Someone once said to me, ‘I know what I can articulate’. And while I don’t think it is always true, it is often true. I know what I can articulate. What I am able to put in my own words and explain to others, this thing I know. I have found the act of teaching others, or explaining things to others, gives clarity and focus to my thinking and my words.
To be simple without being simplistic is a great virtue. Teachers, ministers, politicians, commedians, marketing executives, revolutionaries, all aim to reduce their teaching or idea to an easily remembered proposition. We call it a slogan, or a motto.
Aldi: Smarter Shopping. McDonalds: Love It. Subway: Eat Fresh Warragamba Public School: Seek Truth and Honour Sydney Technical High School: Manners Maketh Man Anglican Parish Mulgoa: Your Local Church Mr Abbott: Turn Back the Boats Mr Rudd: I’ve Got to Zip.
Christians have also long had slogan, or mottos, and memory aids to make it easy to recall what we believe. What is it we stand for? What is it we believe? From ICTHUS: Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Saviour to Jesus: All About Life, we’ve tried to capture what we believe about God, Jesus and the bible in words.
At the time of the reformation, there were four Solas, for alones. Bible Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone. And faith alone is based on Paul’s proposition or motto in chapter 3 verse 28.
For in chapter 3 verse 28, Paul gives us his proposition, his slogan, his motto, which drives his ministry. Here is a topic sentence to commit to memory, a proposition from which many things follow. Romans Chapter 3 verse 28:
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. (NIV)
In our short passage today, Paul crystalises his teaching into a principle. In verse 28, Paul tells us how we are justified before God (verse 28) And Paul tells us what this does and doesn’t mean (verses 27-31) And next week, we will see that Paul will prove it from the Old Testament, from Abraham and David.
First of all, the principle. How is a person justified before God? Chapter 3 verse 28 gives Paul’s conclusion. Look at verse 28 again with me.
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. (NIV)
What precious words! A person is justified by faith apart from works of the law. They are so important, I want us to slowly step through them.
First, justified. Justify is a law court word. It means ‘declare righteous’, ‘acquit’, ‘declare innocent’. To be justified is to receive the verdict of ‘not guilty’. It is to receive the verdict of ‘righteous’. God says of the justified person, ‘You are righteous. You have conformed to my standard, and kept my law.’
Of ourselves, of course, we are not righteous in and of ourselves. Paul said that in Romans 3:10:
There is no-one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10 NIV)
But God because of Jesus’ death, the wrath averting sacrifice of Jesus, God is both righteous, and can declare us righteous. (Romans 3:5, 3:25-26). Because Jesus’ death and resurrection is the game changer (Romans 4:25; 5:18).
And the righteousness of God comes to a person and is received simply by faith. Faith is simply trusting God, relying on God’s promises, believing God’s word and resting on God’s Son. God promises ‘Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved’ (Joel 2:32; Romans 10:13). And that Lord is Jesus (10:9). And we who call on this Lord Jesus are saved. We believe God, and he saves us.
Notice Paul says ‘by faith’. Faith is the instrument of our justification. Faith links us up to Jesus and his death, connects us to Jesus. And by faith we take all the benefits of his life, death, resurrection and continuing intercession before the Father.
Now this makes faith in Jesus necessary for justification. We must trust Jesus. That is the only way we can be justified.
But we must understand how faith doesn’t justify us. For example, someone might think that faith is the ‘good work’ that God requires. On this view, someone might think: Well, God saw we couldn’t do the works of the law. So God made the good works he required a bit easier for us. Not the hard work of the 10 commandments anymore, but the much easier work of faith. So that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by the work of faith.
However, that is not how God justifies us by faith. Faith is not a work that earns justification. Rather, faith is an instrument through which we receive justification.
