Verse 21
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

But now... - D.M. Lloyd-Jones calls these two little words the great turning point in God's dealings with the human race. For two and a half chapters Paul has painted the grim portrait of God's wrath over against the unrighteousness of mankind with relentless realism. The darkness gathered and grew deeper with every word. But now comes the great turning point. Everything that the apostle has stated up to this point is completely and absolutely true. But, thanks be to God, that's not the whole story! A stunning beam of glorious gospel light pierces sin's darkness as Paul announces God's great nevertheless in the face of man's failure (Stedman). Those who have failed to understand the darkness in which it appeared will never fully appreciate the brightness of that light. Our hopeless cry of despair now becomes a joyful shout of victory. What man could never have done for himself, God has done Himself on our behalf. In the breathless silence that follows the pronouncement of our doom, the Lord declares: You deserve to die but I will give you life! You have earned an eternity of damnation but I will give you everlasting salvation! Biblical Christianity is unique among all the religions of man in that it is a religion of divine accomplishment rather than human achievement. Every other religious system, based in one way or another on what men can do or merit for themselves, stands on the other side of this great turning point . Thus, in the end, there are only two kinds of religion - grace religion and works religion. Sadly, the faith of a good many of those who consider themselves to be Christians falls into the latter category.

A righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known... - The apostle returns once again to the concept of the righteousness of God (This translation of the phrase as a subjective genitive - righteousness of God - is preferable to the NIV's translation as an objective genitive - righteousness from God.) which is the basic theme of the entire Letter to the Romans. This term occurs thirty-six times in the Epistle and when related verbs and adjectives are considered, the total number of references exceeds sixty. Dr. Stoeckhardt's carefully worded definition is most helpful.

Righteousness of God points to man's position or relation to God, designates the relation of begin righteous in which man is placed by God's act of declaring righteous. Therefore the righteousness of God is the imputed righteousness, the righteousness which avails before God. This righteousness of God, that counteracts sin, guilt, and wrath, is truly not our own righteousness, not something good in us, but a righteousness that rests outside of us in God. It rests in God's judgment and so it is as firm and immovable as God Himself. What God says, judges, and decrees, is valid in time and in eternity. He who God declares righteous is righteous, even though all the world and all devils condemn him, even though his own conscience pronounces him guilty and judges him. (Stoeckhardt, p.39)

The phrase apart from the law precedes the subject in the original for particular emphasis. This righteousness of God has nothing whatsoever to do with anything and everything in the nature of law and its works (vs.20). Man contributes nothing. All that the law can do is cause the realization of sin and convince man of his own inability to contribute to his own salvation in any way (through the law we become conscious of sin - vs.20). John Murray rightly declares:

When Paul says without the law the absoluteness of this negation must not be toned down. He means this without any reservation or equivocation in reference to the justifying righteousness which is the theme of this part of the epistle. This implies that in justification there is no contribution, preparatory, accessory, or subsidiary, that is given by works of law. This fact is set forth both by the expression itself and by its emphatic position in the sentence. (Murray, p. 109)

This righteousness of God has been made known. In 1:17, Paul declared that in the gospel a righteousness from God has been revealed. He now adds that this revelation is not novel or recent but that the entirety of the Old Testament Scriptures, the Law and the Prophets, bear witness and testify to it. The apostle's use of courtroom jargon remains consistent. The verb testify (Greek - marutroumene) literally means to offer testimony in the law court as a witness. The perfect tense of the main verb (has been made revealed) indicates action that began long ago and continues in the present. This is an important affirmation of the unity of the two Biblical Testaments and of the ongoing validity and importance of the Old Testament for the Christian. This is not a new gospel dispensation which has arrived to replace an outgoing law dispensation. Salvation has always been by grace through faith. Adam, Abraham, and all the believers of the Old Testament were recipients of the same grace by which we are being saved today. Paul does not contrast the Christian era to the pre-Christian era, nor is the contrast merely that of the revelation of the Gospel to that of the Law, but rather the condition of the Christian to that of the non-Christian. (Stoeckhardt, p.30).

