Salvation for Jews and Gentiles

Intro

Romans 9:30-10:17

Context

You’ll remember from last week, the Apostle Paul began to answer the question, “why haven’t the majority of the Jews believed?”

This was a question that he anticipated was at the forefront of the minds of those in Paul’s original audience who were Jewish.

If righteousness through faith has been achieved through Jesus Christ, then why are the majority of the Jews rejecting it?

But as we will see this week and next, it is not as though God had totally abandoned the Jews in Paul’s day.

Salvation through faith in Christ was for the Jews as much as it was for the Gentiles

But the majority of the Jews committed themselves to pursue salvation by a means other than through faith in Christ.

Exegesis

Righteousness by Faith (9:30-33)

Our passage this morning begins in c. 9 vv. 30-33 where the Apostle Paul writes:

Romans 9:30–33 ESV

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

Remember from last week that this section, Romans 9-12, is all about salvation.

This is what Paul means when he uses the word “righteousness”.

Righteousness means to be declared righteous in the sight of God.

That is what is meant by the word righteousness. A declaration of moral innocence in God’s eyes.

And here in our passage Paul compares righteousness by faith, to the righteousness that the Jews were pursuing through the law.

The language that is used here is that of a foot race.

We see the word “pursue” used three times

as well as the word “stumbled”.

This is intentional.

Attained by the Gentiles

In v. 30 , when Paul says, “That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it”

He means; that if there was a race - to be declared righteous in the sight of God

the Gentiles were not running in it.

It was not even in their minds to pursue righteousness.

Yet he says, some have attained it.

Righteousness that is by faith.

Not Attained by National Israel

Paul contrasts those gentiles who were not at all running the race towards righteousness,

with Israel who certainly thought they were running towards righteousness.

But even though Israel was running a race, they did not succeed in reaching what they thought they were pursuing.

Rather instead of pursuing righteousness in the sight of God through faith, they pursued it through works of the law.

Though they were with great effort running a race, they were running on the wrong course.

And because of their insistence to pursue works of the law; Jesus, who was the means could receive righteousness by faith,

became instead a stumbling block to Israel.

Paul here quotes Isaiah 8 and 28, demonstrating that for those who receive righteousness through faith, the Lord Jesus is the foundation stone. As v. 33 says, “‘whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’”

But for Israel, this foundation stone has become a stone of stumbling.

1 Corinthians 1:23 says the same thing.

1 Corinthians 1:23 ESV

but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

The Cross of Christ as Stumbling Block

A stumbling block is something that trips you up, that makes you fall.

And Jesus was a stumbling block to the Jews in Paul’s day because nothing about his Gospel affirmed their ethnic pride or self righteousness.

Think about this for a moment:

When Paul or one of the Apostles preached the Gospel to the Jews, they would hear as the main point of the message that their Messiah had come, but that they had rejected him and had him put to death.

This was a key point in Peter’s sermon at pentecost. He says in Acts 2:22-23

Acts 2:22–23 ESV

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

How could the nation that held God’s law in such high regard,

who pursued with vigour righteousness in the sight of God,

how could they have put their own messiah to death?

Two Responses to the Stumbling Block

Now the Jews when they heard the Gospel would often respond in one of two ways.

1. Repentance

We see the first possible response in the example of Peter’s sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2.

Starting with Peter’s words in v. 36, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.””

Then we read in v. 37, Acts 2:37 “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’”

It was then that Peter told them to repent and be baptized, and around three thousand Jews received righteousness by faith that day!

Repentance and faith was the response the Apostles were hoping for as they preached the Gospel to their fellow Israelites.

2. Rejection

But, more often than not, when the Jews heard this message, the cross and the man who had hung from it became a stumbling block for them.

Rather than repentance and faith, they doubled down on their pursuit of righteousness through works of the law,

rejecting altogether the righteousness that comes through faith.

Sincerely Getting it Wrong (10:1-4)

Paul continues his line of thought in c. 10.

