Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #2 in Romans 3,  and we will once again read Romans 3:1-2:

What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

What advantage has the Jew?  Last time we discussed the reason this question was being asked.  It was a follow-up to the last couple verses of the previous chapter, in Romans 2:28-29:

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit…

We discussed that, and we have a fairly good understanding of what God is referring to regarding those who were “outward Jews,” and yet they were not “inward Jews” because their hearts were never born again, to use the language of John 3:7: “…Ye must be born again.”  It did not originate with what Jesus said in the New Testament.  God had spoken of that very thing without using that exact language, and He definitely illustrated the idea of receiving that new heart in Ezekiel 36:25-27:

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

That is a description of being born again.  That is the whole idea.  That is a description of the spiritual circumcision of the heart.  The heart is that from which proceeded all manner of evil, and God must perform a “heart transplant,” and take it out, and give you a new heart and a new spirit.  In the Bible, the heart represents the spirit, and that is exactly what it means to be born again: “Ye must be born again.” 

A great number of Jews that were physical descendants of Abraham – and lived their lives in various generations over the course of time in which Israel was the outward representation of God’s kingdom on the earth – lacked   that reality of being “born again.”  Yes, they had all the outward trappings.  They had the signs.  They had the ceremonial laws, and to varying degrees they performed those things.  They were circumcised.  They offered sacrifices.  They kept the Sabbath Day and other laws of God to varying degrees, but it did nothing for their hearts.  They remained in their sins with hearts of stone.   They had an uncircumcised heart while they had a circumcised body, and that is unacceptable.

I do not want anyone to think that we are just picking on the Jews, the physical people of Israel.  No – it is the very same thing in the New Testament churches and congregations for the professed Christians that populated them over the course of the New Testament church age.  They also were given ceremonial laws such as water baptism and the Lord’s Table, and they were given the Sunday Sabbath, and they kept these things to varying degrees, as well as many other laws from the Bible, as they sought to live by these things.  They were baptized with water in whatever manner, whether they were sprinkled with water as a baby, or whether they were immersed in a river as an adult, but it was just a sign that pointed to the spiritual reality of being baptized by the Spirit in salvation, or of being baptized in Christ as He bore our sins at the foundation of the world.  He suffered the wrath of God, the fiery wrath that purged away our sins through His atoning death, and those sins were washed away and cleansed from Him, thereby cleansing the sins of all those whose sins He was bearing.  He cleansed the whole company of the elect.  Then God obligated Himself by sending forth His Word to the world because the elect would be scattered among the nations.  The Word entered into the lives of these certain elect individuals, and there was a performance of the washing of the Word, as the blood of Christ that had washed away their sins was applied through the hearing of the Word, and the Word performed “baptism.”  The Holy Spirit, through the Word, performed the baptism of the individual and they became clean in the eyes of God.  But this applies only to the elect, which meant that the overwhelming majority were not given that spiritual baptism.  Certainly we saw that as we got to the time of the end when there were about two billion professed Christians in the world’s churches, but only a remnant of people came out of the churches when God commanded His people (through His Word) to depart out of the midst, and yet, hundreds and hundreds of millions of people remained.  And that is the way that God separated the wheat from the tares, and He bundled the tares for burning.   There were all of those professed Christians, and probably 99% of them had been baptized in one form or another with physical water, but it meant nothing. 

They were not true Christians or true believers, a true elect child of God, just like many Jews of the Old Testament were not true Jews: “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly…”  That is why when Jesus met Nathaniel, He said, “Behold n Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!”    Were not all the people around Him Israelites?  Yes, but Nathaniel was an elect child of God, and therefore he was a “true Jew,” and an Israelite indeed.  That is the teaching of the Bible regarding true Jews or true Christians.  The true Jews are a remnant, and the true Christians are a remnant.  There are many more physical descendants of  Abraham that were only physically circumcised than the true spiritual Jews of Israel.  Likewise, there are exceedingly more that were baptized only with water than those that were baptized in the spirit through salvation. 

This is the understanding that God would have us know, and yet the question is asked in Romans 3:1: “What advantage then hath the Jew?”    The word “advantage” is found in Matthew 5:47:

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

The word translated as “do ye more” is this word “advantage.”  To “have more” or “do more”  is the idea.  This word “advantage” is the same word that we find in Luke 12:47-48:

And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

It is the word “more” at the very end of verse 48 that is this word “advantage.”  So we see, “What advantage then hath the Jew?” We could say, “What more hath the Jew than those in the nations, the Gentiles?  What more hath the Christian than the people outside of the churches that did not live as a Christian over the course of the church age?  What more is there for the one who has identification with God and His kingdom?”