Think of those magnificent twin water pipes that connect Warragamba Dam to Prospect Reservoir. I drive past them every Sunday morning on my way to church. They are a wonderful feat of engineering supplying water to our city. They are necessary for watering our city. But if there’s no water in the dam, they are useless. Their usefulness and ability is wholly dependent on the dam have water. So it is with faith. Faith only saves because it is the supply pipe that links us to Jesus, who is the great dam, the great reservoir, of all of God’s blessings.
Think about the NBN ‘fibre to the node’ proposal, that one day, perhaps, we might get here in our villages. We’ve already got all the copper wires, phones, and sockets attached to the node. But we’ve got no NBN yet in our area. The NBN has not rolled out in our area. So all the wires we’ve got to the node aren’t really that useful. There is nothing to connect to yet!
That is like faith. Faith in itself only gets it’s value and power from it’s object. It is the object of faith that matters. What makes faith valuable is what it connects us up to. And faith in Jesus connects us up to someone who in infinitely valuable… Jesus. Faith links us to Jesus. Faith is valuable and precious and justifies us because it brings Jesus and all his benefits to us.
And all the benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection come to us through faith. But faith doesn’t justify us because it is a good work by itself. Because without connecting us to Jesus, faith by itself it is useless.
Faith is the hungry empty mouth that receives Jesus. Faith is the empty hand that clings to Jesus’ cross. Just like the hymn says, ‘Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling.’ And so a person is justified by faith …
But Paul has to state the negative. Because stating the truth is not just saying how we are justified. It is also saying what doesn’t justify us. It is good to say the positive thing. Justified by faith. But to give the full truth, we must say the negative thing. And not justified by obeying God’s law.
The instrument of justification is faith in Christ. The instrument of justification is NOT observing the law. It is not by works of the law It isn’t because the law is bad. The law is holy, righteous and good. And so the works of the law are ‘good works’[1] But it is because we are not good, and cannot be good enough, that the works of the law cannot justify us. There is no-one who does good, not even one. And so the sad truth is none of us has done the law. We have each one of us broken God’s good and perfect law. That is simply to say that we are sinners. So we must be justified apart from works of the law, by faith apart from good works. And since good works consists of every good and perfect act, it means that we must be justified by faith alone. Sola Fide. ‘Faith alone’ is ‘faith apart from works of the law’.
There is Paul’s conclusion. A person is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
Well, so what? So we are justified by faith apart from works? What does this mean for us? Paul shows us three things this means for us (verses 27-31)
Justification by faith means that we cannot boast. Read verse 27 with me.
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. (NIV)
Faith excludes boasting. We cannot boast about ourselves. We cannot say, ‘I’m a good person. I go to church. I’ve kept God’s commandments. I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve been a good Christian. I deserve to go to heaven. I have achieved my salvation.’
First, because it is not true. We are sinners who have thought, said, and done much wrong. Even as Christians we are still sinners. Our thoughts, acts and words as Christians, strictly considered, deserve only God’s wrath and anger[2].
But second, faith looks to someone else. We trust Jesus. We rely on Jesus. So our only boast is Jesus Christ, Jesus’ death and Jesus’ resurrection. We cannot boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14).
So when you find yourself boasting about yourself, as I sometimes do, start boasting about Jesus instead. Don’t say how good you are. Say how good Jesus is. Let’s turn our boasting into evangelism, boasting about Jesus.
For God has decided to bring us to heaven in a way that means we will never boast about ourselves, but only about Jesus. God wanted no one in heaven to say, ‘Hey look at what I’ve done, look at what I’ve achieved. I made it here because of me’. God only ever wants us to say, ‘I deserved hell and death and damnation, and the only reason I am here in heaven is because God in his kindness sent Jesus to die on the cross and rise again for me.’ And even the faith that links me to Jesus, he gave me as a gift. Otherwise, I’d be in hell where I deserve to be. So faith excludes all boasting.
Verses 29 to 30:
Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. (NIV)
Faith means that Jews and Gentiles are justified the same way. Jews are justified by faith. Gentiles are justified through faith. Faith is the sole instrument of justification.
