3. Romans 3:1-31

The apostle Paul continues answering the critical questions of the Jewish followers of Jesus after what they had heard him say previously in Rom. 1-2. ‘So it does not matter at all that we are Jews, and that we are circumcised? What is the usage of this, if it does not matter for God?’

The answer of Paul is very important. The advantage of being a Jew, he says, is in the first place that God entrusted his words to them, that is, the law. This seems to mean nothing more than that Israel has known the will of God from the beginning; a Jew knows what God expects of him (Rom. 3:2).

The fact that some (Jews) have become unfaithful, does not nullify the faithfulness of God. What does this mean? I believe Paul is saying: the fact that some Jews do not believe in the Messiah, whom God has sent, does not mean that God is not faithful to his promises. He is who He is, and if He promises, he fulfills. The great advantage of being a Jew, is having this knowledge of God and his will (Rom. 3:3-4).

We must read this ‘advantage’ of Jewish knowledge of God and his will in the context of what Paul told us before in Rom. 2:11, that people with the law (i.e., Jews) await the wrath of God if they only know the law, but do not implement it as well. The law they know will condemn them. The advantage of being Jewish is a great advantage, as they have been raised with knowledge of the law, the will of God.

The next question of these Jews in the Church in Rome is whether Jews are therefore better off, or any better, than people from the nations (Rom. 3:9). Not at all, is Paul’s clear answer. He underlines that all people are equal before God, because both Jews and people from the nations are under the power of sin (Rom. 3:9). With many quotes from the Jewish Scriptures, Paul shows in Rom. 3:10-18 that all people, everyone, are distant from God as sinners:

None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong; no one does good…

Noteworthy here, is that Paul says that his quotes from Scriptures are spoken to those who are under the law (Rom. 3:19). Those are the people to whom the words of God were entrusted, the Jews (Rom. 3:1). Is Paul then saying that in fact Jews are worse than the other nations? No, of course, but he does clarify that because of their own law, Jews should be the first to realize that God is not partial to any person. For Him there is no difference between Jews and others. The law makes clear that the whole world is under the judgment of God, Jews and non-Jews alike (Rom. 3:19).

If the law proves that all people are worthy of punishment, then it is also logical to conclude that the law is not the instrument to justify people before God. The law does not justify, it reveals that all men are sinful (Rom. 3:20). Israel has the privilege of knowing all these things because God entrusted his words to that nation. But these words by themselves do not bring Israel closer to God. They make Jews aware of their sinfulness.

By the way, this conclusion of Paul that no one is righteous and that all people are sinful, makes me assume that Paul’s words about people from the nations who by nature do what the law says (see e.g. Rom. 2:14) must be seen as a theoretical argument by the apostle. He first argued that if a non-Jew follows the law, and a Jew does not, the non-Jew is closer to God than the Jew. Now he makes clear, that, in fact, none of them is able to please God, as no-one is able to live in accordance with the law.

By trying to follow the law, no one become righteous. But God makes righteousness available separate from the law, by faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-22). This is fully in line with the testimony of Jewish law and its prophets, so what Paul proclaims is not anti-Jewish but wholly in line with their own scriptures.

This righteousness is for all who believe: there is no difference if one is born a Jew or not (Rom. 3:22b). All people have sinned and lack God’s glory (Rom. 3:23). The word salvation is never used in this chapter, but is it obviously related to the idea that God justifies people. The opposite of that is missing the glory of God.

Paul is of the opinion that man is made righteous by faith, without the law (Rom 3:28). Immediately after that he asks, in Rom. 3:29-30:

Do you think God is the God only of the Jews, and not of gentiles too? Most certainly of gentiles too, since there is only one God; He will justify the circumcised by their faith, and he will justify the uncircumcised through their faith.

The idea that God justifies people through their obedience to the law is, in Paul’s mind, closely linked to the concept that God would be a God for Israel only. If the law in a general sense would also be suitable for the nations, the question whether God is only a God for Israel or also for the nations, would be rather meaningless. The nations do not have the law and so God, who is a God of all people, would not be impartial if following the law would be His means for saving people.

Rom. 3:31 seems to be the conclusion of the foregoing, but it also introduces Rom. 4. Paul concludes that his approach (that justification is by faith only) does not nullify the law, but it confirms the importance of the law. It is the law that shows people that all people are unjust, Jews as much as anyone else. These same Jewish scriptures also show that faith is the precondition for salvation, as Paul describes in Rom. 4.

The Greek word pas (all, everyone, each) appears in Rom. 3:2 (in every way), Rom. 3:4 (no human being), Rom. 3:9 (not at all), Rom. 3:9 (all alike), Rom. 3:19 (every mouth), Rom. 3:19 (whole world), Rom. 3:20 (no human being), Rom. 3:22 (to all), Rom. 3:23 (all). The word group underlines numerical completeness, with no exceptions.