vs 1-2: does a jew have benefit over a gentile. of course they do, but not in the same way many thought. the truth is that, yes, jews were lucky enough to have the truth given to them before the gentiles, that is their benefit.

vs 3: what if a jew did not follow the law? what if they did not believe the advanced knowledge that they had, are they not worthy to be saved by God now? The law was of benefit to the jews, the prophets were of benefit to the jews. They pointed towards the Messiah, jews themselves turned them into burdens, but they were never meant to be burdensome by God.

vs 4-7: faulty logic!!! God is found true in his judgement of sin. our sin does not make God true, nor does our sin allow salvation. Rather it is God's grace despite our sin that saves and calls God righteous. There is nothing we can do to make God any more or less than he is, he exists outside of our influence.

vs 8-9: let us never think that because of our sin God becomes more loving. missing the mark, is missing the mark. we lost, we failed whether bigtime or smalltime (in our perspective) we have lost. We are all under the burden of sin no matter what we have done with our lives.

vs 10-18: These are very charging words, but accurate. Paul is reinforcing the point that no one (regardless of birth or religious orientation) is better off than anyone else. Equality in the eyes of God. It is true, he has equal love and equal judgement for all.

vs 19: The law puts everyone in the defendants chair, in charges everyone in the earth with the breaking of God's commands. No one has kept it, no one can keep it. We are all guilty. Much like laws in the US, very rarely can any citizen keep all the laws of the US, at some point they will speed, liter, run a stop sign, or even worse. Whether everyone knows that you have broken the law, you have broken it. It is like this even on a greater scale with God, all of us have defied the law, so everyone is on equal ground, no one has room to boast.

vs 20: what was the purpose of the law then? to keep us in line? no, rather the purpose of the law was to show us where we stepped out of line. the law exposes our sin. not a law written by man, but one ordained by God.

vs 21-22: now apart from the law (speaking to gentiles and jews exercising freedom) God's righteousness is available, and the law and prophets know that it is available, for they speak of it. There is no distinction between faith in Christ and God's law. There are not two kinds of saved people, but only one kind... those saved by the grace of God.

vs 23-25: since we are all equally sinners, and are in need of the same salvation. God provided it in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Understand that God was fulfilling the law on behalf of us. he was killing the lamb and offering the sacrifice, he covered us with the innocent blood so that he could pass over our sin. Don't for a second think that God changed the rules, he did not! a blood sacrifice was still needed, and he made it for us!

vs 26-29: For this reason (God making the sacrifice) we can no longer boast in our religious traditions, because no religious tradition can live up to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. A jew can no longer boast of their exclusive blood covenant relationship, because now all who have sinned are invited into this final blood covenant.

vs 30: o then it is God who ends up justifying both the jew and gentile (everyone), so as a free-of-the-law person to I prove the law wrong? NO! we see fulfillment of the law in our lives through our faith in Christ. Understand that Jews failed and then were covered by sacrifice, that is what it meant to be under the law. Not only under the regulations, but under the salvation of it. we too are under the salvation of the law which has been fulfilled in Christ.

Romans 3:1-31