Verses 22-24
This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ... - Once again, the language parallels the wording of 1:17 - a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. This righteousness of God which is absolutely separate from the works of the law, comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Lenski explains:

Faith and Jesus Christ are ever combined like a cup and its contents. Faith is the heart's trust embracing Christ, and by so embracing Christ it is the subjective means for making ours the status of righteousness created by God's declaration. Or, beginning, with God: His righteousness, the bestowal of the judicial declaration: "I declare thee righteous!" is ours where and when faith is ours, faith in Jesus Christ. (Lenski, p.247)

Paul is no advocate of fideism, generic faith which simply believes in believing. The optimistic conviction that sincerity saves - it doesn't make any difference what you believe in so long as you believe in something - may be comfortably consistent with the arrogant individualism of our age, but it is not consistent with the Bible. Nor is a general, non-controversial faith in God sufficient. Saving faith in Scripture is faith in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. Paul uses both the personal name (Jesus - Hebrew: Savior) and the official title (Christ - Greek: the Anointed One, the Messiah) to designate the object of faith. These titles are redolent of all that Jesus was and is personally, historically, and officially. (Murray, p.111) This faith is the only way that the righteousness of God comes to anyone. It comes to all who believe because there is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The apostle has clearly demonstrated the totality of sin's corruption of the race. No one has escaped this deadly spiritual infection. All are sinners. The text merely repeats that which has already been clearly proven. Every other distinction, no matter how crucial it may seem to be in the eyes of men, is completely irrelevant - Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female (cf. Galatians 3:28). In the eyes of the holy God there are only two categories of humanity - the saved: those who have received the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ and the damned: those who have not.

And are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. - The apostle now proceeds to discuss the all important doctrine of justification by grace through faith in detail. The verb are justified (Greek - dikaioumenoi) is closely related to the righteousness (Greek - dikaiosune) language of the preceding verses. Thus, to justify refers to the judicial action of God in declaring the sinner to be righteous - the pronouncement of a verdict of Not Guilty! The grace of God is the motive in our justification. The emphasis on the gratuitous nature of justification can be clearly seen in the Greek text of the phrase which literally reads: being justified as a gift without payment by His grace. The term dorean (a gift without payment) is used to refer to gifts of particular value that are given without thought of repayment or benefit to the giver. The NIV reflects this word with the adjective freely. The combination of this term with the crucial noun grace (literally - as a free gift by His grace) emphasizes the unconditional nature of God's action on our behalf. Grace (Greek - charis) is one of the most important theological words in the New Testament. Grace is undeserved, unconditional love - the favor of God toward sinners because of Christ (favor dei propter Christi).

God's justifying act is not constrained to any extent or degree by anything we do which could be esteemed as predisposing God to this act. And not only is it the case that nothing in us or done by us constrains to this act but all that is ours compels to the opposite judgment - the whole world is brought in guilty before God. This action of God's part derives its whole motivation, explanation, and determination from what God Himself is and does in the exercise of free and sovereign grace. Merit of any kind on the part of man, when brought into relation with the doctrine of justification, contradicts the first article of the Pauline doctrine and therefore of his gospel. It is the glory of the Gospel of Christ that it is one of free grace. (Murray, p. 114)

Through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus - As grace is the motive for our justification so the redemption that came by Christ Jesus is the means through which that justification is accomplished. The just and holy God could not simply overlook man's sin. The penalty for that sin had to be paid in full. Man could never have paid that penalty for himself so God paid it for him in the innocent blood of His only-begotten Son. Redemption (Greek - apolutrosis) refers to the payment of a ransom in order to liberate a captive or set free a slave. Mankind was held in bondage to sin. Dr. Stoeckhardt declares:

Christ redeemed us from all our sin and from God's wrath by paying a price, a ransom...By payment of a ransom, men were wont to free prisoners of war or slaves from captivity or slavery. So Christ, by payment of a high price ransomed sinful men, held in bondage because of their guilt. And what is this price, this ransom? It is He Himself, His own life, His own blood. In Christ we have redemption through His blood. Because of their abominations, men are worthy of death, have forfeited their lives. However, Christ came and in their stead pledged His own life and shed His own blood for them. Thus, sinful men became free from sin, death, and damnation. Christ Jesus is the Son of God. And the life, the blood of the Son of God, yes, God's blood, God's martyrdom, God's death - that is indeed the payment and ransom for the whole world. (Stoeckhardt, p.41)

Verses 25-26
God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies the man who has faith in Jesus.

