How Our Faith and Law-Keeping Work Together in the Christian Life
00:00:00.000 | Here's an email question, a pretty common question we get a lot about the role of faith
00:00:08.920 | and works in the Christian life.
00:00:10.400 | "Hello Pastor John, my name is Anthony from Spain.
00:00:13.600 | Romans chapter 2 verse 13 says it is the doers of the law who will be justified.
00:00:19.140 | How am I to understand this verse in light of Romans 5 verse 1 and other verses that
00:00:22.880 | speak of our justification coming by faith alone and not by works?
00:00:28.040 | Why would Paul say the doers of the law are justified?"
00:00:33.240 | Well this is huge and wonderful.
00:00:35.760 | It's such a crucial, crucial question.
00:00:38.600 | So I hope I can tackle the verse but also state the bigger issue at stake, namely the
00:00:45.280 | relationship between being justified by faith apart from works of the law as any foundation
00:00:51.000 | for our being in God's favor on the one side and the necessity and inevitability of the
00:00:58.640 | fruit of good deeds or law keeping in order to show that that faith in Christ is real.
00:01:09.040 | That's what's so hard for people to get a handle on these days.
00:01:12.200 | So let me make a go at it.
00:01:14.120 | Let's make the context clear if we can.
00:01:16.560 | Romans 2, 11 to 13, Paul is concerned to show that the Jews, even though they have the law,
00:01:26.880 | will not be shown any partiality at the judgment day.
00:01:31.840 | So he's explaining how the judgment, the last judgment, will proceed on the last day for
00:01:38.720 | those who have had the law and those who have not had the law.
00:01:44.200 | Those who do not have any access to the law.
00:01:46.720 | In verse 11, chapter 2, he lays down the principle.
00:01:50.560 | God shows no partiality.
00:01:53.960 | And then he explains how that works.
00:01:57.240 | Even though the Jews have the law, which seems like, "God, that's partial," and the nations
00:02:01.720 | don't.
00:02:02.720 | He says, verse 12, "For all who have sinned without the law will perish without the law,"
00:02:10.360 | meaning God's not going to bring in the law of Moses to condemn anybody who's never heard
00:02:14.440 | of the law of Moses.
00:02:15.440 | He won't need to.
00:02:16.960 | They're going to be judged on the basis of accesses that they had to law written on their
00:02:21.360 | heart or law written in nature or law written in conscience.
00:02:24.840 | But he's not going to be partial in using a standard that somebody had access to that
00:02:29.720 | you didn't have access to.
00:02:31.400 | And then the verse continues, "And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by
00:02:36.160 | the law."
00:02:37.160 | So we're all going to be judged by the standards, the divine standards that we have access to,
00:02:43.200 | and everybody has access to divine standards that we fall short of.
00:02:47.920 | That's the point of Romans 1 and 2.
00:02:50.640 | And then he adds the verse that Anthony is asking about, verse 13, "For it is not the
00:02:57.160 | hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be
00:03:02.000 | justified."
00:03:03.000 | So, merely having the law and being able to hear the law because you have it will be of
00:03:09.400 | zero advantage at the judgment day.
00:03:13.000 | It's because it's not having it, like, "Whoa, we've got the law, so we're going to pass
00:03:18.320 | judgment at the last day."
00:03:20.200 | No, it's how you respond to God's will, the law, not whether you have possession of it.
00:03:27.400 | That's what verse 13 is saying.
00:03:29.400 | And then he proceeds to show in the following verses that the nations have a form of God's
00:03:33.760 | law written on their hearts, and he had already said in chapter 1 that they have a form of
00:03:37.680 | God's will written in the skies and in nature and now in their conscience.
00:03:44.400 | Now in that context, a lot of very great teachers, people that I love and admire, have argued
00:03:51.840 | that verse 13 describes a hypothetical situation, not a real one.
00:03:58.400 | So when Paul says, "Not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers
00:04:05.000 | of the law will be justified," referring to the last judgment, he's not saying that anybody
00:04:14.160 | actually does this.
00:04:15.440 | This is a hypothetical.
00:04:17.480 | Hypothetically, if there were doers of the law, they would be justified by the law, because
00:04:24.760 | if you're perfect, you're perfect.
00:04:27.400 | And nobody does this, and therefore it's just hypothetical, and he's stating a principle.
00:04:33.880 | So that's one way to understand Romans 2:13, so that it fits with Romans 3:28, for example,
00:04:42.560 | or 5-1, which was mentioned.
00:04:45.920 | We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
00:04:50.800 | That's Romans 3:28.
00:04:52.800 | And this way of understanding 2:13 as hypothetical is one way to keep those texts in perfect
00:05:01.200 | harmony.
