Paul is a sly guy…and the slyness shows up today.
In yesterday’s reading, Paul said that the advantage the Jewish Christians have over the Gentile/Greek Christians is that the words of God were entrusted to them.
In today’s reading, Paul uses a series of scriptures from the Psalms, Ecclesiastes and Isaiah to prove his point that all are under the power of sin. He gets the Jewish Christians to agree, through the use of diatribal argument, that the scriptures are what make them special as Jews. Then, he uses those very scriptures to point out the failures and sins of the both the Jewish Christians and Gentile/Greek Christians. The very words of God entrusted to the Jews become the witness proving that everyone is under the power of sin…sly-guy-move!
The law is there to help them become aware of their sin. The law is a teacher. But, no one is able to keep the law. No one is righteous in God’s sight by trying to follow the law.
