What advantage is it to be a Jew?
1 Then, what is the advantage of being a Jew? And what is the use of circumcision?
2 It is important from any point of view. In the first place, it was to the Jews that God entrusted his word.
3 Well now, if some of them were not faithful, will their unfaithfulness do away with the faithfulness of God? Of course not.
4 Rather, it will be proved that God is truthful, every human a liar, as the Scripture says: it will be proved that your words are true and you will be winner if they want to judge you.
5 If our wickedness shows God to be just, would it be right to say that God is unjust when he gets angry and punishes us? (I speak in a hu man way.)
6 – Not at all because, otherwise, how could God judge the world?
7 – But if my lie makes the truth of God more evident, thus increasing his glory, is it correct to call me a sinner?
8 – Then, your only choice would be to sin, so that good may come of it. Some slanderers say that this is my teaching, but they will have to answer for those words.
9 Do we have, then, any advantage? Not really. For we have just demonstrated that all, Jews and non-Jews, are under the power of sin, 10 as the Scripture says:
10 Nobody is good, not even one,
11 no one understands, no one looks for God.
12 All have gone astray and have become base. There is no one doing what is good, not even one.
13 Their throats are open tombs, their words deceit.
14 Their lips hide poison of vipers, from their mouth come bitter curses.
15 They run to where they can shed blood,
16 leaving behind ruin and misery.
17 They do not know the way of peace.
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19 Now we know that whatever the Scripture says, it is said for the people of the Law, that is for the Jews. Let all be silent then and recognize that the whole world is guilty before God.
20 Still more: no mortal will be worthy before God by performing the demands of the Law. What comes from the Law is the consciousness of sin.
Faith, the way to salvation
21 But, now it has been revealed altogether apart from the Law, as it was already foretold in the Law and the Prophets:
22 God makes us righteous by means of faith in Jesus Christ, and this is applied to all who believe, without distinction of per sons.
23 Because all have sinned and all fall short of the Glory of God;
24 and all are graciously forgiven and made righteous through the redemption effected in Christ Jesus.
25 For God has given him to be the victim whose blood obtains us forgiveness through faith.
So God shows us how he makes us righteous. Past sins are forgiven which God overlooked till now.
26 For now he wants to reveal his way of righteousness: how he is just and how he makes us righteous through faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our pride? It is excluded. How? Not through the Law and its observances, but through another law which is faith.
28 For we hold that people are in God’s grace by faith and not because of all the things ordered by the Law.
29 Otherwise, God would be the God of the Jews; but is he not God of pagan nations as well?
30 Of course he is, for there is only one God and he will save by faith the circumcised Jews as well as the uncircumcised nations.
31 Do we, then, deny the value of the Law because of what we say of faith? Of course not; rather we place the Law in its proper place.
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Comments Letter to the Romans, Chapter 3
• 3.1 We have just demonstrated that all, Jews and non-Jews, are under the power of sin (v. 9). This is the central sentence of the paragraph. The Jews must, like others, rely on faith and be converted. That is what they have difficulty in understanding, since they have always been believers. They think they are good and are true believers, because they have been instructed in the faith. They trust in being saved merely for being marked in their body by circumcision.
What is the advantage of being a Jew? (v. 1). This is probably what the Jews will ask on hearing of salvation offered to those who do not know the Law, which means the religion taught by God. The same question is asked by Christians in modern times from the very moment they no longer believe that anyone living without Christ and the Church will go to hell. They think: “How fortunate if we were like them: we would be saved without having to follow a burdensome Christian morality!” Paul sees no advantage for the Jew, and we none for the Christian, except in terms of responsibility: God has entrusted his words to them.
In this way our baptism gives us membership with a minority called “people of God,” to whom God entrusts a mission to the world, along with many others who go to God without explicit knowledge of his secrets and his Christ. Baptism is not an assurance that gives us the right to feel better than others.
What comes from the Law is the consciousness of sin (v. 20). The Jewish law, or the law of Moses, is that body of religious, liturgical, moral and social laws governing the peo ple of Israel (see 7:4). In the letters of Paul, the Law sometimes designates the Bible and at other times the Jewish reli gion. Many Jews thought that they deserved a reward for prac ticing the Law, but Paul says: true holiness is neither the result of our works nor a reward for them.
• 21. Paul has develop ed two points: the world lives in sin; and the practice of the Law is not enough to obtain salvation. He then presents the Good News: God has come to save us through Christ.
All lack the glory of God. God is not satisfied with the actual state of humankind, even if the latter feel quite satisfied with their mediocre con dition. He calls us to share his Glory, that is, everything in God that makes him great, happy and everlasting. God has created us to bring us into communion with him, and as he is out of reach, he reaches out his hand to us and makes us just (v. 21). We have already said in 1:17 that when Paul speaks of the justice of God he means God’s way of making us upright at his eyes. God makes us just and holy.
Now, confronting all those who think they are worthy before God because of their own efforts, because they fulfill all the commandments, Paul says: true holiness must be given to us. For there is no other righteousness or holiness than sharing the perfection and love that are in God himself.
Paul finds it very hard to explain the mystery of salvation with the religious words available at the time, many of which refer to a violent God. He has just spoken of the justice of God, but has pointed out that this “justice” is before anything else, a merciful intervention that makes us holy. He spoke of God’s anger, but the result of this anger is the coming of the Savior. He tells us now that God made Christ the victim we needed for the atonement of our sins; but we must not think that God, in anger, demands the suffering of an innocent victim. God is the one who provides the victim, and the coming of Jesus expresses the immensity of the Father’s love. In a few words, Paul gives to these terms a totally different and new meaning. The divine way of restoring justice is not by condemning, but by saving; by love God conquers evil in such a way that those who never knew love will be saved.
Many of the Jews con verted to Christ thought it useful to continue practicing the religious prescriptions of the Bible, such as circumcision, observance of the Sabbath, cleansings, etc. (Col 2:16) and wanted other believers of the pagan world to observe them as well. Paul rejects that, because the Law had two dimensions. On one hand, it was the divine teaching for human life, such as how to know God, not to kill, etc… and on the other, it was the Law of the Jewish people, with all their own values, rites and customs, unlike that of any other nation. So, since God is God of all nations, he will not oblige them to give up their own culture and to live as the Jews do.