There is now one people of God, which is the church. It consists of Jews who trust in Jesus Christ. And included in that people of God, are the gentiles, the nations, who trust in Jesus Christ. And we will see in chapters 12 to 15, that this affects what church does, and how the church treats people in its midst. Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians seek to get on, even though they have such different cultures and practices.
Imagine a group of Middle Eastern Muslims lived in our suburb, and they become Christians. They join us here at church. I can tell you, there would be all kind of niggles and teething problems. Our Parish Council would have many difficult cultural conflicts to deal with. This is what the church in Rome faced. Jews and Gentiles, becoming one people, with different food laws and cultural practices, required much work. It was hard enough in Jerusalem after the day of Pentecost. Greek speaking widows were being overlooked. How much more in the multi-cultural melting pot that was the Empire’s Capital, Rome?
And the foundation for this new society, this new people of God, is justification by faith apart from our good works. Justification by faith alone is the basis and foundation of our Christian unity. As my minister, Ray Galea, used to say to us, ‘The ground at the foot of the cross is very flat.’ We all need Jesus’ death just as much as the other, no matter what our nationality or culture is. We are all debtors to grace, no matter from where we hale. And each of us, whether Jew or Gentile, depend not on the law or on our good works, because we are rotten sinners, but on Jesus Christ by faith.
Look at verse 31 with me:
Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. (NIV)
Now Paul has clearly said that we are justified apart from works of the law. Works of the law, or good works, have no part in our justification. However, now Paul says we do not nullify the law. We uphold the law. We establish the law. The law still stands.
Now, the question is, how do we uphold the law? In what way do we being justified apart from the law, establish the law?
This is an important question. And Paul’s statement is so brief. So let me tease out what I think Paul means from other things he has written.
I think there are 4 ways that faith establishes the law, even though faith means we are not justified by the law.
Firstly, faith establishes the law because the law shows we need Jesus. The law always shows us our sin. Through the law we become conscious of sin (Romans 3:20). And thus the law drives us to Jesus, who fulfilled the law on our behalf (Romans 8:4; Galatians 3:13)[3].
That’s what we do every time we meet together and read Jesus’ 2 greatest commandments at the beginning of our services, before our confession. You shall love God with all your heart. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. We read them most Sundays at church. We agree they are good. We confess that we haven’t kept them. And we ask for mercy, and forgiveness, and enabling. And we trust again in Jesus and his death and resurrection. Faith establishes the law because the law shows our need for Jesus. And our need for Jesus drives us to faith in him.
The second reason, faith establishes the law because the law foreshadowed Jesus. There is another meaning of the Hebrew word ‘Torah’, the Hebrew translated as ‘law.’ And that is, the first 5 books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch. Long ago the Old Testament law pointed to Jesus’ coming. And so now faith looks at the Old Testament. And sees Jesus in the Old Testament. And so now faith sees the Old Testament law as fixed and immovable, God’s everlasting word testifying to Jesus Christ.
Take the Old Testament sacrificial system, taught in Leviticus, or the Passover in Exodus, or the offerings of Abraham and Noah in Genesis. God commanded the people of old to sacrifice sheep and bulls. But God commands us not to. We are told we must not sacrifice bulls and lambs. Why? Because Jesus is our once and for all sacrifice! And we must not sacrifice. If we do, we say Jesus death didn’t achieve our forgiveness (Hebrews 10:18)
But we must never say: Oh well, we can just cut the book of Leviticus out of our bibles. We don’t need the Passover story in Exodus. The offering of Isaac, or the sacrifices of Noah, were to no purpose.
Why? Because the blood of sheep so long ago pointed to the blood of Jesus revealed to us now. Jesus is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Jesus, our passover lamb, has been sacrificed. And so the laws in Exodus and Leviticus perpetually stand in the Christian church. The examples in Genesis provide us with types of the Christ. They always point us to Jesus, and testify to Jesus, pointing to his death. And they forever remain a type, a pattern which foreshadowed Jesus. And they now stand fulfilled by the Jesus, to whom they pointed. We establish the law because it foreshadowed Jesus.