Well, again, the answer is given in Romans 3:2:

Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

To begin with, the answer is, “Much every way,” and this means that to have lived the life of a Jew of the Old Testament, or to have lived the life of a Christian in the New Testament, is advantageous and profitable in every way because it is a good life.  If one were to live it to any appreciable degree according to God’s Word, that person would receive blessings.  Although temporal, there would be a great many blessings in that life.  Numerous examples could be given.  For example, let us use someone in the church because that is something we are more familiar with, and that person is a professed Christian.  Let us say this was 50 or 100 years ago when the church age was still ongoing, and he has come to be in the church.  Maybe his parents were in the church, and they brought him to church, and it became habitual and part of his identify.  He is a Christian, but not a true Christian.  Although he has been physically baptized, he had not been spiritually baptized by the Holy Spirit, and never would be, but he lived his life in the context of going to church and of listening to the sermons.  He does hear with his physical ears, and the pastor would make a point that maybe he understands, like being a Christian means he would not drink or smoke.  So he does not do those things because he thinks he is a true Christian, and he wants to try to live as a Christian.  So already he is receiving benefit because he would typically be healthier, and he would be sober, which would mean that he would not get into altercations in a drunken state, and so forth.  There were many blessings in everyday living, and there was the blessing of the potential of salvation because that man was where God would have people to be during the church age, which was in the churches under the hearing of the Word.  And Christ was in the midst of the congregations.  The Holy Spirit was in the midst, and from this man’s perspective, he could have become saved, as well as his family.  He grew up and had children, and he brought his children there, and maybe God did save one of his children.

Look at this from the point of view of what is best for your children.  Every parent in the world would want the very best for their children, and they would want them to live as long a life as possible.  And this man identified with the kingdom of God through the Christian church, and he called himself a Christian, and he was baptized, and he had his children baptized, and they came to church, and because of hearing the Word, one or two of his children became saved.  That was an enormous blessing that was bestowed upon that man’s family, and of great advantage because outside of the churches people may have heard the witness of a ministry and be led into a church, but for the most part, they were not hearing the Gospel at all.

Likewise with the Old Testament Jew who had the blessing of living a life as God would have him to live, to the degree that he did so (even though there was no change of his heart), there would be blessing for him, his wife, and their children.  There were also numerous times when God was protecting them as a nation, watching over them and fighting against their enemies.  We could give many examples of an enemy army that came against Judah or Israel, and God fought for Israel and defeated the enemy, delivering that city or nation.  And that was certainly an enormous benefit to all the Jews, not just the elect few within that city or nation, but to all the Jews within the nation at that time.

There are just countless ways of understanding the advantages, as God tells us, “Much every way.”  To live as a Christian is the best way to live.  At least, it could be said of a professed Christian (not a true Christian) that they are living their outward lives in a manner that is correct by recognizing that there is a God, whereas secular society in the world around them is trying more and more to do away with the whole idea of God, and we can see what a mess that has turned the world into.  If you do not think it is an advantage to live according to biblical principles in recognition of God, just take a look at the world today because they are certainly doing their very best not to live according to biblical principles or to recognize the true God of the Bible.  And there is nothing but destruction.  It has ruined the fabric of society.   We could put forth the current events that are taking place in the world, and we could “rest our case.”  

As we look at those that are not living as Christians and with no identification with God, we see their misery and turmoil, and the everyday problems they experience with no answers.  We see their lack of mercy, their lack of forgiveness, and their lack of grace, whereas the professed Christian is familiar with these things, and it may be brought to his mind in a situation where he thinks, “You know, Christ has forgiven me, and I am going to forgive this individual,” although he is incorrect that Christ has forgiven him.  But there are advantages to the Jew and the Christian, and that would mean that there was profit in circumcision and baptism for the time that God commanded these things.  The profit would have been that of having entered into this relationship, and this was a sign put upon people when they entered into the outward representation of God’s kingdom.  So it would be the same advantage of being a Jew or being a professed Christian.

Then it goes on to say in Romans 3:2:

… because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

Now we get to the main point.  Here is the advantage for the Jew and for the Christian.  The oracles of God were committed unto them.  What an incredible blessing that was, and that was their advantage over the nations.  We already described some of that in regard to having mercy and grace, and trying to maintain our bodies as a “temple,” and not drink or smoke, and so forth, and all these things have to do with God’s oracles.

We will look at this word “oracles.”  It is not the usual Greek word for “word,” which is “log'-os,” but it is a related word.  Lord willing, when we get together in our next study, we are going to take a closer look at the Greek word that is translated as “oracles.”