Israel's Ignorance
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Pastoral Reminder: Head Heart Hands
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
This morning we turn to chapter 10 of the book of Romans. Chapters 9 10 and 11 contain what many call the second division of the book of Romans. Where he turns to speak specifically on how Israel has not been separated from the love of God and how God has been and will continue to be faithful to them.
Our passage today continues with his continued explanation of the state that Israel has found itself in.
30 What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. 32 Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written, Look, I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and the one who believes on him will not be put to shame.
The people of Israel as a whole sought to attain and achieve the righteousness of the Law. They put their backs into, sometimes, and looked towards the law and attempted to achieve righteousness. In other words to work hard enough to be justified before God. They did not pursue it by faith and so unlike the gentiles they had not achieved their goal.
This could look like Paul is saying that there is no hope for the nation of Israel. But this is not true and so we pick up today with his desire for them to obtain what they Gentile who were not pursuing found.
1 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation. 2 I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes,
Paul’s Heart Desire
Paul’s Heart Desire
Like the beginning of chapter 9 Paul reveals his heart felt desire that his fellow Israelites will be saved.
1 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation.
He deeply desires that his people will be saved. That they would hear the message of the gospel of Jesus and believe.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
Reiterating the truth that salvation comes through belief and not works. That if it was based on effort or man’s will or strong desire or anything other than belief, there would have been someone by their works. But salvation from God’s wrath is through the sacrifice of Jesus.
9 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
If we turn back to chapter 3 we see that Paul has already set the ground work for his comments in Chapter 10.
20 For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law. 21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. 28 For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
So when Paul shares his hearts desire is that they will be saved, he is claiming that they have not been justified as a sinner is justified freely by God’s grace through faith. They have failed to attain the goal and so he expands on where they went wrong.
Israel’s Ignorance
Israel’s Ignorance
2 I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.
He is a witness and can testify to the way in which they viewed and lived. As a leader of them he had exemplified what it ment to be a Jew and so he had great understanding to their nature and thoughts.
They have zeal for God
They have zeal for God
They have zeal for God. The word has the idea of being excited and enthusiastic for something. They might even be described as passionate. There is the idea of heat and pressure with a person who is zealous. Someone is on fire for the Lord or they are burning with a desire to accomplish as goal. A person has a great zeal for his family.
This is good right? Shouldn’t people be passionate, enthusiastic, and excited for God. Absolutely. But there are many today in various religious groups that have great zeal but are still condemned by their own sin. They burn with a life that want to do the things of God but like Israel will not achieve what they are seeking.
Israel is zealous for God but, that zeal, that excitement, that heat and passion is missing something. It is being lived out not according to knowledge.
What Paul is saying is that they have the drive but they don’t comprehend how the game is played. I once had a kid on my soccer team. Who was super excited about being on the field. He would run with great enthusiasm. He wanted to play constantly but there was a problem. He had no knowledge of the game. I mean even the most basics. As a coach you spend most of your time honing a player to perform better and better. With this young man I spent an entire season trying to get him just to on the right part of the field.
Israel has been given the truth of who God is and who they are but has failed to understand.
4 Then I thought: They are just the poor; they have been foolish. For they don’t understand the way of the Lord, the justice of their God.
They are foolish in the eyes of God. They have these great advantages and they still do not understand the justice of their God. This is because they are ignorant of God’s Righteousness.
They are ignorant of God’s Righteousness
They are ignorant of God’s Righteousness
3 Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, ...
What is it that causes them to have great zeal for God but fail to be saved. They are ignorant of the righteousness of God. To be ignorant means to not comprehend what is true of God’s righteousness. He is accusing them of the same error as the Gentiles.
17 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts.
The Jews would have agreed with Paul that the Gentiles were just like this. Filled with valueless thoughts, darkened hearts in their understanding because of the ignorance that is in them. But they would be appalled that Paul has stated that they have zeal without knowledge since they too are ignorant of the very nature of God and specifically his righteousness.
You can almost hear the bristling and the groaning. The pressure building in the air. How could you possible charge us with being ignorant of God. We are his people. We were chosen. We have the scriptures, We have the temple worship, we have the prophets and the priests, we have the Law. We has seen his presence. He brought us out of Egypt by the plagues. Parted the Red Sea. Taken us to the promised land. Brought us back from exile. We teach the words of God to our children. How dare you accuse of ignorance.
6 He answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
You can hear the complaints mounting. As Jesus would tell them over and over again that they are ignorant and without understanding. Without the knowledge that saves.
They did not understand God’s righteousness so they also did not understand his justice. If God is holy and perfect, without blemish or flaw. He is the one who establishes what is right or wrong. What is good or evil. The law is a shadow and type of the righteousness of God.
1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year.
For in the Law the righteousness of God is revealed. This was a shadow of the one who would come as Jesus would reveal the righteousness in its fullness
1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. 2 In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The law pointed to God’s nature and Jesus fully revealed his nature. Paul is saying that the Israelites when they looked at the Law they did not see how great and unattainable God’s righteousness is for man to attempt to achieve. They did not understand that God’s justice demands full and absolute obedience to the the law. That any sin would condemn a man to be guilty before that.
Since they did not see God in the Law itself they determined that in themselves they could be found righteous by attempting to establish their own righteousness as they did not see that they were truly condemned already. Instead of turning to God to save them. Instead of crying out with the same heart of Paul.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
So what does man do when he believes in himself that he can live good enough to be justified before God. What does he do he attempts to establish his own standard. He starts the comparison game.
