Israel’s Condemnation is Their Own Fault
“Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:1-4, ESV).
Paul’s spiritual bond of kinship with his multi-ethnic Christian brethren is much more significant than his historical and cultural connection to the third-person “them,” although his passion expressed in 9:1-4 remains. His “heart’s1 desire and prayer to God” for his fellow Israelites “is that they may be saved,” i.e., delivered from God’s wrath (5:9), even though he knows “only a remnant of them will be saved” (9:27). Paul is a man of prayer (12:12; 15:30),2 and here he uses the term δέησις in reference to petitionary prayer3 (its only occurrence in Romans), which seems superfluous if the Calvinistic doctrine of unconditional election, surmised by many from the previous chapter, were true.
Since God has done so much to save people (5:6-10) and provided so many advantages to the Jews (3:1-2; 9:4-5), why are so many of them missing out? Paul explains with successive uses of the explanatory conjunction “for” [γάρ] (vv. 2, 3, 4, 5). Their well-intentioned “zeal” [ζῆλος]4 is acknowledged, which Paul too had exhibited in the past (Acts 22:3; Gal. 1:14; Phil. 3:6), albeit misplaced and not according to “knowledge” [ἐπίγνωσις], i.e., adequate or full knowledge.5 Reiterating what has already been established in 9:30-31, they are “ignorant of the righteousness of God” and therefore “did not submit to God’s righteousness.” They have failed to comply in obedient faith to the gospel of Christ, wherein the righteousness of God is revealed (cf. 1:5, 16, 17). Instead, they are “seeking to establish” a righteousness of “their own” through meritorious works of the Mosaic “law” (cf. 3:19-20; 4:4, 13-15; 9:32).
The “end” [τέλος] (emphatic!) of the law is “Christ” [Χριστός]—the “anointed one” in fulfillment of the messianic prophecies of the Jewish scriptures (cf. v. 5; 1:1-6)—who has carried the law to its fruition and is now the one through whom righteousness is made available. The Law of Moses pointed to Christ, brought us to Christ, and its binding precepts have been terminated in Christ (cf. 8:4; 13:8-10; Gal. 3:19-26). In the discussion that follows, “Paul examines the character of national Israel’s idolatry, namely, how they could have come to be devoted to the idol of Torah observance instead of God.”6
Accessing God’s Righteousness
With v. 3 serving as “the conceptual center of the paragraph,” v. 4 “is justly famous as one of the most succinct yet significant theological assertions in all of the Pauline letters.”7 As true as this may be, due attention must be given to the translation, meaning, and application of the expression “every believing one” [παντὶ τῷ πιστεύοντι], conveying more than just “everyone who believes” in the sense of accepting a cognitive belief. Contextually “every believing one” describes the penitent baptized believer who has responded to the gospel in “obedience of faith” (cf. 1:5, 16; 3:22; 4:3-24; 6:3-4).
“For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”’ (that is, to bring Christ down) ‘or “Who will descend into the abyss?”’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim)” (Rom. 10:5-8).
Again citing “Moses,”8 Paul loosely quotes Lev. 18:5 (cf. Gal. 3:12),9 which in its original context is concerned with the observance of God’s statutes and avoiding the sexual perversions of the Egyptians and Canaanites. The law’s purpose was to show how to live a God-pleasing and God-honoring life if one “does the commandments” (cf. 2:13, 23, 25).10 But this cannot be maintained as if it were equivalent to “the righteousness” revealed in the gospel “based on faith” (1:16-17; 3:22-31; 4:9–5:2; 9:30-32), a concept not entirely foreign to the writings of Moses.
Paul then borrows wording from and comments on Deut. 9:4 and 30:12-14, but instead of carefully exegeting the respective passages he simply draws a parallel between the past and present, using biblical language to make his point. In the setting of Deut. 9:4-6, the land inheritance of ancient Israel was not to be gained as a result of their own “righteousness” but would confirm “the word of the Lord.” Likewise, Paul speaks concerning the Israelites of his own day, “Do not say in your11 heart [καρδία] …” (cf. 2:5, 29) in thinking righteousness can be appropriated apart from faith (cf. v. 3), as discussed since the beginning of the letter.
Availability of the Word of Faith
The next quotations come from Deut. 30:12 and 14 in the context of the Lord’s blessings and cursings consequential to whether or not his commands are obeyed. The divine will was clearly communicated with the expectation of obedience “with all your [circumcised] heart and with all your soul” (vv. 2, 6, 8, 10; cf. 2:28-29). It was not necessary for anyone to “ascend into heaven”12 or “descend into the abyss”13 to retrieve the Lord’s directives. Rather, according to his gracious providential and revelatory work, his “word [ῥῆμα] is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”14 In the same way, none of Paul’s contemporaries has to journey to either extremity “to bring Christ down” (incarnation) or “to bring Christ up from the dead” (resurrection and exaltation). All that needs to be known is readily available through “the word [τὸ ῥῆμα] of faith [τῆς πίστεως] that [ὃ] we proclaim [κηρύσσομεν]” – present tense, on a current and ongoing basis (cf. 1:1-6; 6:17-18).
