Sermon Tone Analysis

Wenstrom Bible Ministries

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Thursday May 7, 2009

www.wenstrom.org

Romans: Romans 10:3a-Israel Did Not Have An Experiential Knowledge Of God Because They Rejected God’s Righteousness

Lesson # 331

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 10:1.

This evening we will study Romans 10:3a and in his passage Paul presents the reason why unsaved Israel did not have an experiential knowledge of God in the sense that they did not personally encounter God through faith as He is revealed in the person and works of Jesus of Nazareth.

The reason he states is that they rejected God’s righteousness, which is offered in the gospel.

Sunday we will study Romans 10:3b, in which Paul intensifies this statement in Romans 10:3a by teaching that because the Jews zealously sought to establish their own righteousness, they never submitted to God’s righteousness, which is offered in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let’s read the first paragraph in the chapter, which appears in verses 1-4 and then concentrate on verse 3 for the rest of the evening.

Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”

Romans 10:2, “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.”

Romans 10:3, “For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”

Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

Let’s now look at verse 3 in detail.

Romans 10:3, “For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”

“For” is the “causal” use of the post-positive conjunction gar (gavr), which introduces the “reason” for Paul’s statement in Romans 10:2.

Romans 10:2 teaches that the reason for Paul’s consuming desire and intercessory prayer to the Father for the salvation of the unregenerate citizens of the nation of Israel is that they have a zeal for God but it is not according to an experiential knowledge of Him.

By an experiential knowledge I mean that they did not personally encounter God through faith as He was revealed in the person and works of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth.

Now, in Romans 10:3, Paul employs the conjunction gar to introduce a statement that presents the “reason why” Israel did not possess an experiential knowledge of God.

They did not “because” they rejected God’s righteousness.

Thus, by way of implication, Romans 10:3 presents the reason why the nation of Israel was never justified through obedience to the Law.

“Not knowing” is the nominative masculine plural present active participle form of the verb agnoeo (a)gnoevw) (ag-no-eh-o), which means, “to reject” God’s righteousness.

This righteousness originates from God and is offered in the gospel as a gift from Him and is imputed by Him to the sinner the moment they exercise faith in His Son Jesus Christ resulting in the Father declaring the sinner justified.

The word does not mean “to be ignorant” since the nation of Israel was exposed over and over again as to the manner in which God justified a sinner through their own Old Testament Scriptures, the teaching of Jesus Christ and the apostles.

The nation of Israel “rejected” God’s righteousness in the sense that they refused to recognize that the righteousness of God can never be attained by obedience to the Law but rather is received from God as a gift and imputed by means of faith in Jesus Christ, which results in justification.

Thus by implication they rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ since this is the content of the gospel for those sinners who seek to be justified by God.

The present tense is a “retroactive progressive present” indicating that Israel “in the past” rejected the righteousness of God and “continues to do so up to the time Paul wrote this epistle.”

Romans 10:3, “For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”

“God’s righteousness” is composed of the articular accusative feminine singular form of the noun dikaiosune (dikaiosuvnh) (dik-ah-yos-oo-nay), “righteousness” and the articular genitive masculine singular form of the noun theos (qeov$) (theh-os), “God’s.”

The noun dikaiosune refers to the righteousness that originates from God as indicated by its genitive adjunct tou theou.

The context implies that dikaiosune is the righteousness of God that is offered in the gospel as a gift from the Father and is received by the sinner and is imputed to the sinner the moment the sinner exercises faith in His Son Jesus Christ, which in turn results in justification.

In other words, it refers to God’s righteousness that can never be attained by the sinner through obedience to the Law but only through faith alone in Christ alone.

It is the righteousness of God that is received by faith in contrast to the righteousness that is based upon obedience to the Law.

With the former, the Father justifies the sinner whereas with latter, He condemns them to the lake of fire since the latter demands perfect obedience to the Law, which sinners have no capacity to do.

The fact that dikaiosune refers to God’s righteousness that is received through faith alone in Christ alone in contrast to obedience to the Law is clearly implied by the context.

In Romans 10:3, the statement agnoountes gar ten tou theou dikaiosunen, “they are always ignoring God’s righteousness” stands in contrast to the phrase ten idian dikaiosunen zetountes stesai, “seeking to establish their own righteousness.”

The latter speaks of the Jews own efforts to measure up to the Law by means of obedience to it in order to be justified.

This stands in contrast to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which Paul proclaimed and taught, namely God’s righteousness is received as a gift by the sinner from God and imputed to the sinner the moment they trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior, which results in Him declaring the sinner justified.

Also, in Romans 10:3, the statement te dikaiosune tou theou ouch hupetagesan, “they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God” means that the Jews did not respond in faith to the gospel and trust in Jesus Christ so as to receive God’s righteousness as a gift in order to be declared justified.

In Romans 9:30-31, Paul presented a paradox in that the Gentile who did not pursue righteousness, obtained it by means of faith as a source while in contrast the Jews who zealously pursued a righteousness based upon obedience to the Law never measured up to the Law because they were sinners by nature.

Then, in Romans 9:32-33, he teaches that the Jews never measured up to the Law because they never pursued it on the basis of faith as a constituting the source of justification.

In fact, they stumbled by means of the stone, which causes stumbling Jesus Christ who was crucified.

He also says in verse 33 that God anticipated this rejection of His Son, however, those who do exercise absolute confidence in His Son, will never be disappointed.

Furthermore, in Romans 10:4, Paul teaches that faith in Christ is the purpose of the Law resulting in righteousness to everyone who “believes.”

Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

Then, in Romans 10:5 Paul teaches that under the Mosaic Law, a person who practices the righteousness, which is based on obedience to the Law shall live by that righteousness.

Romans 10:5, “For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.”

But in contrast to this, in Romans 10:6-7, he speaks of the righteousness that is based upon “faith” in Christ.

In fact, in Romans 10:5-15, Paul presents the solution to Israel’s rejection of Jesus Christ, which is obedience to the Gospel by exercising faith alone in Christ alone.

Next, in Romans 10:16-21, Paul presents the results of Israel’s failure to accept by faith Jesus of Nazareth as their Savior, which was anticipated by God in the prophets of the Old Testament.

So we can see from Romans 9:30-10:21, that Paul is teaching that the Jews have in the past rejected God’s righteousness and continue to do so up to the present moment in the sense that they do not respond in faith to the gospel so as to trust in Jesus Christ as Savior so as to receive this righteousness and be declared justified.

Therefore, in Romans 10:3a, Paul teaches that the reason why unsaved Israel did not have an experiential knowledge of God in the sense that they did not personally encounter Him through faith as He is revealed in the person and works of Jesus of Nazareth was that they rejected God’s righteousness, which is offered in the gospel.