Romans 3: Why No One Can Be Saved by the Law

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:01]Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.

[00:00:06]An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas.

[00:00:15]Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life.

[00:00:20]When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by.

[00:00:26]And now, here is Les Feldick.

[00:00:31]Okay, it's good to have everybody in again this afternoon.

[00:00:34]And we always like to remind our television audience that you folks come in from near and far, and we produce four of these programs right in succession.

[00:00:45]And I always like to remind our viewers from... We had a call the other day from Maine, that's the first time we've heard from out there.

[00:00:52]But anyhow, we now have viewers from Maine to California, and from Florida to Washington State, and we want all of them to understand that when you see these same faces in the same place for four weeks in a row, it's just simply because we have produced four programs all in one afternoon.

[00:01:09]And again, I'm always so appreciative of all these folks that come in.

[00:01:13]In fact, we've even got a special visitor today.

[00:01:18]I know sometimes I've mentioned we've got people come over from Arkansas, but we've got a gentleman today that flew all the way out from North Carolina just to be with us today.

[00:01:27]And we just appreciate that.

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[00:01:43]My wife is quite hospitable.

[00:01:46]All right, now again, we always like to remind folks that all our past programs, because so many are just catching us now in the last week or two, and they want to know if they can pick up on everything that we've taught from the last five years.

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[00:02:17]All right, now we're going to pick right up where we left off in our last program or our last lesson, which was in Romans chapter three.

[00:02:24]And I'm going to take this very slowly because we're in an area that I'm afraid very, very few people ever get a real solid understanding of.

[00:02:35]Shouldn't end in preposition, should I?

[00:02:37]But anyway, we're going to take our time so that hopefully we can make it so plain that no one can be left confused.

[00:02:47]And so we're going to jump in with a little bit of review at verse 20 of chapter three, where Paul now writes.

[00:02:55]And remember, Paul always writes to the believer who are predominantly Gentile.

[00:03:01]Now, I say predominantly because Jews are certainly eligible for this salvation and many Jews are coming to know the Lord, but it is predominantly God dealing with the Gentile.

[00:03:11]And so to the church at Rome, as well as to believers today, Paul writes, verse 20, therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified.

[00:03:28]For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

[00:03:33]Verse 21, but now, in other words, even though the law could not do a thing to bring someone into salvation, but the flip side is we do have something that does.

[00:03:48]And that is that now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, put into the spotlight.

[00:04:01]Remember, that's what I always do with the word manifested.

[00:04:04]The righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophet.

[00:04:11]Now, right here I always have to stop.

[00:04:14]You know, I emphasize Pauline teaching.

[00:04:18]I emphasize that for us today, 90% of our study time, I think 90% of our Bible reading should be in Paul's epistles.

[00:04:28]But never will I ever indicate that you forget about the rest of Scripture.

[00:04:33]The Old Testament is just as well fitted as the New, and it all dovetails together.

[00:04:40]And I think that's what I've been bringing out in the last five years, how that everything in the Old just dovetails with the New.

[00:04:47]But nevertheless, the Old Testament was under predominantly, again, the economy of law to the nation of Israel, who were under the law, with all their temple worship, their priesthood, their sacrifices.

[00:05:01]But now that God has turned to the Gentile, naturally that economy had to slip off the scene, and we have something totally different.

[00:05:10]And I know this may disturb a few people, but all I ask them to do is don't take my word for it, search the Scriptures.

[00:05:17]Search the Scriptures.

[00:05:19]Do you find the same kind of language that you find in Romans and some of the other epistles of Paul back in the Gospels?

[00:05:27]And I'll tell you before you even start looking, no, you won't find this language in the Gospels.

[00:05:32]You won't find it in the Old Testament, because this is part of that revelation that Paul speaks of, the mystery, the secrets that have been held in the mind of God, but are now being revealed.

[00:05:46]And this is what we have to home in on are these new revelations.

[00:05:52]You know, I've used the illustration so many times, and I'll repeat it again.

[00:05:56]If you had a will, and you've put it in your strong box that you probably had some good attorney put together 10 years ago, but a month ago you drew up a new will, you put it in the same strong box, and tomorrow you die.

[00:06:13]Well, when they look at your wills, they're going to see there's two of them, but which one are they going to declare as valid?

[00:06:19]Well, the latest one, the new one.

[00:06:22]Well, it's the same way here with Scripture.

