https://youtu.be/NNg6TfGohUU
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans we are now in Romans Chapter 3. The first phrase in Rom 3:1; is "Then what advantage has the Jew?'
Paul has shown us that the Mosaic Law is not the means of salvation so this begs the question "What then are the advantages of the Jew?"
This sets us up for what he is going to cover in Chapter 3. A verse-by-verse outline of the chapter goes like this:
Rom 3:1-8; The stability of God's integrity.
Rom 3;9-20; God's integrity rejects sinful mankind.
Rom 3:21-26; The righteousness of God's integrity.
Rom 3:27-31; The results of God's integrity.
We will start out with seven postulates of God's integrity.
1.The advantages are not advantageous without the advantage.
Advantages plural: God's blessings conveyed from God's justice;
Advantage singular: God's righteousness imputed to believers at salvation.
2. The advantages that come from God's blessings are not advantageous without the advantage of God's integrity.
3. The advantages are not advantages without the advantage.
4. No nation can have the advantages (divine blessings) without the advantage (God's imputed righteousness)
5. A nation with the advantages loses them if it loses the advantage.
6. No nation can recover its lost advantages without first recovering the advantage.
7. Loss of both advantage and advantages removes that nation from history under the 5th cycle of discipline.
Rom 3:1; "Then what advantage has the Jew?" This verse begins with the interrogative pronoun nominative neuter singular "tis" translated "what" that is used to introduce a historical question regarding the Jews. Does the Jew have any advantage?
Yes, he does have some advantages; or no he has no advantage at all. Yes, as long as he is related to God's the integrity that is predicated on believing in Jesus Christ.
But no when he divorces himself from God's integrity and as a result is maladjusted to God's justice because of unbelief in Jesus Christ.
The spiritual heritage of Israel was always related to God's integrity and when the Jews broke with God's integrity at any point by idolatry or by the abuse of the ritual of circumcision or by the false implications of the Mosaic law by using a superficial approach to it establish a self-righteousness for salvation by keeping the Mosaic Law they divorced themselves from God's integrity.
So at that point they had no advantage, and yet they have every advantage in the world because were it not for the Jew none of us would be able to understand God's integrity today.
The impartiality of God's justice does not give the Jew with the law any advantage over the Gentile without the law. Since God's justice is impartial in dealing with Jew and Gentile the question arises: What advantage does the Jew have over the Gentile, if any?
The next word in the Greek is the inferential particle "oun," translated "then" that references an inference from the preceding paragraph.
The reference is that while the Jews have the greatest spiritual heritage racially and nationally in history, at the same time, because God has integrity it doesn't give them an advantage over any Gentile-without the law and without that privileged spiritual heritage.
Why? Because even though God used the Jews to point to His integrity because they are human like the rest of us they can make the same mistake of maladjustment to God's justice through unbelief in Jesus Christ so they can also lose out, but if they adjust to God's justice by believing in Jesus Christ they can have the same blessings.
Everything brings us back to the same point, and the same point is this: the only thing that matters is God's integrity and the only way of blessing is the application of God's integrity that is comprised of Bible doctrine resident in the soul.
So the first two words of Rom 3:1; are translated "What then."
Next is a predicate adjective nominative singular neuter from "perissos" that means extraordinary, more than usual, or more than sufficient. "Advantage" is a good translation.
The adjective is used as a substantive so it is translated "advantage." Then comes a descriptive genitive of "Ioudaios" translated "Jew" referring to the racial Jew and the national Jew of Israel. So we have "What then the advantage of the Jew?"
In the first two chapters of Romans Paul's explanation of the exclusion of man's self-righteousness under the principle of divine integrity has caused some Jews to be deflated.
Because Paul has done such a great job explaining this they can see no advantage in possessing the Mosaic Law so some of the Jews were questioning the point of having it at all.
The maladjusted Jews in reversionism were blinded to the spiritual role of the racial Jew and the nation Israel in history. Their maladjustment blinded them and it still does today.
Paul has explained that the Jews are just as spiritually dead as the Gentiles so God's justice has condemned the Jew with the law just as He has condemned the Gentile without the law.
