What does Romans 3:27 mean?
Paul has shown that there is a way to be made righteous before God. However, this does not include perfectly keeping the works of the law—since nobody can, or does (Romans 3:10, 23). Instead, God handed over His own sinless Son to be the sacrifice to fully and completely pay the price for our sin. This upholds God's just-ness and righteousness, but punishing sin, as well as upholding His loving mercy. As a result, those who place their faith in Christ can now be redeemed and justified by God. We are welcomed into His family forever.Now Paul turns back to our response. What can we possibly say? He asks, "What becomes of our boasting?" Paul is referring to the inevitable pride that comes with religious rule-following, as men and women compete to be morally superior to each other in order to be more acceptable to God. Paul says that game has become pointless. God has done all the work and offers His full acceptance to all by faith in Christ alone.
Paul anticipates an objection. Where is this written, that we can't boast in our own salvation? What kind of rule is this? Shouldn't we have this in black and white? Paul says no. That's the point. He calls it the "law of faith." Being made right before God in this way is all about faith in what God has done for us in and through Jesus. It's not about any law we can try to follow in our own strength and therefore be judged by.
Romans 3:21–31 finally introduces the ''good news'' part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Up to this point, Paul has shown that even following the law cannot spare us from being judged by God for our sin. Now Paul announces that, through faith in Christ, we can be made righteous in God's sight. Entirely apart from the law, we can be redeemed by the atoning sacrifice of Christ's blood, willingly shed for our sin. This gift of God's grace instead of wrath is available to everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike. This is truly good news!
Romans 3 begins with a question-and-answer scheme. These are responses one might expect from someone opposed to what Paul wrote in Romans 2. Next, Paul quotes from a series of Old Testament passages. These Scriptures show that those writers also agreed that nobody, not one person, deserves to be called righteous. Paul declares emphatically that no one will be justified by following the works of the law. Finally, though, he arrives at the good news: righteousness before God is available apart from the law through faith in Christ's death for our sin on the cross.
