Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Parallel translations
- WEB Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.
- BSB Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.
- NKJV Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.
- NASB Do we then nullify the Law through faith? Far from it! On the contrary, we establish the Law.
- NLT Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Far from abolishing the law, faith actually upholds it. The gospel honors God's law rather than discarding it.
Overview
Anticipating the objection that justification by faith makes the law worthless, Paul answers emphatically, 'May it never be!' Faith establishes the law because Christ fulfilled its righteous demands and its testimony pointed forward to him. The law's true purpose is honored, not nullified, in the gospel he proclaims.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 24
- Gal 2:21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
- Matt 5:17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
- Rom 13:8–10Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
- Rom 10:4For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
- 1 Cor 9:21To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
- Rom 8:4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
- Rom 7:7–14What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
- Jer 8:8–9How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
- Gal 3:17–19And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
- Jas 2:8–12If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
- Rom 4:14For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
- Matt 5:20For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
- Matt 15:6And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
- Jer 31:33–34But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
- Rom 3:4God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
- Isa 42:21The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.
- Ps 119:126It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law.
- Rom 7:22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
- Gal 2:19For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
- Rom 7:25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
- Matt 3:15And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
- Ps 40:8I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
- Gal 5:18–23But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
- Heb 10:15–16Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 3:31 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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