Romans 9.31-Even Though Israel Pursued A Legal Righteousness, They Never Measured Up To The Law
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday April 23, 2009
Romans: Romans 9:31-Even Though Israel Pursued A Legal Righteousness, They Never Attained Perfect Obedience To The Law
Lesson # 324
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 9:1.
Last evening we studied Romans 9:30 in which Paul presents a paradoxical conclusion based upon what he taught in Romans 9:6-29 that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness like the Jews, obtained it by faith.
This evening, we will complete this paradoxical conclusion by noting Romans 9:31 in which Paul teaches that even though the nation of Israel zealously pursues a righteousness that is based upon obedience to the Mosaic Law, they never measured up the Law.
They did not measure up in the sense that they could not render the perfect obedience that is required by the Law in order to be declared justified by God.
Let’s read Romans 9:30-33 and then concentrate on verse 30 for the rest of the evening.
Romans 9:30-33, “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, ‘BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’”
Let’s now concentrate on verse 31.
Romans 9:31, “But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.”
“But” is the “adversative” use of the conjunction de (deV) (deh), which introduces a statement that presents a contrast with Paul’s statement in Romans 9:30.
This indicates that “in contrast” to the Gentiles, even though the Jews zealously pursued righteousness that is based upon obedience to the Mosaic Law, they never measured up to the Law.
“Israel” refers of course to the nation of Israel who are descendants racially of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, aka, Israel.
It refers to unregenerate Israel since Paul says that they pursued a righteous status with God by obedience to the Mosaic Law and as a result they never measured up to the Law since they could not render the perfect obedience required by the Law.
“Pursuing” is the articular nominative masculine singular present active participle form of the verb dioko (diwvkw) (dee-o-ko), which means, “to zealously pursue” and is used with the unregenerate Israelites as its subject.
The word functions as a “concessive” participle, which implies that the state or action of the main verb is true in spite of the state or action of the participle.
This indicates that the nation of Israel never attained perfect obedience to the Law, which the Law requires, “even though” in contrast to the Gentiles, they zealously pursued a righteousness that is based upon obedience to the Law.
“A law” is the accusative masculine singular form of the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), which refers to the Mosaic Law as indicated in that Israel pursued righteousness by obedience to the Law.
Now, the noun nomos should be translated with the English adjective “legal” since the genitive form of the noun dikaiosune is functioning as an “attributed” genitive.
This type of genitive takes place when the head noun rather than the noun in the genitive functions in sense as an attributive adjective.
In this construction, you can convert the noun to which it stands related into a mere adjective.
Therefore, the genitive form of the noun dikaiosune functions as an “attributed” genitive meaning that it is functioning as an attributive adjective.
This would render the expression nomon dikaiosunes, “a legal righteousness,” which can be unpacked as “a righteousness that is based upon obedience to the Law.”
Thus, Paul is saying that even though Israel customarily and characteristically pursued a legal righteousness, or in other words, a righteousness that is based upon obedience to the Law, they never measured up to the Law meaning that they could not render the perfect obedience the Law required in order to be justified by it.
Romans 9:31, “But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.”
“Of righteousness” is the genitive feminine singular form of the noun dikaiosune (dikaiosuvnh) (dik-ah-yos-oo-nay), which refers to a right standing with God or righteous status with God.
“Did not arrive” is composed of the emphatic negative adverb ou (ou)) (oo), “not” and the third person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb phthano (fqavnw) (fthan-o), “did arrive.”
The verb phthano means “to measure up” in the sense of reaching or attaining a certain standard, which in our present context is the Mosaic Law as indicated by the prepositional phrase eis nomon, “to the Law” that precedes it.
The word’s meaning is emphatically negated by the emphatic negative adverb ou, which emphatically negates the idea that the nation of Israel ever measured up to the Law in the sense of rendering the perfect obedience required to be justified.
Thus, with these two words Paul is saying that even though the nation of Israel customarily and characteristically zealously pursues a legal righteousness, they never measured up to the Law meaning they never could render the perfect obedience the Law required in order to be declared justified by God.
“At that law” is composed of the preposition eis (ei)$) (ice), “at that” and the accusative masculine singular form of the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), “law.”
Nomos refers once again to the Mosaic Law.
The word is the object of the preposition eis, which denotes an extension towards a special goal.
The goal is the obedience to the Law required in order to be declared justified by it.
So although the nation of Israel customarily and characteristically zealously pursues a legal righteousness, they never measured up to the Law so as to be declared justified by God because they could not render the perfect obedience due to the presence of the sin nature.
Corrected translation of Romans 9:31: “However, even though Israel customarily and characteristically zealously pursues a legal righteousness, they never measured up to the Law.”
So Paul is teaching in Romans 9:31 that even though the majority in Israel customarily and characteristically zealously pursue a righteousness that is based upon obedience to the Law in contrast to the Gentiles, they never measured up to the Law.
They never measured up in the sense that they could not render the perfect obedience, which the Law required in order to be declared justified by God.
Paul is reiterating what he has mentioned in Romans 2-4 that the nation of Israel misunderstood the purpose of the Mosaic Law.
In the study of the Bible, there are three specific purposes that surface in the proper use of the Mosaic Law.
First of all, in a general sense, the Mosaic Law was given to provide a standard of righteousness (Deuteronomy 4:8; Psalm 19:7-9) and in the process, it revealed the righteousness, holiness, and goodness of God (Deut. 4:8; Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7; Rom. 7:12-14).
The Law given at Mount Sinai to Israel was to reveal who a holy God and to demonstrate the reality of an infinite gulf that separated man from Him.
Secondly, the Law was given to identify sin and reveal man’s sin and bankrupt condition as guilty before God (Rom. 3:19f; 7:7-8; 5:20; Gal. 3:19).
As J. Hampton Keathley Jr. states, “Like the blood alcohol test is designed to prove men are drunk, so the Law is designed to prove men are sinners, under the wrath of God.”
God’s holy Law reveals to man just who and what he is, namely, sinful and separated from God by an infinite gulf that he is unable to bridge in his own human strength (Romans 3:19-20).
Lastly, the Law was given to shut man up to faith, i.e., to exclude the works of the Law (or any system of works) as a system of merit for either salvation or sanctification and thereby lead him to Christ as the only means of righteousness (Galatians 3:19-20, 20-24; 1 Timothy 1:8-9; Romans 3:21-24).
Like Israel in Paul’s day, today, people often try to use the Law as a means of establishing their own standing before God.
But the Word of God emphatically teaches us that the Law brings a curse (Galatians 3:10-12), brings death, it is a killer (2 Corinthians 3:6-7; Romans 7:9-10), brings condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:9), makes offenses abound (Romans 5:10; 7:7-13), declares all men guilty (Romans 3:19), and holds men in bondage to sin and death (Galatians 4:3-5, 9, 24; Romans 7:10-14).
This is because man possesses an old Adamic sin nature that can never fulfill the righteousness of the Law, especially in the spirit of the Law.