Romans 2:25-3:31
We have covered Romans 1 and most of chapter 2 along with it. There we see the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul, laying out the basis for the Christian worldview. He tells a story of how humanity stopped acknowledging God, and this resulted in darkened hearts and futile thinking, which led to disordered sexuality and then the destruction of the moral fabric of society. The entire culture became non-functional.
Then, in chapter 2, he turns to the Jews who are likely shaking their heads in judgment against Gentiles that are assumed to be the ones who do such things, and condemns them for their hypocrisy.
What Paul is doing here at the beginning of Romans is flattening the categories of “good” people and “bad” people into one category called “unrighteous”.
Before he does that, he makes himself clear in 3:1-8 that he is NOT saying that the Jews are not special in some way. What makes them special is that they “were entrusted with the oracles of God”. (3:2) This is a reference to the OT scriptures.
But this does not make them righteous by default.
Sermon Notes
Listen to the podcast:
