Romans 10:1-4 “It All”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Brothers, the pleasure of my heart and the prayer toward God of them are into salvation, ²for I testify to them that they have zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, ³for, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they were not submitted to the righteousness of God, ⁴for Christ [is the] end of law into righteousness to everyone believing.

Verse 4 is really the key to understanding all of this business about Legal vs. Grace righteousness: “For Christ is the end of law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” As John said, “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (1:17). Truly knowing and understanding Jesus is the key to understanding it all.

As we noted in the last post, Legal righteousness makes perfect sense to our fallen minds: You have to do right to be right. On the other hand, anyone who is truly born-again understands we cannot be saved by our works. We all know that “the wages of sin is death,” and that “there is none righteous, no not one,” that salvation can only be through faith in Jesus, that it is, “by grace, through faith.” Paul already very clearly established all of this in the first three chapters of Romans.

Born-again people understand this, when it comes to their salvation itself. What I’m suggesting is that the problem comes when we are considering the whole business of living life. In other words, we understand grace and faith when it comes to our salvation, but what about our daily lives?  Now that we’ve been saved by grace, do we then return to law-keeping for our lives every day? Do we not see that “do right/be right” is the same Legal righteousness which the Israelites pursued – and got it wrong?

As we would think about this passage, right off the bat, I want to acknowledge again that Grace righteousness makes no sense to our fallen minds. “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him. Neither can he understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. 2:14). Only truly born-again, Spirit-indwelt people will understand Grace righteousness. The problem is – but do they? Do I? Do you? Have you ever stopped to seriously consider what is going on in your head all day every day? Is it Legal righteousness – the “Do right/be right,” or is it Grace righteousness – “Be right/Do right”?

“Christ is the end of the Law.” Scholars argue whether that means He brought an end to the Law, or if it means “end” in the sense of “goal” or “fulfillment.” Personally, I think the simple answer is that it means both. The Greek word for “end” means the same thing as our word “end.” It can either mean “end” in the sense of completion, like the end of the journey, or it can mean goal, as when we might say, “The end I’m shooting for is to…” So, in Greek or English, “end” means both.

Think about it: The whole universe is under God’s Law. He is the King and to displease Him is literally an act of cosmic treason against our King! Apart from Jesus, you and I are 100% under that Law and obligated to fulfill its every demand. Our natural minds grossly underestimate the enormity of our sins – not realizing they are offenses against the infinite, holy God! And what does that mean? It means that every sin is an infinite offense. It is God we have offended! He is the infinite King and we are rebels against His rightful rule. Again, every sin is literally an act of cosmic treason and therefore, it is punishable by an infinite death. That introduces a terrible consequence for each of us, as us finite creatures can never repay the price of an infinite punishment. That is precisely why hell is forever!

If Law-keeping is required, you and I are abjectly hopeless! Enter Jesus. “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” and “by His stripes, we are healed” (Isa. 53). Jesus, by the Cross, brought an end to Law in exactly this sense. Without Him, there is only Law – and us cosmic rebels are doomed. However, as Paul already showed in Romans, “But now, a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known…this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe…He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (3:21-26).

For those who believe, Jesus is the end of Law as the standard by which we please the King. However, He was also, from the beginning, the “end” of Law, in the sense that He was the very goal to which Law was pointing us. Col. 2:17 says, speaking of Law, “These are a shadow of the things that were to come, the reality, however, is found in Christ.” Everything about the law of Moses was supposed to point people to Jesus. As Paul says in Gal. 3:24, “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ…” 

When the Risen Jesus spoke to the two disciples on the Emmaus Road, it says “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Lk. 24:27). For the Jews to have not seen Jesus “in all the Scriptures” meant they’d missed the point of it all! And for you and me, even in our daily lives, what is “the point of it all?” What is the good for which all things “work together?” Is it not “that we should be conformed to the image of Christ?” The “end” we’re aiming for is Jesus!

Even Law itself points us to Jesus. Our hopelessness and guilt ought to point us to faith in Jesus. And having been born again by that faith, the whole point of it all is for us to become more and more like Jesus. “Beholding His image, we’re changed into that image, even from glory to glory” (II Cor. 4:18). He is the end of law as our schoolmaster and saves us by faith, then He Himself and His likeness become the end or goal of that faith. Christ truly is “the end of law.” To know Him is life itself! “For this is eternal life, that they might know You and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (Jn. 17:3).

I guess we’re back to “zeal without knowledge.” How sad that people can be “zealous for God” and yet miss Jesus – which means in reality they missed it all! The challenge comes back to you and me and I would suggest that is true particularly in our daily lives. “The just shall live by faith.” Christ is “the end of law for righteousness for everyone who believes.” Are we filling our hearts and minds with Him and sincerely seeking to let Him be the reason for all we do – Grace righteousness – or “seeking to establish our own” – Legal righteousness?

It doesn’t make sense, but then it does – in Jesus.

Romans 10:1-4 “Righteous”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Brothers, the pleasure of my heart and the prayer toward God of them are into salvation, ²for I testify to them that they have zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, ³for, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they were not submitted to the righteousness of God, ⁴for Christ [is the] end of law into righteousness to everyone believing.

Righteousness. That’s not a word that people use today, except in jest, yet the truth is still everyone wants to be “right.” No one likes to be told or even think they’re “wrong.” Being right in the eyes of other people is one thing. Being right in the eyes of God is obviously something entirely different. People’s aversion to being considered “wrong” is reflected today in the very fact that they don’t want to hear about sin. If there even is such a thing as “sin,” they want to be the ones to say what it is – and isn’t.

Yet, for us born-again people, righteousness is still an important concept. For those of us who are older, we grew up in a world where the Bible was still respected and the Ten Commandments were a big deal. We simply knew there was right and wrong. I’m not so sure people were any more moral back then, but at least, when they did wrong, they knew it and it bothered them. For many, many people, it was that relentless, nagging conscience that drove them to Christ.

Regardless of what brought us to Him, as believers, we now think a lot about these issues of “right and wrong,” and that is precisely this matter of righteousness. The question then is, how can we be “righteous?” Before we jump to an answer, look again at our text. Somebody got it wrong! The people of Israel “did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own" and so “they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” Back in chapter 9, Paul had said “That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not obtained it. And why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works” (v30-32).

Notice there are clearly two kinds of righteousness. There is a righteousness “that is by faith,” and a righteousness “by works.” Anyone who’s been around church for any length of time is probably saying, “Well, of course. Everyone knows that.” However, we should all stop and notice, when it comes to Israel, we’re talking about people who had the Scriptures and who were even “zealous for God.” As those people thought about righteousness, what made sense to them? Well…if you want to be right, you have to do right. Basically, you need to keep the Ten Commandments. Right?

Somehow that makes perfect sense to our human minds. Yet what is that? It is the very righteousness the Israelites pursued and our text is telling us they got it wrong. Before we dismiss their failure, we need to pause and remember we’re no different than them. What made sense to them actually makes sense to us. You want to be right, you have to do right. Right? How can that not be right?

I would suggest even born-again people need to do some serious thinking about this whole business. The next verse in our text tells us “Christ is the end of the law,” and we all cheer and say, “Yes, He is my righteousness!” If that is your testimony, good for you. However, have you ever realized you still find yourself thinking about this matter of righteousness? Even counting on Christ for your salvation, are you not still having to address this issue of righteousness? Are you not still thinking a lot about right and wrong? And is it not still making sense to you, if you want to be right, you have to do right? Yes? So, how is your thinking any different than Israel’s?

If you are following me, I hope you are realizing we’ve got ourselves in a conundrum. We’re counting on Christ for our salvation, then promptly reverting right back to the very “righteousness” that made sense to the Israelites, and we’re being told they got it wrong!

Even if you are already born-again – saved by faith in Christ – we all still need to realize there are two kinds of righteousness. According to our text, there is “God’s righteousness,” which is a righteousness “of faith,’ and then there is a “law of righteousness,” a kind that is “by works,” a kind that we “seek to establish on our own.”

Which is yours? Even as you would trust Christ for your eternal salvation, as you go about your day, what sort of righteousness are you living? Is it “do right” and “be right?” If that is true, why did Paul assert in Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace”? Why didn’t he say, “Sin shall not be your master. You must do right”? Why did suddenly grace take front stage?

Here is what is going on and how it makes sense to me: I call the two “ways” Legal righteousness and Grace righteousness. Legal righteousness is, it would seem, very simple. It’s “do right – be right.” The Ten Commandments say. “You shall not commit murder.” Cool. I haven’t murdered anyone (yet), so by that standard, I am righteous. They say, “You shall not steal.” I haven’t stolen anything (lately), so that makes me righteous. It says, “You shall not lie.” I haven’t lied (at least since yesterday – it’s currently 4:53 AM), so I’m righteous, right? Of course, the more we dig, the more we have to admit that, well, of course I have failed before, but I’m trying not to. As long as I’m successful, I’m righteous, right?

That’s all Legal righteousness. That’s the one that makes perfect sense to us, but it’s Israel’s righteousness and our text is telling us, they got it wrong! Then there is Grace righteousness. It is the “righteousness of faith.” It is “God’s righteousness.” It is the one “the Gentiles pursued,” and they got it right. Rather than “do right/be right,” Grace righteousness says “Be right and you will do right.” The Law says, “Do this and live.” Grace says, “Live! And do this.” The Law whips a dead horse and can’t get it to pull the wagon. Under grace, it is the Spirit that gives us life, and so we live. Instead of whipping the poor dead horse, grace brings him back from the dead, then offers him the chance to be and do exactly what he was created for – to pull the wagon.

Let’s be frank up front – Grace righteousness doesn’t make sense. That’s because it is spiritually discerned. It is simply beyond our fallen minds. Only those who have come to Christ for salvation to begin with – those who do understand what it means to be saved by faith – can understand how that same faith, that same grace, is actually the righteousness I live. This is exactly what Paul is talking about in I Cor. 2:9-16, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard…” We’re talking about something that is “spiritually discerned.”

Jesus said, “Without Me, you can do nothing.” He said we must “abide in the vine.” Grace starts with Him. For me, all day every day, Grace righteousness is all about Him, not me. As I sincerely seek to know Him, to constantly know Him better, to let His Spirit by my spirit, to humbly acknowledge it’s true – without Him, I can do nothing – and prayerfully beg Him to help me live, then I find myself actually doing right. However, even if I do, I’m keenly aware it was Him, not me, that did it. It wasn’t my “trying” that gave me the wisdom or strength, it was Him. That’s Grace righteousness.

Grace first gives us life, then helps us to live. It is be right/do right. Then the wonderful thing about grace is that, when we fail (which is most of the time), it doesn’t reach for the whip, it stretches out its hand and says, “Hey, you who are highly favored, let me help you up. Let’s try this again (and again, and again, and again…). God’s grace in Christ means we are loved, so we can live loved. The same grace that saved us in Christ is the same grace that daily gives us life.

One more thought on this – the difference is that grace means we live a love relationship with God. The more I know Him, the more I keep before my mind His wonderful grace, the more I love Him – precisely because I realize how much He first loved me, the more I want to love Him. If I’m sitting in His big loving lap, wrapped in His big loving arms, how can I do and say and think things I know displease Him? In spite of my awful sin nature, I actually don’t want to sin. I don’t want to think those awful thoughts. I don’t want to be coarse. I don’t want to be unkind. I can actually honestly tell Him, I want to be confirmed in holiness, like the good angels. I want to be a person who doesn’t even want to sin.

When grace gets us there, can we all see we are but one step from heaven itself?

May grace help us all to “abide in the Vine.” May our righteousness be His, until the day He takes us home and truly makes us righteous!

Whether anything I’ve said makes any sense to you or not, I hope this text in Romans 10 has at least made you stop and ponder your own understanding of righteousness. Some people got it wrong. Some people got it right. I’m quite sure I know which you want to be!

