Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #5 in Romans 3,  and we will read Romans 3:1-4:

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. For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

We will stop reading there.  We want to finish verse 2 in reference to the oracles of God.  The Greek word that is translated as “oracles” is Strong’s #3051, and it is from the Greek word “log'-os,” which is #3056.  The Greek word “log'-os” is the word for “word.”  It is often used in the New Testament when we read of the Word of God, for example, in places like John 1:1 where it says, “In the beginning was the Word,” and in John 1:14 where it says, “and the Word was made flesh.” 

So this word “log'-ee-on,” Strong’s #3051, is related to “log'-os,” and, therefore, to the Word of God.  And this was that which was committed to the Jews, as we have seen in many Scriptures, and it was also committed to the New Testament churches. 

The oracles of God had to do with entrusting the Word of God to the nation of Israel, the Jewish people.  And this exact thing was done with the churches and congregations.  When God ended His relationship with national Israel, He began a new relationship with the formation of the New Testament churches.  The “vineyard” was handed over to other husbandmen as we read in the parable that Christ spoke, and they continued to operate the vineyard under the control of new husbandmen comprised of Jews and Gentiles coming together within the church that God was forming, and which God would use to accomplish His purpose over the course of the church age.

Likewise, they were entrusted with the Bible.  We read this word “oracles” in Hebrews 5:11-12:

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

He spoke of the first principles of the oracles of the Word of God.  That is what is being said, but we will not get into what this means, but just to note that it is referring to the Word of God.

We find another reference to “oracles” in 1Peter 4:11:

If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth…

So if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.  That is, our speech ought to be in agreement with what the Bible says.  That was true of the minister during the church age, and it was true of the teaching elder, and of any Bible teacher at any time.  It was also true of the professed Christians that follow the Bible. 

When we speak, it should be in accord with what the Bible says.  If we speak things contrary to the Bible – whether it is from the pulpit or whether in our private conversations – that would be sin, would it not, if it is contrary to the Bible?  When a child of God speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.  We should be in agreement with the Word in all things.

Let us look at another verse in Acts 7:37-39:

This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

This is a clear reference to what this word “oracles” represents: “our fathers…received the lively (living) oracles to give unto us,” but they did not obey.  The Word of God was given to them.  This is telling us about their time in mount Sinai when Moses received the Ten Commandments written with the finger of God.  It was the Word of God, and the Ten Commandments represent the completeness of God’s commandments, the Bible.   It was as if God gave the Bible to Israel, and these Ten Commandments were referred to as lively, or living, oracles of God. 

And of course they are because God tells us that His Word is alive, in Hebrews 4:12:

For the word of God is quick…

And that is the word that is translated in other places as “alive” or “living.”  Again, it says in Hebrews 4:12:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit , and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

What a powerful Word the Bible is!  What a living Word the Bible is!  It is truly a living oracle.  More than that, we find in 1Peter 1:23:

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

It is the Word of God which “liveth.”  It is alive in the spiritual realm.  It is full of life, and that is why in the day of salvation when God sent forth His people to carry His Word, it was like sowing seed upon the dead hearts of the hearers, sinful mankind.  Scattered among sinful mankind were those few individuals God had chosen to save, and He determined to save them through the process of hearing the Word: “For faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  So the Word fell upon their hearts, and since it possessed life, it could bring life to the ones that God had chosen to receive it. 

So these are the lively oracles that were given to Moses, and then to the people of Israel.  That is the same thing we are looking at in Romans 3 because this was their advantage, which was chiefly that the oracles of God were committed unto them.  They were put in trust with this precious Word, this seed that could bring life.  Of course it is a tremendous advantage and a great blessing to have been given the living Word of God.  You could read that Word, speak that Word, and share that Word with your family and children.  What an enormous privilege and blessing.

At the same time when Israel had this wonderful and glorious advantage, there were people all over the world in island nations or across the seas that had never heard it.  They lived their lives – in some cases, for generation after generation – without ever hearing the Word.  Yes, it is true that they then would not have been God’s elect.  Nevertheless, it would have been a wonderful blessing for them to hear that Word, but they did not have that great privilege.  It was given to the Jews.  They were given that wonderful blessing of God.

Let us look at just one another thing as we look at that word “log'-ee-on,” Strong’s #3051.  We find there is a related word, and I just want to talk about this a little bit at this time because I think it will make a greater impression on us if we now turn to this related word and see how God uses it.  I think you will see what I mean when we look at a couple of verses.

The Greek word that I want to look at is Strong’s #3050, and it is another word that would be related to “log'-os,” the word for “word,” and to this word  “log'-ee-on” that was translated as “oracles.”  We find this word, Strong’s #3050, is only used two times in the New Testament.  The first instance of this word being used is in Romans 12:1:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice…

This word translated as “present” is the word translated as “yield” in Romans 6:16: “…to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey…”  So God is using that word, but it is translated here as “present,” and He is beseeching the brethren through the Apostle Paul that by the mercies of God, that ye (plural) present your bodies a living sacrifice.  It would be a living sacrifice because we are physically alive, but more than that, it is because our souls have been made alive through the living Word, the lively oracles of God.  So He is not addressing those that are dead in sin, but those that are alive through the power of God and the blessing of His Word upon their hearts.  Again, it says in Romans 12:1:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Here, we see the Greek word, Strong’s #3050, which is translated as “reasonable,” and it would be pronounced “log-ik-os'.”  Again, it is related to “log'-ee-on” and to “log'-os,” so we know it has to do with the Word of God.  We know that much.  God is making this plea, beseeching His own people through the Apostle Paul: “…by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”  It is according to the commandments of the Bible, as I think we can understand it to mean. 

Let us look at the only other time this word “log-ik-os'” in 1Peter 2:1-2:

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

The phrase translated as “of the word” is the Greek word that is translated as “reasonable” in Romans 12:1.  So “reasonable” and “of the word” are equivalent because they are translations of the same word.  Again it says in 1Peter 2:1:

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

Also, notice what it says in 1Peter 2:4:

To whom coming, as unto a living stone…

That is, coming unto the Lord.  He is the living stone.  Then it says in 1Peter2:4-5:

…, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

We are lively, or living, stones.  We have been made alive to the living Word, the lively oracles.  Do you see how that fits in with what we were told in Romans 12:1, where it said that by God’s mercies, we should present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God?  It is just as it says in 1Peter 2:5:  … “to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”  That acceptable sacrifice is to be done on a daily basis as the child of God takes up his cross and follows the Lord, and that can be done only by the power and grace of God, and the Spirit of God moving in us to do so.  But it is worked out through following and obeying the commandments.  Just follow the Word.  Follow the teaching of the Bible, and that will be our cross to bear in this world.

So the translation “of the word” found in 1Peter 2:1 could be inserted into Romans 12:1, and it would say, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present (yield) your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, or your service according to the Word.  This is what God’s Word, the living Word, commands and reveals to us.  This is the thing we are to do with our lives as Christians.  We are not made a Christian just so we can selfishly enjoy pleasures and live our lives having as much fun and enjoyment as possible, and the fact that we are a Christian is just an assurance we have in case we die.  No – that is how the world lives, and that is how the multitudes in the churches live as professed Christians.  But God’s people live according to the dictates of the Bible, and according to the Word, and that is our reasonable service.