Romans 3:28

Romans 3:28 says, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.  These last three verses are somewhat of a summation of what Paul had been teaching in the first part of the chapter.  Paul starts with the underlying principle of salvation, and that is that we are justified by faith alone.  No matter how good we may feel that we are, no matter how morally superior we may feel to others, we cannot be justified by the Law.  We must come to God humbly through faith in Jesus Christ as our Redeemer. We cannot just do better when we have sinned and hope to justify ourselves, but we must ask God's forgiveness through faith.  It requires more than just words.  True faith requires a broken and contrite heart as we ask for God's forgiveness.  Verse twenty-nine adds, Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:  Paul was asking the question based on the way the Jews saw the world in his day, and that was that they were God's people, and everyone else was a Gentile, and therefore not as worthy of God's love and blessings as they were.  Matthew Henry asks if we think that God limited His love to that perverse little group of people who were the Jews.  We today could ask this question based on any number of qualifiers.  God is not just the God of a particular nationality or ethnic group, but He is the God of all believers, and we are all equal in His sight.  Verse thirty continues, Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.  There is but one God, and He alone can justify people through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.  Our religious service must come from faith in this fact for it to have any meaning.  Verse thirty-one concludes, Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.  Faith does not negate the Law of God, but establishes it.  The Ten Commandments are no longer written on stone, but are written in our hearts, for example.  God's Law is still God's Law.