Romans 3:31

Romans 3:31 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
• New International Version (NIV)Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
• English Standard Version (ESV)Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
• New King James Version (NKJV)Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.

Context of Romans 3:31

29God is not God only for Jewish people. He is also God for the Gentiles. Yes! He is the God for all people. 30There is only one God. He will accept Jews as right with himself if they believe in Christ. He will also accept other people as right with himself if they believe in Christ. What does this show us about God's Law which he gave to Moses? When we say that all people need to believe in Jesus, does that mean that God's Law has no purpose? No! When we believe in Jesus, we are showing the true purpose of God's Law.

Romans 3:31 word by word

νόμον οὖν καταργοῦμεν διὰ τῆς πίστεως; μὴ γένοιτο, ἀλλὰ νόμον ἱστάνομεν.¶Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Do weκαταργέωkatargeō · to abateG2673
• thenοὖνoun · therefore/thenG3767
• the lawνόμοςnomos · lawG3551
• throughδιάdia · through/because ofG1223
• faithὁho hē to · the/this/whoG3588
• faithπίστιςpistis · faithG4102
• God forbidμήmē · notG3361
• God forbidγίνομαιginomai · to beG1096
• yeaἀλλάalla · butG235
• we establishἵστημιhistēmi · to standG2476

Cross-references for Romans 3:31

• Romans 4:14People cannot get what God promised because they obey rules. If they could get it like that, then faith in God would be worth nothing. And what God promised would be worth nothing.
• Psalms 119:126It is time for you to do something, Lord, because people have turned against your Law.
• Jeremiah 8:8You say, “We are wise because we have the law of the Lord.” But I tell you, your teachers have changed my laws. They teach you lies instead.
• Matthew 5:17Jesus said, ‘You should not think that I have come to destroy God's Law. Also, I have not come to destroy the messages that God's prophets wrote down. No, I have not come to destroy their words. I have come to make what they taught become true.
• Matthew 15:6Then, you let that person give nothing to his parents. He does not have to help them. This shows that you have not obeyed what God says is right. Instead, you have obeyed your own ideas.
• Galatians 2:21So I do not refuse to accept the kind gift of God. If the rules of God's Law could make me right with him, then Christ would have died for no reason!
• Galatians 3:17What I mean is this: God made an agreement with Abraham. He promised to bless him. Then, 430 years later, God gave his Law to Moses for the Jewish people. But that Law could not take away the authority of God's agreement with Abraham. It could not stop what God had already promised.
• Romans 3:4No, certainly it does not mean that! God will always do what he says. He will always say what is true, even if everyone in the world should tell lies. This is what is written in the Bible: ‘Your message is true. It shows that you are right. People may say that you are wrong. But it will always be clear that you are right.’
• Romans 7:7So someone might say, ‘God's Law must be bad.’ No! Certainly, it is not bad! Without that law, I would not have known what sin really is. One rule says, ‘You must not want to take things for yourself that belong to other people.’ Without that command, I would not have known that it is wrong to want other people's things.
• Romans 8:4God did this so that we could become right with him. God's Law showed us how to be right with him. And now we can be right with God, if we live with God's Spirit as our guide. We do not do what our weak human thoughts want us to do.
• Romans 10:4God gave his Law to Israel's people for a purpose. But Christ has finished that purpose. So now, every person who believes in Christ becomes right with God.
• Romans 13:8Always pay your debts to people. The only debt that you should have is to love each other. Anyone who loves other people has obeyed God's Law completely.
• Psalms 40:8I want to do what pleases you. Your law is always in my thoughts.’
• Isaiah 42:21The Lord always does what is right. So he has made his law great and important. He is happy when people respect his law.
• Jeremiah 31:33‘Yes, I will make a new covenant with Israel's people at that time. It will be like this: I will put my law deep inside them, in their hearts and minds. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ That is what the Lord says.
• Matthew 3:15Jesus replied, ‘This time, do what I ask you to do. We must do everything correctly, as God wants it.’ So John did what Jesus asked him to do.

Commentaries on Romans 3:31

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 31Do we then make void the law through faith? - By law here we may understand the whole of the Mosaic law, in its rites and ceremonies; of which Jesus Christ was the subject and the end. All that law had respect to him; and the doctrine of faith in Christ Jesus, which the Christian religion proclaimed, established the very claims and demands of that law, by showing that all was accomplished in the passion and death of Christ, for, without shedding of blood…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 31Do we then make void the law - Do we render it vain and useless; do we destroy its moral obligation; and do we prevent obedience to it, by the doctrine of justification by faith? This was an objection which would naturally be made; and which has thousands of times been since made, that the doctrine of justification by faith tends to licentiousness. The word “law” here, I understand as referring to the moral law, and not merely to the Old Testament. This…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 27-31Verses 27-31 God will have the great work of the justification and salvation of sinners carried on from first to last, so as to shut out boasting. Now, if we were saved by our own works, boasting would not be excluded. But the way of justification by faith for ever shuts out boasting. Yet believers are not left to be lawless; faith is a law, it is a working grace, wherever it is in truth. By faith, not in this matter an act of obedience, or a good work…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 31Instead, we uphold the law: Paul knows that some people will object to his teaching about faith apart from the law. It may sound as if he is setting aside the law’s demands. However, faith does not cancel the law. Faith makes it possible for people to live as the law requires. God gives the Holy Spirit to those who have faith, and the Spirit enables them to do what is right.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 3131. Do we then make void the law through faith?--"Does this doctrine of justification by faith, then, dissolve the obligation of the law? If so, it cannot be of God. But away with such a thought, for it does just the reverse." God forbid: yea, we establish the law--It will be observed here, that, important as was this objection, and opening up as it did so noble a field for the illustration of the peculiar glory of the Gospel, the apostle does no more…Read the comment

Topics related to Romans 3:31

• Boasting
• Catholicity
• Works

In the dictionaries

• God
• god, false god, goddess, idol, idolater, idolatrous, idolatry
• Boasting
• Conclude
• Destruction
• Establish
• Faith
• Justifier
• Overcome
• Sin

Commentaries on Romans 3

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings