So then, based on last time, we have seen that there’s no room for boasting. Why? Because we are saved by faith. And we learned what that meant, that if faith does not allow us to boast, then faith does not come from us, does it? It is not something from our will, otherwise we could boast about it and say that we have willpower to have faith where others don’t. No, faith is a gift of God. And since it’s God’s gift to us, along with the good news of Jesus Christ, then we have no room to boast. And so Paul then, as I said last time, concludes that a man is justified by faith, apart from the deeds of the law. And some may stumble over that and say, well, yeah, but I don’t have strong enough faith, or sincere enough faith, or earnest or surrendered enough faith. But we must understand that when Paul says we conclude that a man is justified by faith, that’s called in grammar an ellipsis. That is, he has, what shall I say, reduced the meaning to a few words. And so these are coded words in a way. We’re not justified by faith, we’re justified by Christ in whom we have faith. You say, well, wait a minute, that’s adding to Scripture, Colin, or that’s changing the wording. No, look at verse 24. We are being justified freely by his grace. Oh. So are we justified by faith or are we justified by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus? That’s what it says in verse 24. So we’re justified by Christ in whom we have faith. So verse 28 is shorthand, as it were, for verse 24. Now why is that important to say? Because you cannot trust in your faith. Now, that’s an odd thing to say. You cannot believe in your belief. You believe in Christ. You believe in the object of your faith. Don’t worry about, do I have enough faith? Is it sincere enough faith? Is it surrendered enough faith? Is it repentant enough faith? That’s not the point. Don’t look to your faith, but look to Christ in whom you have faith. So don’t make faith the focus, but make Christ the focus. So we conclude that a man is justified by faith in Christ, you see, apart from the deeds of the law. That’s so important when you’re and you feel that you have no good works to your credit, and you’ve failed so many times, and you want to look to your works, and you want to find evidence of your salvation in them. Well, you won’t find any evidence of salvation in your works. Well, what about faith? Could I find evidence of my salvation in my faith? No. Not even faith is pure and holy and solid enough. Well, where do I look for evidence of my faith, of my salvation? In Jesus alone. Jesus alone is your salvation. What he has done for you on the cross, what he has done for you in the resurrection, All of that was on your behalf. He stood in for you. And therefore, you, when you’re struggling and when you’re down and when you’re defeated, you say, Oh, Father in heaven, I cannot trust in my works. I can’t even trust in my faith. I trust in Jesus, dear Lord, in whom I have faith. And so, remember what I said last time, or is God of the Jews, is God the God of the Jews only? So what is that saying? What it’s saying is that faith demonstrates that God’s salvation is for everyone, because God is not the God of the Jews only. Since all are saved by faith, not by some special quality within them that enables them to keep the law, then we are all safe in him because God will bring each person to faith. No salvation comes without faith. but God is able to bring faith to all through the judgments, through the disciplines of life, through the losses, through the pain, through the sorrow, and through the good news of Jesus, of course, because only as faith believes in the good news of Jesus is a person saved. So then, There is one God, verse 30, who will justify the circumcised by faith, that is, those who are in the covenant of the Hebrews, and the uncircumcised through faith. But then comes a verse that seems to throw a wrench in the works. Oh boy, does this set some people back. They were rejoicing in all the good news so far, but then… Verse 31. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not, on the contrary. We establish the law. And that throws many people off because they thought, oh, I thought I was saved without the law, without the works of the law, and now I’m saved, I have to establish the law. Is that what Paul is meaning? Is Paul meaning that once we have faith in Jesus, we have power to keep the law and thus we establish it? No, of course that is not what he’s saying. How do we establish the law? Well, what have we studied so far? What does the law do? Romans 3, verses 19 and 20, we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. So what does the law do? It reveals our utter brokenness and reveals that we are guilty before God. The law reveals our guilt. Verse 20, therefore by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. So if all the law can do is reveal our sin, how in the world can we establish the law, put it on a firm foundation? Well, listen carefully. If the law is designed to reveal sin, and to reveal our guilt, and in fact, Paul says a little later, it even leads us to more sin and guilt. If that’s