Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish the law.
5 sermons cite this verse
Some of you are doctrine people, and some of you are so what people. Obviously, we want to be both, but some of you are doctrine people, meaning you would take a sermon on propitiation any Sunday. Give me one on redemption. Give me one. If it ends in T-I-O-N, I want a whole sermon on it. Give me the history of the RSV. Boy, I can't get enough of that. So some of you, you just, you love to read doctrine, study doctrine, and you love the doctrine here in Romans. And I make no apologies for giving doctrine because there's a lot of it in the Bible. But others of you, not discounting that, I hope, but are so what people. Say, okay, so what? I got to go live my life? What difference does this make? Well, we want to be doctrine people and so what people. And some of the time, the so what to the doctrine is not, now here are five steps that you need to do this week, but rather behold our God, glory be to Christ, overflowing with thanksgiving. …
Jesus never revised the law. Downward, listen to Romans 3 verse 31. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid we establish the law. You see, my dear friend, tithing is not just a part of the Old Testament ceremonial law. It was here before the Old Testament ceremonial law ever got here. But even though the truth of the Old Testament ceremonial law is established in the tithe through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, here it is. If you'd release your finances, number one, there is a definite proportion that is a starting place. Number two, there is a designated place. Look at it. He says here, look at it in verse 10, bring you all the tithes into the storehouse. Now in the Old Testament they had a temple. And in that temple there was a storehouse. And so they brought all the tithe into the storehouse. In the temple they would bring their tithe and it was put in the storehouse. You say, Pastor, there is no temple today. Well friend, you're wrong. There is a temple today. The Bible says of the church, ye are the temple of God. First Corinthians 3 and first Corinthians chapter 6, the Bible teaches that the church is the temple of God. And so the Apostle Paul said in first Corinthians chapter 16 verse 2, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him. And the word in store is translated in the Septuagint, …
The first proposition is self-evident; and the second, that no works done before justification are done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, will appear equally plain and undeniable, if we only consider, God hath willed and commanded that “all our works” should “be done in charity;” (en agape) in love, in that love to God which produces love to all mankind. But none of our works can be done in this love, while the love of the Father (of God as our Father) is not in us; and this love can not be in us till we receive the Spirit of Adoption, crying in , our hearts, Abba, Father. If, therefore, God doth not justify the ungodly, and him that (in this sense) worketh not, then hath Christ died in vain; then, notwithstanding his death, can no flesh living be justified. IV. 1. But on what terms, then, is he justified who is altogether “ungodly,” and till that time “worketh not?” on one alone; which is faith: he “believeth is him that justifieth the ungodly.” And “he that believeth is not condemned;” yea, he is “passed from death unto life.” “For the righteousness (or mercy) of God is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: Whom God hath set forth for a propitiation, through faith in his blood; that he might be just, and” (consistently with his justice) “the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus:” “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law;” without previous obedience to the moral law, which, indeed, he could not, till now, perform. That it is the moral law, and that alone, which is here intended, appears evidently from the words that follow: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: Yea, we establish the law. What law do we establish by faith? Not the ritual law: Not the ceremonial law of Moses. In nowise; but the great, unchangeable law of love, the holy love of God and of our neighbour.” …
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: Yea, we establish the law.” 1. St. Paul, having the beginning of this Epistle laid down his general proposition, namely, that “the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;” — the powerful means, whereby God makes every believer a partaker of present and eternal salvation; — goes on to show, that there is no other way under heaven whereby men can be saved. He speaks particularly of salvation from the guilt of sin, which he commonly terms justification. And that all men stood in need of this, that none could plead their own innocence, he proves at large by various arguments, addressed to the Jews as well as the Heathens. Hence he infers, (in the 19th verse of this chapter,) “that every mouth,” whether of Jew or Heathen, must be “stopped” from excusing or justifying himself, “and all the world become guilty before God.” “Therefore,” saith he, by his own obedience, “by the words of the law, shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” “But now the righteousness of God without the law,” — without our previous obedience thereto, — “is manifested;” “even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all that believe:” “For there is no difference,” — as to their need of justification, or the manner wherein they attain it; — “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; — “the glorious image of God wherein they were created: And all (who attain) “are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood; that he might be just, and yet the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus; — “that without any impeachment to his justice, he might show him mercy for the sake of that propitiation. “Therefore we conclude,” (which was the grand position he had undertaken to establish,) “that a man is justified by faith, without the works of the law.” (Verses 20–28.) …
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law.” 1. It has been shown in the preceding discourse, which are the most usual ways of making void the law through faith; namely, First, the not preaching it at all; which effectually makes it all void a stroke; and this under colour of preaching Christ and magnifying the gospel though it be, in truth, destroying both the one and the other: Secondly, the teaching (whether directly or directly,) that faith supersedes the necessity of holiness; that this less necessary now, or a less degree of it necessary, than before Christ came; that it is less necessary to us, because we believe, than otherwise it would have been; or, that Christian liberty is a liberty from any kind or degree of holiness: (So perverting those great truths, that we are now under the covenant of grace, and not of works; that a man is justified by faith, without the works of the law; and that “to him that worketh not, but believeth, his faith is counted for righteousness:”) Or, Thirdly, the doing this practically; the making void the law in practice, though not in principle; the living or acting as if faith was designed to excuse us from holiness; the allowing ourselves in sin, “because we are not under the law, but under grace.” It remains to inquire how we may follow a better pattern, how we may be able to say, with the Apostle, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: Yea, we establish the law.” …