Summary of Romans 3:31
Faith does not cancel God’s law; rather, true saving faith upholds, fulfills, and establishes the law’s true purpose through Christ.
BSF Study Questions Romans: From Guilt to Grace Lesson 6, Day 5: Romans 3:31
12a) God’s law requires absolute moral perfection, defined by supreme devotion to God and selfless love for others. Because humanity continuously fails this flawless standard, the law demands the ultimate penalty for our rebellion—death—highlighting our desperate need for grace.
b) The law cannot produce righteousness. Instead, it exposes our sin and acts as a strict guardian, driving us to seek justification entirely through faith in Christ.
c) Jesus lived the flawless life the law required, and died to pay its ultimate penalty, fully satisfying divine justice as our perfect substitute. He was the ultimate sacrifice of atonement for our sins and to be righteous for God.
13) He gives me a conscience, so I can know right and wrong, as well as the Holy Spirit. God gives me His love, using trials for good, and continually cleansing my confessed sins. God is good!
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Romans: From Guilt to Grace Lesson 6, Day 5: Romans 3:31
Great lesson! I love how the law points to Jesus, as everything does. It all comes back to Jesus!
End Notes BSF Study Questions Romans: From Guilt to Grace Lesson 6, Day 5: Romans 3:31
The Gospel establishes the law. The law was given to anticipate the coming of Christ and justification by faith. We’ll study this more in Romans 4.
END NOTES SUMMARIZED
Paul anticipates a critical objection: if salvation is based entirely on free grace and faith rather than human performance, does this make God’s moral law irrelevant? He forcefully denies this, arguing that the gospel actually establishes the law’s true purpose.
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The logical objection: “Do we then overthrow the law?” If our moral efforts to keep the law contribute absolutely nothing to our justification, it might seem like Paul is tossing the Old Testament scriptures in the trash.
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The emphatic denial: “By no means!” Paul utterly rejects any idea that faith leads to lawlessness. Grace does not mean God’s holy standards are ignored or discarded.
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Validating the penalty: Faith actually upholds the law because it recognizes that the law’s demands cannot simply be swept under the rug. The fact that Jesus had to shed His blood proves that the law’s severe penalty for sin is absolute and must be satisfied.
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Fulfilling the ultimate purpose: The law was never designed to be a ladder we climb to reach God; it was designed to expose our sin and point us to a Savior. Faith in Christ embraces the exact goal the law and the prophets were pointing toward all along.
CONCLUSION
The cross proves that God did not simply lower His moral standards or bypass the law to save humanity. Instead, justification by faith perfectly honors the law by satisfying its strict demands through Christ’s sacrifice. Far from destroying the Old Testament, the gospel of faith is the stunning climax it was anticipating from the very beginning.
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Let us remember that Jesus grew up in Galilee. He is returning to home territory. Because of this familiarity, it was hard for the people to believe in Jesus since he grew up there as a normal child. They did not honor him as they should.