God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement - It is God who acts to establish the basis for man's justification. The typical word order is reversed in the original to emphasize this fact (literally - presented did God). That which had always been done secretly within the sacred confines of the Holy of Holies is now presented publically for all the world to see. Paul uses the graphic language of the tabernacle and the ritual of Yom Kippur, the great Day of Atonement to explain that which God has done. A brief review of the sequence of events on Yom Kippur will help to clarify the meaning of the text.

The Day of Atonement was the highest and most holy of all the sacred festivals of Israel. It occurred on the tenth day of the month of Tishri, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. Seven days before the festival the High Priest left his home and lived in the Temple. Throughout that week he underwent a series of ritual cleansings and carefully rehearsed the services he was to perform. On the eve of the festival he swore an oath before the elders of Israel that he would perform the ritual without omission or alteration. Just before dawn, he underwent the first of the five ritual baths included in the ceremony. After the ordinary morning sacrifice, the High Priest set aside the golden vestments of his office and appeared before the Lord in plain robes of pure white linen. A perfect young bull and two goats were placed before the Lord at the entrance to the Tabernacle (later the Temple). Lots were drawn to designate one of the goats for sacrifice and the other as Azazel, the scapegoat. A small piece of scarlet cloth was attached to the scapegoat's head and he was positioned facing the people in the courtyard of the temple. A strip of scarlet cloth was tied around the throat of the sacrificial goat. The bull was sacrificed for the sins of the high priest and the sons of Aaron. The High Priest then entered the Holy of Holies with burning coals from the altar and frankincense. Once inside, he placed the incense on the burning coals so that the smoke would fill the Holy of Holies. As the

cloud of incense surrounded the ark, the High Priest returned to the courtyard for the blood of the bull. Re-entering the Holy of Holies for the second time, he sprinkled the bull's blood over the ark and on the floor around it. The blood on the ark was for the atonement of the sins of the High Priest and the priesthood. The blood poured out on the ground was for the cleansing of the Holy of Holies. When this ritual was complete he went back to the courtyard and killed the ram selected as the sin offering. Re-entering the Holy of Holies for the third time, he repeated the sprinkling of the blood on the cover of the ark, this time for the sins of the people, and on the floor in front of it, to cleanse the Holy of Holies from those sins. Then the remaining blood of the bull and the ram were mingled together used to cleanse the Holy Place and its furnishings along with the altar of burnt offerings. At the dramatic conclusion of the day's rituals, the people's sins were ceremonially placed upon the scapegoat and it was driven out of the camp into the wilderness. In the Tabernacle and the Temple of Solomon, the Shekinah glory of God was visible between the outstretched wings of the golden cherubim over the cover of the ark. This shining glory was the sign of God's presence in the midst of His people. The blood of the sacrifices sprinkled on the ark signified that the sins of the people were covered in the eyes of God. Thus the cover of the ark came to be known as the Mercy Seat (Hebrew - kapporeth). Luther translated the word with the German Gnadenstuhl (Seat of Grace). The sacrificial system of the Old Testament did not forgive sins in and of itself (Hebrews 10:4). Rather it was designed to point forward to the one great sacrifice of the perfect Son of God upon the cross. Paul draws on the rich ceremonial heritage of the Day of Atonement to explain the redemptive work of Christ as he uses the Greek title for the Mercy Seat (hilasterion) to refer to Jesus. The text literally reads: God presented Him as the Mercy Seat. The golden Mercy Seat of the Old Testament, covered by the blood of the sacrificial offering, prefigured Christ and His work of redemption. The NIV's translation of hilasterion as a sacrifice of atonement is inconsistent with the other uses of this term in Scripture and obscures the powerful imagery of Day of Atonement. Lenski also emphasizes the appropriateness of the fact that the Ark of the Covenant contained the two tablets of the Law, inscribed with the Ten Commandments.

