#1621 Romans 3 Part 1 Advantage

 

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What then? If some did not believe, does their unbelief abolish the faithfulness of God? 4 May it never be! Rather, let God be true and every man a liar, as it is written,

“That You may be justified in Your words,

And overcome when You are judged.” Romans 3: 1-4 LSB

Romans 3: 1-4 

But looking at the story of the Jew historically, it would seem that there was little advantage to being Jewish. They were slaves in Egypt for over 400 years under the bondage of Pharaoh, who were given the most menial tasks and also they were given circumstances which made those tasks even more difficult. When they were dispossessed from Egypt they wandered in the desert for 40 years until an entire generation of them died off in the wilderness without ever having a home. When they finally entered into the land of Canaan, they had to save themselves from the destruction of the surrounding peoples who constantly attacked them both religiously, morally and in warfare. They were slaughtered and taken captive finally by the Assyrians first and then the Babylonians. From the Assyrian captivity they never returned and from the Babylonian captivity it was 70 years before a remnant began to come back.

After returning from the captivity in Babylon, they set out to rebuild their land from the rubble and were mocked and harassed and hindered and unaided in their efforts. They were dominated by the Greek Antiochus Epiphanes when they were under Greek rule and he took liberties to desecrate their religion, desecrate their priesthood, desecrate their holy place, quell their rebellions by slaughtering many of them. Their babies were massacred by Herod.

Their land was oppressed by Roman legions. They were utterly devastated under the power of Rome. In 70 A.D. the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus Vespasian, the great general of the Roman army. One point one million, according to Josephus, were murdered, slaughtered. One hundred thousand bodies of the Jews were thrown over the wall in some kind of sport. Two years before that, the Gentiles of Caesarea slew twenty thousand Jews and sold thousands more of them into slavery. In a single day the inhabitants of Damascus cut the throats of ten thousand Jews. In the actual siege itself, there was devastation beyond description in the city of Jerusalem. One hundred thousand remaining fugitives from that sacking of the city were sold into slavery. Many more died in the gladiator games sponsored by Rome.

In 115 A.D. the Jews of Cyrene, Egypt, Cyprus and Mesopotamia rose up against Rome and tried to defeat Rome and were unsuccessful, and so Hadrian, the emperor, destroyed 985 towns in Palestine and slew at least 600 thousand men. More perished through starvation, through disease and through fire. So many were sold as slaves that their price dropped to that of a horse. The legal code of Theodosius, who was the emperor of Rome around 380 A.D., contained ideas of Jewish inferiority and the ideas of Theodosius and Jewish inferiority permeated all of western society and western law in the centuries to follow.

For two centuries they were oppressed under the Byzantines. Heraclitus banished them from Jerusalem in 628 and endeavored to exterminate them again. Leo the Assyrian in around 723 A.D. gave them the choice between Christianity and banishment. When the first crusade was launched in 1096 to recapture the holy places from the Ottoman Turks, the crusaders entered the Jewish settlement of Anjon and Preton and trampled three thousand Jews to death under their horses' hooves. And they did it in the name of Christianity.

In 1254 Louis IX banished them from France. In 1306 Philip the Fair expelled 100 thousand of them from the same country. During the scourge of the Black Death in 1348 and 1349 the charge was made that the Black Death or the Great Plague was caused by the Jews who had poisoned the wells and they endeavored to slaughter the Jews and many of them fled to Poland and to Russia.

In 1492 the Jews were expelled from Spain as Columbus was heading to discover America. In 1496 they were expelled from Portugal. Soon after, all of Western Europe was closed to them except a few spots in northern Italy and Germany. Toward the middle of the seventeenth century in Poland, more persecution broke out. And though the French Revolution tended to emancipate some of the European Jews around 1789 or so, anti-Semitism continued in many areas, and particularly in the Ukraine early in the 1800s there were massacres of Jews.

