One God. One Faith. One People.
Thinking about Romans 3:29-31.
Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. (Romans 3:29-31)
After showing that justification is grounded in the death of Jesus Christ, Paul shows that both Jews and Gentiles had access to the same justification.
He begins his argument by beginning with there is only one God.
One God.
The Jewish people knew very well that there was only one God - and that the one God was the God of all people, not just the Jews.
Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For this is Your rightful due. For among all the wise men of the nations, And in all their kingdoms, There is none like You. (Jeremiah 10:7)
Notice that Jeremiah refers to the Lord as the “King of the nations.” Not just King of the Jewish people, but King over all the nations.
Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns; The world also is firmly established, It shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously." (Psalm 96:9-10)
The earth ought to tremble before the holy LORD. The nations needed to know that “the LORD reigns.” All people will be judged by the righteous Judge of all the earth (Acts 17:30-31).
One Faith.
Based on Paul’s argument that there is only one God over all people, he then points out that both Jews and Gentiles are “justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28).
There wasn’t one way of faith for the Jews and another way for the Gentiles.
There is one God. There is one Redeemer, Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24-26).
All men have sinned and have fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). All need to be justified. The same way of justification is available to all people.
One People.
In order to emphasize his point once again, Paul took the most cherished Jewish doctrine - the doctrine of monotheism - and turned it against them: He said that the one true God was uniting all mankind into one people! God was not and never would be the exclusive property of one racial group. One God. One people. That was the new reality. - Pollard, Truth for Today Commentary, 129
Because there is one God and one faith (Ephesians 4:5), those who are justified by the blood of Jesus Christ are one people - or one body (Ephesians 4:4).
In Christ Jesus, all have access to the same blessings and are heirs together.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)
Some Jews would have been skeptical - didn’t this mean that the Law of Moses was pointless and meaningless? Paul denies this is the case and will discuss that point more in Romans 4.
If Paul threw out the Law, he would be throwing out the very source that proved his argument! Was the Law to be used for salvation? No. Was it a repository of proofs for his argument? Yes! For that and other reasons, although he preached a Law-free gospel, he was not about to declare the Law null and void. In the new covenant, the Law was, in fact, fulfilled. The Law pointed to the very message he preached! - Pollard, Truth for Today Commentary, 129