Not this or that single Jewish sacrifice is here referred to but "the highest and most perfect expiatory act of the Old Testament" (Keil), the one that was most completely typical of Christ's expiation, yea, its very type, prophecy, and promise. Once a year, on the great Day of Atonement, the Jewish High Priest, and he alone took blood from the great altar of burnt offering and went into the Holy of Holies, into which none dared enter but he and he only for the purpose of this function and sprinkled that blood on the kapporeth, the cover of the Ark of the Covenant, called the Mercy Seat, in order to cover the sins of the whole people. In the Ark were deposited the tables of the law, that law which condemned these sins. The kapporeth covered those tables; but only when it was thus sprinkled with expiatory blood did it cover the sins of the people from God and from His punishment. (Lenski, p. 256)

Through faith in His blood - The blood of the bull and the ram as a sin offering on the Day of Atonement pointed forward to the ransom which God would pay for mankind in the blood of His Son upon the cross. Peter writes: You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1:18-19) Continuing the imagery of the Day of Atonement, Christ is simultaneously the eternal High Priest, the Mercy Seat, and the perfect sacrificial offering.

He is at one and the same time the offering and the priest. He gave His life into death; He shed His own blood in the stead of sinful men, who were worthy of death. With His holy precious blood He appeared before God Himself. He is our Mediator at the highest throne. He pleaded His blood before God and once and for all atoned for the sins and the guilt of the whole world. He turned God's wrath into pleasure. Marked and covered with His own blood, He stands as the New Testament Kapporeth between sinful men, the transgressors, and the great, holy God and covers all our sins, guilt, shame, and weakness before God, so the He no longer reckons them to our account. Therefore men are completely and forever free from their sins, rid of all their transgressions and impurities. That is what propitiation in His blood includes. (Stoeckhardt, p.44)

The writer to the Hebrews notes:

Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary...Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the golden ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron's rod that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the place of atonement...He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood having obtained eternal redemption...But the heavenly things themselves are better sacrifices than these for Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again the way the high priest enters the Most holy Place every year with blood that is not his own...But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrew 9:1-5, 12,23-26)

As always, faith is the means by which that which Christ has done is appropriated by the individual. The classic theologians of Lutheran orthodoxy distinguish between grace as the causa interna movens et impulsiva (the internal cause which moves and impels) of justification; Christ and His blood as the causa externa et meritoria (the external cause which merits); and faith as the medium aprehendens (the means which apprehends).

In these few short phrases, Paul has presented the entire Scriptural doctrine of justification by grace through faith for Christ's sake. This is the heart of the Letter to the Romans and indeed of all of the Bible. James Montgomery Boice has outlined the foundational truths of these verses in a helpful diagram which he calls The Salvation Triangle. At the three points of the triangle are God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Christian. Each of the lines which connect the three represent one of the great salvation doctrines in this section. The line across the base of the triangle represents Redemption. The arrow points from Christ to the Christian because it describes what Christ has done for us. He is the subject of the action. We are the objects. Jesus has redeemed us, paying the ransom price which buys us back from sin, death, and the power of the devil with his own lifeblood. The line on the left side of the triangle, linking Jesus with God the Father stands for Propitiation. The arrow points from Christ to the Father because it represents what Jesus did for us in relationship to His Father. Propitiation means the turning away of anger by the offering of a gift. The wrath of the holy God against man's sin needed to be turned aside. That work was beyond the capability of man. Jesus who is God, turns God's wrath aside by the offering of His innocent life. The final line of the Salvation Triangle connects God the Father with the Christian. It represents Justification. The arrow points from God to man. God, who declares us righteous is the subject of the action. We who are justified are the object of God's declarative act.

He did this to demonstrate His justice - If God were to have overlooked man's sin He would have been guilty of injustice. By the sacrificial death of His Only Begotten Son, God met the demands of justice in full. In Christ's innocent death the demands of the covenant were fulfilled. God kept His Word to His people. Sin has been fairly punished. The justice and righteousness of God has now been demonstrated for all the world to see.

