14
Israel, the Gentiles, and the Righteousness of God
Romans 9:30–10:21
Outline
- God’s Righteousness versus “Their Own” Righteousness (9:30–10:13)
- Israel’s Failure to Believe (10:14–21)
Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
- Understand that God’s sovereign election does not negate human responsibility to believe.
- Describe two different interpretations of the way that Christ “ends” the Mosaic law and their theological implications.
- Explain why Israel failed to recognize the revelation of God’s righteousness in Christ.
We will never be able to put together in a neat package the biblical truth that God determines everything that happens with the equally biblical truth that human beings are fully responsible for their actions. The relationship between Romans 9 and Romans 10 mirrors this tension. In Romans 9, Paul teaches that the existence of only a remnant of Jewish believers is because God chose only certain Jews to belong to his true spiritual people. But in Romans 10, he teaches that the Jewish people themselves are at fault for refusing to recognize and submit to God’s righteousness in Christ. Paul says nothing about how these two perspectives are to be integrated. Some interpreters think that Romans 10 explains Romans 9: God does not choose certain Jews for his people, because they have already refused God’s offer of salvation in Christ. Others exactly reverse the relationship: the reason that so many Jews have not accepted Christ is that God has not chosen them. I think that the latter is closer to the truth. But perhaps it is better simply to respect the way that Paul has allowed these two perspectives to stand side by side without resolving them. Jews (and gentiles) belong to God’s people because God has chosen them; Jews (and gentiles) belong to God’s people because they have chosen God.
God’s Righteousness versus “Their Own” Righteousness (9:30–10:13)
The early editors of the Bible placed the chapter break where they did because Paul’s personal comment in 10:1, matching 9:1–2, seems to initiate a new section. But a more important break occurs between 9:29 and 9:30. The question that Paul raises in verse 30 signals a break in the argument; and, with verse 30, Paul introduces a new set of key terminology. Dominating all of 9:30–10:13 is a contrast between two kinds of righteousness:
| “Righteousness that is by faith” (9:30) | “the law as the way of righteousness” (9:31) |
| “God’s righteousness” (10:3) | “their own [righteousness]” (10:3) |
| “The righteousness that is by faith” (10:6) | “the righteousness that is by the law” (10:5) |
Paul uses these contrasts to explain from another angle why salvation history has taken such a surprising turn. Jews, who have so many blessings and to whom so many promises have been made, make up a small percentage of the people of God in the gospel era. Gentiles, on the other hand, have responded to the gospel in significant numbers. Although Paul mentions the gentiles, his main concern in 9:30–10:21 is to explain why Israel in general has been excluded from the messianic people of God. Paul reverts to basic gospel language in helping us to understand this surprising state of affairs. In 1:16–17, the statement of the letter’s theme, Paul explains that the gospel brings salvation because “the righteousness of God” is revealed in it for everyone who believes. We find these same points reiterated and applied to Jews and gentiles in 9:30–10:13. Christ has come, the climax of the law, bringing the possibility of righteousness for everyone who believes (10:4). God blesses anyone, Jew or gentile, who calls on Christ in faith (10:9–13). Gentiles have been included in the new people of God because they responded to the message of the gospel by receiving God’s righteousness in faith (9:30). Jews, however, have stumbled over Christ (9:32b–33). Though God revealed himself to them, and they were zealous for God (10:2), they did not comprehend that Christ was bringing God’s righteousness (10:3). Their preoccupation with the law has kept them from seeing that Jesus of Nazareth is the climax of God’s plan of redemption (9:31–32a; 10:5–8).
Paul begins the section by contrasting gentiles, who obtained righteousness even though they were not pursuing it, with Israel, who pursued but did not obtain it (9:30–31). Using the device of inclusio, Paul returns to the same basic point at the end of this larger section (10:20–21): gentiles who were not seeking the Lord have found him, while Israel, God’s chosen people, are “disobedient and obstinate.” The language of “pursuing” and “obtaining” in 9:30–32 is race imagery, and the idea of Christ being a stone over which people stumble (vv. 32b–33) continues this imagery. Israel is pictured as a runner who is trying to overtake righteousness—a right standing with God. Israel, however, fails to achieve the goal of righteousness. Why? Paul gives two answers in verses 31–33.
Modern-day Jew wearing a prayer shawl and phylacteries while reading at the Wailing Wall (Jim Yancey)
First, Israel failed because they were trying to achieve their goal through works (vv. 31–32a). Because of his introduction of the law at this point, Paul’s intention here is not easy to discern. He says that Israel was pursuing “the law of righteousness” (my translation) but did not attain it because Israel pursued it “not by faith but as if it were by works.” What is this “law of righteousness”? “Law” (nomos) could simply mean “principle.”1 In that case, we could almost ignore the word. Israel’s pursuit of and failure to attain righteousness would be the point. But Paul says too much about the Mosaic law in this context to let us think that we could water down the word in this way here. Almost certainly he means “the Mosaic law in its connection with righteousness.” And if so, Paul might be saying something very significant about that law here: true pursuit of the law must take place by faith and not by works.2 However, such a connection between the law and faith would be most unusual in Paul. He of course would not deny that God’s basic requirement has always been to believe and that this was true in the Mosaic era as in any other. But generally, Paul uses the word “law” in a very specific way: to refer to the commandments that God gave his people through Moses. And commandments, by their very nature, are not to be believed but to be carried out. Note, for instance, how Paul can say in Galatians 3:12 that “the law is not based on faith.” Consistency with Pauline usage makes it difficult to think, then, that he would be faulting Israel here for failing to believe the law. I suggest that confusion arises because Paul is trying to make two points at the same time: (1) Israel failed to achieve righteousness because they sought that righteousness through works; and (2) Israel got hung up with works because they put too much emphasis on the law. Paul’s “law of righteousness” is his attempt to combine these ideas.3
The second reason that Israel failed to achieve righteousness is that they stumbled over “the stumbling stone” (vv. 32b–33). Paul combines two prophecies about stones from Isaiah (8:14; 28:16) and applies them to Christ. For those who put their trust in Christ, he becomes a foundation stone, a stone on which to build a spiritual life. Others, not recognizing who he really is, trip over him and fall. This is what has happened to Israel.
Inscription warning gentiles not to enter the temple if they value their lives (Giovanni Dall’Orto/Wikimedia Commons)
In 10:1–4, Paul describes the failure of Israel from a slightly different perspective. In 9:30–33, Israel’s fall is attributed to the failure to believe. In this new paragraph, it is a failure to understand that leads to Israel’s downfall. Israel’s insight into God’s plan does not match its zeal (10:2). The Jews do not lack passion for God; indeed, they exhibit their commitment to him by following the prescriptions of torah in the midst of a gentile society. Nevertheless, their passion for God is misdirected. Their very passion for the law blinds them to the larger plan of God. Their myopic, tunnel-vision focus on the law and its requirements keeps them from seeing the larger picture. Thus, they do not submit to the righteousness of God revealed in Christ but instead keep seeking to establish “their own [righteousness].” Some interpreters think that “their own” connotes a corporate idea. The Jews cling to their beloved status as God’s people, refusing to concede any place for gentiles within that people. “Their own” righteousness is a national righteousness, a right standing with God that is exclusively for the people of Israel.4 Paul certainly is concerned with national issues in this context, as he emphasizes how God’s work in Christ is “for everyone who believes” (v. 4b; cf. vv. 9–13). However, Paul’s use of very similar language in Philippians 3 suggests a more individual focus. In that chapter, Paul claims that in his preconversion state he had “a righteousness of [his] own that comes from the law” (Phil. 3:9). As a Jew, Paul thought that his right standing with God needed to be validated through his adherence to the law. It is this same preoccupation with the law that Paul now attributes in Romans 10:3 to Israel as a whole.5
