Romans 3:28 - What is Paul Denying?

Funny, when I make the same exact argument in reverse you deny it. The fact that Paul has not yet made it explicitly clear that those in Romans 2:6-8 will not be justified by their works until Romans 3:9-21 and Romans 3:27-28 does not mean he believes otherwise in Romans 2:6-8 as he is simply setting forth the just standards that will determine the kind and consequences of works.

And this is exactly what is going on in Romans 2. Paul indeed describes the just criteria and consequences of the law for those seeking God through justification by works. And later in chapter three explains why they will fail to be justified by works because their works do not measure up to the "good" standard set by God's law.

Lest anyone think I am "rationalizing" here, look at Romans 2:1-29 and see if you can find just one statement that says these were justified by faith or seeking to be justified by faith? Not one statement can be found. These are those who will seek to enter heaven by the merits of their own good works.

In Romans 3:9-21 denies such merits exist. In Romans 3:27 Paul denies that there is any "law of works" that can justify such OBVIOUS sinners described in Romans 2:1-5 and 2:17-24 that sandwich Romans 2:6-16.

Romans 3:27 denies any justification on the basis of any "law of works" which therefore eliminates any specific Jewish law for justification by works (Rom. 3:28) which places both Jews and Gentiles on the same basis for justification BY FAITH ALONE.

 

You do not take Paul at his words because he says NOT ONE WORD about justification in this context. He is speaking about progressive sanctification and in particular dependence upon the power of the Indwelling Spirit to overpower indwelling sin within the believer. He is talking about victory NOW in the daily life as compared to Romans 7:18-25 and Christian defeat under the power of indwelling sin due to attempting to tackle indwelling sin by your own WILL POWER.

His argument is very simple, the same Holy Spirit that indwells you is the Same Holy Spirit that one day will remove the principle and power of sin from your body altogether at the resurrection. If He has power to do that then, He is able to overpower indwelling sin NOW. The simple plan of victory is that we are justified by faith alone and we are also sanctified by faith alone. By faith we RECKON the body as the vehicle for the power of indwelling sin to be DEAD and the indwelling Holy Spirit to be LIFE or the victory over sin in our DAILY life. This is not complicated, simple and necessary for every child of God to EXPERIENCE the LIFE of the Spirit on a daily basis.

At the end of the day, the issue is whether we exegete Paul correctly. You do not exegete him correctly. You READ INTO Romans 7:14-8:13 the doctrine of justification when the word "justification" or "justify" is not even found there. Why? Because Paul has already finished dealing with justification in Romans 3-5. Progressive sanctification of the justfied is the subject of Romans 6-8:27.

Andre can you even find the word "justify" or "justification between Romans 6:1 and Romans 8:27????? That should give you a CLUE that you are READING INTO THE TEXT what Paul does not even mention much less discuss.


ANDRE SHOW US THE WORD "JUSTIFY" OR "JUSTIFICATION" EVEN MENTIONED BETWEEN ROMANS 6:1 AND ROMANS 8:13 - JUST ONCE!!

 

The contrast between "works" and "faith" with the term "law" applied equally to both in Romans 3:27 shows that Paul is contrasting two GENERAL PRINCIPLES as the basis for justification.

If your position were correct he would have just said "the law of works" versus "faith" and would have omitted the word "law" when speaking of "faith." This puts the nail in the coffin of your doctrine.

The fact that he repudiates "works" in GENERAL as a viable basis for justification in verse 27 draws the "therefore" of conclusive application to the Jewish type of "deeds of the law" in verse 28 necessarily eliminating it as well since it falls under the general category of "the law of works" in verse 27.

Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

You triip over the obvious here. Paul aim is stated clearly and his point is elminating all grounds for boasting and justification based on ANY and ALL kinds of "works" (v. 27) promotes boasting as it necessarily includes YOU and what YOU DO.

However, in contrast, the OBJECT of "faith" in verses 24-26 ELMINATES you as the actor of good works because NONE OF YOUR WORKS propitiate/satisfy God's violated justice but ONLY THE PERSON and THE WORKS of Jesus Christ. His sinless life offered in death is the object of faith "faith IN his blood." His Person and work is the object of justifying faith "for he is Just and the justifier of him that believeth IN Jesus." Only His sinless Person and substitutionary works PROPITIATE violated justice and therefore this is the only way the law is validated by the believer due to the object of his faith (Rom. 3:31).

