Romans 9:30-10:4

Romans 9 begins with a problem. Why was it that God had seemingly deserted the Jews? Why had God passed by the Jews and extended salvation to the Gentiles? Had God broken His promises to the Jews by establishing a new plan of salvation that gave them no special place and, instead, allowed the Gentiles to become God's people?

Throughout chapter 9, Paul shows that not all of Abraham's descendants were included in God's people; that there had always been a selection, a plan—election. Genealogy, tradition, heritage, culture, and even religion—they all have their value, but they do not determine acceptance with God. God had a plan which He was working out throughout the Old Testament and to accomplish that plan He used men and women as He saw fit, even if we cannot understand His methodology.

It was God's calling, God's choice in mercy, which had separated out the Jews and preserved them throughout their history. There had never been anything meritorious about the Jews themselves—everything they had, they had because of God's election meaning that they were in no position to complain about what God did.

And throughout the Old Testament, it was clear that God's choice was not something static and automatic. God had never simply accepted all the Jews or rejected all the Gentiles. Paul quoted several verses that show this and there were more that he could have quoted. Jesus, dealing with a similar issue, pointed out how Elijah and Elisha ministered to Gentiles and even performed miracles for Gentiles that they never performed for Jews. The people of Nineveh listened to the preaching of a grumpy, short-sighted, slightly fishy prophet when many Jews would not listen to the words of God incarnate. 

Being a Jew did not make you part of God's people and not being a Jew does not mean you were not part of God's people. What matters is not genealogy but election.

However, that election does not mean that God arbitrarily and unconditionally choses who will be saved as in Calvinism. Notice verse 1 of chapter 10, which echoes the opening verses of chapter 9. Paul both fervently wished and specifically prayed to God for the salvation of the unbelieving Jews. Clearly, Paul did not think that God had simply cast off the mass of the Jewish people so that it was impossible for them to be saved. It was the desire of Paul's heart that his brethren among the Jews would be saved; remember at the beginning of chapter 9 how Paul said he felt willing to be under some kind of curse if that could save the Jews. And if Paul had that kind of love, is it really plausible that God would have less love and concern? 

So then what made the difference? If God desired the salvation of the Jews and Gentiles equally, then why were so many Gentiles saved and so many of the Jews lost? There is a single word which answers that question, and that word is: faith.

That is what makes the difference and that is how chapters 9-11 connect back to chapters 1-8. Paul's main theme throughout the book of Romans is that the righteousness of God is revealed and received by faith, for it is written that the just shall live by faith. And we have that theme again here in verse 30: the Gentiles attained to the righteousness which is of faith, but the Jews did not find righteousness  because they did not seek it by faith. They did not live by faith and therefore were not among the just.

In other words, your ethnicity and your DNA do not matter in regards to this. It is isn't that God accepted the Jews and rejected the Gentiles. It isn't that God rejected the Jews and accepted the Gentiles. It is that among both the Jews and the Gentiles those who live by faith, those who respond to God's mercy in faith—they are God's people. Faith is the deciding factor here. Many of both the Jews and the Gentiles were excluded from the number of God's people because they lacked faith.

For many of this, this is such a familiar concept that it is easy to miss how startling this seemed at the time. The fact that anyone is lost is a tragedy, but the fact that so many of the Jews were lost is not merely a tragedy but something of a paradox. There were many people in the world then, as there are many now, who didn't think about God at all, who weren't concerned with God or righteousness, who couldn't care less about whether God accepted them or not. But that wasn't the case of the Jews, at least for most of them. The Jews of Paul's day weren't like the Jews of Hosea's day who were given over to idolatry and had neglected God's law.

We see this in verse 2. The Jews were zealous for God and God's law and this was something Paul knew very well. Paul wasn't relying on second-hand reports about the Jewish zeal; he had once been among the number of those he has is describing, the number of those who had a very deep, even consuming passion for the things of God. 

That is the paradox—that those who had all the advantages of God's law, those who were truly and in a sense sincerely passionate and zealous for God's law—that they fell short of righteousness while others who had never had those advantages or that zeal had found it.

But the problem with the Jews is in the end of verse 2; they had zeal “But not according to knowledge.” The NET Bible translates that phrase: “their zeal is not in line with the truth.”  Paul carried this idea further in verse 3, saying they were ignorant of God's righteousness; literally, they did know God's righteousness.  

The Jews were barking as loudly and insistently as they could, but they were barking up the wrong tree. Their train was running full steam ahead but it was running down the wrong track. They were seeking their own righteousness, a legalist righteousness, a righteousness that comes from the law and the observance of the law. And because they had chosen this path, because they had poured their zeal into seeking that, they would not accept the righteousness of God. 

We've talked several times about the verse from Habakkuk which Paul quotes at the beginning of Romans: “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4) But here we should note who it is that the prophet places in contrast to the man of faith—it is the proud man, the man whose soul is lifted up, who is puffed up. In context, the idea is probably the irreligious man, the man who is concerned with his own affairs and not with the things of God; perhaps the angry, ambitious man described in the next verse. But it is possible to be very religious and very concerned with the things of God and still have a soul that is lifted up in pride—and he that tries to lift himself up will not truly be upright in the sight of God. The path of the proud and haughty spirit leads to a fall; those who live are those who by faith are justified.

