Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #3 in Romans 3,  and we will be reading 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.

We have discussed that Romans 3 is picking up from the statements made at the end of the 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…

God is distinguishing between the “outward Jew” and the “inward Jew,” and this is an identical comparison to the “professed Christian” versus the “true Christian,” and this is the reason that we emphasize true believers over against believers, as we try to distinguish and differentiate the fact that not everyone who says he is a Christian is an actual Christian spiritually.  The Bible clearly teaches that, and we actually came to the point in our day where there were so many identified themselves as “true believers” that we have tried to distinguish even more thoroughly by stressing the difference between those who believe and follow the end time doctrines, as opposed to those who have turned back from them. 

You will notice (and I am sure you have if you listen to EBible studies) that the emphasis is on God’s elect.  I think you cannot be more precise using biblical language in referring to someone who is saved than that.  Of course others that are not truly God’s elect can start referring to themselves as truly God’s elect.  But at least it is a step further (and I do not think there is another step after that) to let it be known that there is a people that God has saved, and whom He had his eye upon from eternity past.  He chose them before the world was, and Christ paid for their sins, and so forth.  Then there are those that are called but not chosen, and the word “chosen” is a form of the Greek “ek-lek-tos',” which means to be “elect.”  That is the Greek word translated as “chosen.”  “Many are called but few are chosen,” and that sums up the spiritual condition of many that were in the churches during the church age.  And now at the time of the end, we could say that many of the “called” are the professed Christians that are in the churches, and the few that are chosen and elect of God are outside of the churches because God had called His people to come out.  All the elect did come out, and there would have been some that were not elect that came out, but it is certainly true that all who stayed behind were “believers.”  They were professed Christians, the tares that were bundled for the burning.

That is what the Lord is getting into in these verses where it says, “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?”  That is, to have that outward identification with God, what profit was it to the physical descendant of Abraham?  And we could carry it over to the professed Christian in the churches.  And the answer was, “Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

We discussed some of the ways that it is an advantage and a blessing to live the Christian life even if you are not a true Christian from the heart, or not born again.  It has its advantages and blessings in numerous ways.

But now we are going to move on to the next part of the verse, where the Lord says there is a chief or main advantage, as it says in Romans 3:2:

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

Unto the Jews of the Old Testament were committed the oracles of God, and we could also say the Christians of the New Testament were committed the oracles of God.  We have a definite idea as to what the “oracles of God” would refer to, and that is the Word of God, and that would be correct.  But we are going to take a closer look at the word “oracles” because God did not use the usual word for “word” here, which is “log'-os,” although it is a related word to “log'-os.”  So we want to check that out. 

We also want to check out this word “committed,” where it says, “unto them were committed the oracles of God.”  This word is often translated as “believe.”  It is the usual word in the New Testament for believing.  For example, in Romans 10 we will find it three times, in Romans 10:9-11:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

So in all three verses, we find either the word “believe” or “believeth.”  It is the Greek word that was translated as “committed,” so should we substitute the word “believed”?  It would read, “…Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were believed the oracles of God.”   Well, there is an element of that, is there not.  The Jews believed.   Even if they were not saved, they had varying degrees of belief in that Word as they attempted to live by it.  They had an intellectual belief or understanding of the Word of God, just as the New Testament Christians that were not truly saved.

We have all met lots of people that are very serious in their Christian belief, although they often seriously believe wrong doctrines and wrong gospels, but they are earnest, and many are zealous of the things they believe.  So there is an aspect of this if we read it as, “…because unto them were believed the oracles of God.” 

It would also be true of God’s elect because God’s elect were counted among the Jews of the Old Testament, and God’s elect were among the congregations of the New Testament churches during the church age, and they certainly believed the oracles of God, and it served to bless them greatly, even eternally.  So that should not be discounted right away, but given that this is looking at the Jews as a nation, or the churches as a whole, I think we should understand this word the way the translators translated it, which is the word “committed.”

And it is translated as “committed” in a few other places.  Let us go to Galatians 2:7:

But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;

Again, if you tried to substitute the word “believed,” it does not seem to make sense: “…the gospel of the uncircumcision was believed unto me…”  It would not make sense with the way the sentence is formed.  The point Paul is making under the inspiration of God is that he was commissioned to take the Word of God and go to the Gentiles.  So the Gospel of the uncircumcision was committed to him.  It was entrusted to him, and that makes better sense, and we can see why the translators did at times translated this word as “committed,” as it seems to be fitting and appropriate to do so. 

Even if you look at the word “believed,”  it would mean that in giving His Word to Paul, He was believing in him, in other words.  We use that kind of language: “I believe in you,” especially if we have invested in something.  We believe in it.  We think it will be profitable, so we commit to an individual or a work, or whatever.  I think that is the idea that could be in view.

We can also go to Titus 1:2-3:

In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;

You see, this is why it is helpful when we find that the Apostle Paul is a pattern of the elect believer.  That information can be found in 1Timothy 1:16:

Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

Paul is an example.  He is a pattern of those that would later believe on the Lord Jesus, so all of God’s people are in view when we read that God “manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour.”  God has committed His Word to you and to me if we are elect, His chosen ones.  Paul is just the type and figure of God giving His Word to us.  That is what happened with the Great Commission as were to go forth into the world, teaching all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Carrying the Word of God had been committed unto you according to the commandment of God our Saviour, and God’s people faithfully carried it out over the course of history, especially at the time of the end when there was fervent activity during the second part of the Great Tribulation in the outpouring of the Latter Rain.

Also, in 1Timothy 1 where we read that Paul is a pattern of the believers, we read a little before that in 1Timothy 1:11:

According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

Again, it was “committed.”  That is our word.  It was given to Paul, and God was committing it to his trust.  By the way, this Greek word that is most often translated as “believed” and as “committed” a handful of times, is also translated another way in 1Thessalonians 2:4:

But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.

Here, the translators translated this Greek word as “put in trust,” and I think that really expresses well what the Lord has done concerning His holy Word, the Bible, and the truth of His Word, which is right and faithful doctrine.  You know, when you proclaim the Bible, you do not just go out and quote Scripture, but you quote Scripture, and then you expound or explain, “This is what the Scripture means.”  That is teaching.  That is what God has entrusted to His people.  We see a commentary on that when we go to 1Corinthians 4:1-2:

Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

You see, when you are put in trust with the Bible, God requires faithfulness.  Notice what it says in verse 1: “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.”  What are these mysteries of God?  That would be the spiritual meaning.  That would be the deeper spiritual meaning of the Bible because when Jesus explained to the disciples why He spoke in parables, remember what He said in Matthew 13.  The disciples asked the question about why He spoke to them in parables, in verse 10, and Jesus answered them in Matthew 13:11:

He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Now we see something very important.  Christ gives exclusively to His elect the ability to know, understand, and discern the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, the deeper spiritual things of the Bible.  They must be spiritually discerned, so we need a spirit that is living and the Holy Spirit within us to be able to discern spiritual truth.  So that is the reason it is only given to the elect, those that are born again in their souls.

But to the others, which would include all the professed Christians and all the Old Testament Jews of the flesh, it was not given.  They cannot sufficiently, properly, or faithfully discern the spiritual teachings of the Bible because they have a dead soul and spirit, and they lack the Holy Spirit as their guide.  So they cannot be faithful stewards of the mysteries of God.  Only the elect of God are qualified in that area, and that is why Paul is a pattern of the elect in that God had entrusted (committed) the oracles of God to him, and that he would be faithful, and that we would be faithful, as Paul represents us, and that we would be faithful in ministering these things to the nations.