The Advantage of the Jews
Rom 3:1,2 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
By "first of all" he means "primarily". Today those raised in a Christian household have this same advantage if not more so. The advantage being access to the Word of God - the Bible. In fact given the internet such is more so worldwide than in the past. But with greater access come greater accountability. Though Jews have largely failed in their stewardship of the Word of God, let us Christians not fail in our stewardship of the Word of God. Paul writes, "we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts." 1Th 2:4
But concerning the Jews, Jesus, himself being a Jew, said to the Jews of his day, "Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate." Mt 23:32-38 Though such rhetoric we hear from the Jewish messiah would be categorized today as anti-semitic, and yet the prophets themselves used such rhetoric throughout the Old Testament. The problem was the Jews were largely circumcised on in flesh and not in heart, and did not have the Spirit.
Paul says, "Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh-- though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" Php 3:2-8
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