As in the beginning of c. 9, we see Paul’s heart for the salvation of the Jews in c. 10 vv. 1-4. He writes this:

Romans 10:1–4 ESV

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Misplaced Zeal

Paul says here in v. 2 that the Jews who have not believed in Jesus “have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.”

See, there is such a thing as misplaced passion or zeal.

The Jews thought they were being faithful to God by rejecting the gospel and even persecuting the Christians.

And Paul knows this misplaced zeal intimately because he had lived this way himself.

When he was a pharisee, he persecuted and imprisoned those who had believed in Jesus Christ. And he believed he was being faithful, doing God a favour.

It wasn’t until Jesus revealed himself to Paul that his life completely changed.

In the same way, the unbelieving Jews had a misplaced Zeal for God.

Rejecting the messiah and the righteousness through faith that he offers them,

in order to pursue a righteousness through works of the law.

Their pursuit of righteousness through the wrong means, led them to miss it entirely.

As Paul says in v. 3

Romans 10:3 ESV

For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

E for Effort

Now there’s something important that the Jew’s misplaced zeal can teach us.

Very often in our culture we can fall into what is called the “E for effort” fallacy.

It’s the notion that an idea or even a religious belief is true, valuable, or worthy of respect because it is sincerely held by someone.

But it is possible to be sincerely wrong.

In fact, I would be willing to bet, that absolutely everyone who has been wrong, has been sincerely wrong.

There are people who hold to erroneous religious traditions or trends very tightly, even when confronted by the clear teaching of scripture.

But their sincerity in holding those false positions, does not make the positions true.

The Jew’s insistence in pursuing righteousness through works did not lead to true righteousness in the sight of God.

Their zeal, their effort, their sincerity did not turn error into truth.

And we need to be careful when we are confronted by error, not to let someone’s sincerity move us to tolerate or accept error.

It is not loving to God, or the person who is in error, to tolerate or accept it; even if they are sincere.

Rather we need to confront it, and preach the truth in love.

Christ the End of the Law

Paul, though he loves the Jews and knows their zeal, still proclaims the truth:

That righteousness in the sight of God is not based on works of the law.

He says in v. 4

Romans 10:4 ESV

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Now let’s think carefully about what he says here.

Because there are many who seem to think that when someone has faith in Christ, that means that they can totally ignore the old testament law.

We spoke about that briefly when we looked at Romans 7, and we will look at this more in depth when we explore Romans 13.

Paul is not saying here, that the old testament law is not for the Christian.

There is a specific use of the law that Paul has in mind.

His statement begins with, “Christ is the ‘end’.”

End is translated from the greek word “telos” which has two meanings that are suitable for interpreting this passage.

The meaning is the one that most people think of: That Christ is the conclusion of the law for righteousness.

A little later on in our passage, Paul quotes Moses in v. 5 Romans 10:5

Romans 10:5 ESV

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.

But since Christ has come, and through him the righteousness by faith,

the law is finished as the means of righteousness.

We see this same sense in Jesus’ words in Luke 16:16,

Luke 16:16 ESV

“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.

This means that the law as a means for salvation is done. That is the first meaning of “Telos.”

But the second sense is that we get from the word Telos, is that of fulfillment.

That Christ is the perfecting cause or the purpose of the law,

bringing the law into completion.

This is what we usually think of when we think of the Greek word “Telos”

but both meanings: end and purpose, are appropriate here.

The most important part of verse 4 though, are the words “for righteousness.”

Romans 10:4 ESV

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

The words “for righteousness” point us to the specific use of the law that is fulfilled and ended.

Remember, Paul has been speaking about salvation in this section of Romans.

We’ve already seen that the word “righteousness” used here, and throughout the book of Romans, is referring to righteous standing in the sight of God.

So Paul is saying that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, for Salvation.

That is the specific use of the law Paul has in mind. Righteousness, salvation.

This is the opposite of what the unbelieving Jews have been pursuing, they have been pursuing righteousness, salvation, through works of the law.

And they have been pursuing it with vigour.

