ROMANS UNWRAPPED 32

"What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?"
                                                                                                                  Romans 3 v 1.


We come now to the third objection by the Jews to the judgment of God, Romans 3 v 1-8.   It is actually four mini-objections, the main point being that we are God's people under Divine promise, and He is not going to judge us!

In chapter 2 Paul showed that God's judgment of all people is determined by character, rather than ceremony.    In the matter of our standing before God, He placed the Jew on the same level as the Gentile; however Paul has been careful to maintain a difference between them in the matter of privilege and responsibility.  1 v 16: 2 v 9: 2 v 10: 3 v 9.   The Jews were given amazing privileges, but did not live up to them. Paul's message is that it is not what we were given, that determines our acceptance with God, rather it is how we live up to it: we are accountable for our lives.

Paul is here using a literary tool known as "diatribe" which assumes an invisible objector with whom he is debating; himself being a Jew would understand the Jewish mentality and he anticipates the objections as follows; they can be tabulated under 4 headings;

1.   The Jews are a special people   v 1 - 2
2.   God will be faithful to His word  and he promised to bless us   v 3 - 4
3.   Jewish sins magnify God's righteousness, so God will be merciful to Jews  v 5 - 6
4.   Jewish sins contributed to God's ultimate glory, so God will overlook their sins   v 7 - 8

Self-righteous people today still raise these objections.   God will not condemn THEM, they are special in whatever way.   The character of God will prevent Him from judging human beings because God is love.   God's glory will be ultimately enhanced through human sin; since everything we do ultimately glorifies God, He would be unjust to judge us.   This is how the Jews actually thought and how they were taught, and this is how all self-righteous people today think.   There are twin evils arising out of this latter, preposterous, belief.   The first is the thinking of governments who talk about "collateral damage"  perpetrating evil "for the greater good" or "in the public interest".   The second is like to it "the end justifies the means".   This is nothing less than man playing God.   Unfortunately for all who think that way, God is God, and sin is sin, and God will judge all sin and all sinners on the basis of His righteousness and their actions.  

1.   "We are a special people"   -   All of us, in some way, think we are special, the Jews were no different.   Equally all of us need to waken up to the reality of  things and understand that all the privileges given to us bring with them great responsibility.   The Jews were a very privileged people and Paul will later on in chapter 9 elaborate on these privileges, but here simply states what he considers to be the best of these, the first of them, and the most important. "Unto them were entrusted the oracles of God."   The oracles of God were special revelations of God directly to them from the very throne room of the universe, the Divine utterances preserved and handed down by previous generations.   Acts 7 v 38; Hebrews 5 v 12; 1st Peter 4 v 11.   This was an amazing privilege granted to the nation of Israel.   Paul said a similar thing to the young Timothy   "from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation."  2nd Timothy 3 v 15.   Those of us born and raised in Christian homes should also count it a great privilege to have been introduced to Divine things from an early age.   The privilege is great, but as always with privilege comes responsibility, so Paul uses the word "committed" or "entrusted".   Says Paul, God has entrusted you with His treasure, His oracles, His special revelation, the very words of the Living God.   The Bible claims, at least 2,600 times, to be the word of God.   This awesome responsibility was given to the Jews, in the words of William Cowper, the English poet:

"They and they alone, amongst all mankind
 Received the transcript of the Eternal mind
 Were trusted with His own engraven laws
 And constituted guardians of His cause
 Theirs were the prophets, theirs the priestly call
 And theirs by birth the Saviour of us all."

In the letters to Timothy, the apostle Paul constantly reminds the young man and consequently all of us today, that we have been entrusted with the Divine words.   We are responsible to know them, to keep them, to defend them, to propagate them, and all preachers and teachers and church leaders must establish a programme to ensure that this precious treasure is made known in all generations.

Paul's answer to their first objection thus is this, "with privilege comes responsibility."   We are responsible for the revelation God has given us.    Failure is not an option;   Paul is removing every false crutch that man depends upon to bring us to our knees before the God, to whom we must give account. We will all be judged on what we did with what we received.

Tomorrow we will consider the final three parts of the objections to God's judgement.