Because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand go unpunished - From the moment of the Eden's Fall mankind deserved nothing but death and damnation (When you eat of it you will surely die. Genesis 2:17). The fire of judgment could rightly have fallen upon mankind at any time since then. But it has not. The patient forbearance of God through all the long centuries that followed has been misconstrued by many as an indication of weakness or permissiveness. Peter warns:

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say: "Where is this coming He promised? Ever since our fathers died everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." ( 2 Peter 3:3-4)

What fools perceive as impotence is actually the patient longsuffering of a merciful heavenly Father: The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (vs.9) The NIV's translation of the verb in this phrase is literally correct. The Greek word paresis means to withhold punishment or to delay judgment. The psalmist marveled at the patient forbearance of God: Yet He was merciful; He atoned for their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time He restrained His anger and did not stir up His full wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return. (Psalm 78:38,39)

He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time - Paul now restates his assertion of divine justice. The just punishment, so long withheld throughout the centuries of the Old Testament era, was fully inflicted upon the crucified Christ. No longer could anyone question the justice of God. He Himself met the Law's stern demands with the life blood of His only begotten Son. By so doing, at the present time, He demonstrated His righteous justice to all of humanity. By paying that penalty Himself God not only proved that He is just, but that He is the one who justifies the man who has faith in Jesus.

Verse 27
Where then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the Law? No, but on that of faith.

Where then is boasting? - Before God's magnificent plan of salvation no room is left for self-glorification. God has done it all. Man has done nothing. As St. Paul declares in Galatians 6:14 - May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. The great Christian hymnist Isaac Watts said it well when he wrote:

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast save in the death of Christ my God;
All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.

The rejection of human pretension is emphatic and absolute - It is excluded. One commentator offers the paraphrase -It is shut out once and for all.

On what principle? On that of observing the Law? No, but on that of faith. - The utter incompatibility of faith and works is one of the fundamental themes of the New Testament. No compromise or combination is possible. Murray explains the difference in this manner:

We are required to ask how the principle of faith is so rigidly exclusive of and antithetical to the works of law in the matter of justification. The only answer is the specific quality of faith as opposed to that of works. Justification always finds its ground in that which the person is and does; it is always oriented to that consideration of virtue attaching to the person justified. The specific quality of faith is trust and commitment to another; it is essentially extraspective and in that respect is the diametric opposite of works. Faith is self-renouncing: works are self-congratulatory. Faith looks to what God does; works have respect to what we are. It is this antithesis of principle that enables the apostle to base the complete exclusion of works upon the principle of faith. (Murray, p.123)

Yet, at the same time, great care must be taken so that faith itself does not become a good work. Our faith is not the result of our own effort or decision. Faith is a gift of our gracious God. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones provides this very necessary disclaimer on the nature of faith:

Faith is nothing but the instrument of our salvation. Nowhere in Scripture will you find that we are justified because of our faith; nowhere in Scripture will you find that we are justified on account of our faith. The Scripture never says that. The Scripture says that we are justified by faith or through faith. Faith is nothing but the instrument or the channel by which this righteousness of God in Christ becomes ours. It is not faith that saves us. What saves us is the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect work. It is the death of Christ upon Calvary's cross that saves us. It is His perfect life that saves us. It is His appearing on our behalf in the presence of God that saves us. It is God putting Christ's righteousness to our account that saves us. This is the righteousness that saves; faith is but the channel and the instrument by which His righteousness becomes mine. The righteousness is entirely Christ's. My faith is not my righteousness and I must never define or think of faith as righteousness. Faith is nothing but that which inks us to the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness. (Lloyd-Jones, p.120)

Verse 28
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the observance of the law.

