Book of Romans: A Bible study series in 17 parts
The general theme of Romans: How to be right with God.
Lesson eleven: What about those disobedient Jews? (Romans 10)
[To watch this on YouTube as it was given live on Zoom, click https://youtu.be/6eL11Hg7cgo ]. [The whole biblical text and the bibliography Bob used are at the end of this blog]
Introduction
Last week we ended with God calling all people to faith in His promises. We said that this is the needed human response by all people (9.30-.33) If you didn’t watch our lesson last week, hopefully by this time next week, you will have done so. Each of our previous 10 classes are all on our YouTube playlist of Romans. Remember Paul is dealing with the issue of the confidence he is hoping to engender in the believers who are reading his letter. He assured them in chapter eight that nothing could separate them from God’s love.
Here in chapter 10 he will deal with Israel’s failure to respond to God’s righteousness, ending with the announcement that they are “a disobedient and obstinate people” (10:21).
So, the question today is “On what basis does the apostle say that Israel has failed in finding right standing with God?” And if that is true, then a follow-up question may be “Do the Jewish people have a hope at all?” This chapter continues the study on the Jewish people and the theme of our book, “Getting right with God”
Welcome to those of you who are new to our class in this the 11th lesson, as we take up Paul’s comments recorded in chapter 10 of The Book of Romans. If you are watching this video on YouTube long after our class ended today, then please pause the recording and read the 10th chapter. It will only take 3 minutes, or maybe 4 if you get a wee bit confused, then push play again, and come back as we will try to bring meaning to it all. OK, welcome back. For those of you on the Zoom call just now, have your Bible open, will you? And next week, please read the chapter before you come to ‘class.’ Thanks.
Today’s outline is as follows:
A. Israel’s failure and Paul’s prayer (verses 1-5)
B. Moses and Joel testify (6-13) of faith as the answer
C. Faith speaks (14-21) and so do Isaiah, and so should you!
A. Israel’s failure and Paul’s prayer (.1-5)
First, let me recognize one of Paul’s favourite words. Paul loved the word ‘brethren.’ He used this term 13 times in this letter alone. And dozens more times through the rest of his letters. He used the word to describe his relationship with the former slave Onesimus and wants Philemon the slaveowner to treat him “no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.” (Philemon 16)
Paul saw the newly-born-again former slave, who ran away, as a brother both to Philemon and to himself. What a word of endearment, hardly one which we might say characterized the hostility or caste-system-measure we see later in history.
Remember the first word Rabbi Saul actually heard from anyone after the episode on the road to Damascus? He had been struck by God with blindness and was led to a house in town where he sat for days. Three days in fact, without food, water or ability to see. And he was praying. Just then God spoke to a believer named Ananias to go to the house of Judas, who lived on Straight Street. After a bit of negotiations, Ananias went to the house, walked in, laid his hands on Saul, and said, “Brother Saul…” and prophesied what God wanted for the future apostle. In one moment, all the pent-up emotions of hatred and threats were dispelled. And Saul was born again. The first word he heard in his blindness, from someone who knew the dangers of this welcome, was ‘brother.’[1]
Paul’s use of the term here, in the plural to the Romans, is a similar endearing word. He already introduced this section with the plaintive cry similar to Moses--aching for the Jewish people to come to Messiah. And as he continues to show the rebellion of Israel, he calls the believers in Rome to similar tenderness.
Paul’s care for Israel then fades into the proclamation that Israel has fallen, failed, not gotten to the telos, the goal of the instruction, the goal of all our lives, eternity with Yeshua. He is the end / goal of all God’s instructions. He’s the alpha and the omega. How did Israel do this? Remember the way to be right with God? IF you remember that, you will also know the way not to be right with God. “they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.” (verse 3)
Subjecting yourself to God’s right standard simply means letting God be God in your life. Disallowing yourself from ruling in your daily circumstances. You have to trust the Lord and believe him. That is ‘subjecting yourself.’ Making yourself the servant, the very word by which Paul self-introduced in chapter 1.
And just in case you missed it, verse 4 is the summary of all of chapter 9 and these few verses here. “Messiah is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” The Torah’s arrow is Messiah himself.
Verse 5: If you want to live in the standard of Torah, you will be judged by that. And don’t be too confident in how you would do in that examination.
Paul uses two texts from the Torah to substantiate his claims—Leviticus 18:5 and Deuteronomy 30:11–14. Dunn says, “Paul seems to understand the passage in its most obvious sense—that keeping the statutes and ordinances of the law was the way of living appropriate to the covenant, which the covenant required. Moses did not say, and Paul does not understand him to say, that keeping the law was a means of earning or gaining life (in the future;”
B. Moses and Joel testify (6-13) of faith as the answer
Then in verse 6, Paul begins a new section with a personification. He says that ‘righteousness’ speaks, and he quotes Moses in Deut. 30.11-14. And the citation stops short. Look at the text, “to do it” is missing in Paul. And some note that Paul is saying that in the past no one was saved, until Messiah came, which is dead wrong.
