5    Israel’s Failure—part 1  Ignorance of the  Person of God: His  Righteousness (10:1-3)

Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. (10:1–3)

As he continues his theme explaining the place of Israel in God’s plan, Paul now focuses on what might be called Israel’s failure, or ignorance.

It will be helpful to begin by looking at a crucial issue in Scripture, namely, the matter of truth. In the introduction to his gospel, John pronounced that Jesus was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). While teaching in the treasury of the temple, “Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’” (John 8:31–32). In other words, Jesus declared Himself to be the source and the measure of truth, and that “everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (John 18:37). “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” He said on another occasion, and “no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6).

Jesus promised His disciples that “when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come” (John 16:13). In their behalf He prayed to His heavenly Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). In many other instances, Jesus emphasized the truthfulness of His teaching, introducing His instruction with such words as, “Because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me” (John 8:45) and “I tell you the truth” (John 16:7).

Paul declared that “those who perish,” do so “because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thess. 2:10) and that those who are saved are sanctified “by the Spirit and faith in the truth” (2:13). No matter how erudite, religious, and sincere they may be, those who rely on their own knowledge and understanding are destined to be “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7).

The gospel puts a high premium on God’s truth. The gospel is the life-changing, sin-cleansing, salvation-giving, soul-transforming, heaven-opening truth that comes only through trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

No group of people in history has been more concerned about religious truth than the Jews (see Rom. 2:17–20). From ancient times, centuries before the time of Christ, Jewish children, especially boys, were meticulously instructed in the Old Testament. But they were also carefully instructed in Jewish tradition, which often wrongly interpreted and even contradicted the Old Testament. Those traditions taught by the rabbis, along with their commentaries on Scripture, were considered by most Jews to be essential for comprehending God’s truth.

Leading rabbis, who often were scribes, were thought to be the possessors and the purveyors of religious truth, and consequently they had great power and influence over the Jewish people. Paul relates that he had studied at the feet of the famed rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). Young boys who aspired to be teachers themselves would travel great distances to study under noted rabbis, the most renowned of which were usually found in Jerusalem. That holy city of the Jews had become a citadel of learning, and its rabbis and scribes were honored and venerated. Those teachers were held in such esteem that their interpretations of Scripture and their religious instructions were seldom questioned, regardless of how much their ideas may have contradicted the clear message of God’s own Word. Because those teachers were thought to have esoteric powers of spiritual discernment that most Jews did not possess, their word became virtual law.

A simple story in the Talmud illustrates the extreme admiration most Jews had for the scribes. The Day of Atonement was the most sacred day of the Jewish year, when the high priest went alone into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled blood on the mercy seat as atonement for his own sins and those of all the people. It is told that, on the eve of one Day of Atonement, the high priest was going to his home, followed by a large and admiring crowd. But when two beloved scribes passed by, the crowd left the high priest and followed the scribes.

The scribes were given the prestigious titles of rabbi, which means teacher, and even of master and father (cf. Matt. 23:1–12). So great was their influence that some historians believe that it was a group of zealous scribes that incited the Jewish riots against Rome in A.D. 66, a rebellion that led to the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple four years later.

The scribes always sat in the places of highest honor at banquets and religious feasts. In the synagogue they would sit with their backs to the cupboards that contained the scrolls of the Torah, the sacred law of Moses, indicating their unique position as its sole interpreters. Even the tombs of famous rabbis were venerated with a superstitious awe, and their memories were embellished with fictitious legends about their wisdom and works.

Because the Old Testament was written in Hebrew whereas most Jews of New Testament times spoke only Aramaic, the scribes had an additional advantage in their interpretation of Scripture. Part of their responsibility was translating the Scriptures into Aramaic, making the people almost completely reliant on those leaders for any knowledge of God’s Word.

As will be studied later in this chapter in more detail, Paul speaks of Israel, typified by such scribes and their followers, as having “a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge” (10:2). Of another group of Jewish religious leaders, the Sadducees, Jesus said, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures, or the power of God” (Matt. 22:29). In other words, with all their effort and presumed intense study of the Scriptures, they were ignorant of their true meaning. They could not truly know God’s Word, because they did not know God Himself. “You know neither Me, nor My Father,” Jesus said to their faces; “if you knew Me, you would know My Father also” (John 8:19). A short while later the Lord answered their charge of blasphemy by declaring, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know Him, and keep His word” (John 8:54–55; see also 9:39–41).

After healing the cripple at the gate of the Temple, Peter explained to the wondering Jews who gathered around, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered up, and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. … Now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also” (Acts 3:13–14, 17).

Countless other passages in both testaments speak of Israel’s spiritual ignorance and its terrible consequences. Through Isaiah the Lord declared, “Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude is parched with thirst” (Isa. 5:13), and through Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” (Hos. 4:6).

Throughout their history, the Jews thought they knew God’s truth. But Isaiah declared to his people, “Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; for the Lord speaks, ‘Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against Me. An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know, My people do not understand.’ Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him” (Isa. 1:2–4). And through the psalmist He declared, “For forty years I loathed that generation, and said they are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know My ways” (Ps. 95:10).

Centuries later, Jesus said to unbelieving descendants of those Jews, “(You invalidate] the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that” (Mark 7:13). On another occasion, He said, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men” (Matt. 15:8–9 NIV) Their leaders had so modified and explained away God’s revelation that the resulting religious traditions frequently nullified His truth. Consequently, Israel has walked a path of pain and turmoil, sorrow, and suffering—dispossessed, hated, and maligned. Because they believe they already know God and are favored by Him, such suffering and persecution have always been hard for Jews to understand.