Finally, it places both the jew and gentile on the SAME BASIS for justification! NOT WORKS as that has been repudiated (vv. 27-28) but on the basis of faith IN what does justify, satisfy, propitiate both the Jew and the Gentile. YOUR WORKS CAN NEVER satisfy, propitiate and thus justify you before violated justice of God. Such an idea dwells only in the THINKING of lost people (Rom. 2:3; 17-24).

The same is true in progressive sanctification. Your efforts do not sanctify you (Romans 7:14-25). Only the power of the Holy Spirit is capable of sanctifying you progressively (Rom. 8:1-27). To read in justification in Romans 7:14-8:27 is to violate the scriptures, ignore the immediate context and force progressive sanctification to be looked at as justification.

 

There is not one word of AWARDING or REWARDING of eternal life in Romans 8:11-13. It is the EXPERIENCING of eternal life NOW through the power of the Spirit over indwelling sin that is being taught.

When you lean on your own works indwelling sin wins and DEATH is EXPERIENCED in your life as SIN is manifested and SIN produces DEATH (separation of your daily life from God). When you lean on the power of the indwelling Spirit by faith, thus reckoning your body as dead you experience LIFE instead of DEATH here and now in your daily living. This is how you REDEEM THE TIME (Eph. 5:17-18) but submission to the Holy Spirit who manifests the LIFE OF CHRIST through you into your daily experience. This is how you save your daily life in the forms of rewards for the futre and blessings for the present.

Romans 8:11-13 is parallel with Ephesians 5:17-18 if you understand Epheisans 5:17-18 you understand Romans 8:11-13. You are confusing winning the skirmishes with sin and death on a daily basis or sanctification by faith with having won the war by the Person and works of Christ - justification by faith.

 

Your presumption upon Romasn 3:27 forces you to put common sense on the shelf. The bible only offers two "sorts" of works - (1) good and (2) bad. So when the scriptures talk about works these two are the only possibilties.

No one in their right mind would argue that justification is by "BAD" works as "BAD" works are the very thing justification is needed to JUSTIFY you from!!!!!!!!! Also remember, the subject is to "exclude" boasting. No one boasts of BAD works and the ONLY other sort of works besides "BAD" works are "good" works.

To say that my reasoning is not correct because I assume "good" versus" "bad" is the only conclusion that one can draw when "works" is the subject is throwing common sense out the window and it is easy to prove your throwing common sense out the window by just asking you just one question: "What KIND of works are there to choose from other than "good" or "bad"???????????????? He is talking about "works" is he not? He is talking about "works" in the context of justification is he not? Justification has to do with your MORAL condition or standing. What "sort of" works justify a person's moral condition or standing???? There is only one answer if common sense and context are not totally disregarded - GOOD WORKS.

Paul is excluding YOUR GOOD WORKS as a basis for justification because it provides a basis for BOASTING!!!! You don't boast about BAD works and you don't BOAST if you have done NOTHING.

You are blindly arguing simply to defend your false doctrine and eisgetical interpretation.

 

What role can you play in something that come to you as a "gift"? This translation wrongly says "gift" when the same actual Greek term is used of those who hated Jesus "without a cause." This provision by God comes to the sinner "without a cause" in them or as the KJV says "freely." You cannot BOAST in something that comes "without a cause" in you or comes to you "freely."

What role can you play in something that comes to you "by His grace." The term "grace" in the contexts of salvation and justification is always in opposition to the term "works." (Rom. 4:4-6; 11:5-6; Eph. 2:8-10; Gal. 2:17; etc.). Remember in Romans 3:27 what Paul is excluding is any grounds for BOASTING. The ONLY sort of works that gives grounds for boasting are "GOOD" works. This same denial of boasting is found in Eph. 2:9 "lest any man should boast."

What role can you play in something described that Jesus did ALL THE WORK to "propitiate" God's justice?

What role cay you play when the text explicitly says that God alone is the one who is "the just and justifier"????

The only role the sinner has in this text is to believe "IN" what Christ and God has provided "FREELY" by "grace" that fully propitiates the justice of God IN BEHALF OF sinners.

This is exactly why Paul asks, WHERE IS BOASTING THEN?????? and then answers it by saying 'IT IS EXCLUDED" However, you repudiate Paul's conclusion and claim there is something man can claim as "good works" in these verses. This shows how messed up your thinking as well as your eisgetical theology is, that you are forced to repudiate the very conclusion Paul gives.

 

What sort of law excludes boasting?????

27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

After setting forth the basis for justification of sinners in Romans 3:24-26 Paul asks this question "where is boasting then"? He then answers that quesiton "it is excluded."