Again, from Dunn: “What Paul is objecting to throughout this letter is not the law or the commandment as such, but the law and the commandment understood in terms of works (9:32), in terms of national righteousness (10:3). To put the same point another way. Deut 30 can be taken as referring to both epochs of God’s saving purpose, to the epoch of Israel before Christ and the epoch of all the nations brought in by Christ. The contrast between Lev 18 and Deut 30 therefore is not that the former is to be wholly referred to the old epoch while the latter solely to the new. Rather it is that the Leviticus passage emphasizes the discontinuity between the epochs, whereas the Deuteronomy passage can bring out the continuity between the epochs, the continuity precisely between the law and the obedience of faith. In this sense too it can be seen that “the word of God” has not failed (9:6).”
I define ‘law’ in this understanding that Dunn helps us to get as “the system by the which the practitioner attempts to gain God’s favour. Grace, or in this context, righteousness by faith may well be defined as the system of receiving God’s favour without earning it. On the one hand we earn, on the other hand we do not earn but receive. Think of it this way, Americans, for no apparent reason each of you received $1,200 a few weeks ago. You didn’t earn it; you simply received it into your account. You didn’t beg for it; you didn’t send notes to the president, you didn’t have to send a self-addressed postage-paid envelope … it simply arrived. You receive the benefits of it in spending. It’s yours. You did nothing to earn it. And any earning you tried would have been without success. Paul said earlier “the wages of sin is death.” That was what we earned.
So, Deuteronomy 30 is Moses being called to the witness stand again. He says the word is near us. The law has not failed. God has not failed, but WE HAVE. This is very hard to admit. But that admission is our entry pass. I like the word ‘admit’ like “admit one’ on the ticket stub as you enter the movie theatre. If I pay my entry fee, I am admitted into the benefits of that payment. By agreeing with the condemnation of our people (which sounds horrible, but stay with me), we are admitted into the HOSPITAL of God’s favour and grace. Some people use the term ‘confess’ in this regard. I like both images of admission and confession.
Here's what I mean. Admission, as I’ve said, allows me entrée into the theatre or the university course or the museum. I can go in. And I can see, learn, experience all that the owner of the establishment wants me to have.
So, if we say ‘we have failed’ today, and stop trying to earn the favour of God, and stop showcasing our good behaviour… if we do all that, and admit our failures, we are admitted into the waiting room of the Kingdom of God.
The other term in use here is the word ‘confess.’ Verse 9 says ‘if we confess’ things, something happens. Confession may sound very Catholic or very legal but let me tell you what I think it means. “Confess” means to “agree together with” something. Let’s say I commit a major crime. I kill a guy. The photos and videos are on television nightly, and finally I turn myself in at the police station. My confession of the murder doesn’t make the crime happen. It doesn’t negate the crime. I simply ‘agree together with’ the police, with the evidence, and with myself that I’m the guilty party.
The Bible here says for us to be saved, we have to confess Jesus as Lord. My confession does not make this happen. Jesus has been Lord for a very long time. My confession of his lordship simply allows me the benefits of that reality. My confession is not the genesis of the reality; it gives me the entrée into the reality. I agree together with God that Jesus, the Jewish messiah, is Lord of all, and that includes me.
And confession is not the only requirement. Otherwise simple ‘read this prayer’ commands would be enough to get everyone on the planet to be saved. A person has to believe as well.
Now think about the verb to believe. Some will remember Tinker Bell and Peter Pan. There the little fairy was losing her power and the characters of the story invite the audience, that’s you and me, ‘to believe’ and then Tink will reignite and substantially become strong again.
You might remember Cher and her hit song titled “Believe” with some of the simplest and most redundant lyrics ever,
“Do you believe in life after love?
Do you remember love?
Do you believe in life after love?
Do you remember love?
Do you remember love?
Do you believe in life after love?
Do you remember love?
Do you believe in life after love?”
At every football match being played this weekend, the crowd is urged along by radio personalities and the teams on the bench to ‘believe’ that our team can bring home the victory.
Those examples are NOT what is in view here. Here we see particularized faith, that is, the reader is not only to believe, but to believe something in particular. Believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. What does that include?
1) The fact of history that there was a Jesus
2) The fact of history that Jesus really died (in context, on a Roman cross at the crucifixion) and
3) The fact of history that Jesus rose from the dead
Without those facts, your faith is merely Tinker Bell faith and is illusory and a fable. But if you want the ‘word of God to be near you’, if you want the righteousness that is by faith, then it’s particularized faith. Three facts. Do you believe those?
1) The fact of history that there was a Jesus
2) The fact of history that Jesus really died (in context, on a Roman cross at the crucifixion) and
3) The fact of history that Jesus rose from the dead
Moses has testified, Joel now is called to the witness stand and his verse is “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That is, rescued, delivered, have a change of life. Brought into the presence of God. Or as we have said, ‘made right with God.’
C. Faith speaks (14-21) and so do Isaiah, and so should you!
Paul ponders in the final section today how this message is going to get to the people. His series of rhetorical questions helps us think this issue through.
1) How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
2) How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?
3) And how will they hear without a preacher?
4) How will they preach unless they are sent?
He is saying simply that some folks need to be sent, so that people can hear, and if they hear they might believe and thus call on Jesus.
