3 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.
3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written:
Well! This is not an easy bit of Scripture from which to draw meaning. Thankfully, Mr. MacArthur has a sermon on these very four verses. So he starts off this sermon by listing all the ways that the Jewish people have been persecuted throughout history. Theirs is a sad saga of struggle, of war, captivity and death. They have been hated, persecuted, slandered, imprisoned, slaughtered and this repeatedly through their history.
So this week we've been learning the following:
Bad news...bad news first then good news. And the bad news is that man is a sinner and man is condemned by God for his sin. That is the theme of chapters 1, 2 and 3. The good news begins in the middle of chapter 3 and stretches on really for the remainder of the epistle. But before you hear the good news, you have to understand the bad news, it's sort of like this, you can't take the cure until you realize you've got the disease.
And in chapter 1 he condemned the immoral, irreligious, pagan individual who just lives the wild and free and loose kind of life style with little regard for law and order in a moral way or God or anything else.
But then in chapter 2 he began to talk about the moral man who is ethical, who may even be religious. And he shows how that man is condemned because by his morality and by his religion he cannot attain the perfect standard of God. And then the third category beginning in chapter 2 verse 17 was the Jew who not only was moral and religious but even had the right religion. And he says, first of all, you're condemned if your irreligious. Secondly, you can be condemned if you're even religious if you're depending on your religion to save you. And you can even be condemned if you have the right religion if you're still depending only on its form rather than the knowledge of God.
Paul was set upon by the Jewish people for the rest of his natural born life. How dare you say that the Jewish people aren't saved by virtue of being God's chosen people? How dare you say that our religious practices aren't good enough? Paul knew exactly what arguments the Jewish people would bring against his message, because wasn't he the biggest Jewish religious nut of them all at one time? He knew how they thought and how they would respond to what he had to say.
So, all that being said, what advantage is there in being a Jew?
If you go back in the Old Testament, you will read repeatedly of the tremendous and consistent blessing of God upon that people. 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.
In fact in Isaiah 5 God says, "What more could I have done for My people that I have not done?" What more could I have done? And the answer is nothing. They were privileged in so many ways but in disobedience they wasted the privilege. They're a little different than many people in the church today who have a great privilege but never commit their heart to Jesus Christ and tragically they waste...they waste inestimable privilege.
But let's go on to verse 2 and see the latter part. What advantage then has the Jew? Paul, you're really attacking the people of God with your theology. He says no, you have a great advantage in every way but chiefly...and here it comes...primarily because unto them were committed the words of God. Their greatest advantage simply their foremost advantage, their primary advantage was they received the Word of God. That's the greatest advantage anybody can have, isn't it? For where there's no knowledge people perish. But they had the knowledge.
The Scriptures were entrusted to the Jews. You would have thought that they would have absolutely cherished that, but as you read the Old Testament you find there were times in their history when they couldn't even find the Scripture, they didn't even know where it was. And when somebody would discover it and bring it out, it would be something that was a marvel because that which was lost for so long had finally been found.
God's authentic self‑revelation was committed as a trust to them to treasure and then to proclaim to the world. And the Word really says in verse 2, "Unto them were entrusted..." but they weren't trustworthy. William Calper(?) wrote, "They and they only amongst all mankind received the transcript of the eternal mind, were trusted with His own engraven laws and constituted guardians of His cause. Theirs were the prophets and theirs the priestly call, and theirs by birth the Savior of us all."
Anyone else feeling convicted about the part where he says that there were times in history where they didn't even know where the Word of God was? Or what it said? And then someone would find it and read it to the people, and OH, what amazement and joy! What renewal of faith and desire for obedience! And yet, how often in my 35 years have I ignored my Bible completely, forgetting what it has to teach me each and every time I read it? Can you imagine any greater blessing and responsibility than being entrusted with the Word of God? Do you feel ashamed, as I do, for allowing so many other things to overshadow and distract me from it?
I'm sorry, I know this is getting long, but there is a little bit more I want to include here on God keeping his promises.So, shall the unbelief of the Jew make the faithfulness of God ineffective? What they're saying is this is God who is not going to grant salvation to His people based on their heritage, and their ceremonies, and so forth. If He doesn't then He's unfaithful. You are striking a blow at the faithfulness of God. One, you're saying He had nothing in mind when He chose us. And, two, you're saying His promises are meaningless.
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...some day 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.
All God did was postpone their fulfillment until Israel finally gets their act together and believes. And Zechariah says some day 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, 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.
I know the many people still believe that even though those of us who are not Jewish can be saved through faith and receive full inheritance as children of God, there are still blessings and promises to be fulfilled to the Jewish people, but I didn't really know to what they referred. I found this so interesting. I cut a LOT out, so if you have further interest, I encourage you to read or listen to the full sermon. The Advantage of Being Jewish - Part 1.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 3:5-8.
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