For we maintain... - Here we have the perfect summary of the doctrine of justification put into the form of a confession. (Lenski, p.268) The language of the text is reminiscent of that of the Lutheran Confessions which introduce each of the articles of the evangelical faith with the powerful words: We believe, teach, and confess. The Greek verb logizometha is used to express the universal opinion among all the Christian communities. This is an especially powerful word used to describe and important conviction with direct practical consequences. This is not merely an abstract theory but a concept with immediate application that is at the center of Christian life and hope. The core conviction at issue here is the crucial belief that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. The passage closely parallels its counterpart in Galatians 2:16 - We know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Without this there is no Christianity and no salvation. This is the magnificent Sola Fide of the Reformation. Luther's insertion of the Latin word sola in the text at this point was completely consistent with the meaning of the passage. Stoeckhardt argues that Luther's sola is not only consistent with the context, but is, in fact required by the text itself (sondern von Text selbst gegeben). (Roemerbrief, p. 165) In agreement with this view, the Formula of Concord insists:

We believe, teach, and confess that if we would preserve the pure doctrine concerning the righteousness of faith before God, we must give special attention to the "exclusive terms," that is to those words of the holy apostle Paul which separate the merit of Christ completely from our own works and give all glory to Christ alone. Thus the holy apostle Paul uses such expressions as "by grace," "without merit," "without the law," "without works," "not by works," etc. All these expressions say, in effect, that we become righteous and are saved "alone by faith" in Christ. (F.C. Ept. III,10)

Dr. Stoeckhardt's application of the verse is still more explicit:

In this manner the apostle excludes each and every human deed and conduct from justification. All that man thinks, desires, and does, no matter what it is, is excluded. Even faith itself as the source and driving power of good works. It is a radical distortion of the teaching of justification to hold that God, when He justifies man, already sees in faith, the seed, the full fruit. Not faith as an act of the human will, not the act of apprehending, but the thing which faith apprehends justifies man. What induces God to declare man just is alone what faith accepts, namely the merits of Christ. Therefore if we wish to stand before God in time and in eternity, if we wish to be justified and saved, we most put far from our eyes all works, also the best works, all our own thoughts, feelings, desires, deeds, and efforts, no matter whether they are the best Christian virtues. We are lost if we reflect upon what we have done. (Stoeckhardt, p. 48)

Verses 29-30
Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

Is God the God of the Jews only? - The core conviction of Judaism was an absolute commitment to strict monotheism (Deuteronomy 6:4). That commitment had mutated into what has been accurately described as a degenerate theocratic exclusiveness. Many Jews scorned the Gentiles and believed that the God who had chosen Israel also scorned Gentiles. Paul now uses that monotheism as a compelling argument in favor of the universal application of salvation by grace through faith. If there is one God and one God alone He must be the God of all men. Charles Hodge summarizes the thrust of the argument very well:

We have here the second result of the gospel method of justification: it presents God as equally a God of the Gentiles and of the Jews. He is such, because there is only one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by the same faith. He deals with both classes on precisely the same principles; He pursues, with regard to both, the same plan, and offers salvation to both on exactly the same terms. There is, therefore, in this doctrine, the foundation laid for a universal religion, which may be preached to every creature under heaven, which need not, as was the case with the Jewish system, be confined to any one sect or nation. This is the only doctrine which suits the character of God and his relation to all His intelligent creatures upon earth. God is universal and not a national God, and this is a method of salvation universally applicable. (Hodge, p.101)

Paul's argument leaves the monotheist no avenue of escape. It there is only one God, who is the God of all, then the one God's plan of salvation must apply equally to all men.

Verse 31
Do we, then, nullify the Law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the Law.

Do we, then, nullify the Law by this faith? - On final objection must be answered before Paul concludes this magnificent presentation of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. Does this teaching nullify the Law? The verb nullify (Greek - katargeo) means to abolish, do away with, or render ineffective. Paul's rejection of this charge is stated in strongest possible language - Not at all! The NASB expresses the sense of the Greek more forcefully as it translates - May it never be! In fact, exactly the opposite is true. The doctrine of justification by grace through faith restores the Law to the purpose for which it was originally intended by the God who gave it. It upholds the Law by rescuing it from the legalistic abuse to which it had been consigned by the self-righteousness of both Jewish and Gentile moralists. Grace religion upholds the Law in three ways: by the full payment of the Law's righteous demands upon the cross; by restoring the Law to its genuine purpose of leading sinful men to recognize the impossibility of self-justification; and, by creating the possibility of new obedience in those who have been born again to new life in Christ Jesus.

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