T H E
N E W
T E S T A M E N T
CCTPYRIGHT BY W ILLIAM EVANS
R O M A N S (Continued)
S O FAR in our study of the first main division of the epistle to the Romans— “1. Sin—Man Destitute of God’s Righteous ness”—we have considered, first, “The Fail ure of the Gentiles” (1:18-2:16). In this issue we take up the second subdivision: 2. T h e F a ilu re of th e Jew (2 :1 7 -3 :9 ). Some 'would begin this section, which deals with the failure of the Jew, with 2:1. But for reasons which seem evident from the treatment we have given 2 :1-16, we have placed these verses (2:1-16) under “The Failure of the Gentile.” It is likely that both the moral Gentile and the Jew are referred to in this section. The apostle, having shown that the Gen tile is guilty before God and in need of His righteousness, and that, because of the absence of such righteousness, is under the wrath and judgment of God (1:18-2:16), now proceeds to show the Jew that he also is in the same condition—destitute of the divine righteousness, and consequently un der the wrath of God (2:17-3:9). It is a much more difficult task to prove the Jew to be a sinner and destitute of the divine righteousness than to show the Gentile to be in a like condition. The sin of the Gentile was open and patent to every eye. All the apostle had to do was to point to the experience of the Gentile peoples, so
graphically depicted in 1:18-32. Such evi dence was sufficient. But with the Jew it was very different. He had been granted divine revelations; he had been given a system of divine laws; to him had been committed “the oracles of God.” -When, therefore, the Jew sinned, he sinned under the cloak of religion. It should not be overlooked, either, that the Jew rested in a righteousness by law. It was harder, therefore, to prove to the Jew that he was a bad man, too, arid equally under the wrath and judgment of God with the- Gen- tilej The Jew, at once, in his spirit of Phariseeism, agreed with the Apostle Paul that the Gentiles were in this deplorable condition, but could not feel that such a state of things could be true of him (cf. Luke 16:15; 18:9-14). (a) The Jew is a sinner equally with, and even above the Gentile because of his great privileges ( 2 : 17 - 24 ). The apostle is not ignorant of the honors and privileges conferred upon the chosen race. He acknowledges thqt the Jews had something that the Gentiles did not possess (2:17, 19, 23), namely, the Mosaic law. And right here, by the way, lies the1fallacy of some phases of modern teaching that would fasten the Mosaic law upon the Christian (cf. also Acts 15; Colossians 2:8-20; Romans 7 :l-6).
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