Christ For Righteousness
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1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Romans chapter 10 so beautifully balances Romans chapter 9. I Paul had stop writing at the end of Romand chapter 9 then our understanding of salvation would be greatly flawed. But 9 was necessary in order to lift our view of God. To see His sovereign hand in the work of salvation. Romans chapter 9 reveals to us the the glory of the grace of God. This is the purpose of God in the world this is the purpose of every believer that we show the glory of the grace of God. The fact that God is I Am that I Am and the He has foreknown us and predestined us and called us and justified us and glorifies us is the revelation of the greatest aspect or God’s glory.
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
And Romans chapter 9 lifts our view of God and exalts the glory of His grace.
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
God’s wrath on the ungodly surely reveals His glory but the purpose of the glory of God wrath is to serve in the exaltation of the glory of His grace and mercy.
As we have been going through Romans chapter 9 if you haven’t found yourself in awe of the glory of God’s grace and mercy then either I have been inadequate in my proclamation or your hearing has been dull. This chapter lifts our ideas of God up high that He might be glorified. This is Paul’s intention and this is my intention in my preaching and study is that our sleepy hearts and minds might be awakened to the magnitude of the glory of God’s grace, to the praise of His glory and grace. We need to have a zeal for God.
Yet as we see in out text this morning zeal which is not according to knowledge will leave us lost in our sins.
Paul begins this chapter “like 9” by expressing his concern for Israel’s salvation.
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
We should pray for our lost loved ones. Despite all that Paul has said in Romans ch 8,9 he still desires in his heart and prays for the salvation of Israel.
This is the balance we need to have.
I believe that Paul’s heart felt desire and prayer for Israel arrises firstly from his missionary heart. As an ambassador for Christ Paul wishes all people to be saved. Not only does he pray but he has given his life to preach to gospel that all might hear and receive.
But I believe that lost Israel hold a special place in his heart because he can relate to them.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
They Have Zeal for God But Not According to Knowledge
They Have Zeal for God But Not According to Knowledge
Paul bears them witness that they have a zeal for God. That word “zeal” means that they fervently embrace and pursue God. And yet Paul says they’re not saved.
Now their zeal is not why they are not saved. Paul is not saying that zeal is the problem here. In fact zeal is necessary for salvation.
22 If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!
If you don’t love Jesus then how can you know Him. To know Him is to love Him.
And yet when I look at the church today I wonder “how many truly love Him?” How many in the church are zealous for God? We should be greatly concerned with this. Where is your zeal?
1 “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:
2 “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;
3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.
4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.
If we lose our zeal, our passion our love for Christ Then he may come quickly and remove our lampstand.
Why do we need to gather together? That we may lift our hearts to stir up and edify in order to magnify our affection for Christ. This is no small thing. As I mentioned before this is my calling, to study God’s Word that my heart and mind may be lifted up to see the glory of God’s grace to increase my affection for Christ that so that when I preach I might edify you to lift your ideas of God and to stir up affections for Christ in each of you. So that we might be zealous followers of Christ.
Zeal was not Israels problem rather the issue was that their zeal was not according to knowledge. To be zealous on its own is not enough.
4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:
5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;
6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
Zeal without knowledge is like a fast car going in the wrong direction.
Next Paul tells us what was lacking in their knowledge
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
They Are Ignorant of the Righteousness of God
They Are Ignorant of the Righteousness of God
How is it that Israel could be ignorant of the righteousness of God. They were the ones to whom God gave His righteous Law.
Now there are two ways we could read this
1. They are ignorant of God’s righteous nature.
That is they under estimate the righteous nature of God. God’s righteousness can tolerate no sin. But they thought that they could keep the Law well enough to be acceptable to God. If we bring God down and we lift ourselves up then we can think that we can be good enough to be acceptable to God. This form of Legalism is so wicked in that it not lifts ourselves up in pride but it creates a low view of God. Making His righteousness something I can attain.
2. They are ignorant of the way God’s righteousness is revealed.
That is that they believed God’s righteousness to be revealed in their own works rather than by faith.
Either way we read it it carries truth but I believe in the context it is the later. When we see it in light of
31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.
They pursued righteousness with zeal but they were ignorant of How the righteousness of God would be revealed. They thought that God’s righteousness could be revealed through their efforts to keep the Law. But Paul’s gospel presented here in Rom is that righteousness is by faith.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
But Israel seeking to establish their own righteousness,
Have not submitted to the righteousness of God which is revealed from faith to faith.
This is why God resist the proud but give grace to the humble. and this is why we need a high view of God’s righteousness. Once we see the righteous nature of God we know that we fall very far short of it. And there is no hope of achieving righteousness by works. Legalism has a low view of God which causes pride in myself causing me to think that I can be righteous enough. But a high view of God will cause me to see that my very best falls so short form God’s righteousness. It’s like trying to shoot an arrow at the Sun. My arrow may go higher than anyone else's but there still is no hope of reaching the Sun.
Therefore I must humble myself and submit to God’s righteousness. That is, God’s means of righteousness for me. If I do this then there is no more boasting except for boasting in Christ
“But “he who glories, let him glory in the LORD”
Finally Paul reveals the truth that Israel was ignorant of which lead to their falling short of salvation.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The word end here means literally the goal or the final point. so this verse might be more accurately rendered
The end or the goal of the Law is Christ for righteousness for everyone who believes.
The End of the Law is Christ for Righteousness to Everyone who Believes
The End of the Law is Christ for Righteousness to Everyone who Believes
Christ said I have not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil it. Israel had the Law and yet they were ignorant of the righteousness of God. They thought that the goal of the Law was righteousness to every Jew who keeps the Law. But Paul points out here that the whole point of the Law was Christ for Righteousness to everyone who believes both Jew and Gentile.
The Law showed us how far the Sun is, Christ was the only human to ever reach the Sun, to achieve righteousness. God’s righteousness is revealed in us through faith in Christ. So when we put our faith in Jesus Christ God puts the righteousness of Jesus to our account. We can never be more righteous or less righteous than we are the moment we submit to Christ for righteousness.
Who can have this righteousness?
“Everyone who believes.”
This is the balance to election we found in Rom 9.
I have had people ask me what if a person wants to be save but they are not elect. The answer is given here “Christ for righteousness for everyone who believes.” the fact is that whoever will may come. Somehow we think that this is incompatible with election. “If God predestines then how can everyone who believes be saved?” All I know is that the Word of God asserts both truths God elects and I must believe
Whoever believes will not perish. I try to think of it this way God’s election does not make our responsible void. If we believe in Christ and receive the righteousness which is by faith then we prove our election.