Paul begins this section by making a connection to the previous thought. If outward circumcision is not the most important in holiness, is being a Jew really that prestigious? Paul answers in the affirmative. The outward consecration of the Jews is not what made them so special. The element which makes them special is that the Jewish people were entrusted with the oracles of God.
At that time, these readers would have been familiar with the following concept: certain young women were often chosen to me messengers (oracles) of the gods. One of the most famous perhaps was the Oracle of Delphi. The young women were placed in a cave usually filled with toxic gasses. In a hallucinogenic state, they would offer advice and messages to those who came seeking their advice. The messages from the mouths of the oracles were said to be straight from the gods.
Now, the Jewish people did not offer advice to people during drug induced trances, but they did carry with them the very words of the Most High God. They were committed with His messages and communications to the world. From this position, Paul makes a point through several arguments.
Even though the seed of Abraham by ancestry carried the answers from the Almighty, they still chose to reject the message. Does that make the message any less effective? NO WAY! Paul says, "Let God be true, but every man a liar." God does not change Hiss message because people do not receive it. The ways of man do not affect the will of the Mighty One. God's standards are absolute. Many people hate this philosophy. They try to argue that God loves too much to condemn. They try to change God's standards. Paul was ahead of that argument.
He mentions that our unrighteousness "commends" or demonstrates God's righteousness. The longer one looks at human history, the better he can see how much more righteous God is than we. Many of those people who examine how God dealt with those unrighteous try to pervert His judgments. "Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?" NO WAY! God created the world and then created a standard whereby to govern that world. God is ALWAYS just in punishing sin. Grace is what is unfair.
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