Romans 2:17-29

The Special Case Of The Jew. Paul Is Answering The Question - ‘Does Not His Knowledge Of The Law And The Understanding That Goes With It, Along With The Fact That He Is Circumcised Into God's Covenant, Put The Jew In A Special Position In God's Eyes?' (2:17-29).

The next hurdle that Paul had to do face was the claim of every Jew that, as a Jew he was privileged to have the Law and to be a teacher of men, and to have been circumcised into God's covenant. Thus he saw himself as somehow superior and as special to God. He considered therefore that God would treat him on a different plane to that on which He treated others. The Jews would have agreed wholeheartedly that unless they became proselytes to Judaism all  Gentiles  came under God's judgment. But every Jew considered that it was a very different case with regard to himself. He saw himself as one of God's favourites. He was after all a member of God's treasured possession, of God's holy nation and kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:5). He was child of Abraham to whose descendants God had promised special favours (compare Matthew 3:9). He had been given the Law. He had been circumcised into God's covenant. How then could God treat him as though he was merely on a par with the Gentiles? So Paul now addresses the Jew directly, and he commences by listing out his claims.