Romans 3:1–8
Then What Advantage Has the Jew?
Paul has just said something that could easily be misunderstood.
At the end of Romans 2, he said:
“For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.”
He went on to say that true circumcision is “a matter of the heart.”
That raises an obvious question.
If being Jewish does not automatically make a person right with God, and if circumcision cannot protect a person who disobeys God, then what was the advantage of being a Jew at all?
Paul anticipates exactly that question.
“Then What Advantage Has the Jew?”
Paul asks:
“Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?”
— Romans 3:1
We might expect Paul to answer:
None.
But he doesn't.
Instead he says:
“Much in every way.”
— Romans 3:2
That is important.
Paul has not been arguing that Israel had no special place in God's plan.
He has been arguing that Israel's privileges did not make individual Jews immune from God's judgment.
Those are two very different things.
Israel really had been given something special.
They Were Entrusted With the Words of God
Paul begins with what may be Israel's greatest privilege:
“To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.”
— Romans 3:2
God had spoken to Israel.
He had given them His revealed word.
They had the Law.
They had the prophets.
They had the promises.
They knew things about God that the surrounding nations did not know.
That was an enormous privilege.
But notice Paul's word:
entrusted.
God's revelation was not merely something Israel possessed.
It was something God had entrusted to them.
And a trust carries responsibility.
Receiving God's Word is a privilege.
It does not automatically mean we are living according to it.
That was Paul's point in Romans 2.
But What If Some Were Unfaithful?
Now another question arises.
Israel had been entrusted with God's Word.
But many Israelites had been unfaithful.
Did their unfaithfulness mean that God had failed?
Paul asks:
“What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?”
— Romans 3:3
His answer could hardly be stronger:
“By no means!”
— Romans 3:4
Or, as some translations put it:
“Certainly not!”
Human unfaithfulness does not make God unfaithful.
God keeps His word even when people do not keep theirs.
That principle is going to become very important later in Romans, especially when Paul returns to the question of Israel in chapters 9–11.
But for now his point is simple:
Israel's failure does not mean God's plan failed.
“Let God Be True Though Every One Were a Liar”
Paul continues:
“Let God be true though every one were a liar.”
— Romans 3:4
God's faithfulness does not depend upon ours.
If every human being proved unfaithful, God would still be faithful.
Paul then quotes Psalm 51:
“That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”
That quotation is worth noticing.
Psalm 51 is David's confession after his sin.
David does not blame God.
He does not argue that God's judgment is unfair.
He admits his own guilt and acknowledges that God is right.
That fits Paul's argument perfectly.
When God judges human sin, the problem is not with God.
The problem is with us.
But Doesn't Our Sin Make God Look More Righteous?
Paul now considers an objection.
If our wrongdoing makes God's righteousness stand out more clearly, couldn't someone argue that our sin actually serves a useful purpose?
Paul puts it this way:
“But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say?”
— Romans 3:5
Then comes the objection:
Wouldn't God be unjust to punish the very sin that makes His righteousness more obvious?
Paul immediately rejects the idea:
“By no means! For then how could God judge the world?”
— Romans 3:6
Paul is not teaching that sin becomes good because God can bring something good out of it.
Our wrongdoing may demonstrate God's righteousness by contrast.
But it remains wrongdoing.
And God remains just in judging it.
“Why Not Do Evil That Good May Come?”
Paul pushes the objection to its logical conclusion.
If human sin somehow makes God's truth and glory more visible, why not sin even more?
Why not simply say:
“Let us do evil that good may come”?
— Romans 3:8
Apparently some people were even accusing Paul of teaching something like this.
His response is brief:
“Their condemnation is just.”
Paul will not allow God's grace to become an excuse for sin.
That will become an even larger issue later in Romans.
In Romans 6 he will ask:
“Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”
And again his answer will be:
“By no means!”
Grace does not turn evil into good.
Grace rescues sinners from evil.
Don't Miss Paul's Argument
Romans 3:1–8 may seem like a side discussion.
It isn't.
Paul is answering objections that naturally arise from what he has already said.
In Romans 1, the Gentile world was guilty.
In Romans 2, Paul showed that the Jew could not escape God's judgment merely because he possessed the Law and circumcision.
Now someone objects:
Then what good was it to be Jewish?
Paul answers:
Much in every way.
Israel had genuine privileges.
God had entrusted His Word to them.
But privilege did not eliminate accountability.
And Israel's unfaithfulness did not cancel God's faithfulness.
Both truths stand together.
Privilege Is Not the Same as Innocence
This is an important distinction.
A person can receive great blessings from God and still be accountable for how he responds to them.
Israel had God's Word.
That was a tremendous advantage.
But possessing God's Word did not mean Israel had always obeyed God's Word.
The same principle should make any Bible reader stop and think.
Having a Bible is a privilege.
Knowing Scripture is a privilege.
Teaching Scripture is a privilege.
But none of those things makes disobedience harmless.
The more light God gives us, the better we can see and the more accountable we become.
Paul Is About to Close the Case
Paul has been building an argument since Romans 1.
Now he is almost ready to state his conclusion.
The Gentile cannot point to the Jew.
The Jew cannot point to his possession of the Law.
No one can blame God's judgment on God's unfaithfulness.
No one can turn his own sin into an excuse by saying that God somehow benefits from it.
So one question remains:
Who, then, is righteous?
Paul answers beginning in the very next verse:
“What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all.”
Then comes the conclusion toward which Paul has been moving:
“For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.”
— Romans 3:9
Paul is almost finished telling us the bad news.
And that matters because we will never understand the greatness of the good news until we understand the problem the gospel came to solve.
All are under sin.
That is where Paul takes us next.
Before Moving On
Romans 3:1–8 leaves us with two truths that must be held together:
God gives real privileges.
And:
God remains completely faithful even when the people who receive those privileges are not.
Our failure never proves that God has failed.
So as we continue through Romans, the question is no longer going to be:
Which group is better?
Paul is about to remove that question altogether.
Jew and Gentile alike stand in need of the same thing:
the righteousness that only God can provide.
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