WWUTT 1208 We Uphold the Law?

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Is the law of God something that applied to a different people but no longer applies to you?

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Does God want you to unhitch from the Old Testament? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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Thank you Becky. We finish up our study of Romans chapter 3 today. I'm going to begin reading in verse 27 and we'll go through verse 31.

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The Apostle Paul wrote to the church that was in Rome. Then what becomes of our boasting?

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It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works?

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No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith, apart from works of the law.

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Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also?

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Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

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Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means.

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On the contrary, we uphold the law. Remember the thesis statement to Paul's letter to this church in Rome was back in Romans chapter 1 verse 16.

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For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of salvation that has been given to us in Christ.

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The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the

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Jew first and also to the Greek. So we're kind of bringing back to our attention that statement when we read this here at the end of chapter 3.

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Paul says in verse 29, where we finished yesterday, or is

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God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one.

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So the point here that Paul is making is there's one way to salvation and it is through Christ.

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And this way of salvation is the same for Jews as it is for Gentiles, since God is one.

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He doesn't have one law for Jews and then one law for Gentiles. Now this is necessary to understand in that this gospel that's being proclaimed, though the

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Gentiles are now being included in the people of God, this does not mean that God has had one way for the

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Jews and he has had another way for the Gentiles. So remember back to verse 27, what becomes of our boasting?

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It is excluded by what kind of law? By a law of works?

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So up to this point, we've really, whenever we use the word law, we're really talking about the law as it was given by God to the

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Jews. And in fact, Paul will even make a reference to the law as referencing the

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Jews, those to whom God gave his law. So when the judgment comes, they are judged under the law.

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But it's not like the Gentiles are not judged by the same measure of righteousness.

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For as it says in Ecclesiastes 12, 14, God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil, all of it will be laid before God.

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It doesn't matter whether it was done by a Jew or by a Gentile. When we look at the end times in Revelation, you're looking at the final judgment and great books are opened up and everybody is judged by what was written in those books.

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It's every deed, good or evil. Those who did the will of the father will enter into eternal life.

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Those who did the will of Satan will enter into eternal punishment. I hope that that would bring fear into your heart to look at the

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Lord, your God, and know that he knows everything. He knows every thought that's in your mind.

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There is nothing that is hidden from him so that there is nothing that you do in secret that is not known.

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Maybe there is something that you mess around with, some sort of a sin that you think nobody's going to know about it.

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Nobody sees, but God does. And that is by no means hidden from him.

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And he will judge you because of even the sins that you do in the secret places.

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Nothing is going to be made hidden. Everything is going to be brought to light at the final judgment. Those things that you're doing are being written down and you will be judged by them.

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Now for us who are in Christ, our sins are forgiven, but that is by no means a license to sin.

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For if that's what you're doing, if you continue to walk in sin, believing, hey,

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Jesus has just forgiven me, I'm a child of God, right? I certainly profess Christ.

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I believe what's written in his word. That's what you're saying. But by your actions, you're still dictating that you are enslaved to the passions of your flesh.

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You're still walking in those things. And time after time, when that decision is laid in front of you, you're constantly taking the sinful thing.

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You're doing the sinful action rather than choosing the righteousness, rather than putting to death all of those passions in your flesh.

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You kind of like them. And in some ways, you maybe even have like a little canister of Tic Tacs or candies off somewhere.

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That's your flavored sins, and you're just going to pull one out and stick it on your tongue and enjoy the flavor of it every once in a while, just by dwelling on it, just by thinking of it.

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If this is what governs your thoughts and your actions, then one of the things that Paul is going to say when we get up to Romans 6 is that this could be an indication you're still enslaved to your sin.

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You've actually not been set free by the grace of God, and you're still walking as in sin, in which case you would still be under the law.

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You are not under grace. You are under the law. Remember the passage that I read to you yesterday from Romans 8 .1,

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for there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But if you are not walking in Christ and you're still clinging to the sin, then you are under condemnation, and you will be judged by this law that you continue to break.

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Now as we've been reading through these things in Romans, we're seeing a distinguishing of Jews and a distinguishing of Gentiles.

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But of course, Paul says in verse 22, there is no distinction. He's making those distinctions to raise the theological argument that there is no distinction.

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All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All of us are justified by his grace as a gift.

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Those who have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is one way of salvation, and that is through Christ.

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And that way of salvation is the same for Jews as for Gentiles. So Paul will be making these distinctions.

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But as we live today, there are many, many Gentiles who know more about the word of God than there are

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Jews that know the word of God. So when we read about these distinctions in Romans, that those to whom were given the law, they will be judged under the law.

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Those who have not received the law, they will be judged as a law unto themselves, right?

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This law has now been proclaimed everywhere all over earth. Yes, there are unreached people groups.

