{"id":1292,"date":"2009-10-15T19:40:59","date_gmt":"2009-10-16T01:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1292"},"modified":"2009-10-15T19:40:59","modified_gmt":"2009-10-16T01:40:59","slug":"romans-32-the-entrusted-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-32-the-entrusted-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 3:2 – The Entrusted Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 3:2<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

God entrusts His message to those He loves.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cChiefly<\/span>\u201d is translated from pr\u014dton<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cfirst in time, place, order, or importance.\u201d Since Paul does not enumerate further, this could be translated as \u201cprimarily\u201d or \u201cchiefly\u201d as in the New King James translation here.<\/p>\n

The word \u201ccommitted<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word pisteu\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto have faith\u201d or \u201cto believe.\u201d The word is expressed here in the passive voice, however, indicating action done to them. Therefore, this word implies that God had faith in them, or \u201centrusted\u201d them.<\/p>\n

The Greek word translated \u201coracles<\/span>\u201d is logian<\/span><\/em>. The root of this word is logos,<\/span><\/em> which refers to \u201ca word\u201d or \u201csomething said.\u201d Hence, logian<\/span><\/em> refers to \u201can utterance or something declared by God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul now answers his own rhetorical question regarding whether there is any superiority in being a Jew or in being circumcised. <\/span>He says, \u201cYes, there most certainly is!\u201d <\/span>Then he goes on to explain why he believes that. <\/span>He says that the primary advantage of being a Jew is the fact that the Jews have been entrusted with the oracles of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, the primary advantage of being a Jew is the fact that they have been given the very words of God for safe keeping. <\/span>By this he is referring to the Hebrew Tanakh, that is, the Old Testament.<\/span><\/p>\n

Notice Paul does not say that the Jews were the only people that God talked to. <\/span>After all, there are quite a number of non-Jews (like Job, for instance) to whom God communicated directly. <\/span>But the only written utterances of God (at the time that Paul was writing this epistle) were contained in the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, as we discussed yesterday. <\/span>This made them (the Jews) the keepers of God\u2019s revelation to mankind, an honor not to be taken too lightly.<\/span><\/p>\n

One unmistakable advantage of this is something that we have alluded to in previous verses. Most of the converts to Christianity in the early church were Jews. Because they had the sacred writings, the Holy Scriptures, at their disposal, they knew more about God and His dealings with mankind. They also knew about the Messiah who was to come and save the Jews (and Gentiles). As a result, when Paul and others preached the gospel to them, it was easier for them to understand the significance of His death on the cross.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today we Christians have been entrusted with the sacred writings of God more completely than the Jews of Paul\u2019s day were. <\/span>Let us not lose sight of the fact that these \u201coracles of God\u201d have been entrusted to our care!<\/span><\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The next time you pick up your Bible, consider how precious a book it is. In it is the message of God\u2019s love for you, a love so great that He sacrificed His Son so that we can know Him and have intimate fellowship with Him. Hallelujah!<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 3:2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. Truth to Learn God entrusts His message to those He loves. Behind the Words \u201cChiefly\u201d is translated from pr\u014dton, which means \u201cfirst in time, place, order, or importance.\u201d Since Paul does not enumerate further, this could be translated as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[553,554,555],"class_list":["post-1292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-entrusted","tag-oracles","tag-word"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-kQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}