3:1
“What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?” Try to ignore the chapter division here. The flow of thoughts continues.
And understand that when he uses the term “Jew” here, Paul is using it
generically to include physical and true Jew. Macarthur adds to the question Paul poses, assuming Paul is answering a question that a good Jew might ask after reading the end of chapter 2. I quote him here:
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“If our Jewish heritage, our knowing and teaching the Mosaic law, and our following Jewish rituals such as circumcision do not make a Jew righteous before God, then, “what advantage” do we have? Why is it good to be a Jew?
Macarthur points out here a history of the Jewish people’s sufferings. I will abbreviate it, but I think it is a good idea to bring it in here, heightening the import of Paul’s question in 3:1. “Look at all we’ve gone through! What advantage do we have?” This they could well ask.
Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof says in response to some negative events in old Russia among the Jews there, words to the effect of, “God, you say we are the chosen people. Couldn’t you choose someone else for a while?”
Jewish history:
• Slaves in Egypt four hundred years.
• Wandering in a barren wilderness for forty years.
• Civil war divides the nation.
• The northern section of Israel captured by the Assyrians.
• The southern kingdom of Judah decimated by the Babylonians.
• After they regroup and rebuild they are conquered by Greece and their temple desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes.
• Conquered by Rome.
• Jewish babies slaughtered by Herod the Great.
• A.D. 70. Roman general Titus destroys Jerusalem, kills one million.
• 115 A.D. Emperor Hadrian kills half a million Jews.
• 380 A. D. Theodosius declares Jews to be an inferior race.
• For two centuries, Jews oppressed by Byzantine branch of the Empire.
• 628, Emperor Heroclitus banishes them from Jerusalem and tried to exterminate them.
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• 1096, Roman Catholic Crusades slaughter thousands of Jews on their way to Jerusalem, trampling them to death under their horses hooves. In the name of Jesus.
• 1254. All Jews banished from France.
• 1492. Expelled from Spain.
• 1496. Expelled from Portugal.
• 1818. Thousands massacred in the Ukraine.
• 1940s. Six million Jews exterminated.
No security for the Jews anywhere. But if Romans 2 is correct, they had no spiritual security either. They trusted all this time in a God they had rejected. They trusted in their circumcision, in their heritage, and perhaps even in their suffering.
What are we trusting in tonight? Our Christian heritage? Our church? Our water baptism? Our suffering? Persecution suffering is a norm for true Christians but the fact that one is suffering does not mean that that person has earned favor with God. Be very sure.
What advantage then, in being Jewish, if being Jewish means you have a law you cannot keep and will be punished for it? What advantage if you have a heritage you cannot claim? God had said to His people, “the Lord has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” “The Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His own possession.” “The people whom I formed for Myself, will declare My praise.”
And when they walked in obedience, such was the case. But when their hearts were hardened, as Pharaoh’s and Emperors after him, God showed He is no respecter of persons. Israel, except for a remnant, would perish like all the others.
Paul brings out later in the chapter that ultimately God has not abandoned His people. Ultimately all Israel will be saved. But the Israel
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which is according to the flesh will continue to endure unheard of misery in answer to its own prayer during the trial of Jesus: “His blood be on us, and on our children.” So it has been.
Let me pause here to speak about a great controversy that has arisen in the Christian Church regarding Israel. On the one hand the claim has been made that Israel exists no longer. The church is here now, and Israel is to be forgotten altogether. It is no more special than any other Middle Eastern nation. Loved, pitied, preached to, but written off of God’s program for the future.
On the other hand are those who swear by modern Israel and everything she does.
Historically there have been those who so hate the Jewish people as to rejoice in their sufferings, and add to those sufferings whenever they can. Conspicuous among the latter is the Roman Catholic system, which only recently has – at least publicly and outwardly – apologized for its attitude toward the Jew and Israel. The Crusades, the forced wearing of yellow stars to single them out as a cursed people (Hitler did not originate that) the silence during the Holocaust, the fostering of attitudes that have prejudiced a world against Jewish people, all atrocities to God, yet used of God to fulfill His own words against them.
What I just said is a mystery, I understand. How can God be angry with Romanism when Romanism is carrying out His will? The same way He punished Babylon and Assyria for their treatment of Israel while delivering Israel into their hands.
