Why Jews First?

I have another secret grudge against God that He wants to expose the lie embedded in it today. As I came back to Romans 1 and dropped in again at verse 14 looking for another message from God, my attention was drawn to the phrase, “to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” This was after asking myself a few questions as I read through these few verses.

Do I want to obtain fruit for God in other people's lives?

Do I feel under obligation to everyone around me no matter how nice or un-nice they are?

How eager am I really, to share the good news about God?

Do I still have some shame attached in my mind to confessing Jesus and my relationship with Him?

Along these lines I remember the recent post from my good friend Colin about Nicodemus that I read recently. Check it out – I believe you will find it very interesting and challenging. He has a wonderful way of weaving words into works of art that convey profound insights in a most eloquent way. He is also a gifted poet with a separate site with his stimulating poetry.

As I arrived at verse 16 I noticed the absolute inclusiveness of salvation even though, for whatever reason, it is divided between Jews and non-Jews. “Everyone who believes” leaves the final segregation of the saved and lost completely up to our choice. God has done everything possible to provide an escape from the problem of sin and death despite our protestations to the contrary. It really is up to everyone of us to choose to participate in His provisions or to embrace fully the lies about Him and reject His attractions on our hearts.

But why does Paul repeatedly use the phrase, “to the Jew first and also to the Greek”? This has been a source of annoyance to me most of my life, but not enough to really examine it closely other than to listen to the stock, off-the-shelf answers spun by religion teachers and pastors. I suppose it is time to listen and see what God has to say to explain Himself now.

I don't know that I yet have the full explanation for this but a few things have come to my mind. One reason given and that is consistent with the character of God, is that God wanted to preempt as much prejudice as possible in the Jews by giving them first chance to respond positively to the real truth about Him in the gospel before taking it to others that would stir up their jealousy which would block their objective evaluation of truth. I suppose that is most logical explanation for the early days of the gospel, but does that still apply today? Are we still supposed to present the gospel to the Jews first before sharing it with anyone else? I don't know of too many people who buy into that thinking now.

And doesn't it seem a little biased of God to give preference to Jew over gentiles? Sure, they were considered “God's people” for centuries, but they had rejected Him and had essentially divorced Him at this point, so why did God still want to give them first place in line as He unveiled His more expansive plan of salvaging all of humanity? Wouldn't that make other, more sincere seekers of truth question His possible bias against them and possible prejudice them just as the Jews were prejudiced? Somewhere in the back of my mind it seems just a little bit unfair of God to consistently favor the Jews over everyone else particularly since they had spurned His grace so shamefully. Isn't that something like still giving preference to a woman whom you have divorced over your new wife? And wouldn't that set up the situation for a lot of potential jealousy on the part of your new wife?

Well there, I've put my cards on the table. I've faced my secret complaints against God (at least on this one point) and forced them into the open. Are they all answered and satisfied and dissipated?

Well, I'm not sure about that yet. But I have found that flushing them into the open makes them very susceptible to being neutralized by the sanitizing power of the light from God's presence. (John 3:20,21) So I will leave them in the open air and see what happens to them while I go to work today and let the Spirit continue to do its mysterious changes in the unreachable recesses of my soul.

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