Romans 3:1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?
2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
Repulsed
Paul perceives a problematic response from the Jews. If God shows no favoritism toward the Jew (Rom 2:9-11) and one’s religious and ethnic heritage as well as their religious acts (circumcision) (Rom 2:29) are of no value, then what’s the point of being a Jew? If Paul is right then why did God choose Abraham and establish his descendants, the Jews, as a special covenant people if there is no advantage to being Jewish? If Paul is right these things are pointless. Or there must be something else there. (Boice). The Jewish responded to Paul was indignation. He was undermining the very foundations of the Jewish faith. Paul assured that neither Jewish heritage nor Jewish rituals (circumcision) could protect them from judgement. The fact that being am ethnic Jew has no value in protecting them from God’s judgement, does not mean that it is valueless. It has much value, but a different kind of value, that is, responsibility rather than security. (Stott).
The Jews misconstrued Paul’s statement in (2:25) He affirmed that circumcision had great value. But there was an “if” factor. It had great value “if they obeyed the Law” (2:25) otherwise it was a ritual without responsibility. Circumcision profits if one keeps the Law. It doesn’t profit in and of itself. The mere fact that a man is circumcised does not save him, any more than a child that is christened saves him, or an adult that is baptized saves him. There is no transmissible grace in the sacraments (ordinances). (Lloyd Jones) One is saved through faith in the sinless person and saving work of Jesus alone. Paul says your circumcision counts for nothing it would be like saying your baptism counts for nothing unless your life without reservation is given over to Jesus Christ as you Lord. When the religious man or woman who has a false foundation for their salvation (baptism, church membership, etc) is pulled out from under them they will be the most hostile to the gospel. When the things they are resting their eternal hope of salvation are pulled out from under them they will become extremely agitated toward the Gospel and the one presenting it. They are the ones that crucified The Savior, stoned Steven and executed Paul. The religious person who has never experienced the grace of God is the one who is the most hostile to the Gospel. (Ferguson).
Revelation Here he sites one great and primary advantage for the Jews and later he will expound on other benefits (9:4-5). But, here he places “first” of all the wonderful benefits, that Israel was “entrusted with the Oracles of God, the utterances of God, His unique Message to man “through His prophets, in the Holy Scriptures.” Israel was the trustee of Revelation. In her care was lodged the Book by which man was to live and die, through which he was to know immeasurably more about God and about himself than he could learn from all other informants put together. (Moule) The primary, first (Gk proton –chiefly as of primary importance), advantage or being Jewish is that they were given the oracles of God, his divine revelation (8 others are listed in Rom 9:4-5). These
were their prime and principal privilege. (Henry). In ancient times there were men (Socrates, Plato, etc) who were famous for their learning and understanding. They delivered “oracles”, (Gk logion – an utterance of a learned or wise person, an utterance of God -Acts 7:38, Heb 5:12, 1 Pet 4:11) or pronouncements. Here, they are God’s divine statements, God reveled his truth in Words and those words are the Scriptures (2 Tim 3:16-18, 2 Pet 1:9-20) they received the very words of God, what a privilege. (Lloyd Jones) They were oracles, inasmuch as they were the words from the mouth of God Himself, in opposition to the revelation of nature, which was common to Jews and Gentiles; and they were promises in respect to their matter, because they contained the great promise of sending Jesus Christ, (the Messiah) into the world. God had entrusted these oracles to the Jews, who had been constituted their guardians and depositories But why does the Apostle account the possession of these oracles their greatest advantage? Might not other privileges have been considered as equal, or even preferable, such as the glorious miracles which God had wrought for the deliverance of the Israelites; His causing them to pass through the Red Sea; His guiding them through the desert by a pillar of fire by night, and of cloud by day; His causing them to hear His voice out of the fire, when He descended in awful majesty upon Sinai; or, finally, His giving them His law, written with His own finger, on tables of stone? It is replied, the promises regarding the Messiah (John 5:39-40), and His coming to redeem men, were much greater than all the others. Apart from these, all the other advantages would not only have been useless, but fatal to the Jews; for, being sinners, . . . In these circumstances, they would have been left under the awful impossibility of finding any expiation for their sins. If, then, God had not added the promises concerning the Messiah, all the rest would have been death to them, and therefore the oracles which contained these promises were the first and chief of their privileges. (Haldane)
How many souls are blessing God eternally for the benefit and blessing of divine revelation! But we Christians have a privilege beyond the Jews, the doctrine of Jesus delivered to us by evangelists and apostles; not like the killing letter of the law, but a gospel, bringing life and immortality to light.(Coke) This is a reply to the question of an objector who might have said, "Well, if both Jews and Gentiles stand on exactly the same grounds of judgment, and if God is no respecter of persons, what was the use of the whole Mosaic system? Why be a Jew, or be circumcised? What was the advantage of it? Answer: The great advantage was in their being custodians of the Sacred Scriptures. Many other advantages accrued to the Jewish nation as a result of their possession of God's oracles; but rather than outlining a list of such blessings, Paul went to the source of them all and named their custodial possession of the holy revelation . . . as their greatest advantage, since that was the fountain source from which all others derived. This teaches that the greatest advantage any person can have is that of knowing God's word (Coffman) They had abundant privileges. (Amos 3:2) a great advantage in every way but chiefly, and 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 (Deut 4.6) God's authentic self-revelation was committed as a trust to them to treasure and then to proclaim it to the world. Many people, like these Jews, think that they belong to a church, they do some religious activities; they're going to be okay. And if you tell them, well, you're not okay. I mean, just being in a church isn't going to do it. They're going to say, "Well, then what is the advantage to being in the church if that doesn't save us?" And the answer is much advantage. You get to be with the best people in the world to start with. But most of all, you get to hear the Word of God. That's the highest privilege there is. It is like if a believing wife has an unbelieving husband, and that unbelieving husband wants to stay married to her, she should keep him and hold on because he is sanctified by her very presence. In other words, he receives benefit by just being where God is blessing her. It will spill on to him. There's a lot of advantages to being in the church (or where the Bible is studied) and just being by folks who get blessed, but the chief advantage is the Word of God. (1 Cor 7) (Mc Arthur)
