Romans 3:27, No Place for Boasting

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Romans 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 

Our salvation comes not by any merit of our own. It is a humbling truth that the Apostle Paul reminds us. It is God doing the work from beginning to end. There is no place for boasting. It is Christ who did it all. He did the work of perfectly fulfilling the law on our behalf. And He did the work of taking upon Him our sins. We are justified not by what we did to obey the law of God. If this is the measure, we would all have failed miserably. We know in our hearts the impossibility of keeping the law by our strength to justify our salvation.

The Apostle Paul tells us that the law of faith activates our salvation. When we believe in what Jesus Christ had done to save us. Truly, we realise that even the ability to acknowledge Jesus is from God. This is my testimony. It was impossible for me to be saved if I think of who I was a year before I was saved. I have to attribute it all to God.

What I felt in my heart is a sense of inadequacy. That I was not able to order my life. There is something missing which I could not articulate until I was given the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. That Jesus died for my sins. And Jesus rose from the dead three days later overcoming death and sin for me.

I find no place for boasting as I recall how God saved me. This is the Apostle Paul’s experience too. He was persecuting Christians before Christ arrested him by a bright light on the road to Damascus. He was blind for three days. If Christ did not heal him, he would have been blind the rest of his life. Because Jesus healed Paul, he realised how much he owed Jesus for not only saving him from his sins but also giving him sight again. Imagine the prospect of blindness for the rest of his life. Surely, Paul was grateful! Surely, there was no boasting on his part. It is his testimony to jolt us to grateful thanksgiving. Amen.