Or, Monergism, Monotheism, and Man’s Morality Romans 3:27-31 March 13, 2022 Lord’s Day Worship Sean Higgins

Introduction

In his introduction to The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, J. I. Packer summarizes the gospel in three words: God saves sinners. It’s true from start to finish. It acknowledges man’s depravity and inability (man is a sinner who needs saving). It exalts God’s sovereignty and grace (He plans for and provides salvation). It proclaims the Son’s effective propitiation (all for whom the Son atones will be saved). And it has practical consequences for what we say. We have no defense for our sinfulness (Romans 3:19). We have no boast for our righteousness (Romans 3:27).

I’ve already asserted a few times through these first few chapters of Romans that the greater challenge for the gospel (using “challenge” only from the human perspective) is not unrighteousness, but self-righteousness. When God saves sinners, He saves the ones who realize that they’ve done everything wrong, and He saves the ones who think they haven’t messed up quite as bad.

Paul has demonstrated quite persistently that judging others for what we also do is its own kind of evidence against us. He’s held up the perfect standard of God’s law to prove that none of us meet it. And he’s said that not only have all sinned, we have all have fallen short of the glory of God. We’ve failed to live up to the original image. We’ve colored outside the lines (transgression), and haven’t filled in the lines (omission).

It’s why we need someone else’s righteousness. This is the alien righteousness we considered a couple weeks ago, a righteousness that isn’t ours that gets credited to us. God justifies sinners when He imputes righteousness to us, meaning that He regards Christ’s righteousness as ours. In God’s accounting books He has records of all our sins/offenses/wrongs, and none of us could erase them.

Have you investigated (or even invested in) cryptocurrency based on blockchain technology? Lay aside the question of whether or not it’s a useful workaround to government fiat, it provides an interesting analogy. The blockchain only works in one direction; it does not go backward. There is no undo button, no do-overs or restarts. A mistake can only be fixed by a second transaction, there is no reversal.

God justifies us not by forgetting our sin but by paying for it in His Son. He doesn’t undo the consequences, He satisfies His own wrath. This is what makes Him just and the one justifying believers (Romans 3:26). When God forgives He will never use our sin against us (think Psalm 103:12), but that’s because He won’t forget the atonement price paid by Christ. All we can do is rely on Jesus; we add nothing good to the chain. This is why we have nothing to boast about.

In this paragraph, Romans 3:27-31, we see that believing means no boasting in ourselves (salvation is monergistic), that believing is the (only) way to salvation for everyone (salvation is monotheistic), and believing leads to obedience (salvation is unto morality). This is all part of the law of faith, and it’s a law about, and against, boasting.

Faith Leaves No Room for Boasting (verses 27-28)

The word boasting is only written once in verse 27 but it is assumed five more times. Paul’s original writing is punchy, but if we wrote it all out, “boasting” would be the subject of six independent clauses, and it would be the subject of the verb excluded five times. Here’s the compact version:

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

Here’s what it would be extended into complete sentences: “Therefore boasting is where? Boasting is excluded. Boasting is excluded through the law [...]