[00:06:24]We have to understand that Paul has now come with new revelations, revelations of things that had never been revealed before, and this is what we're going to be held accountable for.

[00:06:38]Willie and I again were talking last night.

[00:06:42]Denominations are so stringent, and they don't want their people to get anything other than what they teach, and that's all well and good if they're lining up with the Book.

[00:06:51]But you see what I've tried to tell people on the program, and in all my classes, always remember that when you stand before the Lord one day, He's not going to say, well, you were certainly loyal and obedient to your denomination.

[00:07:06]He's not even going to look at our denominational background.

[00:07:10]We're going to be judged according to the Book, not according to what less says, but according to the Book.

[00:07:16]And that's all I try to get people to see.

[00:07:18]What does this Book say?

[00:07:21]Not what I say, what does the Book say?

[00:07:23]So now the righteousness of God.

[00:07:27]Now, that word righteousness of God, what does that really mean?

[00:07:31]God can never do anything amiss, otherwise He wouldn't be God.

[00:07:36]So the righteousness of God really tells us that whatever God does is going to be absolutely fair, and just, and right.

[00:07:46]That's where we basically get the word righteousness.

[00:07:48]It's that which is right.

[00:07:50]So now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, brought out into the light, and is laid out into the open, but it was still based on all the Old Testament writing.

[00:08:06]See, you don't throw your Old Testament away.

[00:08:10]I've had people tell me, why never look at the Old Testament, that's all by the Word, all by the Book.

[00:08:15]No, it isn't.

[00:08:16]The Old Testament is still apropos.

[00:08:18]In fact, let me show you a verse.

[00:08:20]See, here we go again, I can't help it.

[00:08:21]Romans chapter 15.

[00:08:24]Can you find it, honey?

[00:08:26]Romans 15, and I want you to drop down to verse 4.

[00:08:31]Romans 15, verse 4, and then we'll go right back to chapter 3.

[00:08:38]And this just says it all.

[00:08:41]Romans 15, verse 4.

[00:08:44]For whatsoever things were written aforetime, and what's he referring to?

[00:08:52]The Old Testament, see?

[00:08:54]All these things that were written aforetime were written for our doctrine?

[00:09:02]Learning.

[00:09:03]You see the difference?

[00:09:05]Doctrine is what we better have straight in what we believe so far as our eternal destiny is concerned.

[00:09:11]Doctrine is what we need for living the Christian life today.

[00:09:14]But for our learning, that is to understand why do we have this doctrine.

[00:09:20]See the difference?

[00:09:21]And so the Old Testament is still apropos for our learning, to give us the background of how all this fell in place and that God can now turn to the whole human race with this tremendous plan of salvation.

[00:09:38]So it was written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

[00:09:45]So you see we gotta use the whole book, cover to cover.

[00:09:49]All right, now then quickly back to chapter 3 of Romans.

[00:09:54]Verse 22, we spent almost one whole half hour on this so we're not gonna stop here very long.

[00:10:00]Even the righteousness of God, which is by or through the faith of Jesus Christ.

[00:10:07]And look who it's given to.

[00:10:11]Upon or unto all and upon all them that what believe.

[00:10:17]See, believe.

[00:10:20]For there is no difference.

[00:10:22]Between what and what?

[00:10:24]Between Jew and Gentile.

[00:10:27]Everybody is now on the same level.

[00:10:29]The Jew used to be in a place of preeminence.

[00:10:32]He had the law, he had the word, he had the priesthood.

[00:10:36]But no more.

[00:10:37]There is now no distinction between Jew and Gentile.

[00:10:41]There's no difference.

[00:10:43]All right, then verse 23.

[00:10:46]The capstone of everything that God laid out in chapters 1 and 2.

[00:10:54]The immoral man.

[00:10:57]The religious man.

[00:10:58]The moral man.

[00:11:00]Didn't make any difference.

[00:11:03]All, everyone, every child of Adam is now under this decree.

[00:11:10]That what?

[00:11:11]All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[00:11:15]There isn't a person that has ever lived that can merit favor with God on his own.

[00:11:21]It's impossible.

[00:11:23]For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[00:11:27]We're all condemned.

[00:11:29]And I pointed out in our last series of programs, I don't know which one, I had the statements on the board, that we do not break the law.

[00:11:41]Let me see, I've got to think for a minute.

[00:11:44]We do not break the law because we do certain things.

[00:11:53]We break the law because we're sons of Adam.

[00:11:57]And that's what we have to understand.

