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Romans 3:1-8 paraphrased.
What advantage has the Jew (or enlightened Christian)? Or what benefit is there in being circumcised (or baptized)?
The advantages are great in every respect. First and most of all, these people have been entrusted by God with insights and revelations about Himself and His ways of dealing in the Law, the Bible and the Testimonies of prophets.
If that is true but the result is that some (many) have not believed with their heart the real message of love and the truth about God intended to be communicated to them in these revelations, does that mean that God made a mistake in trusting them and having faith in them?
Absolutely not! Rather, you must realize that God will ultimately be found to be right in His choice to trust them, even though the majority – even everyone – might be discovered to be lying. Because the Word of God (which is always true) declares in Psalm 5,1:4, “so that You are justified when You speak and will be found innocent of all blame when You judge and bring everything into the full light of reality.”
But you might object that if our being exposed as wrong accentuates the rightness of God, you might be led to think that it is unfair for God to expose sinners to the painful consequences of their sins in the Day of Judgment casting doubt on His integrity. But this is a problem only because you are thinking about God from a sinful human standpoint thinking that He thinks like you do.
This is absolutely false also! If it was true God would not be qualified to judge the whole world.
But you still may insist that if the exposure of our deceptions only exposes the integrity and truth about God causing everyone to honor Him and bring Him glory, it is somehow not fair that the very ones bringing all that glory to Him should experience condemnation as sinners. You may even carry this silly argument even further by reasoning that since our sins end up ultimately bringing glory to God that we should sin even more so that He will be honored even more.
When you indulge in that kind of twisted reasoning, the condemnation that you will end up experiencing will be only fair and right, for you have created it within and for yourself – God is not really the one condemning you.
(Romans 3:9-18) What then? Are we (converted Christians) any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: "There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one." "Their throats are opened graves; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of vipers is under their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." (NRSV)
Romans 3:19-26 paraphrased.
These statements come from the Law, the Old Testament, and we know that whatever the Law says, it addresses those who are trusting in the Law, so that no one can argue with it and everyone in the world will be accountable to God; because by working to keep the inflexible requirements found in the Law (which is simply a limited description of God's character) it is impossible for anyone to be found to be just and perfect in the exposing light of God's presence; for the only thing accomplished by knowing all about the Law and what it takes to be perfect is the realization of our helpless condition of sinfulness. (And that is the problem with your previously discussed faulty reasoning.)
But what I am talking about now does not operate inside the mentality of achieving perfection through a keeping of all the rules. What the gospel does is to reveal the truth about God's goodness and the real truth about His character that the Law and the Prophets were actually testifying about originally. This truth about what God is really like – what is called the righteousness of God – is brought to light where it can be seen by the faith that Jesus has in all those who believe – who believe the truth about God and believe in the redemption that Jesus has accomplished for everyone; for in reality there is no longer any artificial distinctions. Those distinctions have been rendered mute by the Law revealing that everyone, without distinction, are sinners and fall short of the glory and perfection of God's character. In the gospel everyone has been made right with God as a free gift by His grace through the redemption which is found by being in Christ Jesus.
God publicly displayed Jesus as the real counterpart and fulfillment of the symbol of the Mercy Seat that covered the Law in the Ark of the Covenant in the Sanctuary. This was accomplished when Jesus, in faith, gave His life-blood to demonstrate what God was really like – full of redeeming love, compassion and forgiveness, because in the forbearance and tolerance of God He passed over all the sins previously committed. He did all this to demonstrate His righteousness – to again entrust His children – at the present time, so that He would be not only just and fair but could also bring into right relationship to Him everyone who accepts the faith of Jesus in them.
Romans 3:27-31 paraphrased.
Now you who have been boasting in the Law (2:23), when you understand this reality do you any longer have reason to boast? That is now excluded from reason. But by what kind of “law” or rule is your boasting disallowed? By the method and Law that you have been using to try to attain righteousness and perfect character to qualify yourself for heaven? No, but by a law, a principle, called faith. For in our teaching of the good news about God and salvation we maintain that a man is made right in God's estimation (justified) by faith completely apart from performance of rule-keeping and working to conform the the Law.
Do you really think that the God of the universe is the exclusive God who only relates to Jews and not to anyone else? Get real! He is the God of everyone, Jews, non-Jews and even non-Christians alike. It is the very same God who has redeemed and will justify the circumcised in their grudging faith and the uncircumcised through their faith – He is the One and same God.
So are all the things the Law teaches about God and truth neutralized or nullified through this act of faith? Absolutely, positively not!. The exact opposite is accomplished, we actually establish and vindicate the teachings and revelations in the Law.
