Many people want to treat faith as empty; something that is mere passive head knowledge.  They say, “I believe that Jesus died for my sins, so I’m saved”.  That is their “faith”.  They hold fast to a confession made long ago, perhaps as a child, and point to the verse in Romans 10:9 for assurance – “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  What did Jesus say in response to such people?  Luke 6:46-49 – “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:  he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.  But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” 

Now in Romans 1-3:20, Paul has painstakenly rebutted every argument that would seek to deny man’s accountability before God as a sinner.  He has well established our just condemnation before a Righteous and Holy God.  Now he is turning to offer hope for those who would believe, by preaching salvation through faith alone in Christ alone.  This was very different from what the Jewish readers of Paul’s day had been taught.  The Jewish holy men, had taught that righteousness came through adherance to the laws of God given through Moses.  In Romans 3:23-31 above, Paul is answering the next question he expects any Jewish reader to ask, “What about all of the laws of God?”  “If we are not saved through upholding them, does this mean we are setting them aside altogether?”  No, he answers, the law points to the righteousness of Christ, and we uphold the law as we follow after Christ.  Further, regarding the law we are told in Galatians 5:14  – “the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”    Hear Christ’s response about the law in Matthew 22:36-40 – “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  (Note that reference to the Law and the Prophets simply refers to all of the writings of the Old Testament)

Christ fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law – perfectly.  Many people want to treat the grace of God as license to live free to sin.  That is a very shallow view of faith, and one that cannot save you.  No, just as the Jews sought righteousness under the law, we are to seek our righteousness under the law of faith.  Saving faith is much more than passive intellectual assent to facts about Jesus – it is a complete union with Christ, both in His death to sin and life to righteousness.  This is the law we are held to, this is the law that Paul describes in Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  Further, our unity with Christ by faith is manifested through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Christ Himself, through our faith.  Ephesians 1:13 – “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”