[00:11:59]We are sinners because we're sons of Adam.

[00:12:02]That's what I wanted to say.

[00:12:03]We're not sinners because we've broken the law.

[00:12:06]And people can't understand that.

[00:12:08]We are basically born sinners.

[00:12:11]All right, but now verse 24.

[00:12:14]It's not hopeless, otherwise it would be, but because of all that God has done, it is not a hopeless situation because here's the promise.

[00:12:23]Being justified, what's the next word?

[00:12:27]Freely, without a cause.

[00:12:31]Now the word justify, we better stop.

[00:12:34]I always like to define words.

[00:12:37]To justify someone is to declare them just as if nothing had ever happened.

[00:12:45]That's justification.

[00:12:47]To bring it into the scriptural realm, justification is that judicial act of God whereby He declares the sinner who believes just as if he'd never sinned.

[00:13:01]Boy, now that's hard for us to swallow.

[00:13:04]Once God justifies you and I, you mean to tell me that God sees me just like He saw Adam before he fell?

[00:13:12]Yes, yes.

[00:13:15]And that's hard for us to comprehend, but it's a biblical truth.

[00:13:18]We are justified without a cause.

[00:13:23]In other words, God didn't finally get back into a corner and say, okay, okay, I'll justify you.

[00:13:29]I'll declare you just as if I've never sinned because after all, you know, you've deserved it.

[00:13:33]No, no, no, no.

[00:13:35]God justifies us freely without a cause even though we don't deserve it when we believe.

[00:13:44]See, now you know the universalists, they like to teach that everybody is going to end up in heaven.

[00:13:51]A lot of the people right around us here in this area of the world think, oh, they'll all make it somehow or other, or at least most will, but that's not according to the book.

[00:14:00]See, it still boils down to that personal decision to recognize themselves as a sinner and that they believe that what Christ has done on their behalf is all that God demands.

[00:14:14]All right, now this is what we're going to try and show in the next program or two.

[00:14:19]So we're justified freely by his grace.

[00:14:25]Very few even church people understand this word grace.

[00:14:34]Grace is that attribute of God whereby he in his love and mercy pours out on sons of Adam the opportunity for eternal life if they'll just believe.

[00:14:53]Now that's grace.

[00:14:54]You know, I'd like to use the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus as probably the most perfect picture of the grace of God in all of Scripture.

[00:15:02]There are others, but I think that's the most important.

[00:15:06]What kind of a man was Saul of Tarsus?

[00:15:09]Oh, he was a religious zealot, but he was contrary to God.

[00:15:14]He literally hated the name Jesus of Nazareth because he thought it was in opposition to his religion.

[00:15:22]And so he persecuted those who had put their faith in Jesus.

[00:15:26]He had literally committed many of them to prison, had even voted to have many of them put to death.

[00:15:33]He was, what I've often said, the first man that I would have zapped off the scene had I been God, and I think you'd all have to agree.

[00:15:43]But instead, what did God do?

[00:15:44]Saved him.

[00:15:47]Saved him.

[00:15:48]And not after he had done a lot of begging and a lot of crusading and say, oh, I've got to straighten up my life.

[00:15:54]I've got to get this ready so that God... No, he was yet breathing slaughter and threatenings against those believers.

[00:16:02]And what did God do?

[00:16:04]Right there, he didn't zap him with death.

[00:16:06]He zapped him with eternal life and confronted him.

[00:16:11]Why persecutest thou me?

[00:16:14]And then when old Saul of Tarsus looked up into that heavenly light and said, who art thou, Lord?

[00:16:19]And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.

[00:16:22]The man was transformed in a moment, see?

[00:16:25]And as we will see in chapter 7, all of a sudden, all his religiosity just faded away.

[00:16:32]The law came alive.

[00:16:34]He realized he was a sinner and the grace of God just overwhelmed him.

[00:16:41]See?

[00:16:41]And that's where we all have to come, where we realize there's nothing we can do.

[00:16:46]Another example I always like to give is the children of Israel on the shores of the Red Sea.

[00:16:51]My, they were in a hopeless situation, wasn't it?

[00:16:55]The Egyptian army behind them, populated areas to the left and mountains to the right and the Red Sea out in front of them.

[00:17:03]Hopeless.

[00:17:04]Did God say, well, hurry up and build bridges?

[00:17:07]Come on, find something that will float?

[00:17:10]No.

[00:17:11]God said almost the ridiculous.

[00:17:13]He said, stand still.