Salvation is Near (10:5-10)

Ironically, one of the most difficult things about righteousness through faith, is that it isn’t difficult.

You think about most world religions, or even individual superstitions, and it’s all about jumping through hoops in order to obtain something.

This is what all man centred religion is like; all that activity, all those works, makes you think that you are accomplish something through your efforts.

This was the case with the Jews who had rejected the Gospel.

They pursued righteousness through works of the law. And they did so zealously, with great effort.

But remember again what we saw in Romans 9 last week: That salvation,

Romans 9:16 (ESV)

depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

It is God who has mercy, and we receive his mercy through faith.

It can be difficult because it isn’t difficult.

Closeness of Faith

We see how close this faith is in verses 5-8 of Romans 10.

Romans 10:5–8 ESV

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

Here Paul takes what was said about the law in Deuteronomy and applies it to Christ.

In Deuteronomy the point Moses was making was that the Israelites did not need to move heaven and earth to know the will of God,

They didn’t need to ascend to heaven.

They didn’t need to descend into the abyss.

God had brought it to them.

They had his law in their possession.

God gave his people the law, that they would be able to obey him and that the nations would know how close God was to his people.

In the same way God gave us Christ,

who is the fulfillment and end to that law for salvation, for righteousness.

And for those to whom God has shown his mercy, the word of faith is so near them.

In their very mouth, and in their very heart.

The Response

He goes on to show us what this closeness looks like in vv. 9-10. He says,

Romans 10:9–10 ESV

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Now this isn’t some sort of check list of things to say and think in order to receive salvation.

But what Paul is talking about here is the natural expression of saving faith.

And he is using the “mouth and heart” framework from Deuteronomy that he just quoted in v. 8.

When God shows mercy to one of his creatures, and that man or woman hears the Gospel,

and they find that they have been given faith to believe.

It naturally leads to confession of the Lordship of Christ.

And I don’t mean a confession that he is Lord over your sweet little heart. But a confession that He Is Lord - over all of heaven and all of earth.

He is not entering your world, you are confessing that you are in his.

That is what we confess with our mouths when we are saved.

And we believe in our hearts that Christ was raised from the dead.

Paul doesn’t mean that if we believe in that specific part of the gospel narrative, the resurrection, we will be saved.

But the resurrection is the culmination of the whole of Jesus’ ministry.

This is about believing in the finished work of Christ.

Those who have been given faith, will believe in the finished work of Christ.

Respond to the Gospel

This is the response, the expression that we hope for when we proclaim the Gospel to people.

You may have noticed that Paul does not include repentance in this response.

I believe he is focussing on Jesus’ Lordship and resurrection here, because they in particular were a stumbling block to the Jews.

But when Jesus called people to believe, repentance was a part of it.

Jesus from the beginning of his ministry, called people repent and believe the Gospel.

Paul when he preached in Athens in Acts 17, said that God, “commands all people everywhere to repent,”

So repentance is a part of this confessing and believing.

When I share the gospel with people this is what I am hoping to hear.

If you are listening to me here this morning, or online, or watching on tv. And you have been given faith to believe.

This is how you respond, this is how you express it:

If you find that you believe the Gospel:

That Jesus died on the cross for your sins,

and that he rose from the dead, and is now alive and reigning over heaven and earth at the Right hand of God the Father.

Call on Jesus Christ, pray to him, repent of your sins, and believe in him as Lord and saviour.

And you will have eternal life in him. Forgiven of your sins, and given righteousness in the sight of God.

Salvation for All (10:11-13)

As Paul says in vv. 11-13.

Romans 10:11–13 ESV

For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

All people, Jew and Gentile, are saved through faith in Jesus Christ.

And all who believe in him will be able to approach the judgment seat of Christ confident that they have received their righteousness through faith.

No more guilt, no more shame, no more fear of judgment, wrath, or hell.

Everyone who truly, faithfully, calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

What About Romans 9?

Now this last line in v. 13 might bring up a question:

Does this verse contradict the doctrine of election that we saw in Romans 9?

