After making his point that none of us are righteous in our own right before God, Paul concludes this chapter with a reminder about pride and identity. To boast means to rely on something that gives you confidence to do something or to behave in a certain way. It is the thing that makes you say: I am a somebody because I have that. I can do this because I am this. What you boast in usually becomes your identity and what you fundamentally rely on.

Read Romans 3:27-31 and journal through the following questions this week: 

• Are there any aspects of your life or character that you find yourself boasting about, relying on, looking to, or finding your sense of worth in?

• Why would being saved by “observing the law” (v. 27) enable someone to boast?

• If we are justified by faith, why does Paul exclude all boasting? 

• Read 2 Corinthians 12:1-6. 

  • What else do we learn about boasting from this passage?

  • What does Paul say he would boast in? Why?

  • What does Paul say he is not going to boast in? Why? 

• Read 1 Corinthians 1:26-31. Just like in the above passage from 2 Corinthians, Paul once again connects how our weaknesses actually become opportunities for boasting. 

  • Who did God choose to glorify himself in? Why?

  • How does this give us freedom? 

  • Verse 30 says Christ became what four things for us? 

  • How does one glory/boast in the Lord? 

  • Are there any weaknesses in your life or character that you previously saw as negative but in light of this passage realize may actually be for the glory of God? 

• Read Galatians 6:14 and Ephesians 2:8-9. How can you replace boasting in yourself with boasting only in the cross of Jesus Christ?

• Why would something think that faith nullifies/voids the law? (v. 31). 

• How does faith in Christ “uphold” the law?

Reflect & Respond

• What does this passage teach me about God?

• How does this change the way I live? 

Scripture to memorize

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. -Ephesians 2:8-9

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Yelena is the founder and editor in chief Tirzah. Yelena works as an attorney in tax and in her spare time, she is working on her first book for unmarried twenty-something women in extended waiting seasons and running Tirzah. She has a passion for pointing young women to Christ, and enjoys reading, writing, traveling, and spending time with her family.