Boasting Excluded by the Law of Faith

For generations there has been a debate (or arguments) in and among evangelical churches regarding the relationship of the Law of God and saving faith. In the previous century or two, there has been a conviction among evangelicals that the Law has no place in our lives as Christians, nor in the life of the church more broadly. Verses such as Romans 6:14 have been enlisted to defend this position. Churches of a more classical Protestant flavor have taught what has come to be known as the three-fold use of the Law: 1) a schoolmaster to drive us to Christ through the knowledge of sin, 2) a guide for the Christian in the performance of good works, not for merit, but because of thankfulness, 3) and a guide for the civil ordering of life. What is often lost in these debates and arguments is the point that the inspired apostle makes in our text. In verse 31, he sums up his point by denying that justification by faith alters or nullifies the Law, but rather establishes the Law. This is a theological thunderclap which reveals the truth that the relationship between justification and the Law has always remained constant. Faith has always been the indispensable means even for the Old Testament Jew.  – Pastor Schlegel