Romans 3.29-God is the God of the Gentiles and Not the God of the Jews Only
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday December 6, 2007
Romans: Romans 3:29-God is the God of the Gentiles and Not the God of the Jews Only
Lesson # 108
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 3:19.
Tuesday evening we studied Romans 3:27 in which Paul teaches that the law or the principle of faith in Jesus Christ in order to be justified before God excludes human merit and pride.
Last evening we noted Romans 3:28, in which Paul teaches that justification is by means of faith in Jesus Christ, independently of actions produced by obedience to the Law.
This evening we will study Romans 3:29 in which Paul teaches that God is not the God of the Jews only but also the God of the Gentiles as well.
In Romans 3:27-31, Paul argues that since the sinner whether Jew or Gentile is justified on the basis of God’s grace policy through faith in Jesus Christ, then the sinner has no merit with God, which would exclude boasting on the part of the sinner.
Thus, Paul argues that to deny this spiritual truth would imply that God is God of the Jews only.
However, that would be a denial of a fundamental, doctrinal teaching of the Old Testament that He is the God of the Gentiles also.
God will only justify Jews and Gentiles alike through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Let’s read Romans 3:19-31 and then concentrate on verse 29.
Romans 3:19, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.”
Romans 3:20, “Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
Romans 3:21, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”
Romans 3:22, “Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe for there is no distinction.”
Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:24, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:25, “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.”
Romans 3:26, “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Romans 3:27, “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.”
Romans 3:28, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.”
Romans 3:29, “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also.”
Romans 3:30, “since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.”
Romans 3:31, “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”
Let’s look at verse 29 in detail.
Romans 3:29, “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also.”
The question “Is God the God of Jews only?” demands the emphatic negative response that God is emphatically not the God of the Jews only.
The negative response demanded from Paul’s rhetorical question “Or is God the God of Jews only?” supports Paul’s statement in Romans 3:28 that a person is justified by means of faith in Jesus Christ, independently of attempting to be justified by means one’s actions produced by obedience to the Law.
Romans 3:28, “Because we are always of the firm conviction that a person is, as an eternal spiritual truth, justified by means of faith independently of actions produced by obedience to the Law.”
If God justified people solely on the basis of actions done in obedience to the Law, then He would be confining justification to the Jews exclusively, a small portion of the human race since the Jews and not the Gentiles received the Law (Romans 3:1-2; 9:1-5).
However, God is the God of all men and desires their salvation and will therefore justify anyone, whether Jew or Gentile, by means of faith in Jesus Christ.
If faith is the basis of justification, then the Gentiles have the opportunity to be saved also.
God does not make a distinction between the Jew and the Gentile (Rom. 3:22).
The reason why God does not make a distinction between a Jew and a Gentile is given by Paul in Romans 3:23.
Therefore, the rhetorical question “Is God the God of Jews only?” demands a negative response, which supports Paul’s statement in Romans 3:28 that a person, whether Jew or Gentile is justified by means of faith and never by actions produced by obedience to the Law.
Romans 3:29, “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also.”
“The God” is the noun theos (qeov$), which refers to the Lord Jesus Christ since in context, Paul is emphasizing that the Gentiles like the Jews are not only subordinate to God as their Creator and Judge but also as their Savior.
In Romans 1:18-3:26, Paul demonstrates that both groups do not measure up to the glory of God, who is Jesus Christ since they are sinners by nature and practice.
Therefore, since Jesus Christ is their Redeemer, the term theos refers to the Lord.
“Jews” is the proper name Ioudaios ( )Ioudaio$) (ee-oo-dah-yos), which refers to those members of the human race who are descendants racially of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and members of the nation of Israel and thus, denotes nationality distinguishing the Jew from the Gentile.
The proper name Ioudaios, “Jew” functions as a “genitive of subordination” specifying that the Jews are subordinated to or under the dominion of God.
The Jews were under the authority of God in relation to the fact that He was their Creator and Judge.
However, the emphasis here is that the Jews were under the authority of God in the sense that He was their Savior since in Romans 1:18-3:26, Paul demonstrated that they did not measure up to glory of God, Jesus Christ and were sinners by nature and practice.
“Only” is the adverb monon (movnon), which is used to modify the genitive of subordination, Ioudaios, “Jews” and is used to limit the extent of God’s authority over the nations.
“Of Gentiles” is the noun ethnos (e&qno$) (eth-nos), which is used in contrast to the Jews and thus refers to all those individuals who are “not” of Jewish racial descent and thus “not” members of the covenant people of God, Israel.
Therefore, by implication this word refers to all the nations of the world.
“Yes” is the emphatic use of the particle nai (naiv), which gives a strong, emphatic affirmative answer to the previous rhetorical question, “Is He (God), as an eternal spiritual truth, unequivocally not in authority over the Gentiles also?”
“Also” is the “adjunctive” use of the conjunction kai (kaiV), which introduces the Gentiles as an “additional” group of people who are also under authority of God like the Jews and will be offered salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament is filled with allusions to the Gentiles being included in God's plan of salvation.
In Acts 17:26-27, Paul teaches that God established nationalism so that the human race might see their need for Him whereas at the Tower of Babel, they did not see their need for Him.
Acts 17:26-27, “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.”
The Tower of Babel teaches that when the human race is united independently of God that they will not see their need for Him whereas divided and independent from each other, they will.
The promises made to Abram that are recorded in Genesis 12:3 reveal God’s plan of salvation involves the Gentiles.
Genesis 12:1-3, “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
The promise “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” refers to the fact that through Jesus Christ, the Promised Seed of Genesis 3:15, Abraham would be a blessing to all mankind (Dt. 28:8-14; Is. 60:3-5, 11, 16) since it is only through the Lord Jesus Christ that one becomes Abraham’s seed and heirs of the promise (Gal. 3:29; Eph. 2:13, 19).
This promise was the Gospel of salvation proclaimed to Abraham (Gal. 3:8) and reaches back to the divided “families” (10:5, 20, 31) of the earth at the Tower of Babel who were alienated from God due to sin and rebellion and the deception of Satan but who would be blessed through faith alone in Christ alone.
There are other Old Testament passages, which speak of God including the Gentiles in His plan of salvation.
Zechariah 2:11, “Many nations will join themselves to the LORD in that day and will become My people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.”
Isaiah 19:23-25, “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.’”
The Lord’s desire that the Gentiles receive salvation through faith in Him is demonstrated in the story of Jonah and the people of Nineveh.
The apostle Peter had a bad attitude towards the Gentiles as a believer and had to be directed in a vision to go to the Gentiles with the Gospel (Acts 10-11).
Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles, for Jesus clearly commissioned him to do so as recorded in Acts 9;15.
Acts 9:15, “But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.’”
Paul had already declared in Romans chapter one that the Gentiles were not excluded writing...
Romans 1:16, “For I am never ashamed of the gospel for it is as an eternal spiritual truth God’s power resulting in deliverance for the benefit of everyone who as an eternal spiritual truth believe, to the Jew first and then to the Greek.”
In Galatians Paul taught that the Gentiles were not excluded from receiving the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:13-14, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us -- for it is written, ‘CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE’ in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
Galatians 3:26-28, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul teaches that God the Holy Spirit is building a spiritual temple, which is the church and it is composed of both Jew and Gentile races.
Ephesians 3:1-13 teaches that it was a mystery that the Gentiles through faith in Christ would become fellow heirs with Jewish believers, fellow members of the body of Christ and fellow partakers of the four unconditional covenants of promise to Israel.
Paul told the Colossians that salvation was available to the Gentiles.
Colossians 3:9-11, “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.”