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COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

3:1 f.: "Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way."

In this profound passage, Paul gives an unexpected, but absolutely necessary, answer to the question, "Then what advantage has the Jew?" Instead of replying, "He has no advantage" (In vs. 9 below this is precisely the answer he does giveIgive), he answers, "Much in every way." The significance of his reply is that it points to the curious relationship between the sovereign and transcendent God who refuses to be bound and the instruments which He employs to bring men to Himself. When, as a matter of plain historical fact, some thing, event, or person becomes the means whereby God lays His hand upon us, nothing subsequent to such a happening can undo that fact. Even though afterwards the particular vehicle of His grace be absolutized, even though men actually use it to their own condemnation and by its means separate themselves from Him, from their neighbors, and from themselves, the fact still remains that God has met men therein and still does so to the extent that the means of grace in question is truly and appropriately received. Paul rightly says (vss. 3 f.) that the faithlessness of men cannot affect the fact that the latter abides as a token of the unconditioned (i.e., "prevenient") love of God by means of which He has spoken and also now seeks to speak to them.

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