The Jews thought that because they had the Law there were special, privileged. In a sense they were, as Paul will point out later, but not in the sense that they thought they were. They thought that it meant they had special favour with God, that at the last day they would be OK, they would get through the final judgement. On the other hand, they thought the Gentiles had had it. Paul says that all will be judged and will perish. The Gentiles without the Law will still be judged and found wanting, the Jews will be judged and also found wanting.
The central tenet of Paul’s argument in this part of Romans is that the Jews and the Gentiles are in exactly the same boat. This is fundamental to our understanding of God’s dealings with Israel in the Old Testament. Israel is, in a way, a microcosm of the whole world. We see in Israel what is true of the whole world. In that sense Israel is not special. In Israel we see a study in sin. It would not be unfair to call the Old Testament a record of the sins of Israel. We see in it depicted the depths of sin. This same sin is found in every human being. Yet that is not all that the Old Testament is, it is also pointing forward to Christ, pointing forward to salvation. Furthermore, it was always God’s plan that this salvation would go out to all the world. Now all this does not mean that Israel will not receive salvation on a large scale at the end, there will be a massive turning to Christ, a final realisation. Paul talks about this in Chapters 9-11.
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