We must not see the suffering of Israel as some cosmic accident that caught God off guard and surprised Him. When Israel was faithful, Israel was successful. From the Nile to the Euphrates, that was the promise, and during the days of David and Solomon that was the reality.
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But Israel repeatedly soured on God until in its hardness it did the unthinkable, turning against their God-sent Messiah, who happened to be God Almighty.
And yet, as through the ages Israel persisted, thanks to God’s forgiveness and mercy and healing, Israel persists today. What we see in the Middle East today is not what we will see in the Millennium. The Israel of the Millennium will all acknowledge Jesus as King. The present crop of Israelites is far from such a thing.
But Israel persists.
Living throughout most of the nineteenth century was one Horatius Bonar, a Scottish Presbyterian minister. What I am about to share of his writings places I believe the proper balance on this whole Israel question that Paul is about to delve into in Romans. Israel is being cursed. Israel is blessed. Not either or. Both. If we can get on both sides of this argument we’ll see there is no argument.
I was told about a video I should watch about Israel. It spelled out the case of the “Replacement” people. I was impressed. Many Scriptures on that side. Then I studied it on my own. Not so clear a case. Then I received the October edition of Herald of His Coming. Total opposite attitude. It was great too, but mishandled a few Scriptures, in my opinion.
And there in a nutshell is the problem with Bible “issues” and mysteries. Are you Trinitarian or do you believe in “Oneness”? Calvinist or Arminian? Pretrib or Posttrib? The honest student of the Word will find Scriptures on both sides of all those differences. But honesty and persistence will drive him on to find that both cannot be true. One will prevail. But not because one is the only one we look at. We must look at both sides. Pray. Dig. Ask. Then decide.
Same in this issue. Israel cursed or blessed? Israel finished or just getting started? Israel is the church or just a part of the church? My approach will
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be to tackle verses one at a time as we come to them in Romans. For if ever there was a portion of Scripture outside of the Old Testament that deals with Israel, it is this letter we are studying now.
The opening salvo is 2:18, talking about true Jews, and Gentiles that are equal to them, when the Spirit is in both. That’s all we know so far. We haven’t mentioned prophecies, the land in the Middle east, the remnant, the 144,000, their place in the church. Only that it is possible to be outwardly Jewish and not be a Jew in God’s sight at all. And now He mentions a distinct advantage that was given to the Jews. But first, that extended quote from Bonar, written one hundred years before there was anything like a State of Israel, by the way:
“In Israel we see the standing memorial of Jehovah’s faithfulness and truth. Nothing has failed of all that the Lord had said that He would do for or against that people… the curse has gone forth against them and every threat has been verified. Yet they are not consumed; they are still beloved for their fathers’ sakes, and preserved because of the covenant which cannot be broken… monuments now of God’s righteous severity, they are yet to be more signal monuments of His unchanging grace…Tossed from billow to billow upon a single plank, they have weathered centuries of storm, seeing the mightiest vessels part anchor in the blast and go down at their side, themselves buoyant still.
“What faithfulness, what patience, what unchanging love. In Jehovah’s eyes they are precious still… The covenant abideth sure; their promises are imperishable. Were it not for them, where had they been? Would they not have perished from the earth, and been found no more among the nations?... Through all these 1800 years they have been sustained as a nation, emerging from the smoke and ruin of a thousand cities, rising out of the fragments of a hundred empires, surviving with mysterious tenacity of life, the storm, the sack, the massacre, the flood, the flame! [and Bonar knew nothing of Hitler and the Holocaust.]
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“If anything could humble us Gentiles, it would be the history of the destiny of the slighted Jew… was ever a nation so mysteriously indestructible? Plunged into the furnace of Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Grecian, Roman [including Papal Roman] tyranny, it has come forth unconsumed! Kingdom after kingdom has crumbled down, or been swallowed up, yet Israel has walked secure over the debris of empires… the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah will return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads….
“The history of Israel, in every age, preaches to us the Gospel of the grace of God. It is throughout, the story of man’s sin and of God’s deep and untiring love. It shows us how manifold, how endless are man’s ways of sinning; and it shows us how still more manifold and endless are God’s ways of forgiving, and loving, and blessing. Israel is the nation in which man’s rebellion, man’s wickedness, man’s hatred of God, are brought most clearly out to view, that we may know what man is, even in his best estate, and with every possible advantage.”
