“Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.” —Romans 3:31

Part One established the analogy of humming over song lyrics we cannot comprehend even after listening to a song repeatedly. Biblical commentators do a similar thing when faced with verses in Scripture that they have failed to understand even after a lifetime of study. In their case, they do any number of things—ignore them altogether, interpret them out of context, take torturous routes to reach conclusions that agree with orthodox doctrines, point to writings from “learned” colleagues, claim scribal errors, or brush them under the rug in various ways—to avoid dealing with the plain truth of the text.

In Part Two, we will focus on just one of the forgotten lines in Romans—one that is commonly hummed through while waiting for better-known lyrics:

Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. (Romans 3:31)

Some translations, such as the English Standard Version and the New International Version, render this as, “Do we then overthrow [or nullify] the law by this faith?” (Emphasis ours throughout). Paul is writing about a particular application of faith, not simply belief or trust in God. He discusses the specific application in verses 21-26, which are about faith in Christ’s sacrifice as the means of atonement. Putting this together, the apostle asks if trusting in Christ’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins nullifies God’s law. Then he answers his question quite firmly: Not only does this faith not overthrow the law, it actually upholds or confirms it!

Justification by Faith

Before explaining this line of thought, we must step back to consider Paul’s whole song. The overriding theme of Romans 1-8 is the doctrine of justification by faith and how it applies to the Jew-Gentile divide that the early church struggled with. Chapters 9-11 then discuss the grafting of Gentiles into the Body of Christ and the current standing of physical Israelites. The final chapters discuss Christian conduct in light of the preceding doctrinal explanation.

Justification by faith simply means that we are aligned with God—justified—based on our belief in Christ’s sacrifice rather than any worthiness. At the time, many questioned this teaching because Gentiles were entering the church with little exposure to God’s instructions. The church needed to understand that justification comes from believing in Christ’s sacrifice, not from obeying God’s commands, which Jewish believers had traditionally emphasized. So, the question was, “How is someone accepted by God?” which leads to, “How does that relationship start?”

As a simple example, say a man tells a lie one day. The next day, though, the man does not lie or sin in any other way. In addition, he sells all he owns and gives the proceeds to charity. Yet the good he did the second day cannot pay for the whopper he told on the first. The wages for yesterday’s work of the flesh must still be paid, and those wages are death (Romans 6:23). Neither perfect obedience nor charitable deeds after the fact can pay those wages. The account can only be settled with a life. So, either the sinner pays with his life, or he has faith in Christ’s sacrifice as payment. Whether Jew or Gentile, we cannot approach the Father on the basis of our works because everyone falls critically and fatally short of His standard.

Yet this truth does not abolish God’s standards—it only means that our diligent efforts to live up to them will not justify us. In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the man who acknowledged his sinfulness and sought mercy was justified, not the one who held up his fasting and tithing to God as a self-serving offering (Luke 18:9-14). As necessary elements of God’s instruction, fasting and tithing are good things, and Christ commands them in other places (for example, Matthew 6:16-18; 9:14-15; 23:23). But they cannot pay the debt that a person owes because of his sins. Whether in terms of obedience to the law or in charity, our works are simply our duty (see Luke 17:10), not the means of our justification.

Being faithful to our spouse and honest with our neighbor will not justify or save us, yet we understand we are still obligated to keep those divine commands. They tell us the right way to live, and we see the significant benefit of keeping them and the tremendous harm from breaking them.

Likewise, God never intended the fourth commandment to justify us, yet keeping the seventh-day Sabbath is still part of God’s commandments. God has blessed, sanctified, and hallowed the seventh day since Creation, not merely from the giving of the law on Mount Sinai (Genesis 2:1-3; Exodus 20:11). The Sabbath is a necessary weekly reminder of God as Creator and Redeemer (Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:15), both physically and spiritually and past and present/future. Exodus 31:13 shows it to be the sign of sanctification that is foundational to knowing God, as well as a day for being refreshed. The Sabbath is so vital to a relationship with God that He scattered ancient Israel primarily for breaking it (Ezekiel 20:12-13, 16, 20-21, 24; 22:8, 26).