00:05:02.200 | Now, my point is that there's another way to understand Romans 2:13 that also coheres
00:05:10.440 | with Romans 3:28, understood that way, and the doctrine of justification by faith alone
00:05:16.880 | apart from works of the law, meaning that the only foundation of our justification is
00:05:23.120 | Christ, His blood and righteousness, and that the only instrument that unites us to Christ
00:05:29.800 | and His righteousness is faith and faith alone.
00:05:34.160 | And I believe that's what the Bible teaches.
00:05:37.200 | Being doers of the law need not mean being perfect doers of the law with no failures
00:05:47.200 | at all.
00:05:48.200 | If being doers of the law means perfect, then clearly it has to be hypothetical.
00:05:53.560 | It may mean that one loves the law, trusts God for forgiveness when he stumbles or fails
00:06:01.200 | to measure up to God's will, leans on God's provision for perfect righteousness, and seeks
00:06:07.560 | to walk in a way pleasing to the Lord.
00:06:11.000 | In other words, a person today—I'm thinking now 21st century—a person today may be a
00:06:17.000 | doer of the law who trusts Jesus as the only basis of their justification before God, who
00:06:26.400 | in the power of that faith by the Spirit walks in a manner worthy of the Lord, and then at
00:06:34.160 | the last judgment, Christ will be the basis of our acceptance—Christ alone, the basis
00:06:39.880 | of our acceptance with the Father—and our life of obedience, doing the law, will be
00:06:46.760 | brought in to confirm, just confirm, that our faith was real, because faith works through
00:06:53.600 | love, so doing the law will not be the basis of our being in God's favor, but the evidence
00:07:00.760 | that we are trusting Christ, united to Christ, and thus necessary at the last day.
00:07:07.960 | Now why do I think that is in fact what the verse teaches?
00:07:14.460 | And here are a few reasons.
00:07:16.520 | First, the statement "doers of the law will be justified" does not sound in the
00:07:23.360 | context like a hypothetical statement.
00:07:25.440 | It just sounds like that's true, that happened.
00:07:30.800 | It sounds like a statement of fact.
00:07:33.200 | So if the statement can stand, as is in Paul's thinking, then I want it to stand.
00:07:39.880 | Secondly, Romans 2:13 says "doers of the law will be justified."
00:07:47.880 | It does not say, "By doing the works of the law, you will be justified."
00:07:55.120 | That would be a really big problem, from my view, if it said that.
00:08:00.000 | It simply says that the one who will be justified is the one who is a doer of the law.
00:08:08.760 | There's no causal connection asserted between the two at all.
00:08:12.880 | So the verse is not a contradiction of Romans 3:20 that says, "By the works of the law,
00:08:17.640 | no flesh will be justified."
00:08:20.000 | There is nothing in Romans 2:13 that keeps us from believing in justification by faith
00:08:26.040 | alone.
00:08:27.600 | Faith is required by the law.
00:08:30.600 | Faith is the sole means of union with Christ, whose righteousness vindicates us at the judgment.
00:08:37.200 | All the other obedience that comes from that faith is fruit, fruit of that union, not the
00:08:43.120 | means of that union.
00:08:44.440 | That's so crucial.
00:08:45.440 | Let me say that again.
00:08:47.000 | All the obedience that a Christian performs, all that obedience is fruit that comes from
00:08:54.880 | a faith-established union, not a works-established union, a faith-established union with Christ.
00:09:02.440 | And so that fruit is not a means of being a good tree.
00:09:06.900 | It's the result of being a good tree, and you get to be a good tree by faith alone in
00:09:12.080 | union with Jesus and then the Holy Spirit moving.
00:09:15.600 | So Romans 2:13 is not a contradiction on my reading either of Paul's teaching of justification
00:09:24.160 | by faith alone.
00:09:25.800 | Third observation.
00:09:27.520 | There are real examples in the New Testament of real people who are doers of the law.
00:09:36.000 | This is not hypothetical.
00:09:38.300 | For example, Luke 1, 5, and 6.
00:09:41.400 | In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias of the division
00:09:46.320 | of Abijah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth, and
00:09:51.200 | they were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments
00:09:56.080 | and requirements of the Lord.
00:09:57.600 | Period.
00:09:58.600 | Not hypothetical.
00:09:59.600 | That's the way they were described.
00:10:01.480 | And of course they were sinners.
00:10:03.000 | Of course they needed to be justified by faith.
00:10:06.240 | But they were so in tune with the heart and mind of God that they were described as righteous.
00:10:12.800 | They were described as walking blamelessly.
00:10:14.560 | They were described as keeping the commandments because every time they stumbled, they took
00:10:20.040 | the laws and the gospels opportunity to repent, to apply themselves to the sacrifices in the
00:10:28.320 | Old Testament and now the Christ in the New Testament to cover their sins so that they
00:10:32.960 | could be described in their path of general obedience as blameless and righteous.
00:10:38.720 | So it's a real couple, not a hypothetical couple, who would be described as doers of
00:10:44.360 | the law.
00:10:45.360 | Here's another one.
