Bible Strands
Romans 3:31
Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Certainly not! Instead, we uphold the law.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul writes to a mixed Jewish-Gentile church in Rome, having just argued (3:21–30) that both groups are justified by faith apart from works of the law. He anticipates the objection that this conclusion renders the Torah irrelevant.
The words — καταργοῦμεν (katargoumen) means "do we render inoperative," a strong cancellation rather than a gentle setting-aside. The emphatic μὴ γένοιτο (mē genoito) is closer to "absolutely not" than the BSB's "certainly not."
The thread — Jesus says he came to fulfill, not abolish (Matthew 5:17), and Paul calls Christ "the end of the law" as its goal (Romans 10:4). Together these frame the law as something faith fulfills rather than something it cancels, while Galatians 2:21 guards against making the law the basis of righteousness.
Why it lands — It blocks two easy escapes: the legalist who clings to the law as a means of standing before God, and the antinomian who treats the law as obsolete. The reader must define what "upholding" looks like when it is not about earning righteousness.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Cross-references
- Galatians 2:21 I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
- Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
- Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.
- Romans 13:8 Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
- Romans 8:4 so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
- 1 Corinthians 9:21 To those without the law I became like one without the law (though I am not outside the law of God but am under the law of Christ), to win those without the law.
- Romans 7:7 What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
- Jeremiah 8:8 How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us,’ when in fact the lying pen of the scribes has produced a deception?
- Galatians 3:17 What I mean is this: The law that came 430 years later does not revoke the covenant previously established by God, so as to nullify the promise.
- Romans 4:14 For if those who live by the law are heirs, faith is useless and the promise is worthless,