(2) Jesus Christ’s spiritual death on the Cross establishes the Law by fulfilling the purpose of the Law in driving men to Jesus Christ as their Savior (Galatians 3:24).

(3) Jesus Christ’s spiritual death on the Cross establishes the Law by providing believers the capacity to obey the Law through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:3-4).