Romans 3:1

Romans 3:1

Romans 3:1-2 says, "What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God."

In Romans Chapter 2 Paul made it very clear that if anyone put their hope in the law and their ability to keep the law of God, that such a person has a false confidence, and will ultimately be found as a breaker of the law. There are also many people today who have a legalistic viewpoint of religion. They think that they must earn the favor of God. Such people are going about trying to please God by their own actions. They think that by their own strength they must earn their way to God. Such ideas are vain and end in hopelessness, because everyone has sinned in some way and at some time. Everyone has had their moments of weakness and of selfishness.

It’s not what we can do, but it’s what Christ has done for us that is the answer. There are legalistic people today who attempt in vain to please God by their own works. During the time of Paul many Jews made the same mistake. Because it is such a major and such a fatal mistake to place one’s hope in the law, and because Jews so often make that mistake; the question that one might naturally ask is the question that Paul asked here in verse 1 of Romans Chapter 3: "What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there in circumcision?"

There is one thing that the Jews had and still have that could be an advantage for them, and should be an advantage: "unto them were committed the oracles of God." It’s not their lineage to Abraham that is their advantage; it’s not their national identity that is their advantage. Their advantage is that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

What are the oracles of God? The best way to explain it is to look at the Greek word from which the word “oracle” is translated. It is a translation of the Greek word “logion” which is related to the word “logos” which means the word of God. To the Jews were given the word of God. That is the advantage. The Word of God is the advantage. Never underestimate the importance of the Word of God. If you have the Word of God, it can lead you out of any trouble. God has revealed the truth about Himself, and it’s in His Word. You don’t need to go to some mystic hoping that they have spiritual powers above yours in order to get into touch with the divine. You don’t need to have visions and dreams, and you don’t have to wait until you die in order to know God. You can know the living Word by means of the written Word.

It is after all very logical. Humans communicate with words; and what is more concrete than the written Word? A spoken word may be misunderstood, or partly forgotten over time. But a written Word stands as an anchor, available to be read and re-read, studied and re-studied. God was very wise to give us the written Word from Himself; and we have the same advantage as the Jew if we take His written Word and read, and learn it, and live by it. Jesus spoke many times of the importance of the Word of God. Jesus told us that the Word of God is a necessary source of spiritual strength and vitality. He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God." Jesus told us that the Word of God is eternal; that we can count on its accuracy, it’s reliability, and the ultimate fulfillment of all of its promises and prophesies. He said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

Notice that the oracles of God were committed unto the Jews. They were supposed to do something with it, not just possess it. The same is true today. Jesus ascended into heaven, but He gave gifts unto men. God is like a wealthy man who went on a journey and left talents with each of His servants. One day He will return and ask each servant to show what he has accomplished with those talents. Unto the Jews were committed the oracles of God. But many of them failed to understand and to believe and to teach that which was committed unto them. They failed.

The Jews failed and the Gentiles failed. You can study the history of the human race, and from an ethical and moral and godly standpoint you will be studying the history of human failure. Some blame God for the failure of the human race. After all, He created us, and He is all-powerful. He can change anything. How can He judge us, when we are what He made us to be? Paul addresses this argument in Rom. 3:3-7. He said, "For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? I speak as a man. God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto His glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?" Whatever conclusion you come to when you think on these things, if you are going to be consistent with the Bible, you must make this conclusion: God is righteous when He decides to take vengeance on sinful man.

Knowing such things makes the gospel of Jesus Christ wonderful. The mercy and love of God are precious realities. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. He that is forgiven much, the same loves much. Because of the grace of God, sometimes the greatest of sinners make the best of saints. Such was the case of John Newton, the converted slave trader, who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace. Throughout eternity sinners such as you and me will praise and honor God and His Son Jesus Christ because they have forgiven us our sins. In a way you can say that our unrighteousness resulted in His praise and honor. Because the unrighteousness of man can result in God being honored, when He forgives their unrighteousness, some of the opponents of grace will argue that God is not just to condemn the unrighteous.

But if you ever hear anyone imply that God is unrighteous or unjust in any way, or if you ever hear anyone reflect on the honor or integrity or character of God, because of this or any other argument, you will know right away that they do not understand God or His gospel, and they certainly are not a spokesman that you should listen to or accept.

Even though salvation is entirely by faith, even though you cannot merit the favor of God by your own works, even though God possesses infinite mercy so that He can forgive the greatest of sins through Jesus: no one should ever presume upon the grace of God. No one should ever sin, assuming that God will forgive them later. Salvation by grace alone does not mean that there is a license or a freedom to sin. Anyone who does not teach salvation by grace alone does not understand the gospel, perhaps because they have never experienced it; and one of the arguments of those who oppose an emphasis that Paul made on grace is that because of their misunderstanding, they accuse those who teach grace to be teachers of a license to sin just as Paul describes them in Rom.3:8, "And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just."

