Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. (Romans 2:17-20)
Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome, which more than likely was started by Jewish converts to Christianity who fled from Jerusalem when the church started being persecuted. (Acts 2-9) However, the majority of the church were probably Gentiles, since he started out the letter saying, Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. (Roman 1:13) Throughout the letter, he goes back and forth address both groups, Jews and non-Jews. He starts off this section by asking the Jewish believers why do they feel they are superior over the non-Jewish believers. We'll go into more detail later as to why they may have had that opinion of themselves.
But for now, Paul was calling them out on their hypocrisy, very similar to the time that the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him [Jesus] a woman caught in adultery. ... So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” (John 8:3, 7) Paul was making the same point with the Jewish believers, how could they correct non-Jews when they themselves did the same things. You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” [Isaiah 52:5; Ezekiel 36:22] as it is written. (Romans 2:21-24)
Remember, of all the peoples God created, He chose Abraham and promised him, "blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” (Genesis 22:17-18) Then He made the same promise to Abraham's son, Isaac, saying, "And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” (Genesis 26:4-5)
Then God made the same promise to Jacob (aka Israel), Isaac's son, saying, "Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 28:14) He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise the Lord! (Psalm 147:19-20) God chose the descendants of Abraham to be a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:6, 14:2, 26:18; Exodus 19:5)
As physical proof that God had chosen Abraham and His descendants to be a special treasure to Himself, a people through whom He would reveal His holiness to the whole world, God commanded Abraham, "This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. ...and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant." (Genesis 17:10-11, 13) Unfortunately, as time went on, the Jews thought they were just special, and not specifically a special treasure to God. Jesus told them exactly what their problem was, when He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’" [Isaiah 29:13] (Mark 7:6-7)
For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. (Romans 2:25-29)
Paul's point was that God did not have the Jews get circumcised in order to become holy, but it was supposed to be an outward showing of a inward commitment to God. No more than being baptized saves us, but it is an outward ritual to symbolize an inward commitment to God through faith in Christ Jesus. "For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7) What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.” [Psalm 51:4] (Romans 3:1-4)
Paul makes a very interesting point, that the Jews do have an advantage over non-Jews, because to them were committed the oracles of God; and regardless of how they treated God or his commandments, what a blessing from God to be entrusted with such a precious gift. "Thus says the Lord God: 'Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they did not walk in My statutes; they despised My judgments, ‘which, if a man does, he shall live by them’; and they greatly defiled My Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury on them in the wilderness, to consume them. But I acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned before the Gentiles, in whose sight I had brought them out. ... Nevertheless My eye spared them from destruction. I did not make an end of them in the wilderness.'" (Ezekiel 20:12-17)
Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! As Moses declared to the children of Israel while they were in the wilderness, “For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.’" (Deuteronomy 4:7-9)
As the apostle Peter explained, through Jesus Christ, not just the Jews, but we are all a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (I Peter 2:9-10) Let's be mindful that we don't ...neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,... (Hebrews 2:3) Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. (Hebrews 2:1) AMEN!
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