by Angus Harley

27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. 31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

First of all, we must read the term nomos (‘law’) as part of the above context. In the Greek text, there is no ‘the’ in v31; it says merely ‘law’ both times, not ‘the Law’. Translations do not help us by referring to ‘the Law’, which they mean to indicate ‘the Law of Moses’. That being said, ‘law’ by itself in Paul’s writings can mean the Mosaic Law, but not here in v31. How do we know? Because v28 contrasts the works of the Law to faith. Paul has already described this faith in an extended form in v27, “law of faith”. This is the ‘law’ that is upheld: the ‘law of faith’. There are, in this setting, two ‘laws’: one of faith, the other of the works of the Law of Moses.

Why refer to a ‘law of’ faith? Because, as in Hebrews, the true and proper counterpart to the now redundant Mosaic temple and its cult and Law is the spiritual sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In the case of Romans 3, we are taken to vv24-26 in particular, which allude to both the Law of Moses’ language of sacrifice and redemption, but also to the Passover that preceded it.

This is to say that, “law of faith” does not mean ‘faith is a form of law’, but that faith looks to the true law, the spiritual, New Covenant law of God’s righteousness in Christ Jesus, a law testified by the Law and the Prophets (OT) (v21), apart from the works of the Mosaic Law.

Moses uses the phrase “works of the Law” to specifically identify ‘the Law’ as the Old, Mosaic, Covenant and its works. The Mosaic Law and its works were the Old Covenant in action. However, by referring to the Law and the Prophets, Paul by this one phrase subordinates the Mosaic Law AS SCRIPTURE ALONE- not as Covenant-Law- into being a witness to Jesus, for “Law”, in this case, is not the Mosaic Law but the Pentateuch. Paul is adamant that this Law of Moses in its ‘natural job’ as Covenant-Law has nothing to do with righteousness or faith. For more on this, see Galatians. Yet, the same Law of Moses when considered as part of the OT witness of the Law (Pentateuch) and Prophets (rest of the OT)- and not as Old Covenant command- was a signpost of Jesus.

One last comment on ‘law’ in Romans 3. Paul has used nomos in 3 different ways so far: Law of Moses; Pentateuch; New Covenant religion. It has a fourth use in Rom.3: as the OT witness as a whole that points to man’s condemnation (v19). Note how in this verse the “Law” (OT Scriptures) speaks to the Jews “under the Law” of Moses. Now, if the Jews are condemned by the OT Scriptures, the whole world then becomes accountable (anticipating the Adamic theology of Rom.5; see 1 Cor.15).