WWUTT 1206 What Becomes of Our Boasting? (Romans 3:27)

Did you know that we're saved by the law? Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't brand me a heretic and don't shut off this broadcast just yet. It is the law of faith that has been established by God in Jesus Christ when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to the sound teaching of the word of God. Find videos and more at our website, www .wtt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Romans 3:21-27 and the Exclusion of Boasting

Thank you, Becky. Hey, I apologize for this being a little bit later today. I ran out of voice last night, so I couldn't even record the podcast. But we're back on our study of Romans chapter three. Picking up where we left off would put us in verse 27, but to keep things in context, I'm gonna start reading here in verse 21.

The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only?

Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. So we come back to verse 27 here where Paul asks this question, then what becomes of our boasting? And he answers, it is excluded. You have no basis upon which to boast about your salvation.

There is nothing that you have done to attain it. This is all been by the work of God. That's been the argument that Paul has been making over the course of chapter three. You were nothing but corrupt.

You could do nothing good. No one is righteous. No one understands. As it said back in verse 11, no one even seeks for God. He sought you out. He chose you, but you did not by your own free will, by your own curious religious interest, go looking for a God to worship.

Well, you did worship a God. It just was not the God of creation. You worshiped other things. Your heart was set on things that were contrary to God because you were wicked. You were born in sinful depravity.

You had a sin nature. So you did what was in your nature to do. And that was anything that was contrary to the glory and holiness and righteousness of God. The righteousness that we now have has been imparted to us by faith.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. It was not by things that we did. It's by what God has done for us. The law and the prophets bear witness to this righteousness.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Now, I didn't go into this so much when we were looking at those two verses earlier, verses 21 and 22. But one of the other things that's being stated here is that even in the Old Testament, the declaration was, you are saved by grace through faith.

There was a Messiah, a promise that the Old Testament faithful were holding onto, although they did not know and did not understand the mystery of God and how he was gonna unfold these things in the future, in the time of Christ, when the fullness of time had come.

And God did these things. This was to show his righteousness at the present time, as we have the statement in verse 26, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So even the ones who came before the cross had faith in Christ, although they did not fully understand that's what it was that they had faith in.

But the salvation that we have has always been by grace through faith. And it has always been through Christ, even if those who were before Jesus did not know the name of Jesus. Nevertheless, that was the one that they had placed their hope in, the promise of the Messiah who was to come.

So for Paul to say the law and the prophets bear witness to the righteousness of God, it's been manifested apart from the law and the prophets, but the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

So those who believed the law and the prophets were looking toward the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul refers to this numerous times throughout the New Testament as a mystery that has since been revealed to us.

Ephesians chapter three, most notably, but in Hebrews 11, even you've got the hall of faith as we refer to it, those Old Testament faithful who trusted in God and what they trusted in was not something that was of this world.

It was a heavenly kingdom, a better one. And so that's what they received, not a land plot, not a promise of something earthly, but a promise of something that was eternal and heavenly. And they were pleased to see it.

The Lord gave them the reward for their faith, which was justification, the righteousness of God that they received by faith. Now, Paul in chapter four is gonna use Abraham as an example as he has made this argument here already in chapter three, that even the law and the prophets were bearing witness to the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

He uses Abraham, Abraham believed, and it was credited to him as righteousness. So we'll talk about that more when we get to chapter four, of course. But here in verse 27, the point is made, what becomes of our boasting?

It is excluded. There's nothing that we can say, that you can say, that I can say, that boasts in the salvation that we have achieved as though we did it somehow. This was never our work. It is always been by the work of God.

Consider this word that Paul gives to the Philippians, Philippians 2 .12. Now you've heard this verse many times. You've probably even debated over this verse with your friends, scratched your head over it with your pastor.

Philippians 2 .12, therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I don't want to stop there.

Let's add in verse 13. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So what you have there in those two verses is a statement of your responsibility to grow in righteousness and holiness.

But then Paul mentioning, it's not your work anyway. It is God's work. So whatever you achieve in that pursuit of Christ likeness has all been God working in you and he gets all the credit and all the glory.

So work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. There's the commandment that is given. You're following that commandment is an evidence of God working in you to accomplish that. Paul had said to the Philippians at the start of the letter, I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

So this work, working salvation with fear and trembling, growing in holiness, growing in sanctification, this is all accomplished by the work of God in your life. It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

It's all for his glory. And he does what he pleases. So obey God. As you hear the commandment, grow in holiness. You grow in holiness and obedience to that commandment because it evidences that God is working in you.

So all of this, no matter from what angle we come from, whether it's the initial justification, it's that a conversion that happens when you hear the gospel and you turn from sin and you become a worshiper of Jesus Christ.

Whether you're talking about that or you're talking about then all of the growth that happens after that, growing in holiness, growing in righteousness, less in sin and more in the love for the commandments of Christ, love for your brothers and your sisters in the Lord, growing in an understanding of doctrine, all of these things that demonstrate a maturity in the Christian life, all of that is the work of God.

Your justification was God's work. Your sanctification is God's work. So there is no place for our boasting. Of course, the verse that we most often tie with this is Ephesians 2, eight and nine. It is by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. But that's not the only place that that is said. Of course, that's our favorite verse in reference to that.

That might be the verse that we apply to memory, but that's said in multiple other places throughout the New Testament, including here, verse 27. What becomes of our boasting? It is no place for you to boast, for it is not your work by which you are saved, but the work of God.

Our boasting is excluded. By what kind of law? Now, that's an interesting question. That's the middle portion here of verse 27. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Now, some have interpreted this to mean principle.

So the word law here would really be more synonymous with the word principle in English. By what kind of principle? By a principle of works? No, because we're not saved by our works. No, but by the principle of faith.

But I would still argue that the word law is most properly applied here because this is God's doing, and he does it by something that he has established that must be followed through with in order for something to be accomplished, and it cannot be accomplished any other way.

So therefore, by God's establishment, it is law. Does that make sense? So he is the divine law giver. He is the one who issues statutes. He is the one who makes commandments. He is enthroned on high. So what he says is a precept, and it must be done.

If God's declaration and his establishment is that salvation is only by faith through Christ, then that's a law. But it is not by our work that we accomplish that law. So the word law here is not necessarily synonymous with the Mosaic law, but it would still be law in the sense that it is a declaration of God.

It is an establishment of something that must be done in order for salvation to be achieved, and it is not by our work. It is by God's work, but it is still law. It may not be a law written on stone tablets.

Of course not, because now by faith, when we receive this salvation, it is the law that is written on our hearts. It is the Holy Spirit who has been poured into our hearts, Ezekiel 36. It is the Spirit of Christ that dwells in us, as Paul is gonna argue coming up in Romans 8.

So by the law of works, are we saved because we followed some list of rules or something that was external, something that was written down somewhere? No, but by the law of faith, something instead that was written on our hearts.

Do you see how he's, it's a brilliant argument. I know that I'm kind of like jumping all over the place trying to explain it, but it is such a brilliant argument. This is a brilliant letter, and I had said that when we started our study of the book of Romans, that Paul writes of such deep concepts throughout this letter.

It's a reason why many theologians call this letter their favorite book of the Bible, because studying this stuff is so deep and so profound, and so, it probing the depths of God's Spirit. Paul talks with the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2 about how we understand the mind of God because of the Spirit of God that is put into our hearts.

And what understands a person's mind better than their spirit? So if we have the Spirit of God, then we are given something that helps us to understand the mind of God. Now, we're never gonna come to the end of understanding the mind of God.

You're never gonna become an expert in that even, because God is infinite and we're finite. God is holy and we are not. We had to be made holy by His gift, by His grace. So we are never going to be anywhere near the heights of who God is.

Isaiah 55, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts, declares the Lord. So we can't get anywhere near the understanding of God, lest anybody should ever think that they've even got all of Paul's letters figured out, because this was by the Holy Spirit of God that Paul was even able to probe into these things.

So again, this being a very, very brilliant letter and by the Holy Spirit's guidance on the Apostle Paul as he's unfolding these things. This is a great argument that we see here just in one verse. We're just covering verse 27 today.

That's as far as we're getting. So what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded by what kind of law? Kind of law. So we have two kinds of law, not necessarily laws, because that would imply a list or sets of laws or something.

I'm talking about the law that encompasses everything that pertains to it. Like you talk about American law, the law of our country, the law of the land. Maybe that's a phrase that you've used before.

