Romans 3:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For to be called a Jew, to know the will, and to discern what is better, all this was given to them not according to their merits, but according to God's grace.

The Prophet also reproached the Jews with this, saying, "He has not dealt so with every nation, nor has He revealed His judgments to them" (Ps 147:20).

Moses likewise says: Ask whether such a thing has ever happened, whether a people has heard "the voice of the living God from the midst of the fire" and remained alive (Deut 5:26).

So the Apostle acts here also. When speaking of circumcision, he did not say that circumcision brings no benefit without life.

He disclosed the same thing, but expressed it less sharply, saying that circumcision brings benefit together with works.

Again, when he said, "But if you are a breaker of the law," he did not add: circumcision brings you no benefit.

Instead he expresses it thus: "your circumcision has become uncircumcision" (Rom 2:25).

Further on he says again that the uncircumcised condemns not circumcision itself, but the breaker of the law.

On the one hand he spares the law, and on the other he attacks men. So he acts here also.

Having objected to himself and said, "What advantage, then, has the Jew?" he answered this not negatively, but affirmatively.

Yet by what he said afterward, he refuted this and proved that the Jews are punished for such an advantage.

How so? I will explain by presenting the objection itself.

"What advantage, then, has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God."

That is, he means the whole Old Testament divine economy.

Moses the Lawgiver himself pointed out this advantage to the people of Israel: "What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you today?" (Deut 4:8).

The meaning of this entrusting of the words of God consisted in this: the people of Israel was chosen to be a mediator between God and the other nations.

It was to be for them the preacher of the true religion. It was proclaimed that salvation began from the Jews and first for the Jews.

Since circumcision was the chief sign and condition of Judaism, or of entering the covenant with God and receiving His promises, the Apostle connects the Jews' stated advantage with it.

This was the meaning of circumcision.

Yet through this the divine promise was not annulled. The Lord remained faithful to His promise, for He is always righteous, and the truth of the Lord endures forever, as the psalmist said (Ps 116:2).

Even among men He permits apostasy only temporarily. At the universal judgment they will give answer to Him and suffer punishment for their falling away from God's righteousness (Ps 50:6).

Therefore, to escape future torments, one must believe in Christ the Savior. Outside faith in Him there is no salvation, as the law of Moses and the prophets testified (Rom 3:21).

Thus the Apostle's mention of all the Hebrews' advantages, and especially of the entrusting of God's word to them, had a twofold purpose.

This word revealed the true view of all essential matters of faith and life.

On the one hand, it was meant to raise in them the ancient spirit of faith and piety. On the other, it was meant to lead them to meekness and humility.

For they could not fail to see their guilt before God after the Apostle's sharp accusation of their departures from the basic demands of the revealed law and the prophetic teaching.

Yet the fainthearted could seek support for their unbelief in the fact that some remained in stubborn unbelief.

They knew everything and saw the clear fulfillment of all prophecies in Christ.

Perhaps they thought that, seeing the unbelief of many, God would depart from His decrees.

Refuting these and similar excuses of the weak, and the inventions of the stiff-necked who always resist the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51), the Apostle speaks of God's immutability.

He proves from Scripture that God cannot be unfaithful to Himself, even if all men fall into error.

As for the fact that He sometimes permits apostates from Him and the impious to live, apparently prospering, God allows this only temporarily, with a view to their correction.

When the time of judgment and punishment comes, it will be plain to all that God's foreordained calling of all to salvation through faith is unchangeable.

All the words of God are likewise unchangeable.

“What advantage then has the Jew?” Advantage, περισσόν, means something greater than the Gentile has, something special and preeminent. Or “by ‘the advantage of the Jew’ the Apostle means preference over the Gentiles” (blessed Theodoret). “The Jew” means the whole Jewish people, chosen from all nations. They were chosen and honored by a special covenant. Can this be nothing? And how many mercies, wondrous guidances, and deliverances were then shown throughout their history? One cannot fail to see that the Jew stands under God’s special protection. Can this too be for nothing?

“Or what is the profit of circumcision?” Circumcision is the door into God’s covenant and its seal. It began before the whole law. When the law came, the whole was established on circumcision. It alone is mentioned as the chief thing. For if it stands, then all the Old Testament service of God stands. If it falls, all the rest falls also. Circumcision introduces into God’s covenant, makes the circumcised man God’s own, and makes him a partaker of all God’s promises. How then can circumcision not be circumcision, and no benefit come from it?

These questions could not fail to arise and trouble the Jew who had heard that the visible Jew is not yet the true Jew, and circumcision in the flesh is not yet true circumcision. He could not fail to acknowledge this truth, but he also could not avoid perplexity. What then is the Jew? And what is circumcision? “What then?” This is the cry of a soul seeking the clarification of perplexity and the calming of a troubled heart.

Yet the answer to this has already been given in the preceding discourse, which gave birth to the question. There it is clear what a Jew is and what circumcision is. A Jew is a person precious before God if he fulfills the law, and circumcision has great power when the heart is circumcised. Every Jew, recognizing that in him there is neither faithful fulfillment of the law nor circumcision of the heart, ought also to recognize that circumcision and Jewishness in his person, and for him, lose all their force. He is left with nothing. Naturally he should ask: what then shall I do? But here thought is turned toward the Jew and circumcision in general. What are they? An abstract discussion is raised about the meaning of the Old Testament divine economy.

The Apostle poses the question himself, but we must suppose that he always heard it from the Jews when, by him, they were brought to the extremity of confessing that they were guilty all around and had nothing on which to rely. What then does the Apostle do? In personal conversations he surely explained at length the meaning of the Old Testament divine economy. He also speaks of it at length later in the present Epistle (see Rom 9:1-11:36). Here, however, a full discussion of this would have drawn him away from his chief aim. Therefore he gives only such an indication as would enable every Jew, by himself, to find the full answer to the question that had arisen in him. One could say directly that this whole divine economy was for a time. The time ended, and it came to its end. But the Apostle does not say this. He points only to the word of God, which itself could bring them to such a conclusion. So also the Savior referred the Jews to Scripture, saying: “Search the Scriptures... and they are they which testify of Me” (cf. Jn 5:39).