Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.In these verses, we see the Apostle Paul ask a string of questions designed to reveal the timeless implications that God’s right rescue from rebellion through faith in Christ has on all humanity. First, Paul asks “Where is the boasting”? Paul then answers this question by stating that it is excluded. In other words, there is no room for pride when it comes to our relationship with God. Pride is shut out, there is no opening for boasting and pride to enter into a conversation about our relationship with God.
Now a natural push back or question that may arise here is “Why not? Why is there no room for pride”? Paul, anticipating this response, responds with a second question: By what kind of Law? Of works? If Paul was asking this question in the language we use in today’s culture, the question would sound something like this: “What religious, moral or ethical system did you perfectly follow to make you right with God? Was it what you did for God that enabled God to declare you not guilty of having a problem with Him?” Paul then answers this question by stating that it was the Law of faith. But what does that mean? Paul’s point here is that it is not what we do for God that can make us not guilty of having a problem with God. Instead, it is what God does for us through Jesus Christ; and it is the placing of our confident trust of what God has done for us through Christ and the message of the gospel that make makes us not guilty.
And it is here that we see the Apostle Paul reveal for us the reality that God’s right rescue through faith removes pride in human effort. It is because of God’s activity and not our activity that we are rescued from selfish rebellion and sin. And because it is God’s activity and not our activity that rescues us from selfish rebellion and sin, there is no room for pride.
Paul reinforces this reality in verse 28 when he states that we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. The Apostle had a strong point of view; and that strong point of view was that it was by placing ones confident trust in what God had done through Christ that resulted in a person being declared not guilty and being able to enter into the relationship with God that they were created for. Having a relationship with God was independent of what you did for God in order to remove the guilt that came from selfish rebellion and sin. And for the Jewish people of Paul’s day, this would have been viewed as a scandalous statement. This would have put Paul at odds with the religious people of his day, just as the message and teaching of Jesus often offended and put Him at odds with the self righteous religious people that He encountered.
Yet, instead of backing down, Paul laid down the gauntlet and dug his heels in with another set of questions: “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also?” In other words, “do you Jewish religious people think that you have exclusivity because you are God’s chosen people? Do you think that you are somehow better that irreligious people because you go to church and try to do things for God?” Paul then answers his questions in a way that would have offended the Jewish religious people of his day: “Yes, of Gentiles also,”? This would have been incredibly offensive for a Jewish person because they took great pride in their religious heritage. They took great pride in having the Old Testament; they took great pride in having the temple; they took great pride in their traditions; they took great pride in what they did for God.
Maybe you are reading this and I have just described you. You take great pride in what you do for God and there is no way that God would look at irreligious people that same way He looks at you. And there is something within you that consciously or unconsciously believes that God chose you because of all that you did for God. Or maybe you would describe your life as being irreligious and rebellious. Your life has been spent running from God and rebelling against God. Regardless of whether you consider yourself religious or irreligious, from God’s perspective there is one way and only one way that anyone is declared not guilty of having a problem with God. There is only one way to receive rescue and redemption from slavery to selfishness and sin and enter into the relationship with God that you were created for. And that one way is through faith in Christ.
Paul explains that whether you are circumcised, which was a religious act that served to identify someone as being a part of the Jewish religious system, or uncircumcised, which referred to a person who was not identified as being a part of the Jewish religious system, freedom and rescue from selfish rebellion and sin comes by faith in Christ. Regardless of your past, good or bad, rescue and redemption comes not from what you do for God; rescue and redemption comes from believing, trusting, and leaning into what God has done for you through Jesus life, death, and resurrection. We are united by faith in Christ as part of the community of believers called the church, regardless of race, sex, or socio-economic factors. And this removes all possibility of pride. Now a natural question that arises here we see echoed by Paul in verse 31:
Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.In other words, then what is the point of the Old Testament? Why should I even read it? Because you seem to be saying that it is all about Jesus and faith and not about the Old Testament Law. So is the Old Testament worthless and irrelevant”? Paul responds to this question with the strongest negative response that is possible in the language that this letter was originally written in. At Wal-Mart this objection might sound like this: No bleeping Way!! Instead, Paul explains that faith actually establishes the Law. Here we see Paul reveal for us the reality that God’s right rescue through faith reinforces the Bible. The word establish here literally means to validate something.
Paul’s point here is that the Bible has always been about faith. Faith actually validates the message and the teachings of the Old Testament. And as we will see next week, the people who lived during the times of the Old Testament, just like today, were not rescued and redeemed from selfish rebellion and sin because of what they did for God. Just like today, the people who lived during the times of the Old Testament were saved as a result in placing their confident trust in who God is and what He called them to do. People throughout history have always been saved as a result of believing, trusting and following God’s transformational intervention and activity in the world. Next week, we will Paul reveal for us God’s transformational intervention and activity in the Old Testament.
And for us the timeless reality that provides hope is that God rightly rescues from rebellion through faith in Christ. We have seen that God’s right rescue through faith is independent of our effort. We have seen that God’s right rescue through faith is required by all. We have seen that God’s right rescue through faith results in a not guilty verdict. We have seen that God’s right rescue through faith removes pride in human effort. And we have seen that God’s right rescue through faith reinforces the Bible.
So are you trying to get right with God by what you do for Him? If that is you, here’s the question: How’s it working for you? Because the reality is that our attempts to do things for God only lead to either pride or desperation. Because there is nothing that we can do that will result in us being able to experience the relationship with God we were created for. However, as Paul reveals for us in this section of this letter, the timeless truth that provides us a timeless hope is that God rightly rescues from rebellion through faith in Christ. Because, it has always been about what God does for us that provides the opportunity for rescue, for forgiveness, and for us to experience the relationship with God we were created for.
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