AP

Romans 3:1-2   What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?  Much in every way!  First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.

Romans 3 is such an exciting chapter in the Bible as Paul lays down for us all the essence of the glorious Gospel of God’s grace – pointing out first our desperate need for it, because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (verse 23), and then explaining clearly how it works: that we “are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement [a propitiation], through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith” (verses 24-25a)!

In our contemprary context we can apply them: “What advantage, then, is there in being [born into a Christian home], or what value is there in [full membership of  of the Christian Church]?  Much in every way!  First of all, [professing Christians] have been entrusted with the very words of God.”  Yes, we might have multiple copies of the Bible on our shelves in many different helpful translations into our vernacular tongue, which we are free to read whenever we like!   Like the ‘dispersed’ Jews of Paul’s day, we might be in a very privileged postion.

But, as Paul will go on to say, this place of enjoying God’s rich blessing can too easily blind us to the real essence of the Gospel.  Our native sinful hearts have a default position of wanting to convince us we can somehow earn acceptance with God by our ‘church membership’ (baptism, regular attendance, etc) and/or our ‘performance’ (good works, behaviour, etc)!  So Paul has to go on, in Chapter 4, to point out that even Abraham was ‘put right’ with God, not by doing ‘good works’, but by believing – and it was ‘credited to him as righteousness’ (quoting Genesis 15:6).  Those of us who have enjoyed the ‘advantages’ of growing up in as Christian home, or even just being sent to Sunday School from a very early age, need to take all Paul’s warnings on board and remind ourselves constantly of what the real essence of the Gospel is.

I think it was John Stott who summed it up with the phrase “God saves sinners” – ie (working through these three words in reverse order): (1) we are all sinners who need saving, and until we acknowledge this we cannot really turn to Jesus, the Saviour, in repentance-and-faith; (2) what God does for us in Jesus truly and fully saves us (rescues us from the eternal consequences of our sin); and (3) our salvation is all God’s work from start to finish – something we can only receive (not earn) by faith alone.

All this is why Paul can ultimately say with confidence in Chapter 8: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. … If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? … Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (verses 1-2, 31b-32, 35, 37-39).

  Yes, God saves SINNERS, God SAVES sinners, and GOD saves sinners!

– Bruce Christian