That is the resolution of the paradox—the reason why Gentiles and terrible sinners who never had given much thought to God's law were suddenly allowed straight into the kingdom and why so many of the zealous, conscientious Jews were left out. Because none of that really matters—your background and personal zeal do not save you. Salvation is by faith, and anyone who has faith may find it, no matter where they're from or what they've done.

But it is not merely a matter of having faith. What matters is what you have faith in. “Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.” (Isaiah 28:15-16) When so many people in the world were putting their trust in lies and false religions, God was offering something else instead, a sure foundation, a place of refuge which really was secure. Not a lie, not even a good guess, but a foundation stone. On the day of testing, all the false refuges would collapse and those who had put their trust in them would have to take flight in fear and confusion—their shame being that had depended on something that could not protect them. But he that had put his faith in the cornerstone would not make haste; would not run away in fear, would not be ashamed because he had chosen the safe refuge.

God was placing a stone that would be a foundation and a refuge for those who put their trust in it. But would that stone be for those who did not put their trust in it? “And he [the Lord] shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.” (Isaiah 8:14-15) God said that he would be a sanctuary, a place of defense and protection—but to many of the people of Israel, He would be a stumbling block, something that got in their way.

A fortress offers protection and safety to those who are inside it. To those who are outside it, it gives no help and might actually be a roadblock, getting in their way. There is a good deal of difference between being behind a wall and having your back to the wall. Those who trust in God's protection are sheltered in a cleft in the rock; those who don't are left between the rock and the hard place.

But exactly what is this rock, this foundation, this sanctuary that God had provided? What, at its heart, was God's plan to protect and save those who came to him? What was God's plan to impart righteousness to mankind? This is the end of verse 4: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”

The problem of the Jews wasn't that God had rejected them; it was that they had rejected God; they had rejected God's plan of salvation which was centered in Jesus Christ. God had accepted the Gentiles solely because the Gentiles had accepted Jesus. It doesn't matter whether you are a Jew or a Gentile. It doesn't matter whether in your past you were religious or irreligious; whether you were good or bad; whether your ancestors were good or bad. The only question which matters is: What will you do with Jesus?

Suppose you desperately needed to get to some location and so you followed a certain road that you were told led in the direction you needed to go. And so you follow that road until it ended at the shore of the ocean, where a ship was waiting to carry you across the ocean. That ship would be the end of the road in the sense that it brought the road to completion; once you got on the ship you would no longer be traveling on the road—but it would also be the end of the road in the sense that it was the goal of the road; the road led you to the ship as the only means of getting you to your destination. The whole point and purpose of that road was to get you to that ship.

Christ is the end of the law in the sense that once we believe in Christ we give up any attempt to find salvation through the law. But Christ is the end of the law also in the sense that the whole purpose of the law was to point us to Christ. Whether we are speaking of the Jewish ceremonial law or simply general morality, its purpose is to point us to Christ, to bring us to the decision of trusting in Christ for the righteousness which is by faith.

But too many of the Jews were like people who came to the ocean but were so stuck on the idea of the road that instead of getting on the ship, they tried to build a bridge to continue the road.

The longest bridge man has ever built (or at least which is still around) is just over 100 miles long.  To cross the Atlantic Ocean at its narrowest point would require a bridge 177 times as long as that. But that difference is nothing compared to the best man can do morally and what God can do. No matter how far we try to carry the law, it will never cross the ocean of God's requirement or God's possibility. The righteousness of God is only received by faith.

And that is something that we today in the church need to remember.  Growing up going to church does not save you. Following a set of standards does not save you. Having a passion to serve the church does not save you. Religion, in the sense of an organized system of belief and practice, is important, but religion cannot save a soul. And when a religious background does not lead a man to Christ, it may leave him worse off than a completely irreligious man.

And this brings us back to the whole question of election. God's election—God's planning and purpose through the Jewish nation—had never really been about the Jews, at least primarily. It had always ultimately been about Christ. That strange, tangled path that began with Abraham and snaked through Isaac and Jacob; the curious drama which chose Pharaoh and Moses for two of its leading characters; that stream that runs with an insistent current from Genesis to Malachi—it was always leading to Christ. Like the star that the magi saw in the east, it was always pointed towards Bethlehem.

God had not broken his promises to Israel because the heart and center of his promises had always been that they would bring forth the Messiah, and they had brought forth the Messiah. God's promise to Abraham was that through him all nations of the earth would be blessed and that promise was fulfilled in Christ. God had kept His side of the covenant; it was the Jews that had failed.

There is more to be said on this theme and Paul will continue it in chapter 11; but the main point to remember is that God's plan had always, throughout the entire Bible, been pointing to one thing, even if many of those involved had missed it. The Jews' boast was that they had the law, but Christ was the end of the law to everyone that believed.