Upheld not Overthrown

Upheld Romans 3: 31

31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Katargeo (argeo –to be idle) void overthrow, to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative to cause a person or thing to have no further efficiency -to deprive of force, influence, power- to cause to cease, put an end to, do away with, annul, abolish - to cease, to pass away, be done away. And Histemi - to establish a thing, cause it to stand - to uphold or sustain the authority or force of anything -to set or place in a balance

Paul here is talking about one of the two aspects of establishing the law. The two aspects are The Offering of the Savior Establishes the Law (Justification) and the Obedience of the Saint Establishes the law (Sanctification).

The Offering of the Savior establishes the Law.

Justification is achieved by for us by the work of Christ. Here it is not saying that law is upheld or established by what we do as Christians by the power of the new life of God within. But rather that Jesus has established the law in the process of providing salvation for us by his death on the cross. God saw to it that the demands of the law were met in a way to provide salvation for us. This is shown in three ways: (Boice)

1. Justification by grace through faith establishes the law by showing that Law is so high and holy that we sinners would never have fulfilled it. The law demands perfect obedience. James 2:10 (Boice). If we had to be justified by the law we would all be sent to hell, for the simple fact that we are all law-breakers (Rom 3:23). Hunting in the Bible for justification through legal obedience is like the criminal ransacking the statute book to find his pardon. It is not there, but on the contrary he finds his condemnation boldly written on every page. We cannot possibly be justified by the law. Transgressors can receive nothing but condign punishment. (Godbey) No one can keep the law perfectly. So what if God saw that the standard he set could not be attained and determined to set a “Passing Grade”, in hopes that if any could reach it he would save them. Obviously, if God had done this the law would not have been upheld or established, but diminished of nullified. What if he had set the passing grade at 70% then 30% would have been nullified. Or what if it was only 50%, then 50% would have been disregarded. But the real scenario would have been worse because no one could keep even the tiniest part of the law perfectly, since everything that we are and everything we do is ruined by our radical pervasive sin. If the cross was unnecessary, and if God saved us on the basis of what we could do, since we do not keep even one part of the law perfectly, God would actually be setting aside the entire law declaring it an unimportant standard after all. Instead, justification by faith

establishes the law, because if shows that God takes it seriously and even though none of us can fulfill it. (Matt 5:20, Rom 7:12) (Boice). Salvation by faith gives the law its full status as condemning all who fall short of it. The axe then falls, but it falls on Christ. Furthermore, the Law is then also given its true status as being a ‘schoolmaster to lead us to Christ’ (Gal 3:24). In ancient days the Law turned men’s thoughts to the necessity of the sacrificial system though which they could obtain atonement for their failures. Now it is intended to turn their thoughts to Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf. (Pett). The law is never the means of salvation. The law was given to show men that the perfect standards of God’s righteousness and show that those standards are impossible to meet in men’s own power (Rom 3:20). The purpose of the Law was to drive men to Christ. The law was never given to save you. You say, "What was it given for?" It was given to show that you needed to be saved. Big difference. It was given to demonstrate your sinfulness, not to save you from it. It was given to drive you to God in faith, to drive you to the point where you said, "I can't ... I can't live up to Your standards, God, I can't live up to Your standard. What will I do?" And at that point, God intervenes in His mercy and grace and says, "I think you see your sin, I think you're broken over your sin and repentant for your sin and I offer you through faith grace and forgiveness and healing." So, the death of Christ on the cross doesn't make void the law, it establishes it (Mac Arthur). The Law has a condemning power where the sinner acknowledges himself justly condemned by it: he founds his hope in Christ as having borne its curse for him (Gal 3:10-13): his own conscience cannot be pacified but by that atonement which satisfied the demands of the law (Rom 3:24-25): bereft of a hope in the atonement, he would utterly despair: he flees to Christ continually “to bear the iniquity of his holiest actions” (Simeon)

2. Justification by grace through faith establishes the law by showing that the punishment of sinners by death, as required by the law has been executed. The law taught that all were sinners (Rom 3:10-11, 20, 7:7-8) and that the punishment for sin is death. (Gen 2:17, Ezek 18:4, Heb 9:22). The Law was valid. It had to be exacted. Jesus had to die. The law was established in the cross of Christ. The law said, you sin, you die, and somebody had to die. That affirmed the law. The law said sin brings death and it had to be. The law is not useless, the law is not void. When Jesus died, He was saying, this law is in effect, it must have its demands met. In the death of Jesus Christ for salvation, the penalty of the law was paid and it established the validity of the law (Mac Arthur). So let’s say that God says, “I know that no one can keep the law, so I will exercise my grace and save people apart from meeting the laws requirements and just love sinners into heaven”. If God did this, he would undermine the high and holy standards of the law, suggesting it could be dispensed with. He would also show that the punishment for disobeying he law would be arbitrary and dispensable. He would have been like a father threatening to spank his child if he did not do something he commanded, when he actually had no intention of punishing the child any way. The law could have only been established by carrying out the penalty of spiritual death –if not on us, then on Jesus as our substitute. When Jesus Christ died on the cross for us, he showed that God took the law with full seriousness. The law demanded death for infractions. Jesus met the demand by suffering the law’s penalty in our place. Therefore, by basing salvation on what was accomplished by Jesus’ death, God upheld the law while at the same time providing a way by which sinners could be saved. (Boice) There is nothing in the whole of history, there is no point in the course of mankind’s story, there is no place in the universe which has so manifested the wrath of God against sin, His detestation of it, and his determination to punish it, as in the death of Jesus on the cross (Lloyd Jones).