I must add here that this assessment of Israel must apply to the present government in the present Israel. Israel remains anti-Christ. We must never become antisemitic, but we must recognize that Israel after the flesh, whether in the first or the twenty-first century, is the enemy of God, and must be dealt with as all enemies of God, according to Jesus: prayer, love, and the preaching of the Gospel. Not Rome’s way of humiliation, persecution, death, torture.
Back to Bonar’s assessment of this unmatched people:
“Around her prophecy clusters; and upon her the world’s destinies seem to hinge. Her past exaltation, her present abasement, and her future glory, are all most mysteriously woven into the world’s history, past, present, and to come.”
And one more quote, from another work of Bonar, reminding us once more that it is not Israel we praise, but Israel’s God…
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“In the Jewish nation God hath written out His glorious name. In them we see every divine perfection of God in act and operation… Omnipotence raised them up at first. Then countless multitudes sprang from a dead stock. “Wisdom watched over, led, and guided them unerringly.
“Faithfulness fulfilled every promise uttered by the lips of truth. Goodness established them in a noble land, gave them holy laws…sent among them prophets to teach and priests to minister.
“Holiness warned, cautioned, and exhorted them, and when they rebelliously spurned the gentle tones of love, how long did Patience bear with them…
“When they had consummated the rebellions of fifteen hundred years by that unparalleled deed of blood, the murder of the Son of God, then, after some yet further lingerings and invitations of insulted mercy (book of Acts), did awful justice arise, bared His arm for the battle, and dealt down terrible and crushing blows.
“Now (1800’s) in what state do we behold them? Even as they have been for the last eighteen hundred years, like a burnt mountain on the plains of Time, scorched and splintered by the lightnings of divine wrath…
“Yes! Still preserved in all their woe, still unconsumed by all these penal fires! Preserved! And for what? Let a thousand glorious prophecies answer! That burnt mountain shall yet be clothed with lovely verdure; down its sides shall streams of living water gush… Then shall the Lord be glorified in Israel, and all His attributes displayed in full-orbed glory, when He shall call her ‘Hephzibah’ and her land ‘Beulah’.”
Amen, Horatius Bonar.
Paul would agree that there really is an advantage to the Jew, if he will claim it. Let’s see what advantage Paul is talking about in verse 2:
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3:2
“Much every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.”
The logion. That’s the greatest advantage any man can have. The sayings. The very words of God. You can hear logos in that word. It’s very closely related and can be used interchangeably. Unfortunately, “oracles” conjures up pictures of witchcraft and demonic utterances. And rightly so. The enemy has a lot of things to say and he says them through dark powers on earth. The ancients knew of their oracles, for sure.
But Paul here is speaking of the very words that proceeded from the mouth of God to Moses, and in one case by His own finger on tablets of stone. Those words have been passed on through the generations and we have them today still intact. Stephen mentions the same word in telling his history of Israel, Acts 7:38,
“This is he [Moses] who received the living oracles to give to us.”
How often do we cry out, Lord, speak to me! Show me your will! I can’t hear you! If we listen carefully, quite often the Lord will simply say, Open the book I gave you. My will is there. I have already spoken, through the prophets, through the apostles. Just open.
Paul doesn’t continue his list, you will note. He says, “There is great advantage in being a Jew…” and you think he is going to list all the advantages. But he gets to number one and stops because that says it all. If you have the Word of God Himself, what more do you need? What an advantage!
Imagine a baseball game. Two men. One has studied all the rules of baseball, knows all the ins and outs, he steps up to the plate, hits a home run, circles the bases, the crowd cheers.
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The other man. Well the team was desperate. They needed nine guys and this guy was free for the day so they added him to the roster. Never seen a baseball game. Never read about it. Knows nothing. He steps up to the plate, holding his bat upside down. The pitcher pitches one right past him. But he saw the other guy run around the bases when the pitcher pitched the ball. So he starts running, too. He is tagged out, but doesn’t like the idea that someone on the other team is hitting him with his glove. So he hits him back, and…
Do you see how knowing the rules is a great advantage. More serious, and more realistic:
Two boys come to a church Sunday School. One knows the Bible, understands the songs. The other is clueless. The leader begins to sing, and the group joins in, “Smile awhile and give your face a rest…” Well, that’s a cute thing. The new guy smiles with the others. “Raise your hand to the one Who loves you best…” Boy one and the others lift their hands to the Lord. The clueless boy raises his hand to the cute girl on the other side of the church, whose favor he has been trying to win.
