Romans 3 - Why Our Good Works Are Not Enough?

19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

Righteousness Through Faith

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

In chapter 3 Paul makes the important between Law and Gospel.  For Martin Luther this distinction was the key to interpreting all of scripture correctly.  Why is this important?

Unless we understand the purpose of the Law, we cannot understand the purpose of the Gospel.  The first purpose of the Law was for God to set apart the Israelites as His chosen people.  By obeying the Law they would receive God's blessing and when they disobeyed it they would see His curse.  Generally speaking the Law is the Ten Commandments.  The first three commandments deal with our relationship with God, and most importantly putting our trust in God alone.  The second seven commandments deal with how to have right relationships with each other.  They describe how we love, care and respect our neighbors. It is summarized by the golden rule, which is that we love our neighbors as we would love ourselves.  

So what's the problem? The problem is laid out in Romans 3:20.  It says, "No one will be declared as righteous in God's sight by the Law, but the purpose of the Law is to make us conscious of our sin."  Paul goes on to say in verse 22, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." 

So where does the gospel come in?  If the Law exposes our problem in terms of our broken relationship with God, what is the solution?  Where does the Good News come in? The Good News, also called the gospel, is that God realized we could not justify ourselves by doing good works.     

The Good News is that God provided a solution to our sin problem by sending His Son Jesus into the world. Jesus became for us the righteousness we could never achieve on our own. His righteousness is a gift from God that we can receive by faith alone.  Faith is trusting in God's promises. In this case it is the promise of a restored relationship with God by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior.       

I hope this explains why our good works are not enough, but our faith in Jesus is enough.