The one thing I can get from this whole book about the Jews is failure. We fail God all the time, yet He’s still there and never, ever forsook His people. So it makes me humble to come as a Jew who comes from a nation that failed God for the most part, but yet is also a nation that God chose and used to bring forth so many amazing things. And it’s amazing to me to think about Paul 2,000 years ago, a zealous Orthodox Jew who wanted to kill Christians. He spread havoc – the Bible uses that word – I mean, people were afraid of him.
And one day Paul realized, “Everything I’ve learned, everything I thought I knew, everything I studied, all the great knowledge of the rabbis and the sages, everything is just like rubbish compared to knowing Christ. But as a Jew, he realized he needed first to take the message to the Jews because the Bible says to the Jew what? First. “Oh, I don’t like that.” That’s a verse in the Bible. Deal with that.
To the Jew first is the blessing and to the Jew first is the curse. In Romans 1, to the Jew first, it’s about the gospel, but in Roman 2 come the curses also. In other words, to the Jew first is not because they are better. It’s the order in which God is progressing. But God is not just the God of the Jews that cares only about the Jews and Israel. You must understand that. The Gentiles are not secondhand, they’re not second option, you’re not plan B. This has never been the case. It’s just that the Gentiles never thought that they needed to worship one God.
Romans 3:1-4
What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.”
Paul challenged the Jews in Romans 2 that since they see themselves as enlightened and teachers of those in the darkness, why do they not teach themselves? Earlier, he wrote:
Romans 2:23-24
You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.
The rhetorical question arises, “What advantage then has the Jew?” Paul said, “Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles (sayings or scriptures) of God.” In other words, the Jews had the word of God before the rest of the world. Where they failed was by keeping it to themselves and seeing themselves as above others, instead of fulfilling their responsibility to share the word of God to the world.
It seems as though many Gentile Christians today want to become a part of the “to the Jew first” crowd by observing the Sabbath, keeping the feast days, etc. What they seem to overlook is the fact that if Gentile in the Old Testament means a non-Jew, then Adam was a Gentile when God called him, Enoch was Gentile, Noah was a Gentile, and even Abraham was a Gentile when God called him out of Ur of the Chaldees. So if you’re a Gentile, you’re in good company, too!
There were no Jews until Jacob was renamed Israel. It was then that the oracles of God would be committed to the Jews.
Philippians 3:3-8
For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
God gave His word to the Jew first. He called them His own special people first, because He wanted the world to see how knowing Him and following His word makes you distinct from the world, so that others may want know and follow Him, too.
The Jews have the advantage of having the word of God committed to them, but it is only an advantage to those who came to the knowledge of the One who is the Holy One of Israel.
Don’t make the mistake many Jews made by thinking that keeping the Sabbath, the Law, and feast days makes you acceptable to God. Paul said those things are rubbish in comparison to the work that Christ did for us on the cross!
Paul said this of his own life, and we would do well to do the same:
Galatians 2:20-21
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.
If you love Jesus, your ethnic background, gender, or status in life is of no consequence spiritually. For it is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in and through you.
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus