Romans 9:30-10:4--Israel's Unbelief

Romans 9:30-10:4
English Standard Version

Israel's Unbelief
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
    and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

10 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them 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, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

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Paul sums up what he has been saying right now.  Some Gentiles have been forced by God's to be part of the Elect when they were not looking for God and did not know who He was.  On the other hand, many Jews, though "God's chosen people" who received the Law and other special revelation that we call the Old Testament, mistakenly believed that obedience and adherence to the Law would save them and they are like the dead and diseased branches that have been cut off.  Paul will come back to this Parable of the Vine in Romans 11, for the vine has been a symbol of Israel for a long time and the Israelites understand Paul to say that their identity is to rest in the person and work of Jesus Christ as it is the job of the branch to rest in the vine and let the sap, that is the Holy Spirit, flow through them to produce the Fruit of the Spirit.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God and no amount of works in accordance with the law will ever provide justification for a man or woman.  We were all born with Original Sin because of being born "in Adam" so that we must be "born again" by faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Because of this the cross is an offense (For "cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree") to the Jews because they must admit that unless their righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, they would never enter the kingdom of heaven.  It is hard for someone who works so hard to admit all of their work was in vein because they were never good enough and never can be good enough.  Only God alone is good, so there is only one sacrifice that can be good enough to satisfy God's perfect requirements--the God-Man, Christ Jesus.

Paul desires for all of Israel to be saved, and he's already said that he would trade his own salvation for all of theirs if he could, but he cannot.  He knows they are zealous for God, but they are worshiping a God that they have no relationship with because God has dictated that they must come to Him by faith through the blood of a substitutionary atonement and has promised them that one would come who would deal with their sins once and for all.  They tried to make Him King of this physical realm, but it was not His time.  The leaders of the people became jealous and scared that He would create a riot and would be made King by force, so they got the Romans to crucify Him, not knowing they were accomplishing God's perfect plan.  In their zeal to obey the Law, the killed the very Son of God for telling them who He was.  Imagine being involved in this process, even if you were one of the crowd that got stirred up to say "Crucify Him, Crucify Him," and you were told your only chance to get into heaven was to admit this man died for you and took your place and that you must believe that it was God's eternal plan for that to happen, and now that Man lives forever and ever and will be the Judge of both the living and the dead.  Even if you came to a point where you understood that to be true, how could think that God would forgive you for the murder of His Son?  That would be so hard!

Paul says that since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God that is only available through Christ, they have tried to make their own righteousness by way of the Law, and they therefore do not submit to God's righteousness.  For Christ and His righteousness is the end of the Law, not that the Law is abolished, but it is the end of the sacrificial system of atonement and justification by works (and truly justification has always taken place by faith as we've already seen with Abraham), so that it is those who believe in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who are declared righteous because of who He is and what He has done.