Prior to hearing Paul's answer to this question we have to examine some doctrines that give us a background for answering the question.
This brings us to the doctrine of why the Jew and Israel have privilege, advantage, or pre-eminence. The advantage of the Jew is related to principles that are developed in God's Word. The first has to do with the racial uniqueness of the Jew.
After the flood there were three races from Noah's three sons. The Semitic race from Shem eventually became two races because God created a fourth race from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that is called the Jewish race.
All four post-flood races began with individuals who had adjusted to God's justice for salvation. Shem, Ham, and Japheth boarded the Ark so they were believers.
Abraham was not only a believer (Gen 15:6;) but he also made maximum maturity adjustment to God's justice (Heb 11:17;). So we see that all four-post flood races began with born-again believers, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Abraham, who also had maturity adjustment to God's justice.
So we see that the Jews started as a race, not only from salvation adjustment to God's justice but also from maximum adjustment to God's justice. This gives the racial heritage of the Jew pre-eminence over all the other races.
Shem, Ham and Japheth were all born again, but outside of Shem they didn't appear to advance in the spiritual life. However the fourth race started with someone who made maximum adjustment to God's justice and God's directive will in time.
The Jewish race started from maximum adjustment to God's justice so it has a unique spiritual heritage so a factor in the advantage of the Jew is their genetic racial pre-eminence.
There is also the unique nation of Israel that also started with believers only when they all walked across the Red Sea on dry land (Heb 11:29;).
The unique origin and purpose of national Israel gives re-eminence to the Jew. It is interesting to see how many great nations in history have arisen out of slavery.
Slavery is always a test for the people involved to see if they have capacity for self control and autonomy or not. Those who come out of slavery, as inevitably all people do, after they become free do they simply hold their hand out and say they want you to feel sorry for them and help them or do they operate from self determination and form an autonomous independent nation?
The issue is rational thought and independence or emotion and dependence.
The Jews formed a nation. God designed Israel to be a priest nation. The custodianship of written doctrine and revelation was to belong to it. The authorship of the various books of the Old Testament, and later the New Testament, would be from them.
They were responsible for evangelism at home and missionary activity abroad. They had all of the responsibilities that belong to anyone under the concept of the priest nation.
They were the original post flood priest nation. Most of the human authors of scripture in the New Testament were Jews.
So not only did they have a unique foundation regarding their origin as a race, and a unique foundation as a nation, but at the same time their spiritual heritage was perpetuated at both points through the ultra-super-grace leadership of Abraham and Moses.
We again see pre-eminence related to Israel because he humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ was Jewish not only the Jewish race but specifically from the tribe of Judah the royal family of Israel.
Jesus Christ is the Son of David and that is how the Davidic covenant is fulfilled.
Another factor in the pre-eminence of Israel is the unique covenants. God's integrity has made promises to the Jews that have never been made to anyone else. These are the unconditional covenants.
The doctrine of the pre-eminence of Israel is proclaimed in various parts of the Abrahamic covenant. Gen 12:1-3; Gen 13:15,16; Gen 22:15-18; Gen 26:3,4; Exod 6:2-8;
The Abrahamic covenant expresses the uniqueness of Israel. Never in all of history, apart from those unconditional promises to Abraham, had God ever made a promise to a race, and then to a nation, a piece of real estate on this earth for now, in the Millennium, and for all eternity.
That means they are unique and pre-eminent. If Israel is going to exist as a nation forever the question arises as to what type of government they should have. The answer to that is very simple.
From God's viewpoint there is only one efficient government, and whether we call it an absolute monarchy or a dictatorship it makes no difference because the best form of government has one genius person with great integrity ruling the nation.
All of the authority is vested in one person. That is the form of government that Israel will have throughout the Millennium and forever; an absolute monarchy with the Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler.
That will be the fulfillment of the prophecies in 2Sam 7:8-16; and Psa 89:20-37. The pre-eminence of Israel is based upon having four unconditional covenants, and all of these form a tremendous principle: No nation under heaven in all of human history has ever had God's integrity so totally involved with them as has Israel.