Why Faith and Not Works?

At the end of Romans 3, Paul argues that there is only one God, and that he is the God of everyone regardless of whether or not a person is a circumcised Jew, or an uncircumcised Gentile (Romans 3:27-31). In the development of his argument, he contends that the Jew is made right by faith, and the Gentile is made right through faith. What Paul is saying is that a person is made right by his belief in who God is, and his trust in the goodness of God rather than by his cultural identity, or by any works that he has done or is doing.  This is a culmination in Paul’s line of reasoning that begins with the biblical idea that no one is good.  All works are tainted, and most of those are prone to self-serving motives.  Throughout this chapter, Paul has asked a number of rhetorical questions designed to help him defend his position on the nature of faith and trust as means to being made right with God as opposed to cultural identity or visible moral works (Romans 3:1, Romans 3:3, Romans 3:5, Romans 3:6, Romans 3:7, Romans 3:9, Romans 3:9).  He does so again at the end of chapter 3. Essentially, he asks the question that if people are made right by faith instead of by their works, does their faith overthrow or do away with the law (Romans 3:31)?  Emphatically, Paul answers that our faith does not overthrow the law! Instead, our faith fulfills the law, or establishes it.  In other words, our faith makes us an example of what the law points toward. God uses our faith to make us like Jesus!

Rightness with God is not about what we do, it is about where our trust and our allegiance is. In the very next chapter, Paul reminds us of the Old Testament truth that Abraham’s faith was counted to him by God as righteousness (Romans 4:3, Genesis 15:6). This is because trust and belief determine what we do! Trust and belief define our character. Faith produces behavioral results. We do what we believe to be true. Abraham did not leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to a land that he did not know about because he was trying to do some work that made him right with God.  He did it because he trusted God as sovereign and good, and because of that trust, he took the step out of his homeland to begin an adventure that would have many dangers, toils, and snares that he couldn’t possibly predict. God counted that trust as righteousness.  It is because of this reason that the writer of Hebrews tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). Faith produces works. That writer goes on to chronicle all of the bible heroes who did great works because they believed God.  Allegiance to the God of the universe justifies you, because it means you are willing to let God circumcise your heart – to remove from it all of those things opposed to him, and all of those things that orient you away from the highest possible good.  You will then behave in ways that illustrate the goodness that the law is intended to proclaim. In fact, your circumcised heart now identifies you as a child of God, and that heart begins to pump life out in the form of fruits of life, goodness and character (Galatians 5:22-23). The more you trust God, the more like Jesus you become.