Paul uses Chapter 9 to show that Israel needs a Savior. He uses Chapter 10 to show that the message of the gospel is indeed for them as well. His desire and prayer for them to be saved is a great example of how our love for the lost and broken should look.
Zeal for God, but not according to knowledge is a perfect description of Paul himself before his conversion. Saul of Tarsus was a notorious persecutor of Christians before Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus.
It’s remarkable that Paul found something good to say about these Jewish people who persecuted him so mercilessly. “At least they have a zeal for God,” Paul says. We should remember that when it came to ministry, the Jews were Paul’s worst enemies, They had harassed and persecuted him, the made up lies and brought violence against him. Remember how he started Romans by stating who he was and what right he had to speak to them?? That was because many Jews didn’t believe him or his message.
Their lack of knowledge is reflected in the fact that they are ignorant of God’s righteousness, and want to establish their own righteousness.
Paul has ably demonstrated in the first several chapters of Romans how futile this is. Plainly put, by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified. (Romans 3:20)
Seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God: Israel had a lack of knowledge. But that wasn’t their only problem. They also had a moral problem: they have not submitted to the righteousness of God. There were not allowing themselves to be governed by God.
No one comes to Jesus without the right information about the gospel but information alone is not enough to save anyone. There must be a revelation given by God through faith and a radical submission to the righteousness of God (a putting away of our own righteousness).
(4-8) The contrast between God’s righteousness and our attempts at righteousness.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, ” ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
- Jesus is the end of the law for those believe. The law ends for the believer in the sense that our obedience to the law is no longer the basis for our relationship with God. The law has not come to an end in the sense of no longer reflecting God’s standard or no longer showing us our need for a Savior.
The Law of Moses makes the path to righteousness through the law plain. If you want to live by the law (find life through the law), you must do the law – and do it completely and perfectly.
But the righteousness of faith is based on Jesus, and we don’t have to “work” to get Jesus. It is not as if we have to ascend into heaven or descend into the abyss to gain Jesus. We believe and receive.
Suppose it were needed that somebody should ascend to heaven, that would imply that Jesus had never come down from heaven to reveal the Father. Conversely, should we descend into the abyss, as if Christ had never come up from the dead. The fact is, all that can be done has already been done. From the cross, Christ declared that it is finished.
Instead of having to go to great lengths to achieve righteousness by the law, we can immediately receive righteousness by faith, as trust in the word and the work of the gospel.
(9-13) How God’s righteousness is gained by faith.
“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
We gain it by confessing and believing in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Confession and belief are surrendered responses to what is revealed to us by God.
Confess with your mouth: Confession has the idea of agreeing with. We agree with what God said about Jesus, and with what Jesus said about Himself. It means we recognize that Jesus is God, that He is the Messiah, and that His work on the cross is the only way of salvation for mankind.
Jesus Christ is Lord. “If a man called Jesus kurios (Lord) he was ranking him with the Emperor and with God; he was giving Him the supreme place in his life; he was pledging Him implicit obedience and reverent worship.
No Jew would do this who had not really trusted Christ, for Kurios is the word used by the Jews for God. No Gentile would do it who had not ceased worshiping the emperor as Kurios.
We must also believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead.
Mere intellectual agreement with the facts of the cross and the resurrection is not enough. You must believe in your heart; and even that belief is not enough with accompanying action: confess with your mouth. Belief requires action.
We should not ignore how scandalously simple this is (whoever calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved) and what an affront this is to any attempt to find salvation based on national or ethnic foundation. Paul makes it clear: There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
All who call upon Him – this includes the Jews. Paul is making an appeal to them. He wants them to return to the Lord.
Hearing. Faith comes by hearing and you have heard. Their sound has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.
This might seem like an exaggeration: the gospel had not been carried throughout all the earth, not even to all the lands that were known to the inhabitants of the Graeco-Roman world. Paul was well aware of that; at this very time he was planning the evangelization of Spain, a province where the name of Christ was not yet known (Romans 15:18-24). But by now the gospel had been carried to most parts of the Mediterranean area where Jews were to be found; and that is all the argument requires. Yet, they rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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