The big issue in Romans 1-3 is our right standing before God. Is that right standing through our own good intentions, our comparative merit to others around us, our understanding of some religious doctrine, our affirmation of God's Law, our ceremonial heritage within a community of faith? Paul has made the case that none of these things will do, and that God demands our obedience. Mankind as a whole have not given this to God, and even the Jews, His chosen people, have not given Him what He requires. They have only added to their own condemnation as lawbreakers by presuming to judge others. They themselves have commited the same violations that they see and condemn in others.
Since all are guilty before God according to our own merit, does that mean that their is no advantage in being a Jew at all? Is there no value in being marked as those who belong to the covenant people? While Paul indicates that there are many blessings that come to those who are in the Lord's covenant community. The first advantage that Paul lists is that the Israelites were entrusted with the oracles of God, meaning the Scriptures. There are certain things that we can know by natural revelation, even if we have no access to any written Word of God. We can know that there must be a God, an uncaused Cause of all things. We can know something of His power and wisdom, and many other worthy attributes. We can also observe brokenness around us, and consider that something somewhere has gone wrong. We can feel the yearning within our hearts for eternity, and for the removal of what seems unworthy of such a powerful and wise Creator. While we can know certain things, and strongly suspect many other truths, we cannot figure out what has gone wrong in our world; we cannot ascertain how, or even if, it will ever be fixed; we cannot know how we can be partakers of something better beyond this life unless God condescends to speak to us. This speech of God, the oracles that give us soul-satisfying answers to the big questions of life, have been granted to us by special revelation, and are recorded for the life of the covenant community in the inestimable gift of the Scriptures.
The Jews had this gift, and just because they ignored it or threw it away in disobedience did not make the gift of little value. We may try to come up with silly arguments to deny the blessings we have received, or to make our condemnation somehow God's fault rather than our own. We, all of us, both Jew and Gentile, need to come to terms with our true guilt before God. Are the Jews any better off than the Gentiles when it comes to the matter of our guilt before the Lord. No, the Scriptures document for us the way of the Israelites according to the works-like features of the Law. Did they retain the land and God's many blessings according to their works? No, they lost the land, the king, and the temple, and were sent into exile almost as if they were enemies of God, and certainly as those who were facing His serious correction. This is by no means the end of the story for the Jews, and let's not forget that Paul was born and died as a Jew, a Pharisaic Jew at his birth, and a Christian Jew at his death. Yet the Jews, by their works, fall into the worldwide universal category of those who would be enemies of God in the words of Psalm 14. According to that measure, there is no man who even seeks after God. We have all gone astray, and according to our own works of the Law, we cannot be justified. By the Law of God, every mouth must be stopped. The verdict is in. We are guilty.
But now, (what wonderful words), but now another way has been provided for us by which we can be judged to be right with God. This is a rightness before God that comes through faith in the provision of our Substitute, the Messiah, Jesus. This verdict of being right comes to all who trust in Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile. All have sinned and have fallen into God's condemnation; but all who trust in Jesus, God's provision for us, have been given the free gift of righteousness through Jesus.
The way this works, and all of this we can see in the Law and the Prophets, is that God has sent a Seed of the woman to win life for His people who were under a just sentence of death. This required a perfect Substitute, even God, who would stand in our place to take God's wrath. Someone had to be an accurate Substitute for man, and be capable of facing death in our place, thereby requiring His humanity. This concept of an offering that turns aside God's wrath is called a propitiation, or a propitiatory sacrifice. The merit of this sacrifice must be received by faith, or we would think that somehow we had received the blessings of heaven through our own works. The whole notion of faith is that there is someone else who has accomplished our redemption. This is why Jesus did for us. Here was the way that God could uphold the requirement of His justice, that sin deserves death, and also uphold his determination to justify a great host of people from among the Jews and the Gentiles. Was this achieved by our works? Of course not! Otherwise we could brag about our greatness. This was achieved by the works of another, and we have gained His great achievement simply by trusting in Him. This way of faith is the only way that we can be right by God, and it is the only way that both the Law could be upheld and sinners saved. The righteous demands of the Law have been satisfied by Jesus in His obedience and death, and we have been credited with that righteousness, and are counted by God to be Law-doers in Him.
