With the 1888 Message Dynamic
Romans Chapter 10
Paul, the God-appointed apostle to the Gentiles, has his heart set on the salvation of his fellow Jews. 10:1: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”
It is good to be zealous in the work of God. The problem is, like so many today, a preacher wants to run off as fast as he can to the next appointment, and when he gets there, he has no good news from the Lord. 10:2: “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” And so the correct knowledge of God becomes a key theme throughout these two chapters.
The ignorance of the Jews centers on God’s way of justification. 10:3: “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” The Jews have tried to make themselves morally right through their self-inspired zeal. However, they have taken a detour around Christ.
The vital knowledge necessary for being straightened out is by faith in Christ. 10:4: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” The endless debates centering on the word “end” are all futile in their efforts to abrogate the law of God. It is contrary to Christ who came to establish the law (Psalm 40:8; Matt. 5:17). The ultimate point or thing at which the law directs its view; the object intended to be reached or accomplished is righteousness. Christ is the only righteous One having faced the incessant temptations of the flesh and defeating them.
The law will not falsify the facts. It is a perfect description of righteousness. The law was given for life-giving purposes. Man sinned and he could not keep the law. 10:5: “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them.” Any theory of justifying man’s sin by a book transaction that by-passes a change of heart and reconciliation to God and His law, is a legal fiction and rightly termed an anti-law gospel. It is the understanding that Christians have given to Moslems about how forgiveness of sins is obtained, and they consider it a fraud and hypocrisy.
Since it was the Jewish view that they must initiate their salvation by zeal for God, Paul demonstrates in contrast that it is God who is the Initiator. 10:6: “But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:).” A true knowledge of “the righteousness which is of faith” does not seek to start a relationship with Christ by reaching up to Him.
Does true faith search for God deep down in the earth? 10:7: “Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)” All the “search for God” books written in the Christian media are off base in their premise. “There is none that seeketh after God” (Rom. 3:11).