Don’t laugh. It really happened. Circa 1954-55. The clueless guy was me.
What an advantage to know the rules. To know the Word. To have in our hands the very revelation of God Almighty. To know secrets that no one else knows. To be privy to mysteries and in some cases their unfolding. To look at creation and know where and when and how it came about. To look at myself and know why I am here and where I am going. To have wisdom. Comfort in the night. Joy in the morning.
And all this started with the Jews. Sixty-six separate portions of Scripture. Almost all of them given to Jews and passed to us. The oracles of God. The sayings of God. The words and thoughts of God. What an advantage, Israel!
3:3
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“For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?”
The Jews have an advantage. This we understand. They have the words of God. They have the promises of God. Like what? Isaiah 2, “The mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains… and all nations shall flow to it.” A Jewish state? “People will come and say, ‘Come and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob?’” A worldwide Jewish religion in the future? “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” A Jewish monarchy? “He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people.” A kingdom ruled by Israel?
Yes. Israel has a future. I’m not speaking of the present Jewish government but the one that is to come, ruled by the Jew Jesus. God is faithful. God will keep His promises to Israel. Nothing can stop it!
But does that mean that every individual Jew that ever lived is going to be magically saved on that day? Will the wicked kings of Israel in the northern kingdom be there? Will everyone get a second chance, because he is Jewish? Or is the promise a national promise?
Paul has already told us that to be a Jew means to be filled with God’s Spirit, living out the law from the heart. That concept must be kept in mind as we travel on, or we make serious mistakes in interpretation. Israel will be saved. Israel will triumph. Israel will rule the world through its Messiah. But unbelieving men called Jews will not be there on that day.
Paul says it here. Some did not, and will not, believe. But Israel goes on.
3:4
“Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar…”
“May it not be!” Is the actual Greek word’s translation here, not “God forbid!” or “Certainly not!”. It cannot be. Impossible thought! Don’t ever let it cross your mind that God is not going to be faithful to Israel. As we
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saw earlier, it is easy to see her punishment, but see also her preservation and know that God cannot lie. Again in Isaiah, chapter 12, we read:
“In that day,” – the day of the Lord when He reigns as described in Isaiah 11 – “you [Jews] will say, ‘O Lord I will praise you; though you were angry with me , your anger is turned away, and you comfort me’… in that day you will say, ‘Praise the Lord, call upon His name, declare His deeds among the people… sing to the Lord, for He has done excellent things; this is known in all the earth!’”
Many Jews will die in unbelief. That will not change the faithfulness of God to His people Israel.
Any man who dares come against God is a liar. Everyone who questions God’s integrity, God’s promises, God’s faithfulness, is a liar. Regardless of how improbable the proposition, Israel will one day overcome and repent, and be the source of everything good on earth.
She is not now. She is still being wounded now, and her wounds will increase before that great day. Jacob’s Trouble comes to the earth. But Jacob’s blessing follows soon after.
“As it is written, ‘That you may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.’”
That’s Psalm 51:4. David’s cry of repentance. The first part of that verse has David confessing that it was against God alone that David had sinned. Not Bathsheba? Not Uriah the Hittite and his family? Not the nation of Israel, shamed before its enemies? No. Only against God. And David hastens to explain what he means. That explanation is the section of the verse that Paul quotes.
The Psalm uses the active “when You judge.” David seems to say that whatever the sentence against him, God, who was the One offended, has the right to exact that sentence. He will be justified in whatever he does. I submit to His judgment.
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Paul is quoting from the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew that was common in his day. The outcome of the meaning is the same, though the passive “when You are judged” is used. That is, God, when you make a judgment, it is true, and if someone opposed you, “judges You”, You still are true, You overcome their judgment.
So even when we sin, as unbelief in this passage is sin, God’s truth and judgment rise so high above us that God still looks good. We are the losers when we do not believe. We are the losers when we do not obey. God continues to overcome. Our badness just illuminates His goodness. As Macarthur says, it’s like the merchant who displays a gold band on a black cloth so that the gold looks even more beautiful. Which leads us to verse 5.
