- Lesson Three in the Connect360 unit “And Then We Came to Romans: A Study of Paul’s ‘Weighty and Strong’ Letter” focuses on Romans 3:21-31.
One of the core tenets of Paul’s understanding of the gospel is it is given by God’s grace to all who believe, and obeying the law given to Moses does not earn God’s grace.
The entire letter to the Galatians is a strong rebuttal of those who insist being a Christian means we must also follow the law.
In Ephesians, the apostle wrote: “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. … For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9).
It should come as no surprise, then, that Paul placed the gift of salvation in Christ as the very essence of the gospel of which he was not ashamed.
Paul, who described himself as a Pharisee, was keenly aware of the law and its significance to the Jewish community.
He grew up believing obedience to the law—and the additional laws developed over the decades to protect it—were the most important means of earning God’s blessings.
This idea of the law as God’s inspired gift to the nation of Israel led him, as a Pharisee, to look down on those of different Jewish beliefs and on the Gentiles.
His practice of entering synagogues in each new community where he began to evangelize confirms his commitment to offer the gospel to Jews first, though he readily acknowledged God had made him an apostle to the Gentiles.
That’s why these verses look at salvation versus the law.
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Paul used to boast that, in keeping the law, he was faultless (see Philippians 3:6), but he realized the only way to come into fellowship with God is through faith in Jesus Christ, because that was God’s plan from the beginning.
Because he was an apostle to the Gentiles, Paul also understood the natural distrust between the Jews and the Gentiles.
He spent verses 29-31 showing God is the God of all people, Jew and Gentile, and salvation is offered to all, whether they tried to follow the law or not.
The one God, the giver of life in Christ, justifies everyone who believes, regardless of whether they are part of the Jewish community.
All are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
What about the law? Because Paul had been stressing salvation is by faith alone and has nothing to do with the law, he rightly anticipated the question of whether the law is relevant anymore.
He wrote to discredit the Judaizers who would enter new churches and try to convince the new believers true Christianity involved not only believing in Christ but also following the laws of Moses.
It was this idea that led Paul to write his letter to the Galatians, refuting this false gospel that threatened the early church.
Paul’s response to the Romans and the Galatians is that salvation by grace upholds the law, since the law points us to God and reveals our inability to earn his blessing apart from faith in Christ.
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