Proclamation of the Word of Faith
Paul’s use of the first person plural, “we proclaim,” raises the question of whether the referential proclaimers are inclusive or exclusive of the readers.15 Although most of the first person plurals in the letter are employed inclusively, this statement follows an extended section of scripture quotations, rhetorical argumentation, and third-person discourse. Paul typically uses the plural form of κηρύσσω when writing in the first person (1 Cor. 1:23; 15:11; 2 Cor. 1:19; 4:5; 11:4; 1 Thess. 2:9).16 In almost every occurrence its meaning is exclusive of his addressees by a contrast with “you” and/or an explicit reference to Paul’s ministerial colleagues. Moreover, throughout his correspondence to the Romans he seems to consider them primarily as recipients of the gospel rather than proclaimers (cf. 1:15; 6:17). In light of its usage elsewhere, κηρύσσομεν here seems to be limited in its application to Paul and his fellow preachers as distinct from the reading audience.
Conclusion
With much more to be said, Paul has made clear that the unbelief characteristic of so many of the Israelite people since the beginning of the Christian movement is the cause of their hopeless predicament before God. Their only hope, like everyone else in the world, is still available through “the word of faith.” To be continued …
--Kevin L. Moore
Endnotes:
1 Note the heavy concentration of καρδία (“heart”) in this chapter: vv. 1, 6, 8, 9, 10.
2 Paul prayed regularly, especially for his fellow-Christians (Rom. 1:9-10; Eph. 1:16; Phil. 1:3-4; Col. 1:9-12; cf. 1 Thess. 1:2; 3:10; 2 Thess. 1:11), and often requested prayers on his own behalf (Rom. 15:30-32; 2 Cor. 1:11; Eph. 6:19-20; Col. 4:3, 4; Philem. 22; cf. 1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1-2).
3 B. M. Newman, Concise Greek Dictionary 39; H. K. Moulton, Analytical Greek Lexicon 89. Used three times in the Gospel of Luke (1:13; 2:37; 5:33), once in Romans (10:1), twice in 2 Corinthians (1:11; 9:14), twice in Ephesians (6:18), four times in Philippians (1:4, 19; 4:6), twice in 1 Timothy (2:1; 5:5), once in 2 Timothy (1:3), and once each in Hebrews (5:7), James (5:16), and 1 Peter (3:12).
4 Cf. John 2:17; 2 Cor. 7:7, 11; 2 Cor. 9:2; 11:2; as opposed to the negative sense of “jealousy” or “envy” (Acts 5:17; 13:45; Rom. 13:13; 2 Cor. 12:20; Gal. 5:20), or “fury” (Heb. 10:27).
5 1 Cor. 13:12; Eph. 4:13, Phil. 1:9; Col. 1:9, 10; 2:2; 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Tim. 2:25.
6 A. Sherwood, Romans 546.
7 D. J. Moo, Romans 631.
8 Note also v. 19; 5:14; 9:15; 1 Cor. 9:9; 10:2; 2 Cor. 3:7, 13, 15; 2 Tim. 3:8.
9 The Lev. 18:5 citation is at variance with the LXX (slightly) and the Hebrew text where they agree (E. E. Ellis, Paul’s Use of the OT 150-52). Some English versions (ESV, NASB) do not mark this as a quotation, whereas others do (ISV, NIV, NKJV).
10 Also Gal. 3:12; Luke 10:26-28. On the difference between “doing” the law and “fulfilling” the law, see K. L. Moore, “Fulfilling the Law,” Moore Perspective (6 May 2012), <Link>.
11 The second person references here and in the following verses are singular, in line with the OT passages quoted, wherein the singular pronominal references apply to all of Israel as a collective unit.
12 “In the OT, the language of ‘ascending into heaven’ becomes almost proverbial for a task impossible for human beings to perform” (D. J. Moo, Romans 654). Cf. Isa. 14:13; Amos 9:2; Psa. 139:8; Prov. 30:4.
13 Also rendered “the deep” (NIV, KJV), the depths” (ISV), “the place of the dead” (NLT). The MT reads, “beyond the sea.”
14 Contrast Rom. 1:21, 24; 2:5; 16:18.
15 The few commentators who address this question are not in agreement. C. K. Barrett treats κηρύσσομεν as an epistolary plural (Romans 199-200), B. Byrne suggests that it is inclusive of Christians in general (Romans 318), and V. B. Pickett maintains that it excludes Christians in general (“A Study” 5).
16 “He does not see his preaching as idiosyncratic, but as an expression of the gospel held in common, which unites the new movement round the one ‘word of faith’ – an important expression of solidarity with the relatively unknown Roman church (so vv 14-15)” (J. D. G. Dunn, Romans 2:606-607). Paul uses κηρύσσω only three times as a first person singular (1 Cor. 9:27; Gal. 2:2; 5:11). In 1 Cor. 9:27 it comes at the end of his lengthy self-defense that is saturated with fifty-six first person singulars.
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