Romans 3:27
27 Where [pou] is boasting [kauchesis] then [oun]? It is excluded [ekkleio]. By [dia] what [poios] law [nomos]? of works [ergon]? Nay [ouchi]: but [alla] by [dia] the law [nomos] of faith [pistis]. KJV-Interlinear
27 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. ESV
Why do people continue to boast? Why do people continue to pursue their own
version of the spiritual life, by ignoring Gods will? Why do people presume that they do not need
to follow the instructions given in the Bible?
Why do people presume that they do not need to learn, do not need to
pursue a daily study, do not need to support the spiritual effort of others?
Why? Because people are both ignorant, because they do
not learn their obligations, and they are arrogant and under the presumption
that they have no obligations, or that they can pick and choose what they will
or will not abide by.
But works is excluded.
Therefore boasting is excluded by default. Since people can do nothing to secure their salvation,
or even their spiritual growth by their own effort, then they are left with
only faith.
But faith does not mean that you do nothing, that God will
somehow pour information into your brain without you doing even so much as
opening up a book.
Faith is based on wisdom, and wisdom is based on
understanding, and understanding is based on knowledge. And how do you get knowledge? You have to learn it. And in learning, you have to be taught.
To look away at the place in which God placed you, to
look away and presume that you have no personal obligations in life, is the quintessence
of arrogance through stubbornness and indifference.
Faith is non-meritorious, which simply means that we
can earn no credit to ourselves, in so far as the spiritual life goes. It does not mean that we have no obligations,
because the spiritual life is filled with obligations and responsibilities,
which to most folks are obvious.
But works, reaches into our lives and becomes an
excuse or the basis, for our justifying our not doing that which we are
supposed to do.
And so God has set up a system or plan, which
obliterates works, and the boasting and the reliance that accompanies
them. And that system is faith.
Faith is not just a simple trusting thought, it is a
whole system of living and growth and maturity and completion and fulfillment
of the very essence of our existence.