[00:17:15]What'd that mean?

[00:17:16]Hey there, Israel, there's nothing you can do.

[00:17:18]You're locked in.

[00:17:20]You're at my mercy.

[00:17:22]And what did God's mercy do?

[00:17:24]Open the Red Sea.

[00:17:26]Now that's salvation, see?

[00:17:28]Oh, it's beautiful.

[00:17:29]If only people can understand that we are in that hopeless situation.

[00:17:35]We're sons of Adam.

[00:17:36]We're sinners.

[00:17:37]Even as I explained a couple programs ago.

[00:17:41]Oh, we can sometimes control old Adam.

[00:17:43]We can dress him up.

[00:17:44]We can polish him.

[00:17:45]We can make him look real nice, see?

[00:17:47]But there comes a time when the law reveals itself.

[00:17:51]Boom, old Adam is revealed for what he really is.

[00:17:55]And then, of course, we can turn ourselves over to the grace of God.

[00:17:59]All right, so the grace of God.

[00:18:03]But how does God pour out his grace?

[00:18:05]Through a redemption process.

[00:18:09]Now these are all heavyweight words.

[00:18:13]First, justification.

[00:18:16]Whereby God declares the sinner just as if he never sinned.

[00:18:20]On what basis?

[00:18:21]His grace.

[00:18:23]Not because a man deserves it, but by his grace.

[00:18:26]But how does he accomplish it through grace?

[00:18:29]By redemption.

[00:18:30]And what's redemption?

[00:18:32]Paying a price.

[00:18:36]Hope I've got time.

[00:18:39]I heard a little anecdote and it stuck with me.

[00:18:42]I guess I heard it way back when I was a kid and I don't think I've ever forgotten it.

[00:18:45]And I'm sure others have repeated it.

[00:18:48]You may have even heard it yourself.

[00:18:49]But it's such an appropriate illustration.

[00:18:52]This little fellow was kind of handy with making models.

[00:18:56]And so one winter and spring he labored by the hour to make a little boat for his summer vacation.

[00:19:06]And he just put a lot of time and effort into that little boat.

[00:19:10]And it was a beautiful little thing.

[00:19:13]And so the day came when his parents took him to the beach and he was playing with his boat and it just did everything that he wanted it to do.

[00:19:21]But like kids are prone to do, something got his attention and he left his little boat there on the water's edge and he went and did something else.

[00:19:30]And when he came back he was gone.

[00:19:34]And that little boat in which he had spent so much time was gone.

[00:19:39]Couldn't find it.

[00:19:40]Went up and down the beach asking everybody, did you see my boat?

[00:19:44]Well nobody had.

[00:19:46]Well it got to be winter time and he was with his mama one day downtown shopping and they went past a pawn shop and there in the window of the pawn shop was his boat.

[00:20:04]Well we'll go in and see what the man says.

[00:20:07]So they went into the pawn shop and the guy had a price on it.

[00:20:11]So many dollars.

[00:20:14]Oh there was no way he could afford to pay for that boat.

[00:20:18]And his mom wasn't going to.

[00:20:20]So he determined that he'd go home and he would work and he would do everything he could to accumulate enough money to go back to that pawn shop and buy his boat.

[00:20:34]So he went into that pawn shop and the boat was still there fortunately.

[00:20:38]And so he paid for it.

[00:20:40]But this is the point I want to make.

[00:20:41]As he was carrying that little boat home he's talking to it and he said little boat you're twice over mine.

[00:20:49]I made you and now I've bought you back.

[00:20:54]Twice over mine.

[00:20:55]Well you see that's mankind.

[00:20:57]God had us in Adam until he fell.

[00:21:01]And then what happened?

[00:21:04]He paid the price.

[00:21:04]And the only way he could get it back was what?

[00:21:08]In due time pay the price.

[00:21:10]And that he did when he went to the cross.

[00:21:13]Now you see that's redemption.

[00:21:15]And so until we can recognize that the only way God's grace can be appropriated is that the price had to be paid for our redemption.

[00:21:28]Now then we come on in through here and we'll see what it is in just a moment.

[00:21:34]He's paying the price.

[00:21:36]Well I've got another good illustration that comes from the Greek of this word.

[00:21:40]Now I hesitate to use some of these things because I used it once before way back three, four years ago.

[00:21:46]But I trust that the people that watch the tapes over and over won't mind my repeating it.

[00:21:52]But you see the basic Greek words here and I guess I better put this on the board.

