Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #43 in Romans 3,  and we will read Romans 3:26-31:

To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

I will stop reading there.  The first question we find here is in verse 27.  The question is asked: “Where is boating then?”  This question is being asked after the statements made in the previous verses, so let us back up to Romans 3:23-26:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Then it says in Romans 3:27:

Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

We find something amazing in this verse and passage.  It is very complex, as well as amazing, and it can be difficult to understand.  It is one of the reasons why the New Testament churches (and their theologians, pastors, and Bible teachers) struggled so much to understand the doctrine of saving faith as described in the Bible.  It seems God is saying that boasting is excluded, but by what law, or what work, or by the law of faith?  That seems to be a contradiction because we have come to understand that the biblical definition of a “work” is any obedience, or attempted obedience, to the Law of God.  In other words, God commands something, and that is a Law, and then when man attempts to do it, it is a “work.”  Works go hand in hand with the Law.  You cannot have a good work without first having a Law that commands you to do something according to the will of God.

So in this Scripture, the Lord is saying, “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.”  We are going to get into this statement regarding, “…by the law of faith,” because it goes along with what we have come to learn about faith being a work.  In order to have a work, you must first have a Law.  And here, God is explaining that boasting is concluded by “the law of faith.”

Before we get to that, let us slow down a little bit, and let us make sure we are getting the full picture here.  In order to do that, let us begin by looking at the Greek word translated as “boasting” in Romans 3:27: “Where is boasting then?”  This word is the Greek word “kow'-khay-sis,”  and it is Strong’s #2746.  There are related words, Strong’s #2745, and Strong’s #2744, and they are all very similar, and they are translated as “boasting,” “glory,” “rejoicing,” and as “joy,” in at least one instance.  So as we look at this word, we will see why God is asking this question.  If righteousness comes by the righteousness of Christ, where is boasting then?   It is excluded, not by the law of works, but by the law of faith.  Then we will try to understand this verse, and try to solve the apparent contradiction  which seems to say that if there is a law of faith, then any attempted obedience to that law, like believing in God, or believing in Christ, is a work.  We will look at that later.

Let us turn to Romans 5 where we will find one of the Greek words that is related that is translated as “boasting,”   and this word is Strong’s #2744.  It says in Romans 5:11

And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

So we could say, we also “boast” in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  We recognize that glorying, or boasting, is not an evil thing if the one we are glorying or boasting about is God Himself.  It only becomes an evil thing that is a prideful transgression of the Law of God when we are boasting in ourselves rather than God.  So, again, we read that we boast, glory, or joy in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.  We boast in what Christ has done; He has paid the penalty for our sins by atoning for them.  He has saved us.  Therefore we glory in Him.

The same word that is translated as “joy” here, Strong’s #2744, is also used in 1Corinthians 1:27-29:

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.

God has chosen the foolish, the weak, the base things of the world to confound.  We can all identify with these categories.  God has chosen His elect people by His predeterminate will in His predestination program, and it results in no flesh glorying in His presence because salvation is of the Lord.  It is all His work and His doing.  He accomplishes these things for us, and we are nothing of ourselves, and we have nothing in ourselves to glory.

Then it goes on to say in 1Corinthians 1:30-31:

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Perhaps we can understand this better if we substitute the word “boast.”  He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord.  That is, we can praise God.  We can speak of His righteousness, His greatness, and we can magnify and exalt Him in our thoughts and our words, without end, and as much as we want, as we have the Lord’s backing and guidance to do so.  Yes, we can praise the God who has saved us and had mercy upon us.  We can speak well of Him always.  We can talk of His greatness, His power, His might, His infinite goodness, and so forth.  And God says that is well and good. He that glories, or boasts, then let him glory in the Lord.  Then we are doing something in agreement with the Law of God.

But when someone boasts, or glories, in himself it goes against the Law of God.  We have all done things the Bible says are wrong and sinful and proud.  Why is it wrong to glory or boast in ourselves?  Why is it wrong to speak of the great things we have done, and to speak of our righteousness, or our goodness?  You know, when we try to name some good and right things that we have done, what does the Bible say?  The Bible says.  “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.”  The Bible says, “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.”  So every mouth is stopped by the Law of God.  The Law condemns us when we try to exalt ourselves, and the Bible says, “Hold on!  You are a dirty, rotten sinner!  You have broken the Law.  You are a Law breaker.  You are an evil doer.  You are a malefactor.  You are worthy of death.  The wages of sin is death.  You deserve condemnation and the wrath of God.  How dare you raise up yourself, and view yourself so proudly and arrogantly.  It is not proper at all, given the fact that you have offended the Holy God of the Bible.”  And if God has redeemed you, He had to pay for all your iniquities, of which there are a great multitude.  They are all so numerous, terrible, vile, and filthy.  You have offended and sinned in so many different ways against God.  And now you are going to try to exalt yourself, and you are going to say how great you are, and you are going to glory and boast in yourself? 

We would have to say that when people come to understand to some degree the teaching of the Bible, we do not find too many people boasting.  You will find some, but you do not find many of them daring to boast in their own goodness, their own righteous, or their own good works.  However, you will find some that are bold in that way, and they do tend to recount all their exploits in the Gospel, and all the good works they think they have done, but for the most part, they do not blatantly glory in themselves.

Yet there is an exception, is there not?  When it comes to “faith,” they make an exception.  Again, the Bible says, “That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”    But when it comes to faith, they will say, “Oh, I believed!  About twenty years ago, I accepted Christ.  I was really down-and-out, and broken, and then I heard the Gospel, and I finally decided to do something about it.  I made a decision for Christ, and I am walked down the aisle, and I gave my life to Christ,  and I was baptized, and I believed.”  They use the word “I,” and they are glorying in themselves.  They are basically saying, “I got myself saved.”  And they would tell you, “You can get yourself saved, too, but you have to muster up faith.”  And this is what God is putting His finger on when it comes to salvation.  It has everything to do with faith and boasting.  And God says, “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.”

Again, it seems to be a contradiction.  There are individuals who speak like this, or maybe deep down they have that understanding because they did respond – they did do something to change the course of their life.  That is what they think.  They follow the Law of faith, not works, or so they think, and that is what God allows.  So that is why it is so complicated.  This is how God has written it.  He has written about it in such a way that it permits a sinner to think he can do this one thing, this one work, because it is the “law of faith.”  And God commands a response to that Law, if we go to 1John 3:23:

And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

This is His commandment, the “law of faith,” that we should believe on the name of His Son.  There is a commandment to believe, and there is the response of obedience, or even attempted obedience: “I will believe, Lord, I will believe.”  And that is the definition of a “work.”  But it is not of works, and that is what we are going to see next when we go to Ephesians 2:8-9:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

And that is our word that was translated as “glory” in 1Corinthians 1.  So we could say, “Not of works, lest any man should glory.”

And we have a real dilemma, it seems, in understanding these things.  What is this “law of faith,” if it is not the law of faith that you believe?  And if you do believe, that is a work, and we know that the Bible has nothing good to say about men doing works in order to become justified.  So how can we understand this?  It is very, very complex, and mysterious, but we will try to look at this further, Lord willing, and get some better insight into understanding this in our next Bible study.