Romanos 9:30-21

The Eternal Destiny Of All People, Both Jew And Gentile, Is Based On Belief In God's Messiah, Jesus Christ. (9:30-10:21).

There is now a vast change in Paul's argument, for it will be noted that from Romanos 9:30 to Romanos 10:17 Paul lays huge emphasis on faith and on believing in Jesus Christ, this in contrast with Romanos 9:6 where they are not mentioned. Faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah undergirds this whole passage. The Greek words for faith and/or believing occur in almost every verse, with those verses which do not contain the words being in specific contrast with a verse that does. And the faith that is in mind is faith in the Messiah. Furthermore even in Romanos 10:17 --21, which contain citations from the Old Testament Scriptures, faith and unbelief, although only mentioned once, underlie all that is said. Faith and belief are thus the keynote of this passage, and it is faith in Jesus as Messiah and LORD. Here then Paul is explaining how the Jews on the whole came short. It was because they did not respond in faith to their Messiah, Whose coming was the greatest of all the privileges that God had given them (Romanos 9:4).

(In Romanos 9:1 Israel came short because of God's elective purposes, the message being that God had always purposed that only a remnant would be saved. Here they come short because of unbelief in that they have failed to believe in the Messiah. We thus have human responsibility going hand in hand with God's sovereignty).

A second emphasis in this passage, although subordinate to the first, is on ‘righteousness', which occurs at least ten times (although in clusters), all of which are in Romanos 9:30 to Romanos 10:10. Paul is here seeking to bring out the difference between righteousness attained by works, which is the righteousness of men, and righteousness resulting from faith in the Messiah, a central feature of Romanos 3:19 to Romanos 4:25, which is the righteousness of God. Note the contrasts:

1) The Gentiles who did not follow after righteousness (the righteousness of the Law) attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith (acceptability in God's eyes through the righteousness of Christ (Romanos 5:17) received by faith (Romanos 3:22), which resulted in practical righteousness), whilst Israel who followed after the Law of righteousness, did not arrive at the Law because they sought it by works and not by faith, failing to believe in the Messiah (Romanos 9:30). Here receiving the righteousness of God by faith in the Messiah is contrasted with following the Law and seeking to achieve it (or with pursuing the Law and failing to overtake it, a metaphor from the race track).

2) Israel were ignorant of God's righteousness, and sought to establish their own, thus not subjecting themselves to the righteousness of God, which is found in Christ. Thus as Christ (the Messiah) is the end of the Law for righteousness (the righteousness of God) to everyone who believes (Romanos 10:3), their failure was in not believing, and as a result failing to receive the benefit from what He had accomplished. Here an emphasis is laid on the ignorance of the Jews as to what true righteousness was, with the consequence that they failed to recognise the need for the righteousness of God, thereby failing to recognise that their Messiah had come as the final fulfilment of that Law.

3) Moses wrote that the man who does the righteousness out of the Law will live thereby, but the righteousness out of faith says if you believe in your heart that Jesus is LORD and that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved, for with the heart man believes unto righteousness (Romanos 10:5). Here the vain attempt to seek ‘life' by the Law, is contrasted with the sure way of receiving ‘life' and salvation through the acceptance of Jesus as LORD.

Thus we may see the whole passage as having as its central theme, faith in Jesus Christ, God's Messiah, (Romanos 9:33; Romanos 10:4; Romanos 10:9; Romanos 10:13; Romanos 10:17) a faith which responds to Him and which results in reception of the righteousness of God, this being in contrast with Israel's unbelief and refusal to respond to God's way of righteousness. It is those who call on the Name of the LORD who will be saved (Romanos 10:13), that is, those who believe on ‘Jesus as LORD' (Romanos 10:9).