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Yes, we still need to go out preaching the gospel. But this is to say that the word of God does go out.

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Everyone hears it proclaimed. We have missionary groups that attempt to translate the scriptures into other languages.

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So people in languages that have yet to hear the gospel might hear it and be turned from their sin and place faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ and live. So this whole word gets presented from Genesis to Revelation.

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It all gets proclaimed. There are very few groups of people who would be able to say, well, we never heard the law of God.

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I didn't even know I was breaking any kind of law. Very rarely do I ever even run into someone who has never heard of the

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Ten Commandments before. In fact, I'll even tell you, I can't remember a time in my life. I can't ever remember running into a person and saying something about the

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Ten Commandments, and they have no idea what I'm talking about. These things have become like part of the cultural lexicon.

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That's how that's how much the message of God has gone out into the world.

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When you say something like Ten Commandments and people know what you're referring to my courthouse and my very secular town in which

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I live, the courthouse down the block from me has the Ten Commandments right there in front of the courthouse.

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So this is how common this has become in our culture, especially in a Western world setting, especially in our

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Western culture, how prevalent these things are. So to say, well, they're perishing under the law.

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That's not really just something we say of Jews anymore. You could say that of Gentiles. You have heard the law and yet did not keep it.

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And so God is going to judge you by that very law that was that was proclaimed to you. But you did not keep.

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Now, of course, it's not by that law that we are saved. And Paul makes that point here again in even in these last two verses that we're looking at today.

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This is the last verse we're looking at today. Verse 31. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

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By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. But before getting to that and explaining that, just understand once again,

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God is one. The God who judges Jews is going to be the God who judges Gentiles. And there's going to be no distinction before him.

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Everyone has sinned. Everyone is rebelled against God. Everyone by their sin nature has gone their own way and has pursued their own glory and believes they can proclaim their own righteousness, thinking that they can be good apart from God.

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Every single person has done that. And it's in that pride that mankind will fall, that the the dead in their flesh and in their spirits will be judged and will perish.

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But those who have been made alive in Christ will enter into eternal life.

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We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law, as we read back in verse 28.

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Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also?

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Yes, of Gentiles also. He is not. So by the same word,

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God is the God of Jews. God is the God of Gentiles. Is God the God of Jews only?

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No, would be the answer to that question. Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, he is the God of Gentiles also.

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Since God is one that now Paul is making that point, God is the

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God of all of mankind. There's only one God and God is one and he is enthroned over all of creation, even as we understand

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God, the father, God, the son and God, the Holy Spirit. These are not three gods that have then been apportioned to different peoples.

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It's not God, the father over the Jews and God, the son over the Gentiles. There is there's no separation in God.

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God is one. He is one God and God is one. So there's no separation in God here.

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The will that he has for the Jews is also the will that will be carried out for the

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Gentiles. He means to bring a a remnant out of both.

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There is a remnant of Jews who will worship Christ. There is a remnant of Gentiles who will worship

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Christ and the rest will perish. Jews and Gentiles saved the same way, one people, one nation under God.

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By the way, the nation under God is the nation that is in Christ. It's not the nation that has that in their pledge of allegiance.

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The one who worships Christ, everyone who is a true believer in Christ and truly has the

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Holy Spirit living within them, they are the one nation. We are one nation in Christ.

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There is no distinction, Jew or Gentile. We've come to salvation the same way, by grace, through faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. God is one and he has called to himself one people. We may recognize that there are some taken from Jews and some taken from Gentiles, but there's still just one people.

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There's always been one people of God since God is one. So God, who is one, will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

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The justification is still by the same means. It's by faith. As I mentioned yesterday in closing, the circumcised are the

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Jews. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

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So the Jew who has kept the law, but the law does not save him.

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Even though he followed the law and was circumcised, that's not his salvation. What is his salvation?

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Faith. So his justification was not because he became circumcised. His justification is because he put faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. God will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised who did not know the law, was not given this covenant promise, did not keep it yet.

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How is he going to be justified by faith, not by works of the law? Well, through faith particularly.

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So we have, we have that difference in the description of faith who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

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So the circumcised have merely to put faith in the law that they've already been given.

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The uncircumcised through faith, hear the law, put faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who kept all of the law and the prophets.

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But the point that Paul makes here at the very conclusion is that even the law itself had given witness to the fact that salvation is by faith.

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Look at verse 31. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

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Remember again, back to verse 27, by what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

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So now the argument would be raised by someone who's listening to Paul say all of this.

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They would, they would raise the argument. Okay, so there's a new law. Now the old law is gone and now there's a new law.

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Is that what you're saying? And this, or are you saying that there's a law that applies to the Jews and there's a law that applies to the

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Gentiles? And so the Jews are saved by this law, but the Gentiles are saved by this law.