The third way faith establishes the law is that Jesus fulfilled the law on our behalf. Because of our sin, we were powerless to fulfill the law But what we couldn’t do, God did by sending Jesus. Look at Romans 8:3-4
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements [better, justification] of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:3-4 NIV)
Notice how in sending Jesus, God took the law seriously. God’s way of justifying us apart from law had to deal with the demands of the law. None of us had done the law. We are weak and sinful. We haven’t kept the law. But Jesus did. He obeyed the law throughout his life. He obeyed to the point of death, even the death of the cross. In his sinless life he kept the laws we should have kept but did not. In his obedient death he bore the curse we should have borne but now do not have have to. (Galatians 3:13) Jesus lived the life we should have lived. Jesus died the death we should have died. And by his obedient life and death he fulfilled the law (Romans 5:18-19). And God considers those with faith to be in Christ. So that we are considered to have kept the law in Christ. Romans 8:4 again.
And so God condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us…
God graciously considers us to have fulfilled the law[4]. So faith establishes the law because faith connects us to Jesus, and Jesus fulfilled the law.
And fourth, we establish the law because faith works through love, and love fulfills the law. What do I mean by this? Paul has clearly said we are justified by faith apart from works of the law. Justification is by faith, not works, no matter how good they are.
But Paul also knows something about faith. Faith is a busy active thing. It always is working. In Galatians 5:6, Paul puts it like this. Faith is ‘working through love’[5]
In Romans 13:9-10, Paul says this:
‘The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery’, ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not covet,’ and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law. (Romans 13:9-10 NIV)
So we find this principle at work in us. We have faith in Jesus. We trust him alone for justification. And that faith in Jesus alone justifies us.
But we find that this faith also works. Faith alone justifies, but the faith that justifies is never alone. Rather, faith works through love. And then we find that love is the fulfillment of the law. This love does not justify us. But it is the product of faith.
A diamond is both hard and beautiful. A diamond is hard. And so a diamond saw can cut the hardest precious stones. But a diamond is beautiful also. And so can be put in an engagement ring because it is beautiful.
So it is with faith. Faith trusts promises. When God says ‘I will save you’, faith rests on God’s promise. Faith lets God save, and doesn’t say ‘Oh well, I better go and work for my justification and salvation’. So faith doesn’t work for justification.
Yet faith works through love. So faith loves neighbour and fulfills the law. The love that springs from faith does not fit it for justification. Just as the beauty of a diamond does not fit it for it cutting stones.
How do we uphold the law by faith? Here is the summary of the 4 ways that I think are true from elsewhere in Paul.
And friends, this last point, that faith works through love, and that love fulfills the law, is the key to understanding what James is talking about in Chapter 2 verses 14 to 25 of James’ letter. Now, at the end of my talk, I just want to draw your attention to another slogan in the Bible.
James chapter 2 verse 24. Turn that passage up with me.
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (James 2:24 NIV)
And let’s compare that with Paul’s principle in Romans chapter 3 verse 27:
For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law (Romans 3:27 NIV)
At first glance, James and Paul seem to say two very different things about justification: James says a person is justified by works and not by faith alone; Paul says that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Is this a contradiction? Do Paul and James disagree about faith, works and justification? Well, first glances can be misleading. We have to understand what James and Paul mean by the word ‘justify’.
And James and Paul use the word ‘justify’ in a slightly different sense. But that difference makes all the difference. ‘Justify’ for Paul is a law court word. Paul uses it in a specialized way to mean ‘acquit’ or ‘declare righteous’.
But the word 'justify' in the original language can also mean something very close to that, ‘vindicate’ or ‘prove righteous’ or ‘show righteous’. That is very close to what being justified means in English.
