Kolb’s Basement, June 4, 2008
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.
2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.
3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end [goal] of the Law for [with the result that there is] righteousness to everyone who believes.
Romans 10:1-4
Zeal without Knowledge
Before dealing with the text on a 1st Century level, I want to make an application that directly concerns us even in the 21st Century. In verse 3, Paul says that the Jews had a zeal for God that was not in accordance with knowledge. In other words, the Jews pursued God with a lot of passion and heart, but that zeal was not balanced out by their brain. It was misdirected and worthless. And so Paul is praying for their salvation (v. 1).
I have an opportunity to talk regularly about religious issues in an open discussion with a group outside of my church. Within that group, there is one woman who strives very hard to make everyone who has any sort of sincere zeal for God soteriologically okay. She would maintain that Muslims, Hindus, and even Jews, if they are sincerely zealous for God, will be given salvation.
What should we think about that in light of this passage? We must say that zeal not balanced by knowledge is worthless and even deadly. I can have a lot of desire to fly an airplane, but that airplane is going down when I get behind the controls. Zeal without knowledge is not only worthless, it will kill me. The same is true in the religious realm. Muslims and Hindus and Jews (I am amazed at what people say about Jews while at the same time staring at what Paul said about Jews) are not okay. Their lack of knowledge (willful ignorance) is damning. In fact, because their lack of knowledge misdirects their zeal, their zeal is damning as well.
This is one the most important implication of this passage of Scripture.
“Not Knowing about the Righteousness of God . . .”
Now let’s deal with the text on a 1st Century level. After explaining that the Jews’ zeal for God was not balanced by knowledge, Paul pinpoints exactly what it was that they missed. Verse 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 Jews did not know about the “righteousness of God.” Obviously, Paul did not mean that the Jews did not know God was righteous. The righteousness of God seems to be one of the attributes that they understood, or at least thought about, the most. So this must have to do with a particular aspect of His righteousness and a particular way it was revealed.
I think it makes the most sense to think of this in the same way we have thought of “the righteousness of God” in the past–in terms of God’s blameless faithfulness to His people. The Old Testament demonstrated and predicted this righteousness. God was always faithful to redeem, deliver, and justify the Israelites. And, in a full and final way (in connection with the Messiah), He would do it again. (For more on this, see What Is “the Righteousness of God” in Romans?)
The Jews expected it. They yearned and strove for it. But when it came, they missed it and continued to stumble zealously down a path leading nowhere. Jesus Christ was the ultimate fulfillment and revelation of the righteousness of God in relationship to His people. Through His blood, Christ brought a true redemption, deliverance, and justification. And it was not for the ethnic Jewish people. They were a shadow. This was for the real Israel, elected by God and believing in Jesus.
That was what the Jews did not understand. They did understand that God was righteous and would justify His people. But they did not understand (they ignored) the way it was happening–through faith in Christ for all those who believe.
“. . . And Seeking to Establish their Own, They Did not Subject Themselves to the Righteousness of God.”
The righteousness of God and the righteousness of the people of God are connected in an interesting way. On one side, God must deliver and justify His people. If He does not, He is not righteous. When He does, it is a magnificent display of His righteousness. On the other side, God’s people must be righteous to be justified. A just judge never justifies the unrighteous.
The Jews saw this as well. They knew that they must be righteous in order for God to display His righteousness in their justification. But, as we saw last week, their method of establishing this righteousness was wrong-out of sync with the real way God was bringing justification. They were seeking to establish righteousness through the works of the Law when the blood of Jesus was the only true means of attaining righteousness. They were not subjecting themselves by faith to God’s way of revealing His salvation.
“Christ is the Goal of the Law”
The Jewish Law was never meant to bring righteousness. Paul called it a ministry of death and condemnation that could never bring life (1 Corinthians 3:7-18, Galatians 3:21). It was part of a temporary covenant that did not nullify or add conditions to the Abrahamic covenant (Galatians 3:15-19), which was the main covenant based on promise and faith.
So we must ask the question: What was the Law’s function? Why did God give it? Paul addressed this question directly in Galatians 319: “Why the Law then? It was added because of [to produce and reveal] transgressions until the Seed [Christ, the Seed of Abraham] should come.”
That was the Law’s purpose: to produce (Romans 5:20) and reveal (Romans 3:20) sin. And what was God’s purpose in increasing and revealing sin? Again, Paul answers. “The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:25).
So, in the end, God gave the Old Covenant Law to shut up the Jews and the watching world under sin, so that they would seek a true righteousness through faith and through Christ.
But the Jews still missed it, and kept seeking to establish their righteousness through that which could never give life. They refused to be lead to Christ as the “goal of the Law” and the means of “righteousness for everyone who believes” (v. 4). They did not subject themselves to the God’s way of justifying and delivering His people.
Bryan Elliff © 2008 www.bryanelliff.wordpress.com