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Is that what it is that you're saying? So Paul is clearing up any question about that here in this closing section in Romans chapter three.

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No, there's not a law for Jews and a law for Gentiles because God is one. So the same, the same law applies to both.

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The law applies to Jews and to Gentiles. They will both be judged under a righteousness that is demonstrated by God in his law.

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If they did not have the righteousness of God, then they are not saved. And once again,

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Paul had laid out earlier that verses 21 and 22, that the righteousness of God is given to us through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

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So that's how we receive the righteousness of God. The law and the prophets bear witness to the righteousness of God.

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We see God's holy character demonstrated for us in his law.

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It doesn't matter whether a Jew is reading it or a Gentile is reading it. God's righteousness is the same righteousness demonstrated for all in the same law.

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So it's not one law for Jews and one law for Gentiles. God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

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So then verse 31, do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

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Are you saying that this is a new law now? The law of faith. So do we overthrow the old law by this new law of faith?

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And Paul says, by no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law.

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Now there's a double meaning here. First of all, the meaning is that the law itself was pointing to the fact that our obedience to the law cannot save us, was not going to save us, was never going to be our salvation.

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Paul says to the Galatians, the law was a guardian, protected us from doing all manner of stupidity that we did not do, but it did not save us.

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And Paul will even say later on in Romans that the law was powerless to save.

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So there is no saving power in the law. Salvation has always been by grace through faith.

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And the testament of that is even in the law. All of it was pointing to Christ, who is our salvation, faith in Christ, the grace of God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. This is how we are saved. So in this way, when we put our faith in Christ, we are upholding the law.

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Since the law and the prophets, as Paul said back in verse 21, bore witness to him, it was all pointing to him.

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So when we put faith in Christ, we are upholding the law. It's not been disregarded.

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It's not been thrown out. We don't cut two thirds out of our Bible and toss it away.

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We don't disconnect from the Old Testament. We don't unhitch from the Old Testament. By faith in Jesus Christ, we are upholding the law.

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That's one meaning. Second meaning to this understanding is that we also desire to keep the law.

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It is, after all, a reflection of God's righteous character. And if we are walking in godliness, in his righteous ways, then we will desire to keep his precepts.

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Jesus himself said in John 14, 15 to his disciples, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments.

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First, John two verses three and four. And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

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Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar.

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And the truth is not in him. Later on, verses seven and eight, beloved, I am writing, you know, new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the from the beginning.

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The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

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How is it an old commandment? Because we're still upholding those things that God had commanded from of old.

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How is it a new commandment? Because it's no longer a command that is outside of us, but it was fulfilled in Christ and his spirit has been poured into us.

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And so his word has been written on our hearts. First, John three, 22 and 23, whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

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And this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he has commanded us.

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Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. It's right there, even in first John two, twenty three verse twenty four.

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Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us.

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And it's by that spirit that we desire to uphold the law.

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We desire to keep the law of God. We understand with the psalmist in Psalm one hundred and nineteen.

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Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the

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Lord. My friend, Psalm one hundred and nineteen wasn't for an Old Testament people, but doesn't apply to us anymore.

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We desire to uphold the commands of Christ. Every single letter in the old or I'm sorry.

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Yeah, every single letter in the Old Testament, every single letter in the New Testament, you find commandments, an instruction to do something.

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Now, our doing those things is not what saves us. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.

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And that is it. But then our hearts have been so changed by God that we desire to do the things that please him.

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And how do we know what it is that pleases him? It's written down in his law. And so we don't cut out the law.

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We don't discard it. We don't throw it away in Christ. It has all been fulfilled. And Christ, who is in us, has given us the desire for his will to be done.

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And his will is reflected in his commandments, in his law. And so we keep the law.

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This is by no means legalism, because we're not declaring that by our works we are saved.

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We have been saved by the work of Christ and no other. But Jesus has called us to work in his name.

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He even said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

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Matthew 937. We've been we've been called to go and work for his kingdom.

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And we reflect that we are part of his kingdom when we do the work that the king has called us to do.

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When we listen to his word and we love it and we keep it and by so doing, we uphold the law.

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The ones who are still trying to do something to earn righteousness are not the ones upholding the law.

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The ones upholding the law are the ones who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The works that we do in his name are not what save us, but they are a demonstration that we have been saved by God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

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Let's conclude with prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for your instructions. And I pray that we would not disregard them.

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We would not see them as burdensome or weary or constricting. But we know that liberty is in the law of the

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Lord. We desire to read your ways and and desire to keep what Christ has commanded of us, because we know that Christ has set us free from the wages of sin, from the curse of death.

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We have the promise of eternal life in your forever kingdom. So let us walk in the way of your kingdom.

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Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart that has been filled with the love of Christ.

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We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.