 

Romans 10:1-4 “Zeal Without Knowledge”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Brothers, the pleasure of my heart and the prayer toward God of them are into salvation, ²for I testify to them that they have zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, ³for, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they were not submitted to the righteousness of God, ⁴for Christ [is the] end of law into righteousness to everyone believing.

I wish the whole world could read verse 2 and take it seriously. “For I can testify about them that the are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.” Oh, wow. Prov. 19:2 says, “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” Any older adult can see that young people are often filled with zeal for this or that, but so often simply foolish. A friend of mine once said, “Youth is wasted on the young.” I look back on my own life and can say I spent an enormous amount of time and energy on a lot of things which I now realize were a complete waste of time.

I used to puzzle over Jesus’ words, “For without Me, you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). At the time, I was rushing hither and yon doing this and that, thinking I was serving the Lord, yet I didn’t really take the time to be sure what I was doing was God’s will and not just my own. Now I can see how little was accomplished for all that effort. “Zeal without knowledge.” “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge.”

This first of all brings us back to where we ended the last post. What is knowledge? Where do we get truth? Christian people should answer quickly, “from the Bible.” That is true, of course, but look at the case in point. We’re looking in Romans 9 at the Jewish people. Did they have the Bible? Of course they did. Not only that, but they thought they were champions of Bible study. Jesus said of them, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life…” (Jn. 5:39). We have before us an entire people group who not only had the Scriptures, but also studied them, and, according to Paul, were even “zealous for God.” Yet he could say of them, their zeal was “not according to knowledge.”

“How can that be?” every Christian should ask themself. I would suggest we are back to our simple little adage, we have to “let it say what it says.” The Pharisees may have been diligent students of the Bible, but they went to that Bible with their minds already made up. The passages they did not like, they simply ignored or derived fanciful interpretations to explain away. And where did that get them? It made them “zealous for God,” but as Jesus warned His disciples, “A time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God” (Jn. 16:2). Not only did they kill the disciples, they even killed the Messiah Himself!

Wow, is it not good to have zeal without knowledge!

The challenge to us born-again believers is to be sincerely trying to go to the Bible prayerfully, to be humbly asking the Lord to give us light, seeking to understand what it says, then simply believing it, embracing it, and seeking to live it. And I want to assert here that this isn’t some daunting assignment. The Lord didn’t give us the Bible to confuse us. He didn’t make it hard to understand. I am personally amazed at how simple it is – if we simply let it “say what it says.” We may often run across passages where we can’t figure out what they mean, but I would suggest there will always be plenty that will be “all too clear,” and it’s on those things we should build our faith. God’s Holy Spirit is more than able to “lead me on level ground” (Ps. 143:10), to be that voice behind us saying, “Here is the way. Walk ye in it” (Isa. 30:21).

What a shame it is to see our whole world filled with zeal in so many ways, yet to see it so misplaced. The radical Muslims think they’re “zealous for God,” then reign in terror. Look at how horrifically the Taliban and the Iranian government treat their people. It would seem their favorite pastime is murder. Their hatred and cruelty may be obvious to the rest of the world, but they actually think they’re “zealous for God.” Then we can say, they may be one of the worst examples, yet the whole world is filled with people trying to be “religious” yet completely missing the way. Our world is full of “zeal without knowledge.”

We could multiply examples of people sitting on top of poles or cloistering themselves away. We could point out the Hasidic Jews or the Amish or Buddhist monks or whoever is the latest cult following. However, I fear we American Christians need to look much closer to home, if we would profit from reading Paul’s words here. We need to ask ourselves how much of what we call our “faith” is really based on the Bible and how much of it is just more of the “traditions of men?”

I suppose the real question comes down to, “Do I know God?” Jesus said, “For this is eternal life, that they might know You…” (Jn. 17:3). Do I truly know Him? Do I “practice His presence?” In my own heart and mind, is that really the measure of my “faith?” If I couldn’t do any the things we Christians would call our “religion,” would I still have the treasure of my relationship with Him? Is the essence of my faith a Martha or am I truly a Mary?

