Romans Chapter 3 verse 31 Holy Bible
Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish the law.
read chapter 3 in ASV
Do we, then, through faith make the law of no effect? in no way: but we make it clear that the law is important.
read chapter 3 in BBE
Do we then make void law by faith? Far be the thought: [no,] but we establish law.
read chapter 3 in DARBY
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
read chapter 3 in KJV
read chapter 3 in WBT
Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.
read chapter 3 in WEB
Law then do we make useless through the faith? let it not be! yea, we do establish law.
read chapter 3 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 31. - Do we then make law void through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish law. The question naturally arises after what has been said about justification being χωρὶς νόμου. Do we then make out our revealed Law, which we have accounted so holy and Divine, to be valueless? Or. rather, as the question is more generally put (νόμον being without the article, and therefore translated as above), "Do we make of none effect the whole principle of law, embodied to us in our Divine Law? Regarded erroneously as a principle of justification, the apostle might have answered. "Yes, we do." But any disparagement of it, regarded in its true light and as answering its real purpose, he meets with an indignant μὴ γένοιτο. On the contrary, he says, we establish it. Law means the declaration of righteousness, and requirement of conformity to it on the part of man. We establish this principle by our doctrine of the necessity of atonement for man's defect. We put law on its true base, and so make it the more to stand (ἰστάνομεν) by showing its office to be, not to justify - a position untenable - but to convince of sin, and so lead up to Christ (cf. Romans 7:12, etc.; Galatians 3:24). In pursuance of this thought, the apostle, in the next chapter, shows that in the Old Testament itself it is faith, and not law, which is regarded as justifying; as, in the first place and notably, in the case of Abraham; thus proving the previous assertion in Romans 3:21, Μαρτυρουμένη ὑπὸ τοῦ νόμου καὶ τῶν προφητῶν. In ch. 7. he treats the subject subjectively, analyzing the operation of law in the human soul, and so bringing out still more clearly its true meaning and purpose.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(31) Do we then make void the law.--In opposition to many commentators it seems right to take this as an isolated statement to be worked out afterwards (Romans 6:1 et seq.) more fully. It cannot, without straining, be connected directly with what follows. The Apostle deals with two objections to his theory of justification by faith: (1) that there ought to be a different rule for the Jew and for the Gentile; (2) that if not, the law is practically abolished. He meets this latter by a contradiction, saying that it is not abolished, but confirmed. This is, however, drawing upon the stock of conclusions in his own mind to which he had come by process of meditation; the detailed proof is reserved.
