3:1
Throughout the first few chapters of Romans Paul interacts with an imagined interlocutor, someone who is raising questions and objections to the gospel. Paul has just made it abundantly clear that the Jew is in exactly the same boat as the Gentile when it comes to judgement, all of us will stand before God and be judged by what we have done. Being Jewish or non-Jewish will offer no advantage, having or not having the Law will make no difference. So this raises the question of whether there is any advantage at all in being Jewish. Does circumcision have any value at all? Now these are not mere intellectual questions. Imagine that you are a Jew, then you know that there is value in being Jewish, you know that circumcision does matter. So is your whole world about to crumble, have you been deceived all these years? Or is there something deeper, is your Jewishness actually of far greater value than you ever imagined?
3:2
Paul does then start to give the advantages of being Jewish but does not get beyond the first item before returning to the reality of the situation the Jews are in. He does, arguably, return to the list in Chapter 9! We do well to remember that letters, even the magnificent Romans, is not an academic treatise. They were written with passion, about matters that were deep in Paul’s heart, and affected the lives of real people. The one item he does manage to mention is that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. God gave them His word, He spoke to them in a way that He did not speak to any other nation. But having received the word they needed to obey the word. It is the same today if God gives you a prophecy, or you get some insight from reading the Bible. The insight in itself does not make you special, we only benefit from it if we believe it and obey it. Most of all remember that in saying the Jews have the oracles of God he is referring above all to the Old Testament. As Christians we need to appreciate just how blessed we are to have the Bible. All of it is God breathed. In the right sense we need to be proud of the Bible, we also need to remember, that like the Jews, it is of no value to us unless we believe it and truly live by it.
3:2
Paul does then start to give the advantages of being Jewish but does not get beyond the first item before returning to the reality of the situation the Jews are in. He does, arguably, return to the list in Chapter 9! We do well to remember that letters, even the magnificent Romans, is not an academic treatise. They were written with passion, about matters that were deep in Paul’s heart, and affected the lives of real people. The one item he does manage to mention is that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. God gave them His word, He spoke to them in a way that He did not speak to any other nation. But having received the word they needed to obey the word. It is the same today if God gives you a prophecy, or you get some insight from reading the Bible. The insight in itself does not make you special, we only benefit from it if we believe it and obey it. Most of all remember that in saying the Jews have the oracles of God he is referring above all to the Old Testament. As Christians we need to appreciate just how blessed we are to have the Bible. All of it is God breathed. In the right sense we need to be proud of the Bible, we also need to remember, that like the Jews, it is of no value to us unless we believe it and truly live by it.
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