Corrections

I have added additional commentary to the note on Romans 3:31, which will be added to any further editions of the book. For now, here is the full commentary:

6. In this final verse, Paul condenses about a paragraph’s worth of theological teaching into just two sentences, which results in our missing the depth of what he is saying! This is because the sentences, in and of themselves, seem to convey a simple message: that we do not negate the Torah because of faith in Christ, but rather through faith in Him we “establish” it.

That sounds fine, but what does that actually mean? Theologians then go on to try to explain Paul’s words.

First, some modern day Judaisers claim that Paul is saying that coming to faith in Christ then enables Jew and Gentile to keep all of Mosaic Law in the proper way through the power of the Holy Spirit, which, though it sounds nice, advances the notion that Paul is saying everyone must thus keep Mosaic Law. That, of course, is a distorted and heretical assumption.

More orthodox Christians speculate that Paul is saying that through faith we put the Law on its proper footing; or that he is making some generalized statement about the true Law being the Law of faith--a fact illustrated in the Old Testament example with Abraham he goes on to cite, which redeems and remakes us into the image of Christ.

The debate centers on the word histemi, translated in the KJV as “establish.” Histemi is a term for business, and relates to weighing something out in a set of balance scales. Paul typically uses it to mean “stand upon” or “take our stand” on something firm. But because of the KJV’s choice to render it as “establish,” this had led to a misunderstanding of the verse by a wide variety of people, especially the cultists. The cultist and false teacher, coming to God through the eyes of Law, perceives this as saying: “Aha! Now that we've come to faith in Christ, we must now go keep God’s holy Law!”

Or...

“Now that we've come to faith in Christ, God enables us to keep His holy law in a manner that we can meet His standards of obedience to assure we make heaven!”

These errors spring from reading one verse at a time--because they're numbered--and isolating each verse individually, trying to understand them on an individual basis rather than as a whole, which is how the document is actually written.

But what Paul has actually done here is to sum up his initial points about sin, righteousness, and God's judgment against sin, be one a Jew who knows the Law or a Gentile who does not. His point is not to say that people who come to faith in Christ then go out and perfect their walk by keeping the Law (Gal. 3:3); he is actually saying:

1. That you don't make void the Law's warnings against sin simply because you have come to faith, so sin is not allowed (see chapters 1 and 2).

2. That the Law shows our inability to achieve righteousness in God’s eyes, and leads us to Christ for justification.

3. That through faith in Christ, we accomplish “without the Law” what the law could not do because it was “weak through the flesh,” that being to truly make us righteous in God's eyes, something that neither it nor man can ever do (see the point of chapter 3, particularly verses 21 and 22).

So when Paul ends the chapter by supposedly saying we “establish the law” by faith, in no way, shape, or form is he saying “keep the torah,” or “keep the 10 commandments,” nor is he making reference to keeping any law as any part of the righteousness he declares is of faith alone--yet “God forbid” one use this utter freedom from keeping a law as a license to sin!

But the “child of the flesh” will never get this, and will always see Paul as saying, “We have come to faith, so we must now go keep (this law or that) or be lost!”

Or, said another way: “Get saved by grace/stay saved by law.”

Also, somehow there was a printing error in James chapter 1. Verse 21 should have a “10” after it, referencing commentary note 10 on the next page. Verse 27, which has a notation of "10" should actually have been “11.”