Jesus Christ’s teaching and example clearly upheld the Sabbath. Aside from the first commandment, the fourth arose as a subject more often during His ministry than any other. He and the Jews never disagreed over whether the seventh-day Sabbath was holy; they only sparred over what was appropriate activity on it. The book of Acts shows the apostles and early church continued to keep the seventh day.

Yet today’s nominal Christianity largely disparages the Sabbath because the Roman Catholic Church presumed to sanctify Sunday to placate sun-worshipers within the Empire. Though Protestantism rejected many Catholic practices during the Reformation, it weakly nodded to papal authority to continue this pagan tradition of men. Its later theologians twisted the Scripture to justify retaining Sunday as its day of worship.

The Purpose of the Law

Considered in totality, Paul is in no way against God’s law. However, he is very much against misapplying it, such as thinking we can approach the Father because we have never killed anyone or did not lie this week, etc. Instead, as he reasons, we must begin with the fact that we are sinners, and our best efforts can never justify us once we have transgressed. We can approach the Father only through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Even so, that critical point does not mean the law is unnecessary. Indeed, the law is extremely valuable because it reveals where we are out of alignment with God so we can change course. Thus, God gives us His law as a lamp to our feet (see Psalm 119:105)—to teach us how to walk and live as He lives.

Even if a man feels at peace with God in how he is living, it does not mean God has no controversy with him. Psalm 7:11 says, “God is angry with the wicked every day,” despite also sending rain and sun on the good/just and evil/unjust alike (Matthew 5:45). Psalm 50:21 describes how His silence can lead sinners to the assumption that He is on their side. Still, neither God’s silence nor how a man feels are good indicators of what He thinks. Instead, His Word reveals what He thinks.

Understanding the principle of justification by faith, we can work backward, step by step, and understand how faith confirms or upholds the law. As we saw earlier, the first step is that the faith Paul has in mind in Romans 3:31 is belief in Christ’s sacrifice to pay for our sins. The second step is that, since there are sins that need to be atoned, a law—a definition of right and wrong—is still necessary. I John 3:4 teaches that sin is the transgression of the law, so a standard of conduct must exist to be transgressed. Such transgression triggers the death penalty and the sinner’s need for a Redeemer.

The conclusion, then, is that inherent within our belief that Christ’s blood pays the death penalty is an acknowledgment that God’s law has been broken. Rather than nullifying God’s law through our belief, we implicitly confirm that God’s law is still very much in effect and admit we still need to be saved from the death penalty when we break that law.

If we have this faith, forgiveness is available when we repent, but repentance means turning from transgressing God’s standards. In Romans 6:15, Paul is aghast at the thought of continuing in sin—of persisting in behaviors that activate the death penalty, which includes, as we saw, breaking the fourth commandment by not treating the seventh day as holy. Likewise, Jude 4 warns of those who turn God’s grace into license, and Hebrews 10:26-27 contains a thunderous yet ignored declaration: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.”

Practicing Lawlessness

When we understand the overlooked lyric in Romans 3:31 about how our faith in Christ’s sacrifice upholds God’s law, we can better understand the rest of Paul’s song. Grasping the meaning of this one line reveals that what seems like the apostle faltering between two opinions is actually a brilliant argument to keep his audience from two errors:

» One is thinking too highly of our works, such that we use them to commend ourselves to God when they are, in reality, simply our duty. God will never be in our debt.

» The second is thinking that, since works cannot justify us, they are of no value at all. This faulty conclusion leads to assuming we can live however we please, and God’s grace will cover it all. This antinomian misreading of grace is the error of those who disregard God’s standards as they hum their way to destruction.

Paul’s song in these chapters harmonizes with his Savior’s warning of the coming judgment:

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Neither keeping the law nor doing works of charity will justify us. On the other hand, both withholding good from our neighbor and practicing lawlessness—continuing in sin—will separate us from our Savior. The correct reading is that God justifies us freely through belief in His Son’s redemptive work to give us a clean slate to begin a spiritual relationship with God and learn how to live by His every word (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4).

So, the next time we come to a line in a song we do not know well, it is worth searching it out to make sure we sing the right words and understand what the song is truly about.