the law, what the law does, then we establish the law by admitting our guilt, acknowledging our sinfulness, and running to Jesus Christ for salvation. In other words, the way to establish the law is to flee from the law, once it’s told us how messed up we are, and to flee to Jesus Christ for mercy and faith in him to believe that he has taken our judgment and he is our access to the Father. Do you see it? That’s how we establish the law. We don’t establish the law by becoming better law keepers. We don’t establish the law by dedicating ourselves to the law, to obedience, to the Ten Commandments. We establish the law by recognizing that the law has told us we are so broken down that we need our Savior Jesus. Now look, Galatians will back me up on this. Galatians chapter 3. What purpose then does the law serve? verse 19 that is, it was added because of transgressions. Well, what does that mean? Till the seed should come to whom they promise was made, and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. But the scripture has confined all under sin, that’s verse 22, that the promise by faith in Jesus might be given to those who believed. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. How was the law our tutor then? By teaching us how to be godly, so that we could then accept Christ because we’d be godly enough to be received by him? No, no, no. The law was our tutor in teaching us that we are utterly broken-down sinners. that our goodnesses are as filthy rags, that our human nature is so under the power of the law, sin and death, that it cannot perform any good. That’s what the law is teaching us. Therefore, the law was our tutor in that sense, so that we would go to Christ. Verse 24 of Galatians chapter 3, you see it? that we might be justified by faith. So the purpose of the law then was to lead us to Christ so that we might be justified by Christ’s death and resurrection, by faith in his death and resurrection, not so that we might be justified by the law. Boy, I tell you, it’s so important to understand this. If you take the book of Romans, or if you take the gospel seriously, and if you’re a serious Bible student, then you’re in danger. It’s hard to say that. One might say, if you’re a serious Bible student, then you’re in good company with the Lord. Well, you are if you understand it aright. but it is possible to dreadfully misunderstand the Word of God and dreadfully misunderstand the gospel. And so what we have to see here then is that we do not establish the law by works of the law. When I was a young Christian and tried to understand the book of Romans, I didn’t know where to start and where to end. I had no tutor to teach me. And so when I came across a verse like that, I thought, oh, I see. So Jesus comes into the world to help us, to give us power, to first of all forgive us for our sins in the past, but then to give us power to obey him and obey the law. So Jesus was the means to the end, and the end was the law. Oh my goodness, what a terrible doctrine that is. No, the law reveals our brokenness. I know I’m repeating myself, but I need to repeat myself because it is so easy to misunderstand all this. The law reveals my brokenness. We need to look at the law periodically. Why? Not so that we can remind ourselves how to obey it, but so that we can remind ourselves that we are sinners and are broken down. that then leads us to Jesus Christ. So we go to him and say, Father, I have sinned. I need your grace. I need your mercy. I am only counted righteous in him. So do you get that? Do you understand where we’re going with that? Let’s read then from verses 27 to 31 one more time. Where is boasting then? It is excluded, we’re in Romans now, chapter 3, 27-31, by what law? By what principle, in other words, of works? No, by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, declared innocent by faith in Christ, apart from the deeds of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since there is one God who will justify the circumcised, that’s the Jewish people, by faith in Christ, and the uncircumcised through faith in Christ. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law. And you can say we establish the law by faith in Christ, you see. Once we have faith in Christ, we have established the purpose of the law, which is what? To reveal our guilt so that we might run to our Saviour. Thank you for joining me today. Colin Cook here and How It Happens. You can hear this program on your smartphone. Simply download, and by the way, any time of the day or night at your convenience, of course. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in How It Happens with Colin Cook when you get there. And I know I sound a bit like a broken record when I say that our funds are extremely low. Costs are higher than they have been. Donations are lower than they have been. And so I need your help. This is listener-supported radio. If you’d like to make a donation, you can do so online at faithquestradio.com. Or you can go send it by mail to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160. Thanks so much. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