I think we all remember the nineteenth century Dreyfus affair in which Dreyfus, a Jewish officer, was accused of treason. And an attempt began to oust the Jews from all the higher ranks of the French army. Their only hope for preservation really was the rebirth of Zionism. And it did happen and it rallied the Jewish people so that in 1897 they held their first Zionist congress in Basel. The first little colony of Zionists returned to the land in about 1873, and by 1914 there were ninety thousand Jews in their land, though it wasn't yet their land. Their identity had been miraculously preserved through this incredible series of massacres through all of the years of their existence.

And, of course, it all came to a horrifying climax in the 1940s when six million of them were systematically exterminated. And anti-Semitism was no longer racial as it had been in the Middle Ages, it was...rather no longer religious as it had been in the Middle Ages but it became racial. So that the legacy of all of that today in the world is not that we have a religious anti-Semitism but we still have what is left of a racial anti- Semitism. And Jewish people today find themselves in many cases to be hated, to be slandered, to be defamed, to be misunderstood, to be mocked.

And I give you all of that just to help answer that question, what advantage then hath the Jew? Frankly, historically there is little advantage at all, if any. From the historical perspective the answer would be no advantage. But Paul is not really dealing in terms of history. So take it to a second category, what about spiritual advantage? Do they have a spiritual advantage? Do they have an in with God that nobody else has? Do they have a security with God that no one else has? After all, they are the chosen people. - J Mac

V. 1 Then what advantage has the Jew - From our last post we saw a theme not restricted to the NT only. We saw that God judges His people regardless of their lineage. We also saw that God looks at the heart, so it wasn't a matter of ceremony or ritual, you could be circumcised outwardly and yet inwardly not a child of God. Let's be clear, it is the same for those who call themselves Christians today as well. I will ask people where they stand regarding God, and they will tell me, "I was baptized into Christianity, but I don't practice right now,' or, 'I was born into a Baptist home, a Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Roman Catholic, and or I walked forward and said the sinner's prayer when I was young, just in case." So regardless, they have a distorted view of the gospel which is also based upon a feeling, relation, a sacrament or act on their part, but there is no fruit to evidence a changed heart, a new creature, someone who has been born again. Just like the Jew who is unrepentant but banking on his relationship to Abraham or circumcision, so is the unrepentant "Christian" who is relying on baptism or an act of his own will, as though you found a loophole that God has to honor. You think God owes you because you acknowledge His existence, but the demons even do that yet tremble. When we think we have caught God and bound him by our free will, where we say, "I believe but I am going to live as I want", it is not God that we believe in, but our will which has become an idol to us. 

28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. Romans 2: 28-29

…11“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. 12When you come to appear before Me, who has required this of you— this trampling of My courts? 13Bring your worthless offerings no more; your incense is detestable to Me—your New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations. I cannot endure iniquity in a solemn assembly.…

…14I hate your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. 15When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. 16Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!… Isaiah 1:11-16

…22Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’ 24Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.… Matthew 7: 22-24

…7Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?… Hebrews 12: 7-9

V. 2 Great in every respect - Huh, but we just looked at their history from an earthly, material point of view, and it looks horrifying. Antisemitism has persisted somewhere in every age. Israel has become a tiny nation now, a place where one should be able to identify as a Jew, and have the freedom both in practice of their faith, but also the freedom of those who don't practice, yet should not be looked down upon for their ethnicity. That nation is so tiny, and surrounded by enemies on every side, yet their Muslim neighbors and a lot of poorly enlightened college students in the west, continue to chant, "from the River to the Sea, make Palestine free", meaning, eradicate the Jews from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean and give it to those who were never a country. Israel is the only country that gets attacked, their women and children kidnapped and raped, and then has the rest of the world tell them to stand down, don't do what government is supposed to do, don't protect your people, don't seek justice. One tiny little bastion of not only Jewish, but also Muslim, atheist and Christian democracy.  

