⁹ There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Racial identity and cultural affinities do not matter when it comes to God’s righteousness and how to attain it. The Jews would be shocked at such a statement, but God’s judgment is ultimately the same for all people. We will be evaluated by what we do, not by anything else. The person who does evil will suffer consequences for it. The person who does good will receive good, glory, honor and peace. This is true for Jews and non-Jews. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul wrote similarly, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). Concerning God’s righteousness (remember, that is the grand theme of Romans), all stand before God on equal footing.

The Roman world had embraced and built upon the foundation of the Greeks, the empire that had preceded it in world domination. Greek culture embodied art, music and most importantly, philosophy. And the predominate language of the Roman empire was Greek, not only in the refined discourse of the great learning centers of Athens, Alexandria, Ephesus and Rome, but also in the common or koine Greek language of everyday life and people. When Paul contrasts “Greek” with “Jew,” he alludes to the Hellenization of the Roman Empire, that is, the embrace of all that was Greek. The Jews saw themselves as distinct, separate. Roman culture and society would have gladly welcomed them and their “god” into the multi-religiosity of the day, except the Jews refused to acquiesce to an equal standing alongside the other religions. They were somewhat aloof, claiming a special relationship with God that set them apart.

To be sure, they were a distinct people, for they had the teachings and the sacred writings of the true Creator of the universe, the One they identified correctly as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To the Jews in Rome, if you weren’t a Jew, then you were a Greek. And in the face of their aloofness, Paul takes direct aim. In God’s eyes, they are no different from the Greeks; Jews are under the same judgment as the non-Jews, or as he puts it here, the Greeks. In fact, the Jews are under even greater judgment (“the Jew first”) because they had God’s revelation through the Law and the Prophets (what we call the OT). Yes, God deals with the Jew first, because they are His chosen people, but He does not deal with them only (“also to the Greek”).

Lord, help me never to see myself as something special because of my earthly identification or heritage.