You’ll remember last week, that we explored the doctrine of election, that God predestines the elect, he chooses those who will be saved.

But here it says that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Now there are many who take this to mean that we choose God, that God does not choose us. And therefore Romans 9 must teach something else other than election.

But we need to be careful not to assume this text is saying something that it doesn’t.

V. 13 is not at all saying that “Everyone has free will to choose God as saviour,”

This is not talking our ability to choose God.

It is plainly saying that “everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved.”

And this is consistent with the doctrine of election.

Those who are elect, chosen by God will call on him for salvation.

Jesus says something similar in John 6:37.

John 6:37 ESV

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

I think a lot of the confusion surrounding election is cleared up when we recognize that there is a difference between God’s action in saving sinners,

and how his action is demonstrated in the life of a believer.

We see the action of God in redemption most clearly in Romans 8:29-30,

Romans 8:29–30 ESV

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Listen to what it says there:

Those whom he foreknew he also predestined, Those whom he predestined, he also called, Those whom he called he also justified, Those whom he justified he also glorified.

That’s what theologians call the golden chain of redemption

And it describes God’s work in salvation.

But that work manifests itself in repentance and faith in the life of those who believe.

God does the work, but that work is demonstrated in the life of the believer.

Proclaiming the Good News (10:14-17)

But believers don’t become believers without first hearing the Gospel.

Paul says this very thing in our last verses of the section in vv. 14-17.

Romans 10:14–17 ESV

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Here we have another chain, but instead of describing God’s action in redemption, it describes the partnership God has with his evangelists.

Romans 10:14–15 (ESV)

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

Paul no doubt is speaking out of his own experience as an evangelist, as he was called and sent to preach and proclaim the Gospel to both the Jew and the Gentile.

But this is also an invitation to us.

Application

One of my favourite things to do in my ministry is to help people with their questions about the Bible and the Christian faith.

Several years ago in our high school ministry we did a Q&R night.

It was a Q&R not a Q&A because while I couldn’t guarantee an answer, I could guarantee a response.

One of the questions that I got that night made me laugh but it also challenged me.

The question was texted in and it said this:

“How can I share Jesus with my friends without them knowing.”

Now, weirdly enough, I knew exactly what this person meant, and you probably do to.

So often we try to sneak Jesus or the Gospel into conversations without people taking too much notice.

I mean, we don’t want them to think that were pushing our religion on them, or trying to make them Christians, do we?

Think about this guys, Christ has been raised from the dead!

He is Lord of all!

And he is giving eternal life to people who call on him!

Is that something you whisper about?

Now don’t take this as an invitation to grab a megaphone and shout the Romans Road at your neighbours at their front door.

We don’t want to be obnoxious.

But we do want to be bold.

Yes people will respond badly.

Remember, when Paul preached there were often riots, people wanted to kill him, and many rejected his message.

But people did get saved.

You and I will experience rejection too.

But were talking about salvation here.

Like the Jews in Paul’s day, the majority of people are walking around pursuing what their pursuing.

They might be sincere, but their sincerity does not lead to salvation. It leads to destruction.

You and I, If we belong to Christ, hold the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our hearts and in our mouths.

The power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

This is what leads to righteousness in the sight of God and eternal life.

And all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved!

But how will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

Conclusion

You and I are called to proclaim this Gospel. God is saving people through its proclamation.

I want to encourage you, pray earnestly for the salvation of the people that God lays on your heart.

Prayer is an essential part of this, it is God who changes hearts. Make sure you pray, but don’t stop there.

Share the Gospel with them.

And don’t try to sneak it in so they won’t notice.

That will not work.

Be frank.

Be up front.

I’ve found success in getting the conversation started just simply by saying, “You know I’m a Christian, have you ever heard the Gospel?”

And then share with them what Jesus did and what it means to them.

Then invite them to repent and believe.

I’ll tell you, you wont regret it.

Romans 10:15 (ESV)

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”