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Saturday, 6 February 2016

Romans 3:29-31 - Only one God

3:29
Judaism was the only monotheistic religion of the time, the only one that said there was one God. If there is one God He must be the God of all creation, of all men. Indeed the Old Testament makes it clear that He is God of all the earth. So He is God of the Gentiles. Moreover, God’s initial promise to Abraham (Gen 12:2,3) says that all peoples will be blessed through him. God is not the God of the Jews only. People sometimes say “well  it is OK for you to believe that”, or “that is OK for Christians ...”. God is the creator of all things, everyone will have to answer to Him. His laws apply to all people.

3:30
There is only one God, and every good Jew knew this. Therefore He must be the God of the Gentiles. But the Law had brought a clear distinction between the Jew and the Gentiles (ie all non-Jews), yet God had promised to bless all people through Abraham. So how could that be? If justification is by faith then it is possible. The circumcised and the uncircumcised are all justified by the same faith. As an aside on this, there are some “theologies” which end up with Israel and Gentile believers being treated differently. Dispensationalism/pre-trib rapture theologies usually end up doing this. Jews and Gentiles are justified by the same faith, and in Christ they are made one (Eph 2:11-22). So any theology that says otherwise is in error.

3:31

OK, so no one can be justified by the Law, and justification by faith is the way for all the world. So does this mean that the Law is now null and void? Here Paul is using Law to refer to the whole of the Old Testament. His answer is a resounding no. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Justification by faith upholds the Law, just as Jesus said He came not to take away the Law but to fulfil it. And in the next chapter Paul will demonstrate how this is the case. The gospel is the goal of the Law.

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