Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from 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. 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 those who have faith in Jesus.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 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. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:20-31)

When it comes to having righteousness before God, all non-Christians are damned. God will damn the non-Christian Jews to hell just as he will damn the non-Christian Gentiles to hell. On this issue, there is no difference between the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews are not saved just because they have the law. Rather, the law is a written code that provides a clearer knowledge and definition of right and wrong, and therefore causes a greater consciousness of sin.

However, the law itself talks about a righteousness that comes apart from the law, and that comes from God as a gift, which he delivers through faith in Jesus Christ. Since the law itself testifies of this, the Jew who does not become a Christian has ejected himself completely from the Bible’s religion. He is not even a believer in the law or the Old Testament. You either take all of the Bible’s religion, or you take none of it. You either have Jesus Christ, or you have hellfire. These are the only two possibilities.

Just as there is no difference when it comes to damnation, there is no difference when it comes to justification. God will not save a Jew more readily or on different terms than he would a non-Jew. But God will save all Christians, all who have believed in Jesus Christ for righteousness. It is strange that we must still press this point because even some who claim to be Christians consider the Jews as spiritually superior in some sense, just because they are Jews. This is not only unwarranted, but it is a denial of the apostle’s doctrine that “there is no difference,” and that spiritual fitness is attained only as a gift through Jesus Christ.

The same applies to other categories of people. As Paul writes in Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28-29). The doctrine is often used to abolish distinctions within society, but that is an abuse. If you are a man or a woman, you do not suddenly lose your gender when you become a Christian, whether in your physical makeup or in your place in society. The male is still to lead where God tells him to lead, and the woman is still to submit where God tells her to submit. It is a travesty to use a doctrine on the grace of Jesus Christ to wiggle out of God’s commandments concerning the structure of human relationships. Rather, the teaching is that a man is not more readily saved or damned just because he is a man. And a woman is just as readily saved or damned as any man. But whether one is a man or a woman, slave or free, Jew or Gentile, he or she is saved when God causes this person to have faith in Jesus Christ.

God sent Jesus Christ as a sacrifice, to die and to make atonement for sinners. Paul writes, “He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.” As Hebrews 10:11 says, “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” The priesthood and the sacrifices in the Old Testament could not take away sins, for the priests themselves were sinners and needed forgiveness, and “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Thus these were only figures of the priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But Christ had not arrived, so the Old Testament believers relied on the promise that he would come and take away sins. God counted them as righteous and did not condemn them to hell – thus their sins were “left…unpunished” – but this means that in order to uphold justice, Jesus Christ eventually would have to come in order to take away sins, sins that were not punished in these people on account of the promise that he would come. And then, God did send him at the appointed time.

This is a matter of justice because in order to satisfy his own standard of justice God must punish all sins, but he wishes to save his chosen ones, and so he punished their sins in the impeccable and imperishable Jesus Christ. He makes Christ the champion of all his chosen ones and joins them to him by faith. Those who were saved from sins before he arrived believed on the promise that he would come and make atonement for them, and those who are saved after he has arrived believe on the reality that he has come and has made atonement for them.

The Jews claimed that they revered the law, but they despised it, and made up rules to work around it. Jesus said to them, “Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matthew 15:6). On the other hand, God does not make a mockery of his own law; rather, the law itself points to salvation through Jesus Christ, and in order to both uphold the law and save his people, God sent his Son to die for sinners. Both the promise and the justice of the law found its fulfillment in Jesus. He became and performed all that it required, and the punishment of the law was exacted on him. Therefore, the way of faith is the only way that honors the law, and Christians are the only people who respect the law.

One commentator remarks that faith is no basis for boasting because “in the last analysis” it is a gift of God. But there is no reason to save it for last, or to suggest that it takes some digging to discover that faith is a gift. Paul calls it a gift in Ephesians 2:8. And Jesus told the people, “You do not believe because you are not my sheep” (John 10:26), not as if they had a free will to decide, but they believed or disbelieved according to what God has made them. So the Lord added, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him” (John 6:65). Faith is a gift in the first analysis.

So Paul is not suggesting that instead of attaining salvation by “doing” the law, you should attain salvation by “doing” faith, because faith is not something that we “do” at all, but it is something that God produces in us by his decision and his ability. Paul stresses faith as something in contrast to law, just as one could stress God or Christ in contrast to man or self. He often refers to faith instead of God as the contrast to works because he is speaking of the way to righteousness from the perspective of our consciousness. He is speaking of our perspective, and faith, even though it is a work of God, is a work of God on our consciousness (unlike, for example, the divine decree to save us). Thus when it comes to works, the contrast is faith, but when it comes to man, the contrast is God (and his attributes, such as his will, power, wisdom, righteousness, grace, and so on). So there is work versus faith, but not man versus faith; rather, it is man versus God. Therefore, although we are so conscious of our faith, that we so definitely believe on Jesus Christ and lay hold of him to save us, it is not something that we produce or that is meritorious, and so faith does not lead to boasting.

There is only one God, and he is God over all. What follows from this when it comes to religious unity and diversity? He is the God of the Jews and the God of Gentiles, and so he has the power to condemn them all, and he has named all of them as lawbreakers, subject to everlasting damnation. A man cannot take refuge in a non-Christian religion and consider himself exempt from the wrath of the Christian God, the only God, because all of reality is under his jurisdiction.

As for salvation, Paul writes, “There is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.” There are those who imagine that because there is only one God, then all the different religions represent different ways of reaching the same God. Thus in apparent diversity, there is an essential unity. The Bible contradicts this idiotic fantasy, and teaches the opposite. That is, because there is one God, there is only one way to reach this God. There is only one redeemer and sacrifice for Jews and Gentiles, men and women, rich and poor, and all other kinds of people. They can be saved only through one faith, the faith that believes Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who suffered death for the sins of his chosen ones, and who rose from the dead and ascended to the highest place at the right hand of God.