He then asks the next question "by what sort of law"??? What sort of law will exclude boasting???? He follows that question by only offering TWO alternatives (1) "of works"? (2) "of faith"

He immediately answers the first alternative by saying "NAY" which leaves FAITH ONLY.

However, let us consider the first sort of law which he denies excludes boasting - the law "of works."

Why does not "the law of works" exclude boasting?????? Obviously because it gives a peron a basis to boast. How is that? Because it has to do with what YOU DO! If YOU DO something you can boast in it.

Now what sort of works give bragging rights before God? Do "bad" works give you bragging rights before God??? Only a fool would say that Paul is speaking of "bad" works when regarding the "law of works" in this context. The only sort of works that will give a person bragging rights before God are works perceived to be "GOOD" by the one bragging.

So common sense joined with the obvious context demonstrates that Paul is denying that the law of "GOOD WORKS" justifies the sinner. This is the sort of works that promotes boasting and thus are excluded from justification before God.

By excluding the law of good works the only remaining option is FAITH ONLY.


Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Faith "without the GOOD deeds of the law" as only a fool would argue justification before God by EVIL deeds. Only a fool would BOAST in evil deeds for justification.

Paul is elminating justification by any and all kinds of GOOD works because "there is none that doeth good NO, NOT ONE." This eliminates the law of Moses as a basis for justification by the GOOD DEEDS of the Mosaic Law. This eliminates the law of Conscience as a basis for justification by the GOOD DEEDS approved by conscience. This demands that God is the God of both the Jew and the Gentile as they both are ONE KIND OF MANKIND - sinners - and therefore there is but ONE LAW for justification for both - FAITH ALONE in the finished provision by God in the Person and work of Jesus Christ as the sole basis for justification of both. Where is boasting then? It is excluded! By what law? of good works? NO not by the law of good works as that only promotes boasting. It is excluded by the law of Faith as faith only RECEIVES the good works furnished by Christ ALONE in behalf of the sinner FREELY by GRACE thus denying any basis for boasting by believers.

If you look at Romans 3:24-26 that is the ONLY part played by the sinner in these verses:

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

 

Romans 4:16 speaks of "the faith of Abraham," and if we possess this faith we would obviously do the works of Abraham. As we also read, "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham." [John 8:39]. To hold his vision, to have his faith, results in his way of living.

If you have the "faith of the Baptists" you would live in accordance to their creed and doctrine. lf you have the "faith of the Pentecostals' you would follow their mode of living. And if you have the "faith of the Catholics" you would be following their religious system, form, and ceremony. But we are not speaking of these kinds of faith, i.e. system of beliefs, as good as they might be in their own share, and as much as God has used them in former days. But we now address ourselves to that specific faith, that which is GOD-IMPARTED, which indeed Abraham also possessed. And "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." [Galatians 3:7]. As Abraham received directly FROM GOD, so also we would receive directly FROM GOD, by the indwelling of the holy Spirit-- and as such would be counted as the children of Abraham, following God in like manner.

"But before the faith came, we were kept under (guarded by) the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our school-master to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that the faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." [Galatians 3:23-25].

In all cases, in the Greek text, in this passage it is identified as THE FAITH. Abraham had received this faith, however much in a mystery capsule it was given to him, for "the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen THROUGH FAITH, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." [Galatians 3:23-25].

Long before the gospel-- or GOOD NEWS was announced, yes, even prior to the dispensation of the law which preceded the good news, God already spoke some of the MYSTERY OF THE FAITH into Abraham, and He lived by that faith. "Abraham BELIEVED GOD . . ." [Romans 4:3].

But it wasn't time for the "mystery of the faith" to be revealed, and so God instituted the law, which served as a schoolmaster until . . . so note this word "schoolmaster" from a Greek word that literally means "a child-conductor." The child-conductor was that servant which simply guarded and kept the child between home and school, until they could safely commit the child into the hand of the teacher. So also, the law was given, to hold in restraint until Christ, The Teacher, The Faith, (Editor's note: The Revelator), should come, and then the lesser ministry was swallowed up into the greater.
Ray Prinzing

 

A Foolish interpretation

Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

What is the meaning of "boasting"?? It conveys the idea of TAKING CREDIT for something.

Now Paul has in the previous verse (v. 26) has already given the entire credit for justification to God alone when he said "that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

This is why he raises the question "Where is boasting then?" - meaning, where is the basis for sinners to take any credit in justification before God"? He demands it is "excluded" altogether. He then asks which of two laws can exclude it?

He gives only TWO general laws/principles that would exclude giving credit to the sinner for anything to do with being justified before God.

