Romans 3:31 answers a worry many readers have about Paul’s teaching on faith: if we are made right with God through faith rather than by keeping the law, has the law been thrown out? Paul says no. Faith does not cancel the law, it confirms what the law was always pointing toward. The apostle Paul wrote this as the closing line of his argument in the first main section of his letter to the Christians in Rome.
Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.
Romans 3:31 (WEB)
What Romans 3:31 Means
Paul begins with a question his readers would expect: “Do we then nullify the law through faith?” To nullify something is to make it void or empty, as though it no longer has any force. Paul has just said that a person is made right with God by faith apart from works of the law (Romans 3:28). Some would conclude that the law has therefore lost its value. Paul rejects that conclusion with strong language, “May it never be!”
His positive answer is “No, we establish the law.” To establish something is to confirm it, put it on firm ground, and show it is true. Paul is saying that faith does not sweep the law away. It gives the law its proper place and fulfills what it was meant to do. The verse does not promise that Christians will keep every commandment perfectly, nor does it spell out how the law applies to daily life. It makes one clear claim: faith and the law belong together, and faith is not an enemy of God’s revealed will.
The Context of Romans 3:31
Paul wrote Romans to a mixed congregation in Rome, made up of Jewish and Gentile believers who were sometimes at odds over the place of the Jewish law in the church. The letter is traditionally attributed to Paul, and most scholars accept that he wrote it in the late 50s AD. Verse 31 closes a passage in which Paul insists that God is the God of Gentiles as well as Jews (3:29), and that one God justifies both groups by faith (3:30).
Because the verse comes right after that argument, it reads as a safeguard. Paul is making sure no one hears “justified by faith” and assumes God has abandoned his people’s Scriptures or their moral standards. Instead, he is showing that the same faith the Gentiles share with Abraham and the Jewish believers is the faith the law itself was meant to produce and point toward.
Key Phrases in Romans 3:31
Galatians 3:24
So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
(WEB)
Paul describes the law as a guardian that leads us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. This verse shows the same relationship between law and faith that Romans 3:31 defends: the law prepares the way, and faith brings the promise to completion.
Romans 7:12
Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
(WEB)
Paul calls the law holy, righteous, and good. This verse helps explain why he will not treat the law as an enemy. Even when the law exposes sin, it remains God’s good instruction, and faith does not change that verdict.
A Short Prayer From Romans 3:31
Lord, thank you that my right standing with you rests on faith in Christ and not on my own record. Keep me from treating your grace as permission to ignore your word. Help me to love the law you have given because it reveals your goodness and your heart for justice. Let my faith not dishonor your commands but establish them in the way I live each day. Shape my choices so that they show I belong to you. Amen.
