As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
27Therefore, where [is] the boasting? It is excluded. Through what sort of law? Of the works? By no means, but through a law of faith, 28for we are concluding [that] a man is being justified by faith without works of law. 29Or [is] God of Jews only? Not also of Gentiles? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30since [there is] one God who will justify circumcision out of faith and uncircumcision through that [same] faith. 31Are we therefore nullifying law through that faith? May it never be! Rather, we are establishing law.
These five verses are some serious fodder for pondering. As I said in the last post, the previous six verses should be printed in letters of gold. They sum up the most basic truths we human beings need to understand and embrace. If I may inject one more time, I urge you to read them over and over, study the terms, ponder them, pray over them. If you grasp anything in this world, grasp those six verses. They are, in the end, all that really matters. Please. If my life means anything to you, please seriously ponder over Romans 3:21-26.
And then we come to verses 27-31.
At my first glance they seem an odd appendage to the profound truths of vv.21-26. Having stated those amazing truths, Paul asks, “Where then is boasting?” “Boasting?” My soul wants to ask, “What does that have to do with anything?” It’s like “boasting” is something important to me and somehow, what Paul is saying is threatening it? I’ve had to ponder on this matter, precisely because the question, “Where then is boasting?” seems so irrelevant to me. I ponder because what that all means is that I don’t understand. I’m the one who is “wrong.” Any time the Bible “doesn’t make sense,” you and I can always be assured the problem is us, not the Bible. But then, what that tells me is I’ve found a gold mine. What it means is, if there is something I can understand, then I will see the world a little more clearly. I’ll understand just a little more of God’s heart. I’ll know the truth and the truth will set me free!
And so I ponder.
To be honest, as I sit here and type, I’m not sure I’ve come to any startling conclusions. Here’s what I think I’m seeing: My question itself reveals how little I really understand what is going on. We Gentiles read Romans 1-3 and, if we’re honest, the Jewish element is almost irrelevant to us. We read it and wonder at this Gospel of grace. We would agree that, yes, of course, Paul does have a few things to say about Jewish people, but we think what he says of them really just refers to religious people in general.
I think my confusion at verse 27 arises precisely because I have minimized the Jewish element throughout Romans 1-3. I want to suggest, just for anyone else’s interested perusal, that there is a huge sense that Paul is writing Romans 1-3 more to Jews than to us Gentiles. I know that is totally heretical, but I rather suspect it was the Jews who needed convincing more so than the Gentiles. I think it is safe to say the most difficult people to reach in any generation are the religious – the people who are quite sure they’ve already “got it right.” I would suggest, in a sense, it doesn’t take much to convince pagan Gentiles they’re guilty. When you’ve lived in open immorality, lied, stolen, and just generally been a pretty rotten person, you can hear, “For all have sinned,” and, like the tax collectors and prostitutes of John and Jesus’ time, readily admit it’s true. But when you see yourself as “religious,” when you can marshal all kinds of evidence of how “religious” you are and have been (own six Bibles, go to church every Sunday, “don’t smoke, don’t chew, and don’t run with girls that do”), it may have to come as a complete shock for God to convince you you really are a sinner. And that is precisely “the Jewish problem.”
And I think that is where the “boasting” comes in. The Bible is full of passages where the Jews saw the Gentiles as “sinners” and thought their very Jewishness was every reason in the world to puff out their chests and agree together they were “better” than the Gentile dogs. What is that? Boasting. And if I’m right that Paul’s primary audience is actually the Jews, then, yes, right at this point, he needs to address this “boasting” problem. Notice in vv.29,30, this is exactly where Paul goes. Is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? At that point in church history, it was the Jews who needed to be utterly and finally convinced that God’s plan of salvation by grace meant they had no ground for their boasting. They are not better than the Gentiles. Are they Abraham’s descendants? Oh, yes. Does that mean they are a special people in the eyes of God? Oh, yes. But does that make them better than Gentiles. NO. Like the old saying, “The ground is level at the foot of the Cross.” The Jewish people needed to realize they must be saved by grace in the same way and just as much as any Gentile “dog.”
That’s what I think is going on. And that is why I think the very question seems odd to me. I’m not a Jew. I basically wasn’t even thinking I’m “better” than someone else. I was reading verses 21-26 and marveling in this amazing grace of a salvation that can be mine simply through faith in our wonderful Redeemer Jesus!
I think, if anyone is reading this, and if we’re going to study the Bible, then I will maintain that we need to work hard to practice a consistent hermeneutic. We need to let the Bible say what it says. And if Romans 1-3 is particularly addressing Jews, then we need to acknowledge that as we would seek to truly understand whatever the Lord is saying to us. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I really am a heretic. But, right or wrong in my suggestions, whoever you are and whatever you think, you had better be striving to let God speak, to read the Bible as His Word, not yours. He has promised to bless His Word. He never promised to bless yours or mine. It’s His truth that will set you and me free.
Now, all that said, I do want to acknowledge that today, it may very well be true that Gentiles who call themselves Christians have exactly the same problem. Boasting. Thinking we’re “better.” I would suggest the Church has slid into exactly the same problem. We may not be quite so verbal about it, but I fear the Church is today filled with people who are quite sure they’ve “got it,” and who sadly comprise the group of people we may call “the religious lost.” And I’m not talking about “them there godless liberals and all their false religion.” I’m talking about people in fundamental and evangelical churches that may in fact claim to preach and teach the Gospel. The sad fact is you can slide into hell right off the pews of a Biblical church, just as easily as off a bar stool. In fact, once again, it may be the guy in the pew who is the hardest to reach, not the drunk on his stool.
The fact is you and I are no “better” than even the most disgusting, godless, immoral, far-left liberal.
Once again, “the ground is level at the foot of the Cross.”
So where is boasting? It is excluded.
Guess it does make sense after all!
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