Recognizing Your Spiritual "Edge" (Rom. 3:1-2)

Romans 3:1 NKJV

What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?

Recognizing Your Spiritual “Edge”

Romans 3:1-2

A lawyer friend tells a story of a novice attorney defending a man accused of biting another man’s ear off during a barroom brawl.

A witness to the fight was on the stand, and the lawyer was cross-examining him.

“Did you actually see the defendant bite this man’s ear off?” the young attorney asked.

“No, sir,” the witness replied.

That was the answer the attorney wanted and needed, but he made a mistake not uncommon to young lawyers.

Instead of ending his cross examination when he was ahead and on a winning track, he continued to ask questions.

“What exactly did you see?” he queried.

“I saw him spit it out,” said the witness.

The point is that going too far or failing to quit when you’re ahead is a mistake in legal squabbling.

The Problem with Paul’s Argument

It is a like charge—that he has gone too far—that the apostle Paul seems to hear an opponent raise as he comes to the end of Romans 2 and begins chapter 3.

We know what Paul has been trying to prove: that all persons, Jews as well as Gentiles, are guilty of sin before God and therefore need a Savior. No one can save himself.

But Paul has argued this case so forcefully that he has virtually equated the Jew, who was thought to have great religious advantages, with the Gentile, who had none.

He has said, “There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism” (Rom. 2:9–11).

Then, when he reaches the end of the chapter, he defines Jewishness in a way that has virtually nothing whatever to do with a person’s religious or ethnic heritage:

“A man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code …” (v. 29).

If God treats Jews and Gentiles alike, not showing favoritism, and if the only thing that makes one truly Jewish is an inward transformation by the Holy Spirit, then what advantage is there in being a Jew?

Or, to put it in other terms, what is the Old Testament all about? Why did God bother to choose Abraham and establish his descendants, the Jews, as a special covenant people if there is no advantage to being Jewish?

And why did God institute circumcision? If Paul is right, these things are pointless.

This is a very important matter—for Jews as well as for non-Jews. We have been talking about the Jewish people’s spiritual advantages or lack of them.

But, although the Jew’s apparent advantages are different from the Gentile’s, his situation and the Gentile’s are parallel.

For we who call ourselves Christians must ask, “What advantage, then, is there is being a godly, churchgoing person?

What value is there in baptism, church membership, communion, or any other religious exercise if we are all under condemnation anyway?”

I have titled this study “Recognizing your spiritual Edge?” But I might as well have asked, “Do any religious people have an edge?”

If we do not, then why should we bother with religion at all? Let’s enjoy ourselves and sin right along with the heathen.

If we do have an edge, then isn’t it the case that it is possible to please God by our religious practices and be saved by them after all?1

1 James Montgomery Boice, Romans: Justification by Faith, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991–), 265–266.

  The Jews’ Advantages

Paul’s answer is that circumcision and being Jewish are true advantages, although they are not the kind of advantages we are thinking of if we wrongly suppose that one can be saved by them.

To do justice to Paul’s thinking, we need to look ahead to the list of Jewish advantages appearing not here in Romans 3 but in chapter 9.

The passage at hand encourages us to do this, because after Paul asks, “What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?” he answers, “Much in every way!

First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God” (vv. 1–2, italics mine). The very fact that Paul says “first” leads us to look for what is also second and third and so on.

As mentioned, we do find a list of these advantages in Romans 9.

Speaking of the Jews, Paul says,

“Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen” (vv. 4–5).

The Very Words of God

Still, we must not miss the fact that when Paul is answering the specific question “What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew?” in Romans 3, it is not the whole list but rather the matter of possessing the very words of God alone that he stresses.

In fact, although he has also asked, “What value is there in circumcision?” he does not speak of the sacraments or any other external sign as an advantage in this context.

Just Scripture! That is the chief item and, in Romans 3, the only one.

This is of immense importance to us, because it is the only blessing in this long list of Jewish advantages in which Gentiles share.

We cannot say as Gentiles, “Ours is the adoption as sons,” for we have not been adopted as a people. We cannot say, “Ours is the divine glory” (we have never seen God’s glory),

or “Ours are the covenants” (though there is a covenant of grace for Christian people).

We cannot claim the advantages of the temple worship or the promises made to Israel or the patriarchs or an ancestral relationship to Jesus Christ.

But we can say, “Ours are the Scriptures”—if we have been fortunate enough, as virtually all of us have been, to have been given the very words of God in our language.

Can any of us experience anything in life of greater personal advantage to our souls than possession of the Holy Scriptures? Of course not!

Without them we are utterly confused, adrift on a sea of human speculation where all the great questions of life are concerned.

Is there a God? We do not know; at least, in our sinful state we are unable to admit the full personal significance of there being a God. Who are we? We do not know the answer to that important question.

Apart from Scripture, we cannot know that we have been created in the image of the one true God and are called to glorify him and to enjoy him forever.

How do we come to God? How is our sin to be dealt with? What way of life is best? Does what we do here matter?

It is only from the revelation of God in the Bible that we can have sure answers to any of these life-and-death questions.

What Advantage to the “Christian”?

Nevertheless, the issue the apostle is dealing with here is of vital importance to everyone. No one is saved by such things as baptism, sacraments, or church attendance.

No one is even saved by such an important thing as having—yes, even studying—the Bible.

But that does not mean that religious practices are of no use to us or that one is acting wisely if he or she abuses, neglects, or disregards them.

