Why does it even matter? - Romans 3:1-18

I have to be honest for a second here; I have been kind of avoiding studying because I just don’t get what Paul is talking about. I mean, he’s explaining a concept that I already understand in a way that I have no idea what he’s talking about, that all seems kind of redundant. That probably sounds really awful, but I really love learning new perspectives and contexts and why things make sense and different things like that, but talking about stuff I already know, using language that is too abstract for me… I really struggle with that.
What can I possibly learn from this? One thing that came to mind is that Paul presents arguments that his readers might make to dispute the doctrine, and if those arguments were relevant way back then, then they would be relevant now. So maybe I could learn to understand why the different perspectives arose and what the meanings of Paul’s answers are. Another reason why I might have been struggling is because of the natural breaks that I take in between study sessions. I can’t take the whole Bible start to finish in one sitting, and after studying and writing about a section, I’m usually pretty mentally burned out. So the concepts are not as fluid as I would like, maybe I need to go back and look at the last bit of info from the day before to make it flow better in my understanding.
Circumcision is always a heavily interested topic, and that’s what chapter 2 ended by discussing. Paul was telling the people that circumcision is not what makes people “right with God,” but “a changed heart.” Ancient Jewish ceremonies wouldn’t save you, so does it even matter if you are a Jew or not? I’m not sure if this means “Jew” in the literal sense, meaning one born of Jewish parents, or if it just means to be a believer in the gospel.
Using the NLT of the Romans 3, Paul answers the question “what’s the advantage of being a Jew,” saying, “Yes, there are great benefits! First of all, the Jews were entrusted with the whole revelation of God.” I guess it would be like someone saying, “if circumcision doesn’t save us, then why does it even matter if we were born Jews or not?” And the answer is “it matters because you have God’s law in a way that no one else does, and that’s a blessing. It comes back to the whole “are the commandments a blessing or a curse?”
The next question is explained best by the NLT saying that “the Jews were entrusted with the whole revelation of God. True, some of them were unfaithful; but just because they were unfaithful, does that mean God will be unfaithful? Of course not!” The IM points out than the answers to these questions will be further expanded on in upcoming chapters of Romans. The actions of the people do not dictate the character or actions of God.
The next question has to do with the wickedness of the covenant people demonstrating in stark contrast the goodness of God to those watching. According to the IM, the question is, “If our sin makes God’s righteousness even more clear for people to see, isn’t it unfair for God to punish us?” Paul’s answer is summarized by the IM, “Absolutely not! If God were unjust, He could not judge the world.” This is a difficult concept for me to understand, that someone’s wickedness could highlight someone else’s righteousness, especially in an abstract capacity like that of God.
The next question is an off shoot of the previous one, and has to do with Paul being “slanderously reported” as advocating “Let us do evil, that good may come?” I think that the answer to this comes less as a “there is no such thing as bad publicity,” and more because “the wisdom of God is greater than the cunning of the devil.” Not only is God able to take any event or teaching from anyone and turn it around to benefit Him and His cause, but that’s the nature of this world that we live in. There are universal truths, such as the commandments and when they are fought against, it doesn’t change the fact that they are truths, and no falsehood can obscure the truth completely.
Paul quotes a lot of scripture to illustrate his point, I don’t really get it, but we’ve covered a lot of stuff for the day.