Tuesday, Sept. 25

Tuesday

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What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.  - Romans 3:9

You may not have noticed it when you first read it, but this single verse contains an astonishingly radical truth.  In order to grasp just how radical it is, you have to understand who the “we” is that Paul is referring to when he says “Are we any better?”  Paul is asking the question if Jews are any better off than Gentiles when it comes to their standing before God?  His answer is the radical part - he says “Not at all!”  This would not be the answer that a devout Jew would expect.  

The entire Jewish ethos was built around being God’s chosen and blessed people; unique and distinct from other nations and peoples of the world.  Jewish Rabbis even referred to gentiles as “dogs” and viewed them as unclean.  It was almost unimaginable for Paul to say that Jews are not spiritually bette off than unclean and unbelieving Gentiles!  

In fact, verse 9 seems to make Paul contradict what he said in verses 1-2, that the Jews have many advantages over the Gentiles. 

What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?Much in every way!  - Romans 3:1-2

But he is considering two different issues. In verse 1 he is saying that there are many spiritual advantages to being born a Jew, if the Jew will take them. But in verse 9 he is coming back to what he argued in 2:17-29, that the Jews are just as much under sin and in need of God’s salvation as the Gentiles are.

The assertion that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin grows even more astounding when you consider who is making it.  Before he became the Apostle Paul, he was Saul of Tarsus.  Saul was a highly educated and devout Jew, he was a zealot and a Pharisee. (by the way, the word Pharisee means “set apart” or “separate”)

 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.  - Acts 22:3

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.   - Philippians 3:4-6

Clearly something radical must have happened to Saul of Tarsus, the zealous Pharisee who persecuted Christians in the name of God, in order to transform him into the Apostle Paul who can can say that there is no difference between us all in the eyes of a holy God!  I’ll tell you what has happened, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has brought about a radical transformation in his heart and in his life!  

You see, there were three great social, cultural and religious dividing lines in Paul’s day.  The first was the line between men and women.  The second was the line between slaves and free people.  The third, and most significant was the line between Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews).  

But the the Gospel blows apart these kinds of lines and distinctions...There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:28 

We may not have the same dividing lines as those of the first century, but make no mistake, we have them.  What are the great dividing lines between people in our culture today?  Rich and Poor, Black and White, Conservative and Liberal...

In his book, The Gulag Archipelago, Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn writes, 

“If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” 

One of the ways that you know the Gospel has transformed your heart, is that you no longer view the world in “us & them” terms.  Is this true of your heart?  Can you see that the biggest problem you face is not  with “them”, or “out there”, but it is in you, in the sinfulness of your own heart and your desperate need for God’s grace?

Jeff Frazier