Romans Chapter 3 Vs. 31

 

The Righteousness of God Through Faith

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. Rom 3:31

then make void... Greek: katargeo, to make useless; without effect (see, Eph. 2:15).

we establish the... Christianity establishes the law:

1. By recognizing Christ as the subject of its rites and ceremonies (Luke 24:44; Col. 2:14-17; Heb. 8-10)

2. By Christ fulfilling it (Mat. 5:17)

3. By Christ ending it (Rom. 10:4)

4. By fulfilling in people the righteousness that the law demanded but could not give (Rom. 8:3)

5. By including its moral and spiritual principles in the New Testament (Heb. 8:6)

Knowing he would be accused of antinomianism (being against the law), for arguing that a man was justified apart from keeping the law, Paul introduced here the defense he later developed (in chapters 6 and 7).

Salvation by grace through faith does not denigrate the law, but underscores its true importance:

(1) By providing a payment for the penalty of death, which the law required for failing to keep it;

(2) By fulfilling the law’s original purpose, which is to serve as a tutor to show mankind’s utter inability to obey God’s righteous demands and to drive people to Christ; and

(3) By giving believers the capacity to obey it.

The law is not done away with by Jesus, but fulfilled in Him. The law is good. The law declares the need to be righteous. Jesus makes it possible to be righteous in Him. The law showed us our great need for Jesus as our Savior.

The final question is, Do we, then, nullify the Law by this faith? Paul responded in his characteristic expletive, Not at all! (mē genoito, “Let it not be”; see Rom. 3:4) and then explained, Rather, we uphold the Law. The purpose of the Mosaic Law is fulfilled and its place in God’s total plan is confirmed when it leads an individual to faith in Jesus Christ (cf. Rom. 3:20; Gal. 3:23-25). Paul repeatedly affirmed that faith, not works of the Law, is the way of salvation. He wrote the word “faith” eight times in Rom. 3:22-31! (See Rom. 3:22, 3:25-28, 3:30 [twice], and Rom. 3:31.)