If God justifies sinners as a free gift, what happens to human pride? Paul asks so his readers will see the answer for themselves. The first question asks where boasting has gone; the second and third ask what principle shut it out, and whether it was works. Barnes says that since all have sinned, "all ground of boasting is of course taken away." He also notes that the Jews were "much addicted to boasting of their special privileges," as Paul had said of the one who "makest thy boast of God" and "of the law" (Romans 2:17, 23).

Paul answers each question in turn. "It is excluded." Not by the law of works: "Nay: but by the law of faith" (Romans 3:27). He then states his conclusion: "a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" (Romans 3:28).

The Greek word for boasting is kauchesis. "It is excluded" translates a single verb, exekleisthe, "it has been excluded," pointing to something already done. Barnes, citing Stuart, explains that "law" here means an "arrangement, rule, or economy," so "the law of faith" means God's way of saving by faith, set against a way of works.

This matters because many Jews took pride in having the Law and in being God's people (Romans 2:17, 23).

Boasting disappears because salvation is a gift. If people could earn God's favor, they could take credit for it. But God "set forth" Christ as the propitiation (Romans 3:25). Sinners receive what He has done. Matthew Henry describes faith as "a depending, self-emptying, self-denying grace."

Henry adds that this does not leave believers without direction: "Believers are not left lawless: faith is a law, it is a working grace, wherever it is in truth." Paul says the same in Romans 3:31: through faith "we establish the law."