Notice what Paul says about those who oppose the teaching on salvation by grace alone. The last phrase of Rom. 3:8 is a very strong statement of what Paul thought of them and he was inspired by the spirit of God. He said of such teachers who add good works and the keeping of the law as if it were a part of the gospel, "whose damnation is just." Paul used a similar strong language in the book of Galatians where he also emphasized the difference between law and grace, and where he also pointed out that there are those who confuse law and grace, and those who try to add law with grace and make law a part of the gospel. Paul said of these teachers in Gal. 1:8, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."

Paul began describing the extreme sinfulness of man in Romans 1:18. His description of man’s sinfulness continued through chapter one, included all of Chapter 2, and now has continued into Chapter 3. Paul told us how bad we humans can get, when we go away from God. He showed us how the Jews who were given the law, are just as guilty before God by their own works as the Gentiles who were not given the law. And now in most of the rest of Romans Chapter 3 Paul will give a conclusion to the whole matter, again describing the terrible depravity of the human condition. Paul emphasizes the depravity and the sinfulness of man, not so that we will despise or look down on humans, but so that we will understand that salvation is by grace through faith alone. It is a free gift from God. No one can earn or deserve salvation.

Rom. 3:9 says, "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." When we talk about the sinfulness of the Gentiles, the heathen, we mention how far away from God they sometimes go: even into idolatry and sexual depravity. We are in no way saying that we are better than they. We are equally guilty before God. We may be guilty of different kinds of sins, but we are equally guilty.

When we talk about the sinfulness of the Jews, sometimes we speak of how greatly they failed to fulfill the commission that God gave to them. Even though they had the advantage of being the recipients of the law of God and the prophecies about the Messiah, still they failed, and they were the first to reject Jesus. They even had Him put to death when they cried out as a people and as a national unit, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." We are not saying that they are worse than we are. They are horribly sinful, but we are just as guilty as them. Paul said, "We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin."

Any student of the Bible should conclude that one should never be prejudiced against another race. We should regard all humans equally, no matter what is their race or gender or age or economic status. There are several Biblical reasons for this. One is the fact that we were all created in the image of God. Another reason to regard all humans equally is because God loves all equally. Jesus died for all. And the subject that Paul is on here in the first three chapters of Romans is yet another reason to not be prejudiced and to regard all races equally: the fact of our common sinful condition. All humans are equally guilty before God. One of the reasons that people become prejudiced is because they see that a person of another race commits a crime or does some other unjust deed, and they wrongly think that such a person failed because of their race. They did not fail; they did not commit that crime because of their race. They failed because they are human, and they are just as human as you are.

Paul makes one last major description of the sinfulness of man, and he does so by quoting several different verses from the Old Testament. He said in Rom. 3:10-18, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes."

In this description of the sinfulness and the depravity of man, Paul quotes verses from Psalm Chapters 5, 10, 14, 36, 140 and from Isaiah chapter 59. The first Psalm that Paul quoted was Psalm chapter 14 where it says, "There is none righteous, no not one." Therefore, what Paul is teaching in Romans Chapters 1 through 3 about the universal sinfulness of man is nothing new. It was already taught in the Old Testament. Paul is simply expanding upon it and emphasizing the teaching in order to prepare us to understand the value and the necessity of the Gospel.

In Rom. 3:11 Paul also quotes Psalm Chapter 14 and says, "There is none that seeks after God." When we seek God it is only because He has first sought us. If it was not for God who seeks us and wins us, we would never seek Him. Our depravity and inability to do the right thing is too great. It’s just as Paul said in Rom. 2:4, "the goodness of God leads you to repentance."

Every day in the news you can read about horrible acts of violence of one human against another. The stories are so common that many of them do not even make it to the front page. Some people try to understand the cause of this rising tide of violence. Sometimes they point the finger of blame at the parents or the schools or the criminal justice system or the Hollywood industry. Some of these things may be partly to blame in some cases, but Paul went to the root of the matter. He quoted Isaiah Chapter 59, which was written 2500 years ago, and it much more accurately explains the source of the problem. Paul said that you and I and other humans "are swift to shed blood." Cain was the first man born into the world. His parents did not abuse him. He did not learn humanism from the school system, and he did not watch any Hollywood movies that glorified violence; yet he killed his own brother. The reason that Cain became a murderer is the same reason that you and I have sinned: we are humans and we possess a depraved and sinful nature that too easily and too often falls into sin and corruption.

The Ten Commandments are a wonderful piece of literature. They came from the very hand of God. It should always be our goal to obey and keep them. But you will never become acceptable to God through the Ten Commandments. Listen to what Paul says in Rom. 3:19-20 about what the law will eventually do to you. He said, "Now we know that whatsoever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

The purpose in Romans Chapters 1-3 for this long and detailed description of the sinfulness and depravity of man is so that we will understand and appreciate the significance and importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the salvation that He alone can give.

The question for you today is: are you still under the guilt of your sins, or have you found salvation by faith in Jesus, which comes by His grace alone and not by your works?

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