Romans 3:9-31
9: What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10: As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12: They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13: Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15: Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16: Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17: And the way of peace have they not known:
18: There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19: Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20: Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21: But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22: Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24: Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26: To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
27: Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28: Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
29: Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
30: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
31: Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Justification is a very important concept in the Bible, especially in the new Testament. Reading through the Bible one finds that there are two major ways that can lead to being justified with God.

One is justification by faith, the other is the justification that comes by obeying the law. The Bible makes us to understand that only the justification by faith is the one accepted by God.

The law is only meant to lead us to Christ, to be a schoolmaster, leading us to the justification by faith, and to make us conscious of sin. We can ask the question, what is justification? The word “justified,” “will justify” are all similar and derived from the same root words as the words righteousness in the Greek, the Greek word Dikaiosune , righteousness, and the word righteous, Dikaious. So in the context of the Bible, being justified is being righteous in the sight of God, or having righteousness in the things that pertains to God.

When the Bible talks of the two possible means of justification, the law and faith, we also have to understand what they mean in their entirety so that we know what it means to be justified by faith.

The law was given so that through the law, there would be the knowledge of sin and this would lead us to Christ, who has come to redeem us from sin. But the justification of faith works like this. Abraham was justified by faith, God promised him he would have a son, an heir even when he had no son or had only Ishmael. God said Abraham would have a son through Sarah who was his wife and who was barren at the time. God told him he would be a father of many nations, and that his descendants would be as the stars of the heaven. God brought him out to see the sky. Abraham believed God and God reckoned this on his account as righteousness.

So also, if a person believes God on the promise of the sacrifice of the Son of God Jesus Christ, and the person accepts Christ, God reckons the person as righteous. So who is righteous in the sight of God? This one is the one that has accepted Jesus Christ as the Son of God and believes on him as the Saviour. He also accepts God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and believes on Him as the only true God. Anyone that does this has eternal life. John 17:1-13. So in Romans 3:30, why were the different prepositions used. The Bible says in this verse, “Since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

The Greek preposition for the one, by, underlined here is Ek. The one for the proposition through is the Greek preposition, Dia.They have their uses and the ways they are used in the Greek manuscripts tell us a lot about the underlining messages the scriptures pass on to us. Imagine you have a box through which arrows can pass. The greek preposition Dia can be represented by a continous arrow comming from one side of the box, passing through and coming out at the other end, whereas, the preposition Ek can be represented by an arrow having its origin inside the box and passing through to only one side of the box.

So the preposition Dia represents something that is initially outside, passes inside (through) and comes out at the other side. The preposition Ek in its own case represents something inside that then comes out. For those who are circumcised, they already have a platform they are coming from. Though circumcision could have been in existence before God used the symbol as a sign of Abraham’s faith. It was used in the Bible in the case of Abraham and his household.

This “PLATFORM” is that they ascribe themselves to the faith of Abraham in that they are Jews and descendants of Abraham and they are under the law. But those who are uncircumcised come to God only based on the faith in Christ. They have nothing else. Both the uncircumcised and the circumcised however are only justified in the sight of God by their faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. All have to come to God based on their faith in Christ.

However, Paul in the Epistles to the churches usually encouraged that those that were uncircumcised needed not to be circumcised (see also the book of Romans). Circumcision, in the sight of God, is not what makes a person righteous. It is faith that makes a person righteous, faith in Christ. Circumcision was only instituted as a sign or a mark of faith or I even say, a symbol.

However, medically it has been found that being circumcised is also beneficial, so God had His reasons for also instituting as a sign to Abraham and his descendants.