Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

9:30-31 Paul assesses the situation: Gentiles, who were not God's chosen people and did not seek right standing with God, now enjoy that right standing by faith. Israel pursued right standing with God through the law but failed to achieve it.

9:32 Why did Israel fail to achieve right standing with God through the law? They did not pursue obedience to the law in humble trust, but tried to make it a means of establishing their own righteousness. Such a use of the law led them to stumble over the stone (which was Christ confronting them), for those attempting to establish their own righteousness see no need to believe in Christ.

9:33 The stumbling over Christ was prophesied in Isa. 28:16. Those who trust in Christ will not experience end-time shame.

10:1 Salvation is the issue throughout chs. 9-11.

10:2 The Jews' zeal and sincerity does not lead them to salvation. The broader principle is that many sincere, "religious" people are wrong in their beliefs.

10:3 Many Jews did not believe in Christ because they failed to submit to God's righteousness and instead attempted to be righteous before God on the basis of their own works. On the contrast of the two ways to righteousness, see Gal. 3:7-14.

10:4 End probably includes the idea of both goal and termination. The Mosaic law has reached its goal in Christ (it looked forward to and anticipated him), and the law is no longer binding upon Christians (the old covenant has ended). Since Christ is the goal and end of the law, righteousness belongs to all who trust in Christ.

10:5 Paul quotes Lev. 18:5 regarding the righteousness that is based on the law, to show that those who keep the law will attain life. But as Paul has already shown, life will not come in this way since all violate the law (Rom. 1:18-3:20).

10:6-8 In vv. 6-8 Paul quotes Deut. 30:12-14 to show the contrast between the righteousness based on faith and the righteousness that comes from the law. The righteousness based on faith reinterprets these OT statements and sees them now fulfilled in Christ (see note on Deut. 30:12-14). There is no need to travel to heaven to bring Christ to earth, for God has already sent him into the world. Nor should anyone think they must bring Christ up from the realm of the dead, for God has raised Christ from the dead. What God requires is not superhuman works but faith in the gospel Paul preaches.

10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth does not mean that a spoken affirmation of one's faith is a "work" that merits justification, but such confession does give outward evidence of inward faith, and often confirms that faith to the speaker himself. that God raised him from the dead. Paul does not mean that people need to believe only this individual event with no understanding of Christ's death, but rather they need to believe in the resurrection along with the whole complex of truth connected with it, particularly Jesus' sin-bearing death in mankind's place, followed by his resurrection that showed God the Father's approval of Christ's work (see note on 4:25). with the heart one believes. Saving faith is not mere intellectual agreement but deep inward trust in Christ at the core of one's being.

10:11 Paul again cites Isa. 28:16 (cf. Rom. 9:33) to emphasize that trusting in Christ (not works-righteousness) is the pathway to salvation. Shame here refers to the end-time humiliation that those judged on the last day will experience when they are sent to hell.

10:12-13 God bestows his saving riches on all, both Jews and Gentiles, who call on him--for (as Paul quotes from Joel 2:32) "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

10:14-15 How then . . . ? With a series of rhetorical questions, Paul considers the chain of events necessary for a person to be saved. Verse 14 is linked to v. 13 with the word call. The logic of these verses is clear: (1) People will call on Jesus to save them only if they believe he can do so; (2) belief in Christ cannot exist without knowledge about him; (3) one hears about Christ only when someone proclaims the saving message; and (4) the message about Christ will not be proclaimed unless someone is sent by God to do so. That is why Paul was so urgent about spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth, for he believed that the only way to be saved was to hear and believe in the gospel (see note on 1:19-20). (Paul is not talking here about OT believers who looked forward to Christ, such as Abraham and David in ch. 4, nor is he talking about infants who die in infancy; see note on 2 Sam. 12:23). Since salvation comes only from hearing the gospel, the feet of those who bring the message about Christ are beautiful (Isa. 52:7), probably because the feet carry the messengers to their destinations.

10:16 Hearing the gospel is necessary for salvation, but hearing is not enough: people must also respond with personal trust. Isaiah (Isa. 53:1) prophesies that not all will believe. In the context of Romans 9-11, Paul is thinking especially of the Jews who did not believe.

10:17 Paul now sums up the argument thus far. One can come to faith only through hearing the gospel, and the specific message that must be heard is the word of Christ, that is, the good news about Jesus Christ as the crucified and risen Savior.

10:18-19 They who have heard the message probably refers to the Jewish people (see vv. 1, 19-20). Paul quotes Ps. 19:4, which in its original context refers to general revelation, but Paul applies it to special revelation (the proclamation of the gospel) to emphasize that the Jews have heard the good news because the gospel has gone even to the ends of the world (i.e., to the Gentiles). Israel should have understood from the prophecy of Deut. 32:21 that the Gentiles would believe.

10:20-21 The prophecy of Isa. 65:1 has been fulfilled in that the Gentiles who did not seek after God have now experienced God's saving promises. Israel, on the other hand, has fulfilled the words of Isa. 65:2. They have rebelled against and disobeyed the gospel message. Still, God extends his hands to them, inviting them to be saved. On the one hand, God predestines some to be saved. On the other hand, God still longs for all to be saved (see note on 1 Tim. 2:4; also Ezek. 33:11). Though it may seem impossible to understand how both of these statements are true, the Bible teaches both, and one should not use either truth to deny the other. On election, see also notes on Eph. 1:4; 1:5; 1:6; 1:11.

11:1 The majority of Israel failed to believe. Does this mean that God has rejected his people? Paul presents himself as an example of the remnant that has been preserved, a remnant that indicates that God is not finished with Israel and that he will fulfill the promises made to his people.

11:2 God foreknew. See note on 8:29.

11:3-5 Elijah in his despair thought Israel would be extinguished. But God assured Elijah that he had preserved a remnant, which gave Elijah hope that God would fulfill his saving promises in the future. In Paul's day, as in Elijah's day (v. 4) and today, a remnant of Jews believe in Christ because of God's electing grace (cf. 9:27-29).

11:6 Election and grace are inseparable, for both show that salvation is God's work alone, and that it has nothing to do with works. On grace, see also 4:4-5; Acts 15:11; Eph. 2:8-9.

11:7-10 The composite citation from Isa. 29:10 and Deut. 29:4 clarifies that God has hardened Israel so that they would not see or hear. Paul then prays for judgment (Ps. 69:22-23) over the Jews of his day who have rejected Christ.