Before we move on to Romans 10, I want to point out that we must realize that the issues Paul is addressing in 9-11 are issues he had been dealing with for years. He was once like his fellow Jews, but his encounter with the risen Christ changed everything. He came to Christ, not because someone preached, but because he had a personal, historical encounter. Paul spent his life in the Old Testament texts, looking for the eschatological solution to the plight of the world. The bringing in of the Gentiles was to happen in the Eschaton, on the other side of the end of the age. This is important to realize because Paul didn’t find Christ and then start going back through the Old Testament, looking for texts to prove his new life. Instead, Paul found Christ, then saw all those texts that he had grown up with, studied, and lived with all his life, in a new light. He came to see that they had been fulfilled and had come to their completion through Christ and in the work of the Holy Spirit.
And given what we know from the first century about why the Jews as a whole ended up rejecting Christ, we realize that it wasn’t because of Christ himself, but rather because they saw the Gentile God-fearers “get in” to the righteousness of God and receive the Spirit without having to go through circumcision. Simply put, the Jews got jealous, and because of that, they rejected Christ. None of the early apostles ever thought that would happen. They fully expected all their fellow Jews would accept their Messiah. And so, when this didn’t happen, this was what Paul and the early Church ended up having to wrestle with: What are you going to do with the historical reality that most Jews did not accept Jesus as their Messiah?
With that in mind, Paul now asks the next question…
Why Did the Jews Miss Out? (9:30-33)
“What are we going to say?” Paul says. The unthinkable has happened: Gentiles who haven’t pursued righteousness have attained righteousness: a righteousness from faith; but the Jews who have pursued the Torah of righteousness didn’t attain the righteousness to which the Torah bore witness!
Simply put, the problem was that the Jews ended up focusing so much on the Mosaic Law (i.e. Torah), that they ended up forgetting the very Abrahamic covenant on which Torah was based. Basically, they missed what Torah was all about. They pursued Torah, thinking it would result in righteousness…but as Paul pointed out earlier, that was never Torah’s purpose. This is what Paul is saying in Romans 9:30-33—Israel’s “righteousness” was not based on faith; it was based on works of Torah. Because of that, they ended up “stumbling over the stumbling stone,” Christ himself. He was the intended cornerstone, but Israel rejected the way God was going about building his “new temple”! In other words, Paul is saying that unbelieving Israel is the unfaithful one, and is therefore responsible for missing out on the righteousness of God, not God.
τέλος (10:1-4)
This is not to say that there is nothing good about the Jews. In Romans 10:1-8, Paul goes out of his way to acknowledge how zealous the Jews were for God. The problem, though, was that their zealousness wasn’t according to knowledge. And so, Paul says, since they don’t know the righteousness of God, and since they are trying to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t submit to the righteousness of God. Simply put, they wanted to be like Frank Sinatra: they wanted to do it their own way!
But Paul states emphatically that Christ is the “end” of the Torah in regards to righteousness for those who have faith (10:4). Now, it is unfortunate that the word “end” is used to translate the Greek word τέλος. For Paul is not saying, “Now that Christ is here, the Torah gets thrown out!” Rather, the word τέλος has more of a meaning of full realization and full growth. Therefore, when Paul calls Christ the τέλος of the Torah, he is saying that Christ is everything that the Torah was point towards, and that Christ is the fulfillment of everything God was trying to convey through the Torah.
Think of it this way: if the Torah is the pointer, and faith in Christ is what it is pointing to, if you then reject Christ because you think focusing on the pointer is what God wants…you’re missing the point!
Two Kinds of Existence: Torah or Faith (10:5-8)
And so, as Paul spells out in 10:5-8, there are ultimately only two kinds of existence: a life based on Torah or a life based on faith. And here’s the thing: they are mutually exclusive—you can’t do both. Paul spells out the righteousness based on the Torah by alluding to Leviticus 18: the person who does these things must live by them. This is similar to what Paul says in Galatians 3:10, where he says, “Those who are of works of the Torah are under a curse, for it has been written: ‘Everyone who doesn’t remain in everything that has been written in the Book of the Torah is cursed to do these things’” (my translation). Simply put, the ones who live by “works of Torah” are cursed because they have to do Torah! They can’t live by faith! The curse is that you have to live by Torah!