“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge.” We would learn from the Jews it is even possible to be “zealous for God,” and still to completely miss the way. Lord, may You truly be the very center and essence of my faith. May everything I think and do arise from that relationship. Then may people all around the world, especially born-again Christians, pause and consider their own hearts. May we all buy from Jesus “gold refined in the fire…and white clothes to wear…and salve for our eyes, so we can see!” (Rev. 3:18). May our “zeal” be based on knowledge we get directly from the Word of God and may it truly be a zeal that “brings forth much fruit” (Jn. 15:5).

 

Romans 10:1-4 “Truth”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Brothers, the pleasure of my heart and the prayer toward God of them are into salvation, ²for I testify to them that they have zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, ³for, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they were not submitted to the righteousness of God, ⁴for Christ [is the] end of law into righteousness to everyone believing.

It’s interesting that Romans 10 immediately follows Romans 9. The whole point of Romans 9, it would seem, was to assert the Lord’s absolute sovereignty, particularly in relation to salvation. “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,” He said in v.14. To those who don’t like to hear that, He asks, “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” (v.20). That’s it. End of discussion. God’s sovereignty, His choosing, predestination are all simply Biblical facts revealed to us by the God who says, “For My ways are not your ways, nor My thoughts your thoughts…” (Isa. 55:8).

Now in Romans 10, right at the outset, we find Paul praying for people’s salvation! Reading ahead down to v.9, we read the familiar, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Notice the “that if…” What this chapter will unequivocally assert is that your salvation is entirely up to you(!). Romans 9 taught us God’s absolute sovereignty. Romans 10 teaches us our absolute responsibility!

These two truths – sovereignty and responsibility – have been a theological battleground for centuries. Frankly, I think that has been only so much wasted ink. Romans 9 is very clear. Romans 10 is very clear. They’re both right there in the Bible and here they even each get an entire chapter and that right next to each other. What is there to argue about – unless someone simply doesn’t like what they’re reading? (Or doesn’t read it at all…) Once again, if we would study our Bible, let it say what it says, and only then ponder its meaning, personally I don’t see where there’s even any room for discussion. A believer’s place in this world is to realize we are the creation, He is the Creator. We are just people. He is God. We dwell in time and space. He inhabits eternity.

I would suggest that this subject of eternal salvation emerges from so deeply in the timeless, eternal, incomprehensible councils of the infinite God, it is simply beyond our understanding. We need to simply read and study our Bibles, see what God says, believe it, and go on to live our lives in light of those truths. Period.

Paul believed that and what do we find him doing even as the chapter opens? Praying for people’s salvation. Telling them, “If you…” Actually, he ended chapter 9 already acknowledging these truths when he quoted “and the one who trusts in Him will never be ashamed.” That said, let us rest in the security of our God’s absolute sovereignty, then never stop praying and longing for the salvation of our family and friends. As long as they still have breath in their lungs, it will remain true, “If you…”

Another thought arises for me from just verse 1 (which only reiterates 9:1-5). In general, I love reading anything the Reformers recorded. On the whole, they were champions of studying the Bible and letting it say what it says. On the other hand, one thing that is shocking is to read their vicious antipathy toward the Jewish people. It would seem they hated the Jewish people and couldn’t say enough bad about them. “Christ-killers” they called them. That antipathy was so bad and so prevalent that, to this day, I understand that, if you go to Israel and identify yourself as a Christian, they will assume you hate them. You have to tell them you are an Evangelical, then they are assured you are their friend.

It is true. They crucified the Messiah. Peter accosted them with that truth in Acts 3:11-26, when he said, “You killed the Author of life, but God raised Him from the dead…” However, notice he then urges them, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be forgiven…” Peter didn’t hate them. Like Paul, the desire of his heart and his prayer for them was for their salvation. Once again, I don’t see how anyone can read the Bible, let it say what it says, and have anything but love in their heart for God’s chosen people, the Jews.

The wonderful thing about the Bible is that it is the Truth. The more we would read it, study it, understand it, and embrace its truths, the more we become the very people God’ created us to be. We don’t have to understand how it all fits together, just believe it and live it. Paul did. Peter did. Daniel did. You and I can too.