There's multiple laws, but that word law encompasses all of those laws underneath it. You got it? That's what Paul is doing here, by what kind of law? So then he talks about two kinds of law. There is the law that is external, that is written down in a list, those things that you have to obey and follow in order to be a law keeper and not a law breaker.

There's that. And then there's the kind of law that is written on our hearts, which again, we have that reference in Ezekiel 36 and Paul comes back to it again here in Romans chapter eight as well. In fact, I'll just go ahead and jump there and read that section to you.

It's right at the start of the chapter. So at the beginning of Romans eight, it says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

And there he's differentiating the law again. You have the law of the spirit, and which is something internal. And then you have the law that is external, which we could not keep and in fact brought forth death.

So the law of sin and death. Verse three, for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. Then we're talking about the external law. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

So what the law required, what the external law required is fulfilled within. Who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. That's the rest of verse four. Here's verse five. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. There we have that reference to our sin nature again, for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. This verse here, this is Romans eight verses seven and eight. These two verses are why it's so baffling to me why anyone thinks that they can argue that apart from Christ, they can seek after God and find him and make a decision to follow Jesus that is therefore pleasing to God.

As though you of your own free will made that choice. You can't. These two verses right here say that you can't. You can't do that unless the spirit of God has intervened in your heart and reformed your heart.

Or the word that we use from that from Titus three five is regenerated your heart. Unless the Holy Spirit of God has changed your sin nature from someone who's rebelling against God, actively opposing God to a person who is now cut to the heart over their sin and stands in reverent fear of God.

Some change had to happen to change a person's nature from someone running away from God to someone who would now run to God. And that change is the Holy Spirit. The person who is in the flesh is hostile to God.

You don't make a decision to follow God and then God goes, oh, hey, glad you finally came around. Here's my Holy Spirit. Through the hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you were cut to the heart and that happened because of a work the Holy Spirit was doing in your heart.

As you were hearing the gospel proclaimed, this was all the spirit's work. It was not your work. So the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God and it does not submit to God's law. Indeed it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God, period. End of discussion. Not really because Paul goes on verse nine. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the spirit if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

And there you have an argument again of justification and sanctification. Justification is God's work. Sanctification is God's work. Your growth in holiness and righteousness is the work of God in you.

I don't understand how anybody reads the book of Romans and comes away from it with some sort of Arminian theology. That just does not make any sense to me. Anyway, I'm kind of rambling as I'm turning back to Romans three here.

So once again, verse 27, then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. We have come to salvation because of what God has established is the way of salvation.

Faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. That's not a law that is external that we point to on a list and we follow it and therefore we can boast in our own salvation. Rather, it is a work that God has done in your heart.

Previously, you were dead. He brought you to life and gave you faith. Previously, you were opposed to God, but now you love God because of faith that he's put in your heart through his Holy Spirit. Hebrews 12 too refers to Jesus as the author and the perfecter of our faith.

The author of our faith, he's the one who gave it to us. The perfecter of our faith, he's the one who grows us in that faith. So what becomes of your boasting? There is none. There is no place for you to boast.

You did nothing to contribute to your salvation except for providing the sin that was placed upon Christ when he died on the cross for you. All who turn from their sin and follow Jesus by the law of faith that God has established, you are saved.

That is an assurance and that is a promise of God. By faith in Jesus Christ, you are forgiven your sins and you have eternal life. Rejoice, Christian, and give all the glory to Christ our King. Let's pray.

Prayer of Thanksgiving for Salvation by Grace

Heavenly Father, oh, what a great word. What a wonderful rejoicing promise and assurance that we have here. That it was not by our works that we achieved faith. And that's good news because if it was by our works, we'd constantly be questioning whether or not we did it right.

But you are perfect and you are good in all of your judgments. And so what you have purposed and what you have done has been established and cannot be turned back. And so when we put our faith in Christ, we have assurance of our salvation because it's not by our works, it is by the work of God.

And may we continue to praise your name and exalt you for the goodness that you have continued to show us day by day. Lead us in righteousness today. May we do the things that are pleasing to you, that are rejoicing in you, and all of our thoughts and actions, our speech, everything we do, may we submit it unto you, O God.

Work in our lives today to the praise of your glorious grace. In Jesus' name, amen.

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