So James uses ‘justify’ to mean ‘showing’ or ‘demonstrating’ a person’s righteousness by their conduct. James is interested in whether someone’s claim to faith in Christ is backed up by evidence[6]. Is this a true faith, or simply a faith that the demons have? That is James’ point.
The justification of Abraham and Rahab that James talks about was something that everyone could see. They were shown to be righteous by what they did, something observable. Abraham offered his son Isaac. Rahab sent the spies off in another direction. And these works showed that their faith was more than what the demons had.
Moreover, James seems to be writing into a situation where ‘faith’ has been watered down to some sort of confession that God is one God. You believe in one God. Good, even the demons do that, and shudder. And it is clear that when Paul talks about faith, that is not what he has in mind. He has in mind a steadfast and constant trust and reliance on the promise of God. Not simply an intellectual assent that there is one God. So James is saying that a person is justified by works in this sense, that works are the only means of demonstrating a true and saving faith. James uses ‘justify’ with the meaning of ‘demonstrate to be righteous’. We shall see, however, that Paul uses the word ‘justify’ to mean ‘declare the ungodly to be righteous’. We will see that next week, in Romans 4.
Thus, James and Paul have complementary teachings on justification. James holds that those who have a real faith demonstrate that they have that real faith by their works, and in this sense are justified by their works. Whereas, Paul’s interest is to show that the ungodly are declared righteous by faith apart from any of their works, which is the same as saying that they are justified by faith ‘alone’.
Calvin grasped both these truths with another motto. It is faith alone that saves, but the faith that saves is never alone. Faith alone saves. But the faith that saves is never alone. It is always accompanied by good works, for faith works through love.
Paul puts both faith and works together in their right relationship in Ephesians 2:8-10. And this little passage can save us from a host of misunderstandings. Turn up Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 to 10 with me. Notice verses 8 and 9:
For it is by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. (NIV)
So faith again is the instrument of salvation. It is salvation by grace through faith. And even faith itself is a gift[7]. This salvation does not come by works, lest we can boast. There is salvation by faith apart from works, which is the same as salvation by faith alone.
However, there is still a place for good works. Verse 10:
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
God is full of good works. And we are at the top of God’s list of good works. We are God’s good works. And God has recreated us in his image, in Christ Jesus, for good works. Our purpose now is to do good works. The good works we are not saved by, are the good works we are saved for. The reason for our salvation is that we do the good works God has planned and predestined for us to walk in. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. And the true Christian will have a life littered with good works. Not perfect good works, but pleasing good works to God our heavenly father. But even the believer with the most abundant good works, like Abraham, trusts in none of those good works for his salvation and justification. He trusts in Christ alone for his salvation. And his justification is by faith alone. So no one can boast before God.
Let’s pray.
[1] Of course, the New Perspective is wrong to say that works of the law are simply ‘boundary markers’ like circumcision and food laws, just as the 15th century Roman Catholics and Origen are mistaken to limit works of the law to ‘ceremonial works’. Works of the law are in fact works done in obedience to God’s law which are works that are ‘holy, righteous and good’, and therefore ‘good works’.
[2] The reformed churches teach simul iustus et peccator and semper iustus et peccator. That is, we are at the same time and always both righteous, because of justification by faith and Jesus’ sin bearing death and glorious resurrection, and also sinners, because concupiscence, or lust or coveteousness (see Romans 7:8-25) is of the nature of sin and still clings to those truly justified until the end of their lives. Thus, the Christian requires free justification to the very end of life. Roman Catholicism teaches that one is only as justified as they are subjectively holy and inherently righteous, thus there are grades of justification. She teaches that free justification, or justification apart from works, applies only to pre-baptismal sins, and that concupiscence is not of the nature of sin, so it is meaningless to speak of the simul and semper.