3. Justification by grace through faith establishes the law by showing that it is on the basis of true righteousness, righteousness that is an exact fulfillment of the law, that we are justified.

Justification by faith means justification by faith in Christ. It was not just though the death of Christ that we are justified, because to be able to die in our place, Jesus had to uphold the law by complete obedience to it. (Matt 5:17-20, 2 Cor 5:21) The way of saving sinners through the incarnation, obedience, suffering, death, resurrection, and intercession of Christ, and by faith in him, shows that the law of God is holy, just, and good. (Edwards) The very justification of every believer stems from Christ's perfect fulfillment of and obedience to that law. He broke not a jot or tittle of it. The righteousness of God in Christ, which is the only true ground of justification, is precisely the righteousness of Christ in fulfilling every iota of that law. That law was not voided by faith, but established by the "faith of the Son of God." (Burkitt) The Lord himself “established” the law by fulfilling in in every respect. He honored the Law by his active obedience. (Gal 4:4-6) He was entirely free from inherited sin and from actual sin. He obeyed every jot and tittle of the law perfectly and completely. If Satan could have found anything he would have brought it forward, if the authorities could have found something they would have done the same. The Jewish leaders had nothing to accuse him of so they tried to invent a case; they invented a lie which they could not prove. No one could point a finger at Him. He never sinned, He never disobeyed God. He honored the law perfectly and entirely in his holy life of obedience and thus upholding he law. He also honored the law through his passive obedience upon the cross. By taking upon himself the punishment of our sins demanded by the law, he was establishing the law. (Lloyd Jones).

Obedience of the Saint Establishes the law

The plan of justification by faith leads to an observance of the Law. The sinner sees

the evil of transgression. He sees the respect which God has shown to the Law. He

gives his heart to God and yields himself to obey his Law. All the sentiments that arise

from the conviction of sin; that flow from gratitude for mercies; that spring from love to

God; all his views of the sacredness of the Law, prompt him to yield obedience to it.

The fact that Christ endured such sufferings to show the evil of violating the Law, is

one of the strongest motives prompting to obedience. We do not easily and readily

repeat what overwhelms our best friends in calamity; and we are brought to hate what

inflicted such woes on the Savior’s soul. (Barnes) The Law commands obedience: for

the saint all his hope is in the perfect obedience which Christ paid to it for him; he looks

upon his obligations to obey it as increased, rather than vacated, by the death of Christ;

he actually desires to obey it as much as if he were to be justified by his obedience to

it. (Simeon) The law sets the standard of living which it is not able to produce in those

who try to Keep it. But, those who come by faith receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and

in the power of the Spirit are able to produce it (Rom 8:3-4) In this second sense, too,

the law is established (Morris). By the gospel we obtain grace, in some measure, to

fulfill the law, and yield a sincere obedience to it; (Burkitt) Salvation by grace may

lead some to think we have a license to sin. Paul imagines someone thinking this

way (Rom 6:1) when he addresses the issue the of obedience in sanctification (Rom

6, Gal 5:13). The argument is: “If we do not have to keep the law of God in order to

be saved, why should any of us want to keep it? If we are saved by grace apart from

the law we must be free to sin. So let’s all sin. Let’s indulge ourselves by doing any

and every sinful thing we want to do for after all we will get to heaven anyway.” This

is wrong in two ways psychologically and theologically. Psychologically, it is wrong

because if assumes that the only motive for right moral conduct is fear of hell or

losing heaven. Really, the highest motive for godly conduct comes not from fear of

hell but love for God. It is because God has saved us by grace entirely apart from any

merit in ourselves that we love and want to please him. Theologically, It is a false

assumption that when a person is justified by grace through faith in Jesus, he or she

is personally unchanged by the process. No one can be justified without being

regenerated or born again (John 3:1-6, The one effect never occurs without the other,

so the person that is justified always shows it by striving for righteousness. If a person

doesn’t strive to live a moral life according to the law of God, the failure proves that

he or she is neither regenerated nor justified (Boice). The justifying work of the son

and the regenerating work of the Spirit cannot be separated. It is for this reason that

the believer’s good works follow justification and new birth as their necessary

evidence (Stott).