If you go back in the Old Testament, you will read repeatedly of the tremendous and consistent blessing of God upon that people. But I think it is best summed up in the ninth chapter of Romans, where Paul speaks about the same issue later on. Look over to chapter 9 verse 4. Paul's talking about Israel and Israel's need of Christ and how much he wishes they would know Christ. And then he begins to speak about their privileges. He says in verse 4, “Who are Israelites?” "To whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises. Whose are the fathers and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came." What advantage? Many advantages. You've been the ones who are adopted as God's special people. You've received the glory. What is that? The very Shekinah glory of God led them by day, led them by night, was in the midst of their holy places. You have received the covenants, Abrahamic, Davidic, Mosaic, Palestinian, all of those. You have been given the law. Yours has been the service of God through the priests and the prophets. You have received the promises. Yours are the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. And yours is the Christ. Much, much privilege.

They were marks of God's care, they were marks of God's concern, they were marks of God's love. They were aids to their deliverance from sin. They were instructions for the blessing of the Holy Spirit. God gave them all of these things and they just never really lived up to what they possessed. Great advantage, great privilege, great priority, great preeminence was given to the people of Israel but they wasted it. They had the privilege of proclaiming the true God. They had the privilege of revealing the Messiah. They had the privilege of blessing from God as they served faithfully. They had the privilege of a land. They had a privilege of an ultimate restoration and glory in the final kingdom. They had all of these privileges.

You see, Amos 3:2, I think, sums it up wonderfully. The prophet Amos said, listen carefully, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth." That is a beautiful statement. It doesn't mean that the only people God knows about intellectually are Jews; He really knows about everybody. But the word "know" is a word of intimacy. For example, it says in the New Testament of the Lord and the church, "I know My sheep." What does He mean? Well, He means there is more than just an awareness; there's an intimacy. You see, Joseph was upset when Mary was with child because the Bible says he had never (What?) known her. It didn't mean he didn't know who she was. He had never entered into an intimate relationship physically with her.

You find it in the Old Testament where it talks about Cain knew his wife and she bore a child. It is the knowing of intimacy. And so Amos 3:2 says, you only have I entered into intimacy with of all the nations of the earth. That's privilege. But they never understood the rest of the verse. Same verse, Amos 3:2 says, "Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." See, high privilege, high responsibility. - J Mac

Vs. 3-4 What then, if some did not believe, does their unbelief abolish the faithfulness of God - The answer to that in verse 4, "May it never be! Rather, let God be true and every man a liar." That's pretty straightforward language, and harsh toward those who would try to say otherwise. God has put out His word to many people, and yes, some did not truly believe, did not bear fruit, in both Judaism and the church today. Some heard and then borrowed the vernacular, talked the talk, but didn't walk the walk. Some said Christ but just like the Jews of Jesus day, they wanted a Messiah of their own design, one that overlooked their sin and accepted their ceremony. But guess what, God has a remnant still. 

Watch his answer in verse 5, or verse 4 rather. It says in the English "God forbid," but the Greek says me genoito, which is the strongest negative the Greek language knows. What it says simply in English is, "No, no, no, no, no way.” Could never be, utterly impossible, can't be. What can't be? God can't break His word. He can't break His promise. It's impossible. The unbelief of some does not bring to naught the faithfulness of God. And he just makes that statement: No, no, no, no, no, no. And he doesn't here go into explain how — listen to this — someday God is going to keep His covenants with Israel, He's going to do that. And don't you think for a minute He isn't. I believe that's the error of contemporary reformed covenant theology; they don't see any place for Israel. Listen, if there's no place for Israel then this argument is right, God did cancel all His promises. And I can't handle that, because Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. All God did was postpone their fulfillment until Israel finally gets their act together and believes. And Zechariah says someday “they will look on Him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as an only son. And in that day God will open a fountain of salvation to Israel.” Their day is future. And by the way, that is Romans 9, 10 and 11, he'll get to that later. It will be postponed until faith comes.

In fact, in chapter 11, I could just read you one little section and you get the whole picture. Listen to this. "Hath God cast away His people?" Romans 11:1, "No, no, no, no, no, no.” He says, me genoito, same phrase. No. He's not going to cast them away, not at all. Verse 26: "All Israel shall be saved. There shall come out of Zion the deliverer and turn away ungodliness from Jacob for this is My covenant." God will keep it but it will be future when they believe. It's just postponed.

