Romans 3:27-31
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. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
Where then is boasting? Is there any room for feeling good about myself in the sense that any actions or restraining from actions lends any weight to my righteousness? Not only no but we must slam the door in the face of any such nonsense. An attempt to approach the throne of Heaven on the basis of our deeds is a thousand times worse than a leper all rotting and filthy trying to enter a royal court.
Isaiah 64:6
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
The law of works always retains the siren call that righteousness may be attainable by it. But like the siren song of the mermaids its entrancing melody leads only to death.
Exodus 32:15-19
Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” 18 But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” 19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
The law, although the presentation of the will of God from the hand of God, has no power to restrain sin. Before it was fairly finished it was broken. Powerless and broken is not a good foundation for boasting.
In Jesus’ day the Pharisees thought they had righteousness through possession of and keeping of the law. They seriously misunderstood the intent of the law.
Matthew 23:29-36
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
While the law of works can only judge by deeds, the law of faith relies on the omniscience of God in knowing the secrets of every heart. It is the law of faith that precludes boasting by destroying self-assurance and replacing it with blessed assurance in Christ.
Philippians 3:8-9
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith
1 Corinthians 1:28-31
God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
This justification by faith is our most closely guarded secret and our most loudly proclaimed rallying cry. For everyone who has faith in Jesus, Jesus has, by His blood, stepped on the scales in our favor.
Does this grace require attainments in knowledge of religion? Since grace is unmerited favor not even the merit of having, knowing and trying to follow the Bible adds anything to our side of the scale. The patriarchs Adam, Noah, and Abraham had none of our befuddling ecclesiology but were approved by God for their faith. Read Hebrews 11.
People who have no Bible and no church are nonetheless God’s creation and God is still God for them. Our knowledge of, or acknowledgement of, God, or lack thereof notwithstanding, God is God of all. This is what Paul told the Athenians.
Acts 17:22-25
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
Since this is all by and through faith, have we done away with the law completely? Of course not, but now under the salvation wrought by the cross of Christ, with the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we are empowered to understand the intent of the law and to carry it forward since it is still God’s expressed will.
Matthew 22:35-40
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
To love God and others is still the challenge we are presented with. A hopeless task within the law of works but a high calling to which, by God’s promise, we will attain within the law of faith.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
brotherpayne 