[3] Calvin, 152
[4] Moo, 244-5
[5] Compare Calvin, 152 ‘… and then there is sanctification, by which our hearts are prepared to keep the law’ it is indeed imperfectly done, but there is an aiming at the work’. Contra D M Lloyd Jones, 144. Moo places his emphasis on the first view: 255.
[6] L T Johnson, The Letter of James: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New York: Doubleday, 1995), 242, compare 243, 247-8. Also J A Zeisler, The Meaning of Righteousness in Paul: A Linguistic and Theological Enquiry: SNTSMS(Cambridge: CUP, 1972), 128-9, 141, who argues for a ‘demonstrative’ use of the verb in James.
[7] I am aware that ‘faith’ and ‘this’ do not agree in gender, as Calvin pointed out, but this fact was not a problem for several of the Greek fathers, viz Chrysostom, Theodoret and Fulgentius. Moreover, a case can be made for the attraction of the gender of the demonstrative to the gender of ‘gift’. I think the referent of ‘this’ (tou/to) is ‘faith’, even though it doesn’t agree in gender. I do so on the basis that the neuter to. dw/ron has attracted the gender of the demonstrative pronoun. This is an ancient understanding of the text. So Chrysostom (c 347-404) says:
In order then that the greatness of the benefits bestowed many not raise you too high, observe how he brings you down: “by grace you have been saved,” says he, “through faith”. Then, that on the other hand, our free-will be not impaired, he adds also our part in the work, and yet again cancels it, and adds, “And that not of ourselves.” Neither is faith, he means, “of ourselves.” Because had He not come, had he not called us, how had we been able to believe? For how, says he, shall they believe, unless they hear?” So that the work of faith is not our own. “It is the gift,” said he, “of God,” it is “not of works”. Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians IV. Accessed at www.ccel.org.
I rely on Chrysostom to show that a native Greek speaker had no problem reading the referent of the demonstrative pronoun tou/to as pi,stewj, even though I think his explanation of why faith is not ‘from ourselves’ is insufficient. Likewise, Theodoret, Bp of Cyrrhus (c 393-466) took the reference of tou/to to faith:
‘All we bring to grace is our faith. But even in this faith, divine grace itself has become our enabler. For [Paul] adds, ‘And this is not of yourselves but it is a gift of God; not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph 2:8-9).’ It is not of our own accord that we have believed, but we have come to belief after having been called, and even when we had come to believe, He did not require of us purity of life, but approving mere faith, God bestowed on us forgiveness of sins.’ Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Interpretation of the Fourteen Epistles of Paul (FEF 3:248-49,* sec 2163) cited in T Oden, The Justification Reader, 44
Fulgentius, Bp of Ruspe in N Africa (468-533) writes:
The blessed Paul argues that we are saved by faith, which he declares to be not from us but a gift from God. Thus there cannot possibly be true salvation where there is no true faith, and, since this faith is divinely enabled, it is without doubt bestowed by his free generosity.’ Fulgentius, On the Incarnation 1: quoted in Oden, Justification Reader, 48 (ACCS NT 8:133-4)
According to the view of Chrysostom, Theodoret and Fulgentius, the reason why Paul includes the statement ‘even this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God’ is to take away every ground of boasting by saying that even faith, the faith that (from one perspective) we ourselves do and must truly bring to our salvation, does not (from another perspective), not originating from us but is a gift of God. Ellicot reasons as follows:
‘Still it may be said that the clause kai. tou/to ktl was suggested by the mention of the subjective medium pi,stij,, which might be thought to imply some independent action on the part of the subject (comp. Theodoret); to prevent even this supposition, the Apostle has recourse to language still more rigorously exclusive.’ Ellicott, Ephesians, 35 (Google Books)
Jerome (342-420) agrees with the tenor of this argument:
‘We are his creation. This means that it is from him that we live, breathe, understand and are able to believe, because he is the One who made us.’ Jerome, Ephesians, quoted in Oden, Justification Reader, 47-8 (ACCS NT 8:134)