One of the great texts of Judaism was Deut.6:4: “The Lord our God is one Lord.” Every day every male Jew recited that passage as part of the Shema. They had no doubt in their minds on the topic of monotheism. Not only were they convinced that there was only one God, but that God had only one people – Israel. The Canaanites had their gods, and the Egyptians theirs, but Israel belonged to the only true God – Yahweh, who had created heaven and earth and everything in them. 

It is at that very point that Paul challenges them to think. If there is only one true God, and if that Being created all that exists, isn’t He also God of the Gentiles? Or as Paul put it in v29: “Is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not God of the Gentiles too?” Then stating the only possible conclusion, Paul adds, “Yes, of the Gentiles too.” NIV. 

Most Jews hadn’t thought of it that way. But Paul’s logic has crushing forcefulness. What they had forgotten was that their special privilege as God’s chosen ones did not exclude the Gentiles, but was meant for their inclusion, since all peoples of the earth were to be blessed through Abraham (Gen.12:3). 

Having made his crucial point, the apostle goes on to note in v30 that not only is God the God of the entire world, but that the plan of salvation is for the entire world and he saves Jew and Gentile the same way – through faith without works of the law. 

The preceding arguments may have appeared to some to place “law” and “faith” in opposition to each other. Anticipating that response to his theology, the apostle quickly and firmly asserts that salvation by grace through faith, far from doing away with the law, actually establishes or upholds it (v31). Obedience becomes the outward sign of the inward condition. 

The last thing that Paul has in mind is to do away with the law. While it is not a means of salvation, the law holds a special place in God’s universe. As such, faith reinforces the proper place of the law.