So I ask this question: “What advantage, then, is there in being a godly, churchgoing ‘Christian’ person?” I suggest three answers.

1. Even if God never saves you by drawing you from the darkness of your sin to saving faith in Jesus Christ, you will at least sin less because of these advantages and therefore be punished less severely.

Some will think this a strange place to begin, but we need to begin with the hardest situation in order that we might understand, on the one hand, that there are genuine spiritual advantages (for those who will have them) and, on the other hand, that these in themselves do not save anyone.

We must remember that our situation is desperate. We can do nothing for ourselves. Even knowing the truth does not save us, because in our unregenerate state we are unresponsive and even hostile to it.

No one can be saved who is not born again, and the work of spiritual regeneration is God’s doing.

Still, we have seen that there are degrees of punishment for sin. In Romans 2:5, Paul has spoken of individuals “storing up wrath” by frequent and persistent sin.

The Lord Jesus Christ made the point when he described a servant who knows his master’s will and disobeys it being beaten with many blows, while another servant who does not know his master’s will and therefore unintentionally disobeys it being beaten with “few blows” (Luke 12:47–48).

So I say, if nothing else, knowing the law of God and living in the company of people who are trying to obey God’s commands and encourage each other to live godly lives is of value—even if you are not saved.

For it will at least mean that you will be committing fewer sins for which you will one day be punished.

2. Going to church and listening to the preaching of the Word of God, if you are in a good, Bible-believing church, will at least cause you to know the way of salvation, even if you do not respond to it.

A person might argue that knowing how to be saved and yet not responding to that revelation, in fact rejecting it, is not an advantage but a disadvantage in that it undoubtedly increases one’s guilt.

It is a case of the servant knowing his master’s will but not doing it. This is true, of course.

But it does not need to work that way. In fact, it is meant to work quite the other way.

Instead of becoming proud because of your knowledge, you should be humbled by it.

The first thing you learn from the Bible, if you are really profiting from it, is that you are a sinner hopelessly lost by virtue of your own sinful nature and your deliberately wicked choices;

indeed, that you are under God’s just wrath and doomed to perish utterly and horribly unless God is gracious to you and reaches out to save you through the work of Christ.

This is what Romans is all about thus far. Who can read the first three chapters of Romans intelligently and remain proud?

Who can read these chapters and fail to see the need of throwing oneself utterly upon God’s mercy?

As I said, knowledge of the way of salvation, including your need of it as a sinner, in itself will not save you. But it is hard to see how you can be saved without it.

This is because without such knowledge you will not even begin to seek God. Most likely, you will consider yourself already saved or at least not needing salvation.

3. The third great advantage of regular church attendance and, above all, faithful adherence to the preaching and study of the Word of God is that, although you cannot claim this as a right from God, it is through the reading and preaching of the Bible that God is most likely to save you.

How is one born again, after all? Peter writes that we are “born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

To hear the Word of God is the most assured path to salvation.

Benefiting from One’s “Edge”

In the ninth chapter of John we are told the story of a man who was born blind but who was healed by Jesus from spiritual as well as physical blindness.

I remember reflecting on how desperate this man’s plight was and how this is intended to be a picture of our own desperate condition apart from Jesus Christ.

What was his state? For one thing, he was blind. He could not see. Others could see, but he could not. And this meant that he could not see Jesus.

If Jesus had said, as Peter and John later said to a crippled man at the temple gate called Beautiful, “Look at us [me],” the man could not have looked, for he was blind.

This is the state of the lost today. Jesus is preached, but they cannot see him. That is, they cannot understand who he actually is or what he has accomplished. They cannot understand the gospel.

The Bible says, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).

Again, the man whose story is told in John 9 had been blind from birth, which meant that he probably did not even greatly value sight, having never known what it was.

He knew he was missing something, of course, just like many people today are vaguely aware of a missing dimension in their lives.

But he did not really know what this was or even think of having his condition cured. In the story we notice that he did not ask the Lord to heal him.

Again, he was a beggar. It is a beggar’s task to beg, but he did not beg for sight. He was in the habit of asking the passers-by for money, because he had none.

This means that, even if sight could have been procured for some great sum, the man’s case would still have been hopeless, as grim as before.

For how could he buy his sight, having nothing? In his poverty the blind man reminds us of how bankrupt we are before God.

No, there is very little to be said for this man at the moment Jesus found him. He was blind, unaware, and bankrupt.

Although little could be said for this man, there was this one thing: he was at least in a place where Jesus was likely to go.

He was by the gate leading into the temple grounds, where Jesus frequently passed by, and it was there that Jesus looked at him (he could not look at Jesus), loved him, healed him, and drew him to himself.

I apply this to you if you are reading these words but are not born again:

Your condition is not good. You are lost and under God’s wrath. You are blind to God’s truth. You are spiritually bankrupt. But there is this one thing.

Although you cannot save yourself, as long as you can hear this or any other gospel message, you are at least where Jesus is likely to go. He loves to bless the preaching and teaching of his Word.

Therefore, though your condition may be desperate, it is no worse than that of any other lost sinner before he or she was saved. The mere hearing of the Word is your advantage.

Do not despise it, then. Do not say, “So, then, what advantage is there in religion?” There is a great advantage in it. “Much in every way!” (Rom. 3:2).

Cling to it. Wring every possible “edge” from it. Who knows but that God will use the very Word you hear to save your soul?