the works of the flesh or law could provide anything of which man could boast before

God. Paul would rather leave his all upon a refuse heap that he may be found in Christ,

not having that righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of

If anyone could ever be justified by works, that one would have a ground of boasting

(Rom. 4: 2), but no one ever has or ever will. In Rom. 3: 27, 28 Paul has in mind the

twofold boast of the Jew.

"In God" and "in law" Rom. 3: 27-30 proceeds to shatter both these grounds of

boasting. The law is dealt with in verse 27 ("By what law?") and the boast in God in

verse 29 ("Is He the God of the Jews only?").

The section under our immediate notice is the one dealing with this boast in the law,

which it was the apostle's aim ruthlessly to shatter. The Jew "rested in the law", he was

"instructed out of the law", he had "a form of knowledge and of the truth of the law", he

made "a boast of the law" (Rom. 2: 17, 18, 20 and 23), but what he could not do was to

"keep the law". "Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man

which doeth those things shall live by them" (Rom. 10: 5). All his pride of race, of

circumcision, of law, was vain and empty before the one great fact that "what things

soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be

stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (Rom. 3: 19).

"By what law?" asks the apostle. "Of works?", and his answer is: "Nay, but by the

law of faith". "The law of faith" may seem at first strange, owing to the close attention

that has been given to the law of Moses, or of conscience. Faith, however, though it be

totally distinct from the law of Moses, of conscience, or of works, is not lawless.

Nothing that comes from God can be apart from law. Sun, moon, and stars are under

law. All the activities of life are governed by law. Consequently we must be prepared to

find over against the "law of works" the "law of faith", over against the "law of sin and

death" the "law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8: 2). The setting aside of

the law as a means of attaining righteousness cast no slur upon the law itself--that still

remained holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good (Rom. 7: 12).

The weakness of the law was in the flesh (Rom. 8: 3). It was not intended to be a

means either of "life" or "righteousness" (Gal. 2: 21; 3: 21), but a pedagogue until the

advent of Christ. The dispensation of law was a ministry of condemnation and death

(II Cor. 3:), and the spectacle of a man boasting in that which condemned him, which

revealed his exceeding sinfulness, which demanded of him an obedience which he could

never render, is pitiable in the extreme.

The suggestion made by some that the gospel was a kind of mitigated law, providing

an easier code, bringing the possibility of salvation nearer to human attainment, is grossly

untrue. Instead of saying: "perfect obedience" to the law is not necessary, we must say: