Romans 3:27 — Boasting Excluded by Faith
Romans 3:27 closes the justification-by-faith section by declaring that human boasting before God is shut out, and that this is accomplished not through works but through faith.
Scripture
27Where then is the glorying? It is excluded. By what manner of law? of works? Nay: but by a law of faith.
What this passage means
Romans 3:27 is a rhetorical conclusion. Paul has just summarized how God justifies the believer (3:24-26): freely by grace, through the redemption in Christ Jesus, who is the propitiation set forth in his blood. From that, the question naturally follows: where does human boasting fit? The answer is stark — it has no place. The verb 'excluded' (ἐξεκλείσθη) is decisive: boasting is not merely diminished but shut out as a door is shut.
The second question sharpens the logic: by what kind of law is boasting excluded? Paul anticipates two possible answers. If someone answered 'by a law of works,' he rejects it immediately with 'Nay' (οὐχί, supplied in sense). A law that demands human performance would actually create a basis for boasting, not remove it. The exclusion of boasting therefore cannot come through works.
The alternative is given: 'by a law of faith.' This phrase does not mean faith itself is a law to be obeyed, nor that faith is meritorious work. It means the principle or ordering (νόμος) by which God now relates to the sinner operates through faith. Justification is grounded in what God has done in Christ and received by faith, so that no flesh may boast (cf. 3:28).
Context
Romans 3:27 stands at the hinge of Paul's argument in Romans 1-3. He has demonstrated that both Jew and Gentile are 'all under sin' (3:9), quoted a catena of Old Testament texts showing universal unrighteousness (3:10-18), and concluded that 'by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified' (3:20). Justification is not lost but relocated: it now comes 'apart from the law' yet 'witnessed by the law and the prophets' (3:21).
Within the immediate unit (3:21-31), verse 27 functions as the logical climax before the summary statement of 3:28 ('a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law'). Verses 29-30 then widen the conclusion to include both circumcised and uncircumcised under one God, and verse 31 guards against misuse: faith does not nullify the law but establishes it. Verse 27 thus sets up both the summary and the universal scope that follows.
Key words in the original
- G2746 καύχησις ('boasting') denotes the act of boasting, and by implication the ground or matter of boasting. Paul uses it for the proud self-assertion that would claim merit before God.
- G1576 ἐξεκλείσθη ('it was excluded') is a passive aorist of ἐκκλείω, 'to shut out.' The passive voice is significant: boasting is not self-removed but shut out by God's action of justifying by faith.
- G3767 οὖν ('then/therefore') is a logical connector drawing the inference from 3:24-26. It marks verse 27 as the conclusion that flows from God's act of justification through Christ.
Common questions
Why does Paul ask 'where then is the glorying?'
Because the preceding verses (3:24-26) describe justification as a free gift by grace through Christ's redemption. If justification depends entirely on what God has done and gives, there is no human achievement left to boast in — hence the rhetorical question and its answer: boasting is shut out.
What does 'a law of faith' mean? Does it teach that faith is a work?
It does not turn faith into a meritorious work. Within the verse itself Paul contrasts this 'law' with 'a law of works,' which he rejects. 'Law of faith' means the ordering or principle by which God now justifies: through faith, not through human performance. Boasting is excluded because the ground of justification lies in Christ, received by faith.
How does verse 27 connect to verse 28 and verse 31?
Verse 27 raises and answers the boasting question; verse 28 then states the summary conclusion ('justified by faith apart from works of the law'); verses 29-30 widen this to Jews and Gentiles under one God; verse 31 guards against misuse by insisting that faith establishes rather than nullifies the law.