Romans 10.3b-Israel Never Submitted To God's Righteousness Because They Zealously Sought To Establish Their Own
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday May 10, 2009
Romans: Romans 10:3b-Israel Never Submitted To God’s Righteousness Because They Zealously Sought To Establish Their Own
Lesson # 332
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 10:1.
Last Thursday evening we studied Romans 10:3a and in this 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.
This morning 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 morning.
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.”
The statement “for not knowing about God’s righteousness” presents 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.
Namely, they rejected God’s righteousness, which is offered in the gospel.
After this statement we have the word “and,” which is the “intensifying” use of the conjunction kai (kaiV), which introduces a statement that supports Paul’s statement that Israel has in the past rejected God’s righteousness that is received by faith alone in Christ alone and continues to do so up to the present moment.
“Seeking” is the nominative masculine plural present active participle form of the verb zeteo (zhtevw) (dzay-the-o), which means, “to zealously seek after” something, which in our context is the Jews zealously seeking to establish their own righteousness.
The present tense is a “retroactive progressive present” indicating that Israel “in the past” zealously sought to establish their own righteousness and “continued to do so up to the time Paul wrote this epistle.”
The verb functions as a “participle of cause” indicating that “because” the nation of Israel in the past has zealously sought to establish their own righteousness and continues to do so up to the time Paul wrote the Roman epistle, they never subjected themselves to God’s righteousness.
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.”
“Their own” indicates that the noun dikaiosune, “righteousness” that the Jews zealously sought to establish was their own relative righteousness indicating that they were “self-righteous.”
“They did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God” indicates that Israel never submitted to God’s righteousness in the sense that they never responded in faith to the gospel and obeyed the command to trust in Jesus Christ so as to receive God’s righteousness as a gift in order to be declared justified.
“The righteousness of God” is offered to the sinner in the gospel and is received by the sinner as a gift from the Father and imputed to the sinner by Him 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 Bible teaches that there are two categories of righteousness: (1) Absolute righteousness originating in the essence of God revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God and in the Person of Christ (2) Relative righteousness, which is rooted in man’s comparison of himself with other men.
The Bible teaches that the entire human race both Jew and Gentile do not measure up to the righteousness of God and are therefore condemned before God but qualified for grace (Romans 1:18-3:20).
God does not accept relative human righteousness but rather demands His own absolute perfect righteousness.
The only way that man can acquire this absolute perfect righteousness required by God to have a relationship with Him is by means of faith alone in Christ alone.
Man’s relative righteousness falls infinitely short of God’s absolute righteousness in the Person of Christ.
Isaiah 64:6, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
The righteousness of God can never be attained by anyone through human power and dynamics or by keeping the Mosaic Law but rather it is received as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ who is the righteousness of God incarnate.
Titus 3:5-7, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to {the} hope of eternal life.”
The nation of Israel sought to establish their own righteousness rather than accept by faith the righteousness of God in the Person of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:1-10).
The Lord was made our Substitute in order that we might receive the imputation of God’s righteousness and live in that righteousness.
2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
1 Peter 2:24, “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”
Paul teaches in Romans 1:16-17 that the righteousness of God is revealed through the presentation of the gospel.
Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.’”
Paul teaches in Romans 3:21-26 that the righteousness of God is not received by obedience to the Law but as a gift from the Father and imputed to the sinner by Him the moment the sinner exercises faith in His Son Jesus Christ, which in turn results in justification.
Romans 3:21-26, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Paul teaches in Romans 4:1-5 that the righteousness of God was imputed to Abraham when he exercised faith in the Lord.
Romans 4:1-5, “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.’ Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.”
So in Romans 10:3, 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, namely, they rejected God’s righteousness, which is offered in the gospel.
He also intensifies this 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.