Romans 3:27-28 (NASB) “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.”
The result of God’s saving act in Jesus includes the elimination of “boasting” (v. 27) or confidence in human self-sufficiency. There is no religious system or achievement through which any humans, Jew or Gentile, can meet the righteous standards of God’s law. There is one God and accordingly one humanity (both Jew and Gentile) and one way of redemption: Jesus Christ’s perfect work received by faith (v. 30).
The law of works does not exclude boasting; it promotes boasting. When a person looks at what he has done, at the works of his hands, he is inclined to boast and to find glory in his own achievements. A law of works encourages a person to be selfish, self-centered, prideful, and self-righteous.
A law of works causes us to be focused upon self. It causes us to center the world around ourselves: to look upon ourselves as the power that creates and sustains the world, as the power that gives purpose, meaning, and significance to life.
Faith justifies a person without the works of the law. This is of extreme importance. We are justified by faith and not by the deeds of the law. In Ephesians 2:8–9, the Bible says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” If a person created himself and saved himself from sin and death by his own works and deeds, then that person could boast. We did not make ourselves nor can we save ourselves. When we consider that we are corruptible, and that we can do nothing beyond this life, then boasting is excluded. Therefore, we are not justified before God by the deeds of the law; we are justified by faith—by believing in God and His righteousness.
Our only hope is to come before God not boasting and glorying in self, but bowing in all humility and accept the free gift of grace.