Romans 3:31

Do we then This verse stands very much by itself, a sort of brief paragraph. A serious objection (on the part of the Jew) is anticipated and strongly negatived; but the discussion of it is postponed. It springs out of what has gone before, but is not connected closely with the next passage.

make void annul, cancel. Same word as Romans 3:3.

the law It has been much doubted what exact reference the word bears here. But the previous context seems to fix it to the moral law, and primarily as embodied in the O. T. (See on Romans 3:20.) For we have been just occupied with the contrast between "faith" and "works of the law;" and what St Paul intendedby the latter (viz. moral, not ceremonial, obedience) is fully shewn by e.g. Romans 4:4-8. Here in fact is suggested and dismissed the objection which is discussed at length in ch. 6; that Justification by Faith not only annuls Jewish privileges, but seems to repeal the moral law. Alford takes this verse in close connexion with ch. 4; but ch. 4 is not at all occupied with the "establishmentof the law," in any usual sense of the word "law."