{"id":1394,"date":"2009-12-02T21:28:08","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T03:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1394"},"modified":"2009-12-02T21:28:08","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T03:28:08","slug":"romans-331-established-not-nullified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-331-established-not-nullified\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 3:31 – Established, Not Nullified"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 3:31<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Living by faith upholds the law, it doesn\u2019t destroy it.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Greek word translated \u201cwe make void<\/span>\u201d is a form of the verb katarge\u014d<\/span><\/em>. This is a compound word made up of kata<\/span><\/em>, used as an intensifier and arge\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto be idle.\u201d Hence, this verb means \u201cto render completely idle, useless, or ineffective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly not!<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek words m\u0113<\/span><\/em> genoito<\/span><\/em>, which we have looked at before. The word m\u0113<\/span><\/em> represents a qualified negation (ou<\/span><\/em> represents absolute negation) and genoito<\/span><\/em> means \u201cto cause to be.\u201d Therefore, a literal translation of these two words is \u201cMay it not be!\u201d<\/p>\n

The verb translated \u201cwe establish<\/span>\u201d is a form of hist\u0113mi<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto cause to stand\u201d or \u201cto establish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This rhetorical question is one of transition for the Apostle Paul. He knows that any devout Jew would be spiritually put off balance by his previous arguments because the Jews have been taught from childhood that obeying the Law is the only way to be justified. They would very likely be asking themselves, \u201cBut what about the Law? Does it mean nothing?\u201d There are even those people today who say that justification by faith only leads to licentiousness because it does away with the Law (both the Law of Moses and the moral law).<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul does not agree. In fact, he declares, \u201cMay it not be!\u201d He realizes that justification by faith alone not only does not negate the Law, in fact it establishes it as true and right. You see, by the Law God demonstrated that there is a penalty to be paid for sin and that the Law had to be satisfied in order for anyone to be justified. Jesus Christ came to show that only He could perfectly satisfy the law and that He is the fulfillment of the Law. He is the Passover lamb. He is the lamb without spot or blemish that was demanded by the Law to be the offering in payment for sins. He, the One who satisfied the Law, is the only offering that could be made to pay for our sins. And His payment is made possible to us only if we believe that He is the sinless Lamb of God who has given Himself in payment for our sins. We can\u2019t satisfy the Law by obedience to it but by faith in the one who did satisfy it.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is precisely what Paul is showing to the Jewish Christians in Rome and to all Christians throughout the ages. When we believe Jesus Christ died on the cross as our Lord and Savior, we are justified by faith, and we actually establish the Law as good and right and holy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having now satisfied the assertion that the Law is good and right, in the coming chapter Paul will proceed to use the patriarch Abraham as the example of righteousness by faith apart from the Law. After all, Abraham was declared righteous by God some three hundred years before Moses received the law on Mt. Sinai. Abraham was even declared righteous by God years before the sign of circumcision.<\/span><\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When we get saved by faith, we aren\u2019t required to keep the law or rules of a church in order to stay saved. Instead, we are to walk by faith, doing the good works that God has ordained for us to do as His children and ambassadors. Do your actions and good works reflect the glory of your Heavenly Father?<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. Truth to Learn Living by faith upholds the law, it doesn\u2019t destroy it. Behind the Words The Greek word translated \u201cwe make void\u201d is a form of the verb katarge\u014d. This is a compound word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[190,204,504,611],"class_list":["post-1394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-establish","tag-faith","tag-law","tag-void"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-mu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}