We are All Equal at the Foot of the Cross
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Romans 3:27-30
‘Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too?’ (3:29). The Jews were especially conscious of their covenant relationship with God, a relationship that excluded Gentiles. God had entrusted His special revelation to the Jews (3:2). To them belonged ‘the adoption as sons … the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises … the patriarchs and … the human ancestry of Christ’ (9:3-5). But if justification was by works of the law, then only those ‘in the law’ could be justified and God would only ever be the God of the Jews. What the Jews forgot was that their privileges were not so the Gentiles would be excluded but that they would ultimately be included when, through Abraham’s family, ‘all peoples on earth‘ would be blessed (Genesis 12:2,3).
This covenant with Abraham has been fulfilled in Christ. He is Abraham’s ‘seed’ (Galatians 3:16) and through Him the blessing of salvation now extends to everyone who believes, without exemption or distinction. If the gospel of justification by faith alone excludes all boasting, it also excludes all discrimination too. God is not ‘the God of Jews only’; He is ‘the God of Gentiles too … since there is only one God’ (3:29). Paul takes one of the most basic tenets of Jewish belief, monotheism, and turns it against Judaism. If there is only one God then He must be the God of the Gentiles. Otherwise there would be no God over them. Jews believed God was the God of the whole world but was the God of the Gentiles only by virtue of being their Creator. Only the Jews could experience a meaningful relationship with Him. Only by accepting the Torah could Gentiles hope to become related to God in the same way as Jews. But in this paragraph Paul makes it clear that the Torah no longer functions as the dividing wall between those who are ‘outside’ and those who are ‘inside.’ In the Old Testament, while the law was not the means of salvation, it did function to ‘mark out’ the people of God. For Jews it was the impenetrable barrier. But for Paul monotheism, as he had cone to see it in Christ, meant that there could be no such barrier. All must have equal access to God and this could only be guaranteed if faith, not works in obedience to Jewish law, was made the entrance requirement.
Paul states this radical implication of monotheism – that God has only one way of salvation. He ‘will justify the circumcised (Jews) by faith and the uncircumcised (Gentiles) through that same faith’ (3:29,30)
This applies to all other distinctions – race, nationality, class, sex or age. These distinctions continue in the natural but have no bearing on our standing before God and should have no impact on our fellowship with each other. At the foot of the cross, all people are equal