The Law Established. Romans 3:29-31 V.29. There must have been Jews in the church in Rome who thought that being justified by faith wiped out everything Judaism taught. Does it cancel out the scriptures of the Old Testament? Does it mean the customs and practices of the Jews were of no value? Is God no longer working through Jews as a people? This question asked at the beginning of this chapter is answered. When we understand the truth that God in grace has provided salvation for Jews and Gentiles by Himself, and we are declared righteous by faith in Christ, then we "establish" the law. The point of the law is made plain to us.
V.30. God is One in His being to all people and is the same toward all people. Jews are justified by faith even though they have not kept the law of Moses. Gentiles are justified by their faith even though they didn't have the law. The commands of God written in the law were not established by the efforts of men to keep them. They were established by executing the penalty the law demanded. Attempts to adjust the demands of the law to a lower standard were exposed by the Lord Jesus when He explained what the demands of the law really meant. The shallow view of sin that people attach to it, and even the shallow ideas people have about God Himself, does not change God's view of the standard.
The attempts to meet the demands of righteousness by the law only expose how ungodly we really are. Struggles to do better only reveal our inability to commend ourselves to God. When a sincere and honest person admits they are failures in making themselves righteous before God, they can understand that God deals with them on the principle of faith: faith in the redeeming work of Christ alone. God justifies the ungodly who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because Christ was crucified for us. Christ died for our sins. He tasted death for every man. He was made a curse for us, that we might be made righteous before God in Him.
His death for sin established the law by executing sin's penalty upon Him. Faith in Christ does not wipe out the Old Testament. It makes God's dealings with the Jews understandable to us. Abraham was a man of faith, and when God spoke to him, he acted on what God said.
Therefore, in no way have the demands of the law been overlooked. They have been solidly established because all the demands against sinners have been executed to the full extent of the law. We are not justified by any works we do to make ourselves acceptable to God. God justifies us because of the fact that Christ shed His blood and gave His life for us. He has finished satisfying the Righteous God by His death, burial, and resurrection on my behalf. Now, God doesn't see me as trying to be righteous by my own efforts. God only sees me in the Savior who died, was buried, and has risen from the grave. He can show His divine favor and blessing toward me because I am accepted in Christ. That acceptance is eternal. I have been given eternal life, His own kind of life.
So now I know that Christ is in heaven for me, and I am accepted in Him because of His finished work of satisfying all of God's claims against me. God sees me in Christ. Also, the Holy Spirit is in me to reveal Christ to me and to guide me into all truth so that I might obey God. I pray in the Spirit; I walk by the Spirit, and the Spirit opens the scriptures to me and my heart to love saints, sinners, and God. God sees the Spirit in me. God does this whole act of justifying me. He justifies me as a sinner, not as a saint. My works don't make it happen or add anything to it, and my failures, even as a Christian, do not take it away or even decrease its value in any way. It is God that justifies and establishes the law.