00:10:46.360 | 1 Corinthians 7, 19.
00:10:47.640 | Paul says, "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is keeping the
00:10:56.120 | commandments of God."
00:10:58.200 | And he's saying that to Christians.
00:11:00.120 | And he had just said in Galatians 5, 6, "In Christ, circumcision doesn't matter, uncircumcision
00:11:06.040 | doesn't matter.
00:11:07.040 | What matters is faith working through love."
00:11:10.040 | So if you lay those two texts on top of each other, faith working through love is described
00:11:15.280 | as keeping the commandments of God because in Paul's understanding in Romans 13, love
00:11:21.120 | is a fulfillment of the law.
00:11:23.440 | Love does the commandments of God that the law requires.
00:11:28.000 | And so the works of love that come through Christian faith is a keeping of the commandments,
00:11:34.920 | and the person who does them can be described as a doer of the law.
00:11:39.840 | Here's a third example, Romans 8, 3 and 4.
00:11:43.760 | "What the law could not do, weak as it was to the flesh, God did, sending His own Son
00:11:48.520 | in the likeness of sinful flesh and forced sin.
00:11:50.840 | He condemned sin in the flesh."
00:11:52.760 | So that's substitutionary penal atonement.
00:11:57.440 | So that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to
00:12:03.240 | the flesh but according to the Spirit.
00:12:05.720 | Now that's who we are as Christians.
00:12:08.080 | When we walk according to the Spirit, we fulfill the just requirement of the law.
00:12:13.600 | That is, we keep the commandments.
00:12:14.900 | That is, we love.
00:12:16.600 | We are doers of the law, not sinlessly perfect law keepers.
00:12:21.880 | Nobody is, nobody ever has been except Jesus, which is why we depend on Him.
00:12:27.000 | But rather, radically transform people through faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, leaning
00:12:33.680 | on the grace of God that comes to us through Jesus Christ.
00:12:37.760 | So Romans 2, 13 does not have to be hypothetical.
00:12:42.760 | There are doers of the law in the New Testament as we've just seen in those three examples.
00:12:50.800 | And here's the last thing that I would say in favor of taking this verse this way rather
00:12:57.200 | than as a hypothetical statement.
00:13:00.000 | In Romans, it fits the context in Romans 2, in the verses just gone before.
00:13:06.360 | It fits the context.
00:13:07.360 | So here's what Paul says in Romans 2, 6 and 7.
00:13:11.000 | "God will render to each one according to his works, to those who by patience in well-doing."
00:13:18.560 | Now that's, I think, the same as saying those who are doers of the law.
00:13:22.360 | Those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give
00:13:30.720 | eternal life, which is just another way of saying they will be justified at the last
00:13:35.880 | day.
00:13:37.560 | So in the very context where we find 2, 13, Paul has already been teaching that eternal
00:13:44.360 | life, which is essentially the same as final justification, Paul is essentially teaching
00:13:51.120 | that we must be so transformed by our faith in Jesus Christ and through His atonement
00:13:59.640 | and blood that we persevere in doing good, and that becomes the narrow way then that
00:14:07.560 | leads to life, and that will be brought in at the last day, not as the ground of our
00:14:14.680 | acceptance, not as the ground of being in God's favor, but as evidence that we have
00:14:20.680 | trusted God.
00:14:23.240 | So my answer to Anthony is that he is right to be jealous, to safeguard the doctrine of
00:14:30.960 | justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law, as the basis of our acceptance,
00:14:37.640 | and he is also right—I hope he will be right—that he is jealous to preserve the biblical truth
00:14:45.560 | that saving faith always bears the fruit of doing the will of God, just like we saw, say,
00:14:55.280 | in 1 John 1, 9, where we repent and then he is faithful and just to forgive us of our
00:15:04.440 | sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, provided that we are walking in the light,
00:15:11.680 | as verse 7 says.
00:15:13.640 | Man, this is an incredible judicious balance here on the controversial discussion of faith
00:15:18.480 | and obedience, and very much needed today, Pastor John, thank you.
00:15:22.200 | This is one of those episodes that I would commend that you listen to and read the transcript
00:15:26.520 | at the same time to really grasp all the nuances that have been said here.
00:15:31.960 | And we release a transcript of each episode simultaneously, along with the audio recordings,
00:15:37.400 | and you can find those transcripts at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn, as well as, of course, you can find the audio
00:15:44.280 | for all 825+ episodes that we've released to date.
00:15:48.960 | I know a lot of users out there use the site and the APJ app as a sort of FAQ for pastoral
00:15:54.960 | questions, so please make use of it in whatever ways, personally, and to care for others in
00:16:00.600 | your church and family.
00:16:02.040 | Well, tomorrow we talk about social justice and acts of kindness, and ask, "What is the
00:16:06.280 | ultimate aim of our works anyways?"
00:16:08.280 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:16:10.160 | I'll see you tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John podcast.
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