Paul is saying that those who rely on their own ability to try to do the “works of Torah” are cursed, because they are on a treadmill that they can never get off of. It’s like a baseball player thinking if he gets enough hits in a row that he will be able to achieve a batting average of 1.000—it’s impossible because he hit .320 last season, and therefore has failed at the plate 68% of the time. There is no hit streak long enough to erase the previous failures, and to give that player a perfect batting average. He’s cursed if he thinks he can achieve it. Therefore, those who think that righteousness and perfection can be obtained through our own efforts of obeying the Torah are already cursed, because it’s simply an impossibility. They’re doomed to fail. Therefore, Paul says that that kind of “Torah existence” is a curse in and of itself.
By contrast, Paul then discusses the righteousness based on Faith. When reading 10:6-7, it might seem confusing, but here’s Paul’s point: the righteousness based on faith doesn’t need anyone else to either “ascend to heaven” or “descend into the abyss,” because Christ already has done it. Therefore, because of what Christ has done, “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart” (Deut. 30:12-14). What Paul is saying is that people who are made righteous from faith realizes that the Word of God can be found within them, in their daily faith in Christ in the present. Therefore that person is not worried about having to ascend to heaven or descending into death in order to “get righteousness.” To try to do that would be essentially to nullify the work of Christ.
The Last Days Have Arrived! (10:9-13)
This talk of having the word in your mouth and heart leads Paul to elaborate on a few things in 10:9-13: “…if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (10:9). Now, Paul is not saying that if you simply say the words, “Jesus is Lord,” that that is somehow a “magic formula” that gets you saved. His reference to both Jews and Gentiles should make it obvious what Paul is saying: anyone can do this—Jew or Gentile—anywhere! Faith in Christ is available to everyone! This isn’t so much “how to get saved” formula, but rather a statement saying, “If you are doing this, then this is the sign that you are saved.”
Paul then quotes Joel 2:32, which says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Peter quotes this very section in his Pentecost sermon in Acts 2:17-21, so clearly this passage in Joel was pretty important in the early Church. We can find out why it was when we look at Peter’s sermon. After quoting Joel, who talked about the “last days,” Peter says that that passage was being fulfilled at Pentecost. Both Peter and Paul were expressing a fundamental worldview of the early Church: the “last days” have come—the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was the sign that the “last days” had come. And, as Joel states, when the “last days” come, and when God’s Spirit is poured out on all flesh, then, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Simply put, the Gentile mission was evidence that the “last days” had arrived.
Can Jews Be Excused for Their Unfaithfulness? (10:14-21)
In 10:14-21, Paul then gets to the heart of the Jewish objection to what God had done: (1) “Can the Jews be excused for their unfaithfulness?” Paul’s answer is a clear, “No!” Or to put it another way, (2) “Have the Jews really gotten a fair shake? Have they really clearly been shown?” Paul’s answer to that is a clear, “Yes!”
Now, when one usually reads 10:14-15, it is assumed that this is some kind of admonition to go out and spread the Gospel. These verses have been quoted and preached upon in many missions conferences and mission-emphasis weeks in churches. And although it is true—we are to go out and spread the Gospel—that’s not what Paul is talking about here. In context, these verses are actually part of Paul’s point to show that his fellow Jews have no excuse. His point is this: the Jews have long been looking for the Messiah; they’ve heard and read about him in their Bibles; they’ve actually gone out and proclaimed it! And so, Paul asks, “Can we blame the Jews for not turning to Christ? Have they really been clearly told about him?” Paul gives the obvious answer, “Of course! Not only were they told, but they preached about it from their own Bibles!”
The problem wasn’t that the Jews hadn’t heard about God’s salvation plan and its culmination in Christ; the problem was a lack of obedience. Paul then quotes Isaiah 53:1: “Lord, who has believed our message?” Clearly not all Jews truly believed the message of God’s salvation. Real faith, as Paul says, stems from truly hearing (i.e. obeying) through the Word (i.e. message) of Christ. Therefore, the Jews who failed to put their faith in Christ were never truly faithful or obedient to God in the first place. And so, as Paul asks in 10:18-21, haven’t the Jews heard? Of course! Paul then quotes Psalm 19:5 to prove his point: They had it in their Bibles! They actually spread the Word! They can’t say they hadn’t heard! And then Paul asks, “Did Israel just not really understand?” Of course they understood! Paul then quotes Deuteronomy 32:12 and Isaiah 65:1: It was clear from the Torah and Prophets that God was going to do it this way, and that they were going to get jealous!
And so, in 10:21, Paul drives his point home regarding Israel by quoting Isaiah 65:2. The reason why Israel didn’t accept the Messiah is simple: Israel was disobedient, plain and simple, no excuses. Pretty harsh…but true.
