What then?—Are we better than they?— The Apostle having given the Jew leave to put in his objections, in reference to what would disgust him most,—the rejection of the Jews; and having given such answers as he thought proper at present,—now returns to the main point, namely, to prove that the Gentiles have as good a right to the privileges and blessings of God's covenant as the Jews; which he introduces very properly by putting this question into the Jew's mouth; What then? Are we better than the Gentiles? which by the way makes it clear, that in his arguments he considers the Jews and Gentiles in a body, or collective capacity, and that he is arguingfor a justification agreeable to such a capacity; namely, by which the believing Gentiles were taken into the church, when the unbelieving Jews were cast out. For this point, whether Jews, or how far Jews were better than Gentiles, or had a better claim to the blessings and privileges of the kingdom of God, is the very subject upon which he is disputing; and in this extensive collective sense, all his arguments and conclusions are to be understood. He says, we have before proved,—namely, chap. Romans 2:3 where, under the gentler compellation of O man! he charges the Jews with being sinners, as well as the Gentiles, and Romans 3:17-24 shews, that by having the law, they were no more kept from being sinners, than the Gentiles were without the law: and his charge against them that they were sinners, he reproves from the testimony of their own sacred books contained in the Old Testament. See Locke.
Related Commentaries of Romans 3:9
Romans 3:9
9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proveda both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;