Verse 4 explains why Israel was wrong to focus so intently on the law. The law was never intended by God to be his final word. All along it was anticipating something greater to come. Now, that something greater has come: Christ. He is the telos of the law. This little Greek word has stimulated an amazing amount of discussion and debate. Does it mean “end,” in the sense of termination (see, e.g., 1 Cor. 15:24)? Or does it mean “goal” (see, e.g., 1 Tim. 1:5)? Does Christ bring the law to an end? Or is he the inner meaning of the law? Perhaps the best way to answer this question is to go back to the race imagery that Paul has been using in this context. We might picture the law as the race itself. Christ is the finish line. As Israel runs the race of the law, they should always, of course, have their eyes fixed on the finish line. Instead, Paul has been suggesting, Israel concentrated so exclusively on the race that they forgot about the finish line. With the coming of Christ, that finish line has been reached, but Israel does not recognize it. With this imagery in mind, telos has the sense of “climax” or “culmination” (see NIV). Christ does end the law in the sense that his arrival means that the era of torah is over. But also, Christ is the law’s goal, as the law was instituted by God for a set time and a set purpose. It prepared Israel for the coming of the Messiah. Now that the Messiah has come, righteousness is available for everyone who believes.6
Paul has contrasted the righteousness by faith that gentiles discovered with “the law of righteousness” that Israel pursued (9:30–33). He has contrasted “God’s righteousness” with “their own” righteousness (10:1–4). Now he contrasts the “righteousness that is by the law” (v. 5) with “the righteousness that is by faith” (v. 6). Paul describes each kind of righteousness by referring to the Old Testament. The righteousness that is by the law is unpacked through Leviticus 18:5: “The person who does these things will live by them.” This verse had become almost a slogan among the Jews to describe the nature of the law. Paul picks it up to make clear that legal righteousness involves doing. He is not teaching, as some have thought, that the Old Testament teaches that a person can attain eternal life by doing the law. The “life” in Leviticus 18:5 refers to the blessings that the people of Israel would experience if they followed the law that God gave them. It does not mean that an individual Jew could be saved on the basis of doing the law. For Paul, the point of the verse is simply that any righteousness based on law is based on human works; and works, as Paul has made clear earlier in the letter, can never justify us before God, because we are locked up under sin and can never produce enough works to satisfy God (1:18–3:20). To explain the opposite kind of righteousness, the kind that comes by faith, Paul cites language drawn from Deuteronomy 30:12–14 (Rom. 10:6–8). He quotes lines from this text and then applies them to Christ or to the gospel. In Deuteronomy 30, however, Moses is talking about the law of God. He urges the Israelites to recognize that God has made his will available to the people. They don’t have go up into heaven to find it or descend into the deep (the abyss). God’s word, his law, is near them, in their mouths and hearts. The application of these words to Christ and the gospel makes good sense. People do not have to struggle to accomplish a certain level of obedience to please God. Christ has come down from heaven and been raised from the dead to provide all that we need for salvation. All we need to do now is believe the word that has come near to us in the preaching of the gospel.
But if the application of this language to the gospel makes sense in one way, it creates difficulties in another way. How can Paul take words from the Old Testament that refer to the law and apply them to Christ and the gospel? This question has been discussed for many years, as scholars have tried to justify Paul’s hermeneutical procedure. Some think that Paul does not really quote the Old Testament but just borrows its language. Others think that he is influenced by certain Jewish traditions. And still others argue that Deuteronomy 30:11–14 itself is a prophecy about the new covenant.7 The best option is that Paul uses the language from Deuteronomy because it expresses very well the grace of God in his covenant dealings. God makes his word known; he takes the initiative. He did so in the old covenant, as Moses points out. Now, Paul insists, that same grace of God is available in the word of Christ.8 Deuteronomy 30:14 says that God’s word is in the “mouth” and in the “heart.” In verses 9–10, Paul applies both of these to the word of the gospel, in reverse (chiastic) order. If people confess with the mouth that “Jesus is Lord” and believe in the heart that God raised him from the dead, they will be saved.