3:5
“But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust Who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)”
Paul seems to be on a side path here. He was telling us what a true Jew looks like, and a false Jew, then asking what advantage the Jews as a whole, had. Now he is tracing unbelief of the Jews and how their unbelief has only worked against them.
Notice the series of questions and answers that lawyer Paul advances: What advantage does the Jew have? Will Jewish unbelief negate the faithfulness of God? Is God just to punish a person who has just made Him look good?
This last question borders on blasphemy and Paul hurriedly adds that he doesn’t believe a word of that! He is speaking as carnal men speak: “Hey, you just said that every time I sin, I’m making God look good! So why does He get so upset with Me? How can He punish me for making Him look good with my sin?” Evil, evil thinking. Don’t think like this.
Paul has another question to answer this one:
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3:6.
“Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?”
Paul uses the same word in verse 6 as in verse 3, “Let it not be!” Unthinkable! Are you kidding? You better believe God is just to punish, to inflict wrath! Never doubt it. Never soften up on this matter. Sin is awful! Sin sent God to a Roman cross. How bad does it have to get?
If God cannot punish you because of your making Him look good by your sin, how will He ever judge the world one day? Each person’s sin would have to be overlooked. Instead, God would have to offer a thank-you. “I want to thank you for your great contribution to my greatness. Others were praising Me, serving Me, loving Me, and making Me look great that way. But you sinned so magnificently that people looked at my holiness and were in awe of it. Why, I owe you a great round of applause. Bless you for your sins!
Such absurdity! Let it not be!
Don’t misunderstand. I know it seems at times, as in Psalm 73, that the wicked are indeed being blessed in their sinfulness. Don’t you believe it. Do what the Psalmist did. Consider their end. So unpleasant a thought.
Paul is not convinced he has made his point, so he goes on with it for two more verses. Let’s go with him:
3:7
“For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?”
This is a restatement of verse 5. For “unrighteousness” in general Paul suggests a particular sin, that of lying. Suppose I am a liar. I lie so much and so horribly that the truth stands out in bold relief. The cults are good at this. Satan has twisted the thinking of cultists to the point that they say the very opposite of what God said to begin with.
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Every elementary student of Scripture knows that “the Word was God,” that Jesus said He was the “I Am,” and was almost stoned for blasphemy, that He claimed to be one with the Father. So-called “witnesses” come along and say we should call Him “a” god, that He didn’t really make the claims we know He made. Their foolish interpretations of Scripture, practically ridiculed by true Bible scholars, just make us believe God more. Same with the Mormon fantasies and the theory of evolution and every lie that has attacked the truth of God’s Word.
When we study their lies, our faith increases in the truth and we love God more. So should God excuse those who lie against Him on that basis? Hey, your attacks have increased the love of My true people, thank you. I have decided not to judge you since your imagination has increased my honor.
Not gonna happen. Unrepentant liars will have their part in the lake of fire, period.
In verse 8, Paul summarizes the whole issue by sharing a personal attack on his team.
3:8
“And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’? – as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.”
Paul was not accepted by all believers. That’s important for us to remember. Many did not support him in his final days before the Roman courts. Many ridiculed him, abandoned him, put him down, to put themselves up. These were the brothers. Not to mention the unbelievers.
Paul preached in churches what he is now writing to the Romans. He taught, among other things, that the Jewish people were blessed of God on the one hand, and filled with unbelief and disobedience on the other.
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That is the balance we must keep, by the way, as we continue our study of the mystery called Israel. A faithful God vs an unfaithful people.
Teaching such a strange message brought forth the attacks he is listing. Jewish disobedience did not destroy Israel, so why shouldn’t the rest of us be disobedient too? Why shouldn’t we do evil, and if we do evil long enough and well enough, good is going to come from it. That’s what Paul is preaching and he’s a fool for it.
Paul, characteristically outspoken and firm and, simply says, people who say that are damned, and rightly so. How dare they accuse me of teaching that and how dare they accuse God of doing that! He is holy, and every sin will be dealt with. Israel will pay the price, but that doesn’t keep God from loving her to the core. Look at Isaiah 49:15.
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands…”
How do you forget something that is written on your hands?!