[00:21:56]The basic Greek words here used in redemption and used in other places in Scripture I'm going to just use two of the three agorazo which means to buy I hope I'm making this big enough so that people can see it to buy out of the market.

[00:22:22]And of course we're picturing a slave market at Paul's day which would be in Rome.

[00:22:27]And so the slaves would come in maybe from Europe after the Roman legions had brought back the victims of the Roman legions.

[00:22:36]And then these people would end up in the slave market.

[00:22:40]And you want to remember that in those days if they didn't get bought out of the slave market the Colosseum was the end fed to the animals, the lion.

[00:22:50]So their only hope once they got into the slave market was that they could be bought out of the market.

[00:22:57]Then the next word that is also used in this same analogy would be set free.

[00:23:11]Now that's exactly where we were.

[00:23:13]As sons of Adam falling short of the glory of God every human being is in Satan's slave market.

[00:23:22]Whether they know it or not they're in Satan's slave market.

[00:23:26]And unless they're purchased out of Satan's slave market their end is pretty much the same as going to the Colosseum only it's spiritual, it's eternal.

[00:23:36]It's death.

[00:23:36]And so the only hope is that somehow they could be bought out of that slave market.

[00:23:43]Well that's what the blood of Christ did.

[00:23:45]See the blood of Christ has paid the price of redemption.

[00:23:50]He paid it in full.

[00:23:53]And he has not only brought us out of the slave market but he has what?

[00:23:58]He set us free.

[00:24:00]Now again I'll go back to the analogy that I've used before.

[00:24:03]A rich Roman comes down and he sees maybe a likely young teenager healthy, strong, robust and so he buys him out of the slave market and he takes him home to his beautiful villa.

[00:24:17]Cleans him up, puts him in nice clothes and gives him light duty.

[00:24:21]He's bought out of the slave market.

[00:24:23]And then in short order he tells his slave now I've also paid for your freedom.

[00:24:28]If you don't want to stay here and be my servant you're free to go.

[00:24:36]Well now under those kind of circumstances I always have to feel what would you and I do?

[00:24:42]Well we wouldn't go out into a strange Roman world after all we've been kidnapped or whatever from our home area.

[00:24:48]So what would be the likely thing to do?

[00:24:51]Tell the master I'm going to stay right here sir and I'm going to be your slave the rest of my life.

[00:24:59]I've never had it this good.

[00:25:01]And see that's what the believer has paid the price of redemption.

[00:25:09]He's not only bought us out of the slave market of Satan he sets us free.

[00:25:14]And you know I'm always stressing that.

[00:25:16]There is no freedom on this planet like a Christian, a true believer experiences.

[00:25:22]That's when we come into real freedom.

[00:25:26]Now you know I always have to follow that up with but that's not license.

[00:25:30]That's not license.

[00:25:31]That doesn't mean that we can say well we are now set free.

[00:25:39]But anyway let's move on for just a couple minutes that are left.

[00:25:43]We're justified declared just as if we've never sinned because God's grace has been poured out on us undeserving and it's because His shed blood has paid the price of our redemption.

[00:25:59]Let me show you another verse.

[00:26:01]All the way back to first Peter.

[00:26:04]Little letters of Peter.

[00:26:12]First Peter chapter 1.

[00:26:22]Y'all got it?

[00:26:24]First Peter chapter 1 come down to verse 18 where now Peter writes.

[00:26:30]Now I always have to remind people you remember Peter is writing his little epistles a long time after his earthly ministry with Christ about 30 some years later.

[00:26:43]But now and of course Paul's revelations have also been made known to Peter by this time.

[00:26:49]So now Peter can write for as much as you know verse 18 that you were not redeemed.

[00:26:56]You were not bought.

[00:26:58]You were not paid the price with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.

[00:27:17]You can't make that any plainer.

[00:27:19]And you see why I maintain you cannot leave the blood out of the picture.

[00:27:23]Now we may not just exactly like that but you cannot bypass the blood of Christ because we have been redeemed by the blood.

[00:27:36]Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldig a weekly Bible study.

[00:27:47]A Bible study in your area or about this program.

[00:27:52]Write to Les Feldig Ministries Route 1 Box 760 Kinta Oklahoma 74552 That's Route 1 Box 760 Kinta Oklahoma 74552 Through the Bible with Les Feldig Your gift is viewer supported and your gift is appreciated.

[00:28:20]Thank you and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldig.