1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. ~ Romans 10:1-4
Romans 9-11 is about God's dealings with Israel. Romans 9 chronicles Israel's past, Romans 10 chronicles Israel's present and Romans 11 chronicles Israel's future. In Romans 10, the Apostle Paul is answering the question: Why do some who have little knowledge of God are saved while those who have much knowledge are not saved?
In Romans 9-11, the Apostle Paul takes the concept of salvation and deconstructs it. In doing so, he shows how a person becomes saved whether they are Jew or Gentile.
In v.1 of today’s passage we read, “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved."
In this verse the Apostle notes that essential to the unsaved coming into a personal relationship with God is there must be some saved soul who cares enough to share the faith with them. Evangelism always starts with us caring for the lost, because the truth is if we don't care, we won't share. It's only when we do care that we feel the need to share our faith with unbelievers.
When we care enough for others, we do what the Apostle did in todays passage; we pray for them. This is the most important thing we can do on the behalf of the unsaved. It is evident that praying for those who have yet to believe in the Lord Jesus is not inconsistent with the example God gives in the Scriptures. God calls people to believe on the Lord Jesus through the preaching of His Word and the prayers of His people.
In v.2 of today’s passage we read, “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.“
In Hosea 4:6 we read, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
Zeal plus knowledge equals faith. Zeal is the earnest desire that is displayed when someone has given their heart to something. Knowledge, in this case, is the definition of God on anything. Israel sought to establish their own righteousness, and therefore they missed the gift of God, which is the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ. The Jews, Paul says, were constantly trying their best to obey or measure up to the Law of Moses. They failed to do so, but they were not willing to admit that they failed.
In v.3 of today’s passage we read, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God."
The Jews were destroyed because of a lack of knowledge that bound them to their ignorance in an illusion. The Jews didn't know then how holy God was. They thought God would tolerate all of their violations of the Law. They thought they could live such a righteous life that they would attain the righteousness of God for themselves. They thought the standard was at their level, what they didn't know was the standard was infinite. Their whole system was a system of establishing their own righteousness. They had brought God down so low, they didn't know that through their own willful ignorance God was infinitely holy.
It is our ignorance of God that makes us believe that we must earn His favor. When someone is struggling with the assurance of their salvation, we should drill down on teaching them biblical theology, biblical teaching about God. Most of the the time that we think that God is mad at us, He isn't because His ways are contrary to ours.
In v.4 of today’s passage we read, "Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."
The only One who could provide righteousness for us all was the Lord Christ and the Jews by and large rejected Him. They did so because they sought righteousness not by faith but by their good works, and they, therefore, brought God down to their level. This made God small enough to make them think they could attain to His level by their good behavior. And, when Christ came they stumbled because over Him because they didn't understand the provision of Christ. He came and He condemned their self-righteousness as He does everyone who thinks they can attain to God. He shoots down self-righteousness and calls it unrighteousness.
Since the Jews lowered God’s standard, they didn't realize they needed the Savior. They invented a righteous God whose righteous standard they could live up to on their own. That's why the Lord Jesus had to come and lift the standard up and show them that God was more holy and more righteous than they thought. There is no other way to God but through the Lord Jesus Christ who is God incarnate. The Law cannot cure our corruption; it can only show it to us. The Law was our guide to bring us to Christ who is the end of the Law; He is even the end of every desire we have ever had.
