Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #44 in Romans 3,  and we will read Romans 3:27-31:

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.

In our last study, we were looking at Romans 3:27 that asked the question, “Where is boasting then?”  Or, we could say, “Where is glorying then?” 

By the way, the word translated as “then” literally means “shut out,” so this is telling us that boasting is shut out from God’s presence.  No one who boasts, or glories, in their supposed justification will enter into the kingdom of God because in order to boast (glory), it must be done through the keeping of the Law.  Again, the Bible will not allow for that.  Let us go, again, to Ephesians 2:8:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Notice that it says, “by grace are ye saved,” so it has everything to do with salvation, and then it says, “through faith, and that not of yourselves.”  It is translated as “of yourselves.”  It is the genitive case, second-person plural pronoun to refer to mankind.  Again, “For by grace are ye saved through faith,” and that faith that saves the elect is “not of yourselves.”  The genitive indicates “possession.”  The faith is not of the ones that became saved.  It is “not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”    It belongs to God.  The faith that relates to salvation is not of man, but of God.  Where have we heard that before?  We have heard this, time and again, as we study the Bible, but let us go to John 1 where it speaks of being born again, in John 1:13:

Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

It is of God.  That is true salvation, 100% on the time in the Bible if we are wondering about faith, and we are wondering whose faith is in view.  If it even touches upon salvation in the Scripture we are looking at, then that “faith” is the faith of Christ.  It is the faith that belongs to Him, and it is not man’s faith in any sense.  It is not possible, and Ephesians 2:8 is declaring that.  If we happen to be God’s elect, salvation is not of ourselves (not our faith), but it is the gift of God, and then it goes on to say in Ephesians 2:9:

Not of works, lest any man should boast.

And there is our word that is translated as “glory” in 1Corinthians 1:31, and the word that is related to our word translated as “boasting” in Romans 3:27: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded.”  Boasting is “shut up.”  It cannot bring the person into the kingdom of God.  When a sinner approaches to God’s holy heaven, and he comes to the door, saying, “Lord, Lord, let me in!  I have accepted you.  I have said the sinner’s prayer.  I have been water baptized,” but he is shut out of the kingdom.  That is not the basis upon which any man can enter in because it is not of works, lest any man should boast in the presence of God.  God forbid that should ever happen.  It cannot happen because man is unworthy of boasting, or glorying, in God’s presence based on his own works, or his own faith.  Man’s only hope in the day of salvation was to approach God humbly,  like we read in Luke 18.  I will read that because it does show the contrast in the way that men come to God.  We read of two men, one a Pharisee, and one a publican.  In those days, the publican was considered “the lowest of the low,” and a terrible sinner, by his fellow man.  It says in Luke 18:9-11:

And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:  Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

And now he is going to tell God of his works, in Luke 18:12:

I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

He is glorying, or boasting: “This is what I do, God.  I am not like that publican!  He does not do good works, but I do good works.”  Then it says in Luke 18:13-14:

And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Christ is speaking negatively of someone glorying in himself.  “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”  He that boasteth, let him boast in the Lord.  It is not because you give tithes, or because you fast twice in the week, or because you handed out a million tracts, or because you gave a million dollars for the cause.  All such rejoicing, or boasting, is evil.  That is not what God desires of His people.  He wants us to come humbly before Him, with nothing in our hands, and no works of our own – nothing to try to justify ourselves in His sight.  But rather, we come with an honest recognition of our filthy deeds, vileness, and of the terrible sins that we have committed against Him.  That is how we come to God, saying, “O, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner who has violated thy Law, and I have no standing before you.  There is nothing in myself that I can say or do that should convince you to bring me into your kingdom, and to give me eternal life.”  We are saved by faith, and that not of ourselves.   It is the gift of God, lest any man should boast.  This is an extremely important truth with God.  He despises the arrogant, proud, and boastful one.  He despises the sinner who comes to Him thinking he is just and righteous because he has done a few good deeds, supposedly, but that is not at all true.

It must be on the grounds of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, and never on what we have done.  If a man say, “I am a sinner, Lord.  I admit it, but thank you, Lord, that you died for me, and you paid for my sins and the sins of the whole world, but I was able to activate salvation by accepting Christ, thus bringing salvation to myself,” it is a falsehood.  That is not the true Gospel of the Bible, but it is a “works gospel” that is perverted and polluted, a gospel that can be typified by a dead fly in the ointment of the apothecary.  It is the little leaven that leavens the whole lump to destroy the grace of God.  This is what has happened in the churches and congregations as men crept in unaware to do that very thing.  And yet at the time of the end, God clarified and purified the true Gospel when He revealed the doctrine that we are saved by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not by the faith of men. 

We see this, of course, in Galatians 2:16:

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ…

And here is the genitive case again, as it is the faith of Jesus Christ, the faith that belongs to Him.  It is not my faith, or your faith, but Christ’s faith.  Then it goes on to say, in Galatians 2:16:

… even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Here, God is really declaring the true teaching of salvation.  Man is not justified by the works of the Law.  But again, this idea of man’s faith has been taught for almost two millennium, century after century.  It has been so grounded into the minds of men that we have to believe, and do that work of faith.  But what they fail to recognize is that the moment they go down that path, and they think, “I cannot do any work to get myself saved because it is not of works, yet the Bible says it is by the law of faith, so I will believe.”  Therefore they fall into a trap and a snare, and they have gone in the direction of a works gospel because there is more information that must be considered.

First, as we discussed last time, it is said to be the “law of faith,” in Romans 3:27.  So there is a law.  Then we went to 1John 3:23 which said, “And this is his commandment, That we should believe…”  There is the Law, and there is the command, and the response of believing would be a work, a work of the Law.  That is the obvious conclusion.  It must be.  So when we turn in the Bible to 1Thessalonians where we find reference to the “work of faith,” it fits right in.  It goes along with the “law of faith,” and the commandment to believe.  We read in 1Thessalonians 1:3:

Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

Notice it first says, “remembering without ceasing your work of faith,” and then it mentions your labor of love, and your patience of hope.  But let us read it this way: “Remembering…your work of faith…in our Lord Jesus Christ.”  That is, the work of faith, the labor of love, and the patience of hope are all in our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore it is a work of faith in Jesus Christ.  The commandment to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is the Law, and here is the work, the work of faith. 

Given that God moved the Apostle Paul to write this, it is God Himself who is addressing the people in this church at Thessalonica, as well as all the people of God who read this.  We can understand that this is not referring to “saving faith.”  It is speaking of a faith that comes after one has become saved through the faith of Christ.  After salvation, then God has ordained us to do good works, which we will see if we go back to Ephesians 2:8-10:

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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

So there is no problem, or contradiction, but it is only when men think that their work of faith brings salvation to them that they encounter insurmountable trouble with God because they are bringing themselves under the Law, and they are continuing in a works gospel relationship with God, and that will never bring a soul into heaven.