Romans 10:1-21 - Faith in Christ is the Law’s Righteousness

Romans 10:1-21

Israel Needs the Gospel

1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, "The man who does those things shall live by them." 6 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) 7 or, "'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 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): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."

Israel Rejects the Gospel

14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!"

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "LORD, who has believed our report?" 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

18 But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed:
"Their sound has gone out to all the earth,
And their words to the ends of the world."

19 But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says:
"I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation,
I will move you to anger by a foolish nation."

20 But Isaiah is very bold and says:
"I was found by those who did not seek Me;
I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me."

21 But to Israel he says:
"All day long I have stretched out My hands
To a disobedient and contrary people."

Faith in Jesus the Christ who is the Messiah of Israel and of everyone called to Himself as the children of God by the faith of father Abraham is the goal of the Law which was our schoolteacher (Galatians 3:23-25) to bring us to the knowledge of our sin (Galatians 3:21-22), our inability to keep the Law to earn salvation, and the Savior who alone is worthy as the sacrificial Lamb of God (Genesis 22:8, Isaiah 53:7, John 1:29) to cover our sins forever (1 Corinthians 5:7, 15:3-4, 1 Peter 2:24) to heal us by His stripes as He was beaten to take our punishment and subsequent death on the cross!   Therefore, Paul the apostle prayed that those called out of Israel (and the nations) would hear the scriptures and be saved as they redirected their zeal for the Law to the understanding leading to the same desire for Christ as the end of the Law which the unobtainable commandments pointed to for true righteousness found only in His as the perfect Adam without sin.  He implores us still to submit to the righteousness of God in Christ alone and to cease striving to earn our own and always coming up short of the required perfection (James 2:10, Galatians 3:10-11) to gain entry into heaven.  Jesus the Christ is the only one ever to keep all the Law (Matthew 5:17-18) in every point as it was written to teach us that we are incapable of doing the same, and to therefore rely on His work (John 1:14, 6:29) to keep the Law for us that we might trust His work and receive Him and enter into His righteousness.  If we try as Israel did to keep it in our own power and will we must live completely by the Law to live; if, however, we believe Christ has come down from heaven, suffered and died for us, and arose back to the throne of the Almighty, then we find salvation through this word of faith we call the gospel.  We trust He is who He is as divine and as a man to sacrifice Himself to pay the price to redeem us, and then confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus as we believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead to be truly delivered or saved from the wrath of God on our sin which has earned us judgment apart from His work and righteousness on our behalf.  Our hearts must be moved by Him to this faith for our mouths to confess Him and our sin as we rely on His work to save.  This is required for both the first people of God and the nations added to them as it is written, “the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him” because “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”  We only are able to believe as we hear the gospel preached by faithful followers of Jesus Christ as they are sent by God to us, though many still reject and refuse to believe the words of this life and continue to vainly work to prove they are worthy of salvation on their own as the Jews did in Paul’s time.  Faith comes by hearing the word of God!  Many let the word pass them by as Isaiah foretold by God’s word recorded for us which Israel read and knew but still refused to believe the warnings.  God is provoking Israel to be jealous of the Gentiles who do hear and believe in Christ in order to move them towards faith as well just as promised by example in Abraham to them and us.  He is therefore found by we who did not seek Him by the grace and goodness of the calling and election predetermined from the foundation of the world to make us ask for and seek Him by grace in the faith He has given us (Ephesians 2:8-9) to make this possible as a testimony to those who should have known and responded in repentance and faith but continued to refuse and reject the truth.  Faith in Christ alone is the Law’s true righteousness.  May we who hear the gospel therefore not be similarly disobedient and contrary in arguing with God but hear, trust, turn from sin to Him, and live!