12 For we don’t dare classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. But in measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves to themselves, they lack understanding.
This is the way of the religious world that thinks that salvation is based on works. There are very zealous people in this world. We would call them devout even. They go through great effort to make sure that when the scale of justice tips at the end of their life that they will make it through. The Jews had rule after rule that was put on the back of the people to be good followers of God. But those that followed enough of the rules would develop a false confidence.
12 There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filth.
Man created new schemes to stay on the right side of the line even though they fall over it over and over again. This is what they pursued with great passion and assurance. But they did not pursue God’s righteousness by faith but instead their own righteousness by works.
They Have Not Submitted to God’s Righteousness
They Have Not Submitted to God’s Righteousness
3 Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.
As God’s justice cannot be separated from God’s righteousness recieved by faith. Faith cannot be separated from a submission to God God’s righteousness.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
Because the Jews pursued the law righteousness of God by works they did not receive the righteousness that comes by faith. And so they did not understand that it is God’s righteousness that is credited to their account and not their own ledger.
1 What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. 4 Now to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift, but as something owed. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness. 6 Likewise, David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 Blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the person the Lord will never charge with sin. 9 Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness. 10 In what way, then, was it credited—while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised.
When men do not recognize that God is perfectly holy and therefore perfectly righteous and that only a person who has been credited with God’s own righteousness will be saved. When this is not recognized, men turn to their own ways and own motives. They watch their own ledger in comparison to those around them and they then pursue what man determines as important.
They put themselves under the authority of man’s rules instead of submitting to the righteousness of God. Those with faith will not only believe in the righteousness of God but will put themselves under that righteousness.
Earlier in chapter 2 Paul called the out for knowing what is right and doing the opposite.
17 Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law, and boast in God, 18 and know his will, and approve the things that are superior, being instructed from the law, 19 and if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light to those in darkness, 20 an instructor of the ignorant, a teacher of the immature, having the embodiment of knowledge and truth in the law—21 you then, who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal”—do you steal? 22 You who say, “You must not commit adultery”—do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24 For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.*
The Jews relied on the law and boasted in God. They knew his will and understood the things that were superior. They held the law and instructed others in it. They believed they were to be a guide for anyone who came to them to instruct the ignorant and to teach the immature. But they failed to meet all of the law but claimed they were doing what God wanted. Instead of bringing glory to God they blasphemed his name among the gentile.
For they failed to see what the law pointed too.
Christ is the End of the Law
Christ is the End of the Law
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The law was given to show Israel how to live. But since they are based on God’s own character, they are unachievable by the fallen man. Each sacrifice that was made was to be a reminder that they could not achieve the law in themselves. The law in itself was not the end or the goal.
1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Each and every sacrifice was to be a reminder that man cannot meet the requirements of the law in themselves. The constant fire and smoke from the alter was to be a pointer that for men to be justified before God something or someone else must come and stand in their place.
5 Therefore, as he was coming into the world, he said: You did not desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. 6 You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings. 7 Then I said, “See— it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, God.” 8 After he says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), 9 he then says, See, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. 10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.
Jesus came to do the will of the father and to accomplish and fulfill the law as he lives a perfect life in accordance with the law and then dies to bring for the new covenant that was promised in Jeremiah. Jesus can to make the true sacrifice that the law required to appease God’s wrath and to be found clean from sin in his eyes.
11 Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. 12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. 13 He is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says: 16 This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds, 17 and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. 18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
Jesus is the end or goal of the law for righteousness. But is is the end for only those that believe. Those that hear the gospel that is proclaimed. The gospel that has the power to save.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
Conclusions
Conclusions
When we look into our own lives we will find areas of our lives that we are zealous about. Things that we are enthusiastic about and get excited over. We are passionate about these things. we put great effort into knowing about these things and we defend and present them to the people around us as the greatest things. For most we would find that our greatest excitement and enthusiasm in actually not in the things of God but the things of this world.
The Jews were not accused of being zealous for the world. They were zealous for God but without knowledge. They were ignorant of the righteousness of God and the ramifications of his justice in light of his righteousness. The Jews were experts in knowing about God but they are accused of not fully knowing God. Not knowing how holy he truly is and in light of that how desperately we are in need of a savior to save us from our own sin.
When God’s is not known, then man’s desperate state is also not known. Man does not fall on his face pleading God to save his soul, change his heart. He does not put his belief, trust and faith in the only one who can save Jesus.
So they turn to themselves and create a new law of their own. One that is agreed upon by the other around. Rule after rule gets added. Every time someone says a “good christian” does this or does that. Every rule or action that can earn grace or remove sin by man’s own hand is part of this new law.
When a new law is created there is no need to submit to the righteousness of God. To put ourselves under God’s righteousness. Like Israel, living to attain a righteousness that cannot be found in anyone other than Jesus.
Today we live as if there are no consequences to sin. That grace abounds so I am to be whomever I want to be. When God says be holy as I am holy that isn’t a call to my life.
Israel new a great deal about God. But they did not know God himself. They were found to be foolish in God’s sight.
23 “ ‘This is what the Lord says: The wise person should not boast in his wisdom; the strong should not boast in his strength; the wealthy should not boast in his wealth. 24 But the one who boasts should boast in this: that he understands and knows me— that I am the Lord, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the Lord’s declaration.
Let us be a people that don’t stop at knowing about God and about his word. But let us strive to know him
7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Blessing/Benediction
24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.