The first general principle is "of works"! Does "the law of works" exclude giving credit to sinners for justification before God? Paul immediately denies that "the law of works" would exclude giving a basis to sinners for taking credit for justification before God "nay."

Therefore, "the law of works" does provide the basis for boasting. How does "the law of works" give a basis for the sinner taking credit for justification before God???? The law of works operates only one way in regard to justification of a sinner - "ACCORDING TO YOUR WORKS." It operates on the basis of what SORT OF WORKS YOU DO.

What possible SORT of works are there that you can do? The Bible only gives two alternatives (1) good and (2) bad. Which sort of works provides a basis for boasting in keeping with the "law of works" or "according to your works"? Does "bad" works give you boasting rights before God???? Only a fool would say yes. This restricts all grounds for boasting to "GOOD" works if a sinner is to be justified before God "according to your works."

This is how the law of Moses operates as well as the law of conscience. Both operate by the very same law of works. The law of Moses either approves or disapproves of your works. The law of concience either approves or disapproves of your works (Rom. 2:15). This is "the law of works" or "according to your works" in regard to justification before God. "The law of works" or "according to your works" gives a basis of boasting to sinners and therefore is rejected by Paul. "of works? NAY."

This leave only "the law...of faith". How does the law of faith justify the sinner so that he has no basis for boasting? It is spelled out in Romans 3:24-26 and in Romans 4:1-25. Justification by faith is obtained soley and exclusively by the OBJECT "in" which faith is placed as previously spelled out in Romans 3:24-26

1. "faith IN His blood"
2. "believeth IN Jesus"

Justifying faith does not describe or have anything to do with any actions performed by the subject exercising faith but with the actions found "in" the object of faith. Therefore it excludes any basis of boasting found in the sinner or the sinners deeds but obtains total justification found in the Person and actions "IN" whom the sinner believes.

1. "Faith IN His blood" = sinless spotless life sacrificed in behalf of the sinner that satisfies the righteous demands of God's justice.

2. "believeth IN Jesus" = The Person of Jesus as the Substitute for sinners that fully propitiates/satisfies the complete demands of God's righteousness and fully propitiates/satisfies the complete demands of God's justice against sin.

Since this is done "freely" or as a "gift" and wholly by Grace and is the work of God ALONE - "that he might be Just and the Justifier of him that believeth IN Jesus" THEN WHERE IS ANY BASIS FOR BOASTING BY THE ONE BEING JUSTIFIED? IT IS EXCLUDED! How? "according to your works"? NO! but by the law of "faith" as faith simply receives the finished work as a free gift of grace of the works of Christ already finished and complete whereby the justifice of God has already been propitiated/satisfied and thus Christ is "THE END" of the law of righteousness to every one that beleiveth.

This places both Jews and Gentiles on an EQUAL BASIS before God as (1) sinners; (2) no other way to be justified but by faith.

 

You cannot honestly interpret Romans 4 and any verse in it by jumping out of the context all the way over to the gospel of John!!!! You must interpret Romans 4:16 by its immediate context FIRST before you play LEAP FROG hermeneutics. This is the Cultic method of interpretation which if used can be made to interpret any text in the scripture any way you like. It is like the open window method of interpretation.

In the deep south in the olden days the weather was so humid in the Summer that they opened the windows on both sides of the church building so to get a breeze. The old preacher would lift his bible up into the breeze and let the wind blow the pages and then arbritrarily stop the pages by sticking his finger down on a page on a verse and read it as his text and so the story goes he did and it came down to "Judas went out and hung himself" however, looking for a more positive text he placed it back into the wind and again stuck his finger down and the text said "go thou and do likewise" and then he repeated it again and the text said, "whatsoever thou doest, do quickly."

That is the method of interpretation you are using in your interpretation of Romans 4:16 which I might add is wrong.

The definite article "the" with the noun "faith" is not always used in Scripture for a system of faith, such as "the faith of the Baptists" or "the faith of Abraham" etc. It is some times refers to "the faith" as the fruit of the Spirit or "the faith" in regard to that is exercised in the gospel. Indeed, it is quite often used for "the faith" as a system of apostolic doctrine and practice.

However, Romans 4:16 refers to "the faith" as a kind or class that has been the subject of Paul since Romans 3:24 until Romans 5:2 in regard to the doctrine of justification before God. In Romans 3:27 it is "the law...of faith" in contrast to "the law of works" in regard to justification before God.

You need to read rather than trying to instruct because you simply do not have the foggiest idea what you are talking about.