In the final verses of this section (vv. 11–13), Paul makes the point that this opportunity to confess and to believe is open to everyone. Paul’s main concern in this section, as we have seen, is to show why Israel fell short of the goal of right standing with God. A subsidiary purpose is to show how the gentiles have now found that right standing. The coming of Christ, ending the law (v. 4), opens up God’s grace to the gentiles in a new way. Now, as the Old Testament teaches, “anyone” who trusts in Christ will “never be put to shame” (v. 11, quoting Isa. 28:16; cf. Rom. 9:33). “Everyone” who calls on Christ’s name can be saved (v. 13, quoting Joel 2:32). And in verse 12, Paul makes quite clear that this “anyone” and “everyone” refers especially to Jew and gentile. The new age is a time when God opens wide the doors of salvation to all people. No longer is his plan focused on one people, Israel.
Israel’s Failure to Believe (10:14–21)
Many of us are probably familiar with verses 14–15 in this section because of missionary sermons. Paul’s insistence that people must be sent so that the message about Christ can be proclaimed and believed provides a natural launchpad for an appeal to serve Christ in missions. Although I don’t question that the text can be used in this way, we should note that stimulating interest in missions is not Paul’s purpose here. The paragraph as a whole focuses on the situation of Israel. Paul has said in verse 2 of this chapter that Israel’s zeal for God was not accompanied by “knowledge.” But could Israel be faulted for not knowing what God was doing in Christ? Had they been given the opportunity to learn God’s purposes and so respond properly to them? Yes, Paul answers in verses 14–21. These verses show that Israel had heard about God’s purposes and had indeed understood something about them. Thus, the Jews are culpable when they don’t respond. In a sentence: they knew but did not believe.
The so-called chain of evangelism in verses 14–15 is a general statement that sets up Paul’s discussion of Israel’s situation in verses 16–21. In verse 13, quoting Joel 2:32, Paul affirms that salvation depends on calling on the Lord. Paul works back from this requirement. To call on the Lord, one must believe. But to believe, one must hear the message. And for the message to be heard, someone must proclaim that message. And proclaiming the message happens only if people are sent to proclaim it. Again, Paul’s point here is not that people need to get involved in preaching the gospel—as true as that may be. His point is that God has sent people to preach. This first and vital step in the process that leads to salvation has been taken. Paul quotes Isaiah 52:7 to make this point: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” God has sent a constant stream of prophets and apostles proclaiming God’s purpose and inviting response. Paul and his fellow evangelists represent the latest phase in this great task of proclamation. Nevertheless, according to Paul himself, it goes back at least as far as Abraham (see Gal. 3:8).
So the problem is not with God; it is with Israel. As Paul puts it in verse 16, “not all the Israelites accepted the good news.” (“Israelites” is the NIV interpretation of the vague “they” of the Greek text and appears to be justified.) That good news, the message about Christ, is the necessary condition for faith (v. 17), but Israel has not, in general, responded in faith. Isaiah, in his fourth and greatest Servant Song, wonders if anyone will believe the message (Isa. 53:1, quoted in v. 16b). Israel should have believed, because Israel has heard (v. 18) and understood (v. 19). Paul quotes Psalm 19:4 to buttress the former point. What is interesting about this quotation is that Psalm 19 is about God’s natural revelation to the entire world. We need to realize that Paul does not always quote the Old Testament to prove a theological point (see the sidebar “The Many Uses of Quotations”). He sometimes uses the language of the Old Testament to express a new truth. Here he borrows language about God’s universal revelation in nature to assert that God has revealed his special purpose in the gospel to Israel in general. But God has done more than that. Ever since the time of Moses, Paul suggests, God also has been making clear his ultimate intention to bring blessing to people outside the nation of Israel. Deuteronomy 32:21 predicts that God will use gentiles to make the Israelites envious and stir up their anger (v. 19). Isaiah also prophesies that people who were not seeking God (the gentiles; cf. Rom. 9:30) will find him (10:20, quoting Isa. 65:1). And the Old Testament predicts not only the inclusion of gentiles but also the setting aside of many Israelites. Paul therefore appropriately concludes this passage with a quotation (from Isa. 65:2) that sounds notes of both judgment and grace. Israel is “disobedient and obstinate,” but God still holds out his hands to them.