P aul started a series of questions in this chapter with: “What advantage then hath the Jew?” [v. 1]. Here, he is ready to summarize his answer: “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise.” From verse 9 onwards, Paul presents the thrust of his argument: that no one, Jew or Gentile, is better than the other, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory God intended all to have. Indeed, Paul started out saying that the Jews have certain privileges. As God’s covenantal people, they could be said to have enjoyed a head start of thousands of years. They have God’s sign of covenantal relationship, and the oracles of God – which by God’s grace, has caused saints of old to look towards God’s grace and faithfulness, and repent of their sinful ways. Yet man’s sinful nature is the great equalizer. Before the holy and righteous God, no one can meet His standard; everyone is under sin and has to pay the penalty. To realize we are sinful, we need to know Who God is, and who we are. Consider the vilest of sinners you can think of in history. If you were to put him and God at two ends of a continuum, do not be surprised to see an unregenerated ‘good man’ (by the world’s standards) being placed next to the vilest sinner, and infinite light-years away from God. It is only by God’s grace we are made right with Him, by our faith in our Lord Jesus.
LESSON
What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.
THOUGHT
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. – Ephesians 2:12-13.
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