09 Sep Pauls Footsteps #246

Note Paul’s use of the word “hearers” in v13. Most people during his day couldn’t read it was read to them. But his main point is “hearing” was not enough. Having the law was not enough. It was not enough to claim Abraham as your father or Moses as your prophet or the law as your guide was not eternal security. The apostle has been hammering away at them with the fact that they haven’t kept the law. It is not possessing the law or being a Jew that provides security, but the “doing” of the law.

At that point, the apostle sets forth an interesting idea: that the “doers of the law will be justified.” What does he mean? Is he teaching that we can be justified or righteous by obeying the law? This would be a contradiction of what follows in chapter 3. Of course people could be justified or counted righteous by keeping the law if they obeyed it perfectly. But that is the very point that Paul is making. All people are sinners; none keep it perfectly. The purpose of the law is not to be a ladder to heaven but to point out our sins and lead us to salvation in Christ (Rom.3:20-25). In actuality, trying to keep the law as a way of salvation will leave us in utter frustration and lost, especially if we have grasped the full meaning of the law as expounded in the Sermon On the Mount by Jesus in Matthew 5:21-48. If we don’t get justification by law-keeping, what does Paul mean? Remember that he is speaking in Romans 2 about the judgment in a book dedicated to teaching the gospel of righteousness by faith. In that context, it is not enough to say that we have the law or that we are Jews or anything else. Rather, Paul is teaching that we need to live according to God’s will. Just because we have Christ does not mean that we can live in flagrant disobedience. It is not “saved by grace and do as you please.” To the contrary, if we are saved by grace, we will do as God pleases.