Entrusted.

Romans 3:1-18:

1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

2 Much every way; chiefly,  because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

4 God forbid; yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. 5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man.)

6 God forbid; for then how shall God judge the world?

7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

8 And not rather (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

9 What then? are we better than they? No, in nowise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

10 as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one;

11 there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

13 Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips;

14 whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;

15 their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 destruction and misery are in their ways;

17 and the way of peace have they not known;

18 there is no fear of God before their eyes.

(Excerpt)

"Committed."

The advantage of the Jew was not simply in the fact that to them were made known the oracles of God, but that "unto them were committed the oracles of God," or "they were intrusted with the oracles of God."  That is, the law was given to them to hold in trust for others, and not simply for their own benefit. They were to be the missionaries to the whole world. The advantage and the honor conferred upon the Jewish nation in intrusting them with the law of God to make it known to the world, can not be estimated.

Tell It to Others.

When Peter and John were arrested and threatened for preaching Christ (who is simply the living law in perfection), they said, "We can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Acts 4:20.  They who appreciate the gift which God commits to them must tell it to others. Some think that it is useless to carry the gospel to the heathen when they hear that God justifies the heathen who walk according to the little light that shines to them just the same as he does the person who walks according to the light that shines from the written word. They think that the wicked heathen are in no worse case than the unfaithful professed Christians. None who appreciate the blessings of the Lord could think so. Light is a blessing. The more people know of the Lord, the more they can rejoice in him, and all who truly know the Lord must be desirous of helping to spread the "good tidings of great joy" to all the people for whom it is designed.

God's Faithfulness.

Ro. 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

"What if some were without faith? Shall their want of faith make of none effect the faithfulness of God?" A very pertinent question. It is an appeal to the faithful of God. Will he break his promise,  because of man's unbelief? Will he be unfaithful because man is unfaithful? Will our wavering cause God to waver? "That can not possibly be;" for this is the force of the expression which is incorrectly rendered, "God forbid." God will be true even though every man be a liar.

"If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he can not deny himself." 2 Tim. 2:13.

"Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds." Ps. 36:5.

Power and Faithfulness.

Some one might hastily affirm that this overthrows the previous statements, that only those who have faith are heirs of the promise; for "how can it be that only the faithful are Abraham's seed, and thus heirs, if God will fulfill his promise even though every man disbelieves?" Very easily, when we consider the Scriptures and the power of God. Listen to the words of John the Baptist to the wicked Jews who could be fitly characterized only as "vipers:" "Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." Matt. 3:9. God will bestow the inheritance only on the faithful; but if every man should prove unfaithful, he who made man of the dust of the ground can of the stones raise other people, who will believe.'