In the world I live in, I hear a lot about the advantage one team has over another. People play fantasy games picking and choosing players that will give their team an advantage over another. In America, this picking and choosing is an industry of gigantic proportion. The legal gambling industry is $137.5 billion per year. But there is another area where people play the advantage game. This is with their souls.
In Romans 3:1-9, Paul is reminding the Jews of the advantage they had of being given the promises of God. However, he points out that their faithlessness would be judged. The Jews had known the Messiah was coming, yet they were so steeped in their own pride and arrogance that they missed Him. They were God’s chosen people, but not chosen so they could set themselves apart as better than anyone else. They were not to feel entitled just because they were of Jewish heritage. They were to accept Jesus by faith, just like anyone else. They were to usher in the Messiah, to teach others about God and His righteousness. Instead, they rejected Him because He didn’t fit their prideful mold of their eternal King.
Romans 3:1-9 “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou might be justified in thy sayings, and might overcome when thou art judged. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather, (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. 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; “
The Jews were guilty before God, and so are we. All of mankind has sinned, but those who hold the truth captive will give a greater account. Their ignorance of the truth of Jesus was their own making. The law was never to be the basis of salvation for anyone. It was given to show them their need for a Savior. The law only condemns us and shows us just how far we are from God’s righteousness.
What about those of us in America? How accountable will we be when we stand before God. We live in a country that was founded on Christians principles. We have Bibles in massive quantities, most homes have several Bibles that are never read. They have the truth and will be held responsible for what they could have known if they had read. Ask a handful of people in America “why should God let you into Heaven” and you will get a multitude of answers. Many will say they are a good person, some will say they go to church, pray, are members of a certain church, or have been baptized. Just like the Jews, they are counting on their rituals to get them to Heaven. Just like the Jews, we in America will be accountable. We have had a tremendous advantage over a great portion of the world. We are no different than the Jews that had God as their God. They had a history of being God’s chosen people, but they missed God’s purpose for choosing them. If a person in America does not know how to be saved, and there are many, it is up to us who have the truth to share it with them. We, like the Jews, have the advantage of having the truth, but our advantage will be our downfall if we do not put that truth into action.
