In our Romans observations so far, we have discovered that Paul has already made the claim that he is eager to visit Rome to preach the gospel (1:15). That’s a peculiar statement to make because it seems that the Romans to whom Paul writes are already believers in Jesus Christ. Paul has already told us that the Romans’ “faith is proclaimed in all the world” (1:8). Why would Paul want to preach the gospel to Christians?
This statement is doubly odd since Paul also tells us that the very reason he has not been able to visit them is because it has been his “ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named?” (15:20). Why would that excuse be available for Paul, if in fact Rome had not been a place where Christ had already been named? Apparently, the gospel had already been preached in Rome, and therefore Paul’s delay was caused by his work to preach the gospel elsewhere. So, how then do we understand Paul’s desire to preach the gospel to those in Rome when it has already been preached there?
Something is amiss. Also, why would Paul tell us, on one hand, that the Romans’ faith is being proclaimed in all the world, indicating that they are already believers in Jesus Christ, and then, on the other hand, say that he wanted to include the Roman’s in the group of people to whom he wanted “to bring about the obedience of faith"…indicating that they are not yet believers. It’s a puzzling dilemma.
The answer that has been suggested to this oddity in prior blogs is that Paul understands the Roman Christians, especially the Jewish Christian population, to have distorted and “suppressed the truth of the gospel by their ungodly and unrighteous behavior” (1:18) and they have “exchanged the truth of the gospel for a lie” (1:24). And since Paul’s desire is that “God’s truth abound to his glory” (3:7) rather than “His name being blasphemed among the Gentiles” (2:24), he desires to visit them to restore the truth of the gospel so that God may rightly be glorified instead of blasphemed among the Gentiles (2:24) by the Jewish Christians’ behavior (1:18-32).
As a result of the Jewish Christians’ behavior being such as described in 1:18-32, Paul has also made the claim that he is IN NO WAY ashamed of the gospel-fact that the Gentiles, who used to be excluded from the gospel are now included in that very gospel (1:16-17). He is not embarrassed by what looks to be like a Jewish rejection from God’s favor (11:1), what looks like a failure on God’s part to keep His word (9:6), because he knows that their so-called rejection provides the opportunity for the Gentiles to be included. This point Paul makes very clear in chapters 9-11. However, prior to making this point, Paul sets the stage for introducing that point by establishing the fact that the Jews are just as guilty of judgment (2:1) as the Gentiles and will be held accountable for their sins just as the Gentiles will be for theirs (2:9), for God shows no partiality (2:11), not even to Jews; a remarkably shocking theological statement to make to his Jewish readers.
Even though the Jews considered themselves the very people “entrusted with the oracles of God,” those who are “the boasters of the Law ” (3:27), those who claimed that “circumcision indeed is of value,” those who “know His will and approve what is excellent,” those who are “instructed from the law,” those who consider themselves a “guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth” (2:17-20), …even though the Jews claimed such a lofty position for themselves, high atop the theological pinnacle, now that Paul has leveled the playing field by including the Gentiles in the gospel (1:1-2:29) and has taken the Jewish perspective of themselves down a few notches, the inevitable questions to be asked are, “Then what advantage has the Jew?” Or “What is the value of circumcision? (3:1) and “What then? Are we Jews any better off?” (3:9). It is these questions that Paul attempts to answer in the rest of his letter, to prove his point that salvific righteousness is available to both Jews and Gentiles.
Beginning in the 3rd chapter and continuing to the end of the 11th chapter, Paul now begins to explain the phenomena of the apparent rejection (11:1), and failure (9:6), unrighteousness, lying and evil of which the Jews are being slanderously accused (2:5-8).
And more to Paul’s point specifically, he is being slanderously accused of encouraging this erroneously-viewed-behavior for the sake of fulfilling what the community misunderstands God’s will is supposed to be. - But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? (3:5).
This erroneous and slanderous charge against Paul actually serves to promote his defense. Paul uses that sentence as the springboard to launch the entirety of his defense in this letter. With tongue in cheek, Paul affirms that the Jewish unrighteousness actually “serves to show” the righteousness of God. - It is interesting to note that the word that Paul uses for “serve”, has a root meaning of “to set together,” “to stand near, or “to introduce.”
Paul is setting together the “unrighteousness of the Jews” and the “righteousness of God” side by side in order to highlight “the righteousness of God that is revealed from faith to faith,” the statement that Paul makes in the first chapter. Paul here in chapter 3 begins to explain the prevailing community viewpoint of an apparent Jewish rejection (11:1), an apparent failure of God (9:6), an apparent Jewish unrighteousness, lying and evil attributed to the Jews; the very same accusations that Paul just declared the Jews of committing, all for the sake of introducing salvific the righteousness of God.
This is the beginning point of Paul’s theme and climactic point of this chapter where he says that God “shows no partiality” and “makes no distinction” in judgment, whether Jew or Gentile. He says this…
…to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (3:25-26), whether Jew or Gentile.
Paul makes a distinction between the present time and the former time, and that former sins were passed over for the sake of showing or introducing the salvific righteousness of God in the present time.
So what appears to be a total rejection of God’s people in the eyes of Paul’s readers as evidenced by their unleashed sin and suppression of the truth, is in reality, Paul’s says, God’s strategy for providing salvific righteousness to all nations through the obedience of faith.
Paul pursues this thought through to chapters 9-11, and specifically, 9:22-24 by asking his readers to critically think through what he is proposing.
“What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?”
What if Paul is proposing to his readers that it has always been God’s plan, through the centuries, that He prepared all people (Jews and Gentiles) beforehand for wrath and destruction, solely for the purpose that they should become vessels of mercy through the power of the resurrection specifically for making known the riches of His glory to everyone, historically to the Jew first and then to the Gentiles; to all who believe through faith in Jesus Christ.
The point to which Paul directs his readers is “God becomes not the God of Jews only; He becomes the God of Gentiles also. Yes, of Gentiles also” (3:29). And he explains in his letter how the idea of salvific righteousness is the power of the gospel to all who believe without making a distinction between Jew and Gentile.
Because God makes no distinction, God’s salvific righteousness is the power of the gospel to all who believe, to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles. Paul is IN NO WAY ashamed of that gospel, and he desires to preach it accurately to the Romans so they understand that it has always been God’s plan to patiently endure the sins of His people in order to demonstrate His mercy to them through faith in Jesus Christ in the present time.
Paul has been challenging his readers to ask important questions about the Jewish experience in light of the Gentiles' inclusion into the salvific righteousness experience. In 3:1, Paul asks, “Then what advantage has the Jew?” (3:1) and “What then? Are we Jews any better off?” (3:9).
In my next blog, we will see how Paul answers those two questions by explaining God's "Blessing: Faith Counted as Righteousness" without making distinction between people.