Responsibility
With privilege comes responsibility. The scriptures which contain the oracles of God were committed to Israel’s care. Indeed, to be the custodians of God’s special revelation was an immensely privileged responsibility, it had been given to no other nation (Ps 147:19f, Duet 4:8) (Stott) God had deposited with them the treasure of celestial wisdom. It hence follows, that, apart from the word, no excellency remained. Now the oracles were committed to them, for the purpose of preserving them as long as it pleased the Lord to continue his glory among them, and then of publishing them during the time of their stewardship through the whole world: they were first depositories, and secondly dispensers. (Calvin) His people, his church, were the “witness and keeper of Holy Writ.” Therefore to be born of Israel and ritually enter into the covenant of Israel, was to be born into the light of revelation, and committed to the care of the witnesses and keepers of the light. This immense privilege carried an awful responsibility with it. What would be the guilt of the soul, and the community, to whom these oracles were given not as property, but as trust to not do the things they say? This responsibility has been passed on to the church. . . . to the church (all believers) is entrusted the light of revelation To be born (again ) in it, to baptized in it, is to be born into the sunshine of revelation, and placed into the care of the community which witnesses to the genuineness of its oracles and sees to their preservation and their spread (propagation). Great is the accountability (of all believers). (Moule)
These oracles were committed to the Jews; the Old Testament was written in their language; Moses and the prophets were of their nation, lived among them, preached and wrote primarily to and for the Jews. They were committed to them as trustees for succeeding ages and churches. The Old Testament was deposited in their hands, to be carefully preserved pure and uncorrupt, and so transmitted down to posterity. The Jews were the Christians’ library-keepers, were entrusted with that sacred treasure for their own use and benefit in the first place, and then for the advantage of the world. (Henry) Can any of us experience anything in life of greater personal advantage to our souls than possession of the Holy Scriptures? Without them we are utterly confused, adrift on a sea of human speculation where all the great questions of life are concerned. Who are we? Why are we here? Does what we do matter? Is there anything else? (Boice) The greatest thing of all was not their heritage or “holy” acts, but was the fact that through those oracles of God they were given hope- the hope of the coming Messiah. The other nations had no hope at all, but Israel had hope (Deut 18:15, Gen 49:10). God not only gave them the oracles and the information contained in them, He had entrusted the oracles to their safe keeping, He had handed them over to them; they were the guardians and custodians. They had the knowledge and they were to make it known. What a privilege to be God’s spokesmen, God’s representative. (Jones) We are commanded to proclaim the gospel to all. So if someone is not a believer, they need to position themselves to hear God's word. We need to bring the word to the people and the people to the word, to place them under the same oracles of God that we have in hopes that they might have "the advantage" and be saved. (Sproul) This is no ordinary book; this is the word of God. Do we realize what a privilege it is to have a copy of the oracles of God, his very words to us. Shouldn’t we be compelled to read it, study it, delving in to it, spending time praying over it? Do not misunderstand me – you have other things which you must read, but I am asking this- do you, when you come to this Book, read it, as a matter of custom or of practice, because you have decided to have a quiet time in the morning and read a few verses before you run off to something else – is that the way you approach it! Or do you say, “Here God is speaking to me, speaking to man and I am reading because it is God’s direct word to me. Again I ask, do we give as much of our time to it as we do to other things. My friends, if we do not give more time to this than other things it is simply because we do not realize that it is the oracles of God. (Lloyd Jones). Paul is not saying that being a Jew has no advantage and there is no value in being circumcised (Rom 2:25f) what he is saying is that they have had those privileges and do not take them by both hands, so those privileges will rise as witnesses against them. He says there is much advantage to be a part of Gods covenant people. They were privileged primary to receive direct revelation from God and they were the only people to receive them. Like the privilege afforded to Timothy who, although uncircumcised, had known the scripture that would make him wise to salvation from childhood (2 Tim 3:15). Whether you were raised in a Christian home or not don't squander your privileges (Ferguson) What advantages have you had, especially if you grew up in a Christian family or were able to be a part of Christian activities (youth group, mission trips, youth camp, Bible School, BSM, church, community groups) all that teach the word of God. Jones asks, “Is there an advantage to having Christian parents? His response: ‘It is the business of Christian parents to make know to their children the oracles of God which have been entrusted to them, so that in later life the children shall say, I thank God I had a Christian father, a Christian mother. I cannot tell you what I owe to them. I first came into this Christian life because of what my mother taught me when I stood at her knee, or sat upon her lap; or because of something I heard my father say from the Word of God.’ (Lloyd Jones) As Christians we must “contend for the faith”(Jude 3). We are to defend the truth of the Word of God and contend for it. It has been entrusted to us not simple to read it, keep it and guard it, but to teach others (Duet 6:4-19, Matt 28:18-20) We must put the scripture in the hands of all people. But we must be diligent to learn it so we can teach others. We can’t teach what we don’t know.(Jones).
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