WHAT DID PAUL MEAN BY 'WE ESTABLISH THE LAW?'
By Nana Yaw Aidoo In Romans 3:31 the apostle wrote: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” What does the statement, we establish the law mean? Does it mean that those of us living are amenable to the Old Testament law of Moses? While it is the custom of Sabbatarians to use this text to teach that those of us living this side of the cross are under the old law, essentially destroying the force of the whole book of Romans and of books like Galatians and Hebrews, in fact most of the New Testament, the statement does not in any way mean that we are under the old law. Before we look at what the statement means I believe that it is in order to quote some passages from Paul on the relationship between Christians and the old law. The following texts are self-explanatory. 2 Corinthians 3:5-11: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers o