Romans 10:2-4

For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

V2-3 – The Jews are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. They did not know or submit to God’s righteousness. Evidence of that was their effort to establish their own. Paul can testify that the Jews are zealous for God, because he was just as many of them are. Philippians 3:4-6 “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” Their religion is sincere. So was Paul’s. They believe that they are doing God’s will and trusting Him completely and striving with the right motive to please the right God. So did Paul. J.C. Ryle said: “Zeal in religion is a burning desire to please God, to do His will, and to advance His glory in the world in every possible way. A zealous man is a man of one thing. He only sees, cares, and lives for one thing, he is swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God. He feels that, like a wick, he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God appointed him.”

Now when Paul says that the zeal of the Jewish people is without knowledge, or not based on knowledge, we can’t even begin to imagine how insulting that is to them. Paul says that the Jews are ignorant to the fact that submitting to God’s righteousness means receiving the gift of “Christ for righteousness” (v4) by faith alone. He’s saying they were wrong-headed and wrong-hearted. That’s why he begins with explaining his passion for his countrymen. He’s about to cut them down, so he wants to make sure they realize that he speaks the truth in love. And when he uses the word, “establish,” he’s pointing to covenant language. He’s saying, “Look, God ‘established’ His covenant with you, not the other way around. And by striving to ‘establish’ your own righteousness, you’re saying to God, ‘I’m the one in charge of this covenant.’”

In American culture, most people consider sincerity to be key in one’s beliefs. If something is done or believed with sincerity, with good intentions, with right motives, with piety, then it is true, it is good, it is right for that person. But Paul says, “No, sincerity and zeal are of no value if knowledge and understanding are lacking.” And of course, knowledge and understanding come from the Word of God. So Paul is essentially saying that the Israelites have not understood the Scriptures which came to them and from them through their ancestors. And again, we can’t imagine how angry and insulted they would be with Paul over this claim. Perhaps they’d reply with something like this: “Paul, it is precisely our effort to establish righteousness in our lives that is our submission to God’s righteousness. What else would submission to God’s righteousness look like, except the zeal to establish righteousness in our lives so that our lives come into conformity to God’s commandments? We must not be indifferent to whether we are righteous or not.” So they’re just not buying Paul’s claim. But we’ll get Paul’s answer, his rebuttal to their rebuttal, in just a minute.

But first we need to see here that we must come near to God in the way He prescribes. We cannot approach the Lord of Lords casually however we please. He has given us a specific route, through faith in Jesus Christ, and no other way is valid. It is not by works as the Jews thought. It is not by sincere desire as the post-modern relativist might think. The Scriptures tell us this still today, just as they told the Jews of Paul’s day. 2 Timothy 3:14-15 “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” That last part is the key: The Holy Scriptures (the Old Testament for Timothy) are able to make you wise for salvation, how?, through faith in Christ Jesus. The Old Testament guides a person into the wisdom of salvation only if it points that person to Christ. Most of the Jews missed it. They misunderstood their own Scriptures. And Paul tells them that they tried to establish their own righteousness and thereby rejected God’s righteousness – the Messiah; they refused to submit to Him.

V4 – Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. He is the righteousness that the Jews should have pursued. V4 is one of the most disputed verses in the New Testament. Scholars disagree on exactly what Paul is saying. The NIV reads, “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” The ESV reads, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Other versions read, “Christ is the end of the law, that everyone who believes may be justified.” Literally (and I think the best way for us to understand the text) the Greek text reads more like this: “For the goal of the law is Christ for righteousness to every believing one.”

V4 is Paul’s rebuttal to their rebuttal that I mentioned earlier. Paul says, “The reason that it is not submission to God’s righteousness when you try to establish your own righteousness, when you seek justification by trying to obey God, even with God’s help, is that it dishonors ‘Christ for righteousness,’” as v4 declares. Paul here begins a two-part contrast between salvation by faith in Christ and salvation by our works. First he teaches that faith in Christ equals the end of our attempts to be righteous on our own. Christ is both the goal and the fulfillment of the law. Christ abolishes the law or makes it obsolete for believers, because we no longer strive to establish righteousness through it. Philippians 3:8b-9 “I consider [all things] rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

Paul is not saying that the law, prior to the sacrifice of Jesus, was a separate way of salvation. We’ve already seen that the law was sent to show the people their sin and drive them to the Messiah for righteousness. In fact, the very point of Paul’s quoting Leviticus and Deuteronomy in the next series of verses is to show that the Old Testament teaches salvation by grace. That might be hard to see, given the context of the Old Testament passages that Paul chose. So we'll look at it next time, Lord willing.