Think about how you heard about this Bible study group. Think how you learned the phrase, “Oh what a feeling!” Think how you finish the statement, “When you care enough to send the very best.” If you ponder this for only a moment you will get what the apostle is saying. He says that people need to have open ears, and thus be able to hear what someone is saying. We need help on many levels, but the power of advertising, the power of communicating to others, is in our mouths.
If we open our mouths (Psalm 81.10), God will fill them with good information. We are those who are being sent. We have to declare the good works of God to others. Otherwise, how will they ever know?
Some intermarried people will tell me that they will give their children the option to choose which religion they want to be when they grow up. On investigation I find out often the parents have given no information at all to the kids, saying they will make up their own minds later. But without information, there really is no option at all.
Thus, Paul says our feet can be beautiful. I’ve never really seen beautiful feet; I find them mostly functional and not stunning like a face or eyes. But Isaiah says that the one who brings good news (remember that’s Gospel in Greek) has beautiful feet. It’s in the GOING that the word gets out. It’s not in our ‘come to me’ philosophy; it’s in our ‘go and tell’ that people can then hear and then believe and then be saved.
I believe the indictment of Israel is not only about our inability to hear and believe and receive Messiah. I believe Paul is indicting the people of Israel for not going to the nations and sharing this good news.
In context, the people not believing is a function of the not going of Israel. Many today will say that Israel was never to be a missionary nation. I think that’s exactly what caused our failure again and again.
The evidence is there in verse 21. Verse 21 is the terminus of the condemnation of Israel. We are without hope, or… are we? If chapter 10 is the last word, then we are hopeless. That’s where chapter 11 comes in.
But what about the triangle of verse 17? Faith comes. That’s good news for each of us. IF we don’t have much faith today, hang in there, faith can come!
How does it come? It comes by hearing. Are you listening to this talk today? Are you listening to what God might be saying to you just now about Yeshua, our Messiah? Opening our ears to the living one, to the one who was killed but rose from the dead; that’s where real life comes.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from the Word of God. Here is this triangle. God spoke, and now others speak in his name. We hear that and it goes into our heart and we follow up with faith. Then we speak / confess the faith we have (remember, that doesn’t make things happen, it’s simply an agreement with what has happened already) and our own faith grows because faith comes by hearing ourselves speak faith!
So, this triangle of faith works regularly. Speaking, hearing, believing. Faith leads to confession which leads to more faith which leads to more hearing and increased right living with God.
Does that make sense to you?
Dear friends on Facebook and on this zoom call, if you are not yet a believer in Yeshua, I urge you today, call on him while he is near. If you know your Torah, and you know yourself, you know you need help, you need salvation, you need a Saviour. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be rescued, will be saved will be made to be in right relationship with God. It’s worth all the social distancing people will give you when you tell them about God. It’s worth all the rejection of others who don’t want to know about God’s love in Messiah Yeshua.
If you want, you can pray a prayer with me just now to solidify your choice. Something like this, “Father in Yeshua’s name, thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Yeshua to save me from myself, from my selfishness, from my despair and the harm I cause so many. Thank you for making me right with God by your sacrifice. I receive Yeshua (Jesus) as my saviour and the lover of my soul. He frees me to love others. I repent of my sins and ask for God’s forgiveness to be my portion. I receive the free gift of God, eternal life in Messiah Jesus our Lord. Amen.”
If you prayed that prayer, will you let us know via the messages or write me directly. I would appreciate that.
NEXT WEEK we will look at the 11th chapter and watch how the apostle combines chapter 9 (Sovereignty) and chapter 10 (Israel’s rejection) and showcases God’s choice of the remnant as the perfect solution to the question of God’s sure love to the community of faith. Make sure you join us live if you can.
I’m delighted to be able to read and help us understand this book each Friday here from my home in Sydney. Shabbat shalom!
The actual text:
Rom. 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. 2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. 3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Rom. 10:5 For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. 6 But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” 8 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus asLord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
Rom. 10:14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”
Rom. 10:16 However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word 1of Christ.
Rom. 10:18 But I say, surely, they have never heard, have they? Indeed, they have; “THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE 1WORLD.” 19 But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says, “I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION, BY A NATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WILL I ANGER YOU.”
20 And Isaiah is very bold and says, “I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME.” 21 But as for Israel He says, “ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.”
Bibliography
Briscoe, Stuart. The Communicator’s Commentary (Romans), Word Books, Waco Texas.1982.
Dunn, James D.G., Word Biblical Commentary, Romans, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1988.
Murray, John, The Epistle to the Romans, New International Commentary on the New Testament, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1965.
Prince, Derek, The Destiny of Israel And the Church, DVD series, Derek Prince Ministries, 1990.
Robinson, Donald. Selected Works (Volume I) edit by Bolt and Thompson, Australian Church Record, Camperdown, 2008.
Wright, Tom, Paul for Everyone, SPCK, Westminster John Knox Press, London, 2004
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[1] The first word was actually “Saul” --by his name he was called, but of course that’s proper, to get Saul’s attention. The first word, not used to get his personal attention, was ‘brother.’
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