Advantages of Heritage
After saying that God looks on the heart and not at outward religious rituals, forms, or practices to judge man, Paul then asks the question some of the Jewish readers might have had at this point. What then is the benefit to having been born Jewish? In Romans 3:1-8, he gives some insight into this. First, the Jewish people were favored with the close presence of God in their midst. That is something that before the Holy Spirit came, no other body of people on earth could claim. First, God's presence was in the cloud that lit their way as they left Egypt and shadowed them during the day. Then it was in a movable tabernacle of tented construction, and finally, it was in the Jewish temple, originally of Solomon and then rebuilt.
God was the champion of His people as long as they followed Him. When they didn't follow Him and followed the gods of man instead, He turned away from them. This led to defeats, like at Ai, or into complete defeat and captivity as when Assyria took out Israel, or the Babylonian's took out Judah, later.
The unbelief and sin of the Jewish people didn't change God at all. He gave us free choice, and we have both the benefits of God when our free choices align with His will, and His lack of favor or outright disfavor when our free choices don't align with His will. That Satan blesses some who do evil (or at least don't actively pursue good) also doesn't change God at all. He is still supreme, and still wins in the end. It is for us to be satisfied with the life we have in God, regardless of how good or bad it is at times, regardless of our struggles.
We are encouraged to rejoice in tribulations because it increases our faith and reliance on God (Romans 5:3; Ephesians 3:13; James 1:2, 5:11). Paul declares again that although some were spreading false words that it was good to sin so that Jesus salvation could cover all, that this was patently false. He called on all to be righteous, both those who had grown up under the Jewish law and had tried to abide by it, and those who where new to God from the Gentiles who had grown up in a completely different environment.
He also declared that nothing that man did or did not do could change the righteous and just judgment that was coming on the world at some point, and that would be visited on each individual once they died. Nothing that Paul said would alter His coming judgment one bit either. Nothing that I say as a 21st century Christian will change His judgment one bit either. We are all called on to listen to the Holy Spirit about everything that we see, hear, and read to see if it lines up with what God says is true and right. We don't live in the same society that Paul was a part of, although some parts of the world perhaps haven't changed much in 2,000 years.
There are some fantastic women preachers and writers out there. God has blessed their ministry. Would God prefer that men were stepping up instead? I suspect He might, but He works with who is willing to be used! There is work to be done and the harvest has begun. Was the New Testament written in a time when slavery was common? Of course, and New Testament writers tried to tell the people how to be the best witness they could be in the circumstances in which they found themselves. Does that mean that slavery should continue? Of course not.
God, however, doesn't change in nature or in His ultimate plan. That isn't to say that He hasn't had to work around people for thousands of years because of the free will with which He gifted us. But regardless of our successes or failures, He remains constant. We should be glad for our heritage. Those who have been brought up in a Christian environment have a better start on knowing how to please God than those who come to Christianity late in life with years of living there to pull them back to places and thoughts and actions that God wants them to give up. But in the end, heritage is just that. Each person must choose for themselves whether to follow God's will for their life or to choose their own. Choosing your own rarely is without trouble. Following God's path may not be free of trouble either, but you have an advocate with the Father to pray to for help.
Worthless to Compare
Romans 3:9-18 then asks the question whether heritage makes a person better than another of different heritage. Paul's answer is an emphatic no. He make it clear that all are under sin, whether Jew or Gentile. He then gives a series of scripture quotes from his memory of the Old Testament and training to show what the Old Testament writers had to say about their own, to prove his point.
- Romans 3:10-12; Psalms 14:2-3, 52:2-4; Ecclesiastes 7:20
- Romans 3:13; Psalms 5:9-10, 140:3
- Romans 3:14; Psalms 10:7
- Romans 3:15-17; Isaiah 59:7-8
- Romans 3:18; Psalms 36:1
Clearly, under the sight of God, the entire world is unworthy. No people, in general, have any claim to righteousness. We are all guilty.
Faith and the Law
The last part of the Romans 3:19-31 compares Faith and the Law. Paul points out that the law could only condemn. The sacrificial part of the law provided a covering for sin, but it had to be repeated continually. Jesus sacrifice was done once to provide a covering for all sin for those who would accept Him and His leading in their lives.
Romans 3:23 is probably one on the best known verses in the Bible. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The law makes clear our sin. The list of transgressions in Romans 1 just restates some of them. Other lists in other spots of the New Testament add others. But regardless, our basic sin nature, inherited from Adam is there that we can't escape. You ask a small child who has done something wrong a question about what happened, and lies will usually form. We have an inherent sin nature that sets us apart from God, no matter how good we try to be. It is often said that if goodness or good works could get us to heaven, then there was no reason for Jesus to come at all. How true that is.
God's grace provided a means of bridging the gap between our sin and God's holiness. It's the only propitiation that is available and acceptable to God for performing this. Jesus righteousness, being crucified without cause, blameless and sinless, was the only thing that God would accept. But it is done, once, for all. Jew and Gentile alike are saved by the blood of Jesus. It is the path whereby we can be justified before God.
The reality of this, however, is that nobody will have anything to boast about when we get to heaven. The Jews won't be able to boast of the law. The Gentiles won't be able to boast that they were saved by Christ alone. The reality is that God is sovereign over everyone on Earth. Both Jews and Gentiles are subject to God. Just because the Jewish people lived under the law for a time, it wasn't what ultimately saved them and made them righteous to stand before God. It was the blood of Jesus that all the animal sacrifices pointed towards. Nothing in the law was sufficient to save anyone. It was only the blood of Jesus.
That doesn't mean the law was worthless. Just as the lists of sins in Romans 1 point to things which displease God, so the law made clear how to live a life that God approved of in the Old Testament. Our faith in God and the blood of Jesus may save us, but the law is still important to help us to know how to live to please God. The sacrificial and ritualistic parts of the law were done away with when Christ died on the cross. A lot of the health laws that were set up to keep the nation of Israel healthy aren't as important with available refrigeration, but could still be useful in the tribulation period if electricity isn't available! But Christ brought forth all the basic parts of the law to the New Testament. The only one that He didn't bring forward was concerning the Sabbath, and that was probably because they had made the Sabbath something that it was not intended to be. Witness His actions with the money changers in the Temple.
For all this, remember the most important bit: All have sinned and we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption through Jesus Christ (Romans 3:23-24).