National salvation, yes that’ll come to the people of Israel but these people missed personal salvation and so do all other Jews who will not believe in Christ. So Paul resists any suggestion at all that God's going to be unfaithful. In fact, he says — look at this in verse 4, I think it's interesting — "Let God be true and every man a liar." Listen. What does that mean? If every single person in the world said God is not true, He's still true. If every man in the world speaks evil about God, if every man in the world says God doesn't keep His Word, God is still true. God is true if every man in the world says He's not true. The integrity of God must be upheld.

Then he uses a marvelous illustration. It's a tremendous one. "As it is written," and he calls the Scripture to his support, Psalm 51:4: "that Thou (speaking to God, Thou, capital T) mightest be justified in Thy (capital T) sayings and mightest overcome when Thou art condemned, as it were." In other words, no matter who speaks against You, God, You will overcome no matter who wants to criticize or speak evil. You will be justified in everything You say. God will be vindicated. God will be justified. God's character will be upheld. And he quotes out of Psalm 51 verse 4.

Now that's an interesting passage. And I think I'll just refer to it and then we'll stop and do the rest next time. But listen carefully to that passage. And I want to spend just a few minutes on this. David was the king. And David was, of course, the greatest person in the history of Israel. And so he quotes David, because whenever you quote David you really pull a coup in terms of a debate with a Jew. And so he quotes David. And this is what happened in David's life.

David was up on his roof and he looked over on somebody else's roof and there was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, sunbathing. And he just hung around and kept looking. And he really liked what he saw. So he decided that he would commit adultery with her and when he committed adultery with her, he not only did that, but he impregnated her. And then he decided to marry her, but in order to marry her he had to get rid of her husband. So he worked out a way in which Uriah would be killed. So he was an adulterer and a murderer.

And in the midst of all of this the Lord sent Nathan the prophet. And then Nathan the prophet comes in and he says, "David, I want to tell you a story." He said there was a rich man who went to a poor man and the poor man only had one little ewe lamb. And the rich man took that ewe lamb away from the poor man. And David said, "Nathan, as the Lord lives, whatever man you're telling me about deserves to die." And Nathan looked him in the eye and said, "You're the man." And David said, "O, I have sinned against the Lord." And God punished David. That little baby that was born of that union died. There was death continually among David's other children. His Son Absalom over whom he cried, "Absalom, Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son, my son," turned to be a rebel and literally sought his own father's life to steal his throne. He lived a life of pain. He spent his time running and hiding from Absalom and his enemies, from bush to bush in the wilderness and crying out in the caves to God to deliver him.

But in all of that David would still say, "God, You are justified in everything You say and everything You do and when somebody tries to impugn You, or speak evil against You, You will triumph." In other words, he was simply saying no matter what God does, it is right, even if it is to punish the king. So don't you ever impugn God's Word. If God makes a promise, He'll keep it. If God appears to be unjust, He's being just because the punishment is deserved. God always is just. In other words, David upheld the character of God and that's why Paul quotes David. David would never so speak against God. David would never impugn the character of God. David will not say God is unfair or God is unkind, God is unjust. He would say, "God, I've deserved everything You've given me." Even David acknowledged that God was without flaw. In spite of David's sin, God will fulfill the Davidic Covenant. He did, in the coming of Messiah. In spite of Israel's sin, God will ultimately fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant. God's Word is true. God's word is valid. God's character can always be upheld. - J Mac

5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen. 6 It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”… Romans 9: 5-7

…15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” 16But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.… Romans 10: 15-17

1I ask then, did God reject His people? Certainly not! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel: 3“Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well”?…

…4And what was the divine reply to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.…

…7What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, 8as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.” 9And David says: “May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution to them.…

10May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.” 11I ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous. 12But if their trespass means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!…

…13I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14in the hope that I may provoke my own people to jealousy and save some of them. 15For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?…

…16If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root, 18do not boast over those branches. If you do, remember this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.…

…19You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20That is correct: They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will certainly not spare you either.…

…22Take notice, therefore, of the kindness and severity of God: severity to those who fell, but kindness to you, if you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. 23And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24For if you were cut from a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into one that is cultivated, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!…

25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob. 27And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.”… Romans 11: 1-27