Sanford C. Mills, himself a Hebrew Christian, has commented, “Israel wants to be the captain of her own soul, the master of her own ship. But Israel lost both her rudder and her compass, and now, with her vessel of state careening about in a maelstrom of sin, what is to save her from being drawn into the vortex of hell? Yet this is the condition of Israel today, even as it was in Paul’s day” (A Hebrew Christian Looks at Romans [Grand Rapids: Dunham, 1968], p. 333).

Paul confessed to Timothy his own rejection and spiritual ignorance before coming to salvation: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service; even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. And yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:12–13). Paul makes clear that his own spiritual ignorance, like that of all other Jews, was due to unbelief. In other words, ignorance of God does not bring rejection of Him, but rather rejection of God brings spiritual ignorance of Him.

In Romans 9, Paul focuses on God’s sovereign election and on the elect’s response of faith in Him. The corollary is that because God has not elected all Jews, all Jews have not had saving faith. As we have seen earlier, because Paul knew how offensive that truth would be to most Jews, he began that chapter of Romans with great compassion and sorrow, testifying that he would gladly sacrifice his own salvation if doing so would bring salvation to his unbelieving kinsmen according the flesh (9:1–3).

Romans 10 is equally offensive to Jews, because the apostle here focuses on Israel’s willing unbelief and the spiritual ignorance and divine condemnation that this unbelief brings.

PAUL’S PRAYER FOR ISRAEL

Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. (10:1)

Again (see 9:1–3) Paul begins by declaring his great love for fellow Jews, saying, Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. The antecedent of them is Israel (see 9:31), God’s chosen nation through Abraham.

Paul did not have a cold and indifferent acquiescence to God’s sovereign election. He had a compelling, heartfelt longing to bring his physical kinsmen to Christ. His deepest heart’s desire was that every Jew be saved, and his earnest prayer to God on their behalf was for their salvation. Deēsis (prayer) conveys the idea of pleading and entreaty, of persistent petition to God. Paul was not making a hopeless plea that he did not expect God to answer. He prayed because he fully believed God could save all Israel, that, no matter how seemingly unlikely, the people of Israel could be saved if they would place their trust in their Messiah and Savior.

Although Paul’s foremost calling was to be the apostle to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:13; cf. Acts 9:15), that did not lessen at all his unbounded love for the salvation of his fellow Jews. He was doubtless well aware of Jesus’ last earthly commission to the other apostles just before He ascended into heaven: “You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). He also knew that Jesus had declared that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). Paul had already proclaimed that “the gospel … is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). In his earlier ministry, Paul always preached the gospel first in a synagogue or other place of Jewish worship if he could find one (see, e.g., Acts 9:20; 13:14; 14:1; 16:13).

As He was dying on the cross, Jesus prayed for those who placed Him there, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). That was a prayer for the salvation of His murderers! Following his Lord’s example, Stephen prayed with his dying breath, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” (Acts 7:60). That, too, was a prayer for his killers’ salvation. With that same forgiving compassion, Paul held no grudge against fellow Jews who maligned and persecuted His Lord or himself, but rather prayed for their salvation.

No apostle better understood or more fully declared God’s sovereignty than did Paul. Yet he knew with certainty that, perfectly consistent with God’s sovereign power and grace, Israel’s salvation was not impossible. The apostle did not try to reconcile rationally the seeming incongruity between God’s sovereign election and man’s willing faith.

The elective decree of God is absolute and certain, but it is a secret choice that He alone knows. It is not our responsibility to try to determine whom God has chosen but to proclaim the saving gospel to every person who will hear it, praying with Paul’s earnestness that they will all receive Christ and be saved. Our responsibility is to diligently preach, teach, testify, and intercede, fully believing with Paul that “God our Savior… desires all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:3–4) and with Peter that “the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). We should be able to say with Paul, “I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10).

Believers are to pray for and witness to all unbelievers, knowing that God will faithfully save those who believe in His Son. God’s redemptive program is not one-dimensional. To isolate God’s sovereign choice from the believer’s personal faith is to foolishly and presumptuously separate what God has inextricably united. A theology that does not reflect genuine, heartfelt compassion for the lost and a deep desire for their salvation is a theology that is unbiblical.

THE IGNORANT ZEAL OF ISRAEL

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. (10:2)

Paul earnestly desired and prayed for Israel’s salvation because he bore them witness that they [had] a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. The apostle knew from his own experience as a radically zealous Pharisee that most Jews of that day were very religious but yet far from God. He testified to the Galatians: “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions” (Gal. 1:13–14). He gave a similar testimony to the Philippians: “[I was] circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless” (Phil. 3:5–6). As far as legalistically fulfilling the outward demands of the law, Paul was blameless. Yet with the other Jews of his day, he had no understanding of spiritual truth and genuine godliness. He not only did not know and follow God’s way but vehemently opposed it, persecuting the church of God.

Before the angry crowd of Jews in Jerusalem, Paul declared, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, just as you all are today” (Acts 22:3). Some years later, before the Roman commander Festus, King Herod Agrippa, and his wife Bernice in Caesarea, the apostle gave similar testimony: “All Jews know my manner of life from my youth up, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem; since they have known about me for a long time previously, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion” (Acts 26:4–5).

By his own words, Paul had been a zealous member of the most zealous Jewish sect. No one understood better than he what it was to have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. The Jews had a certain degree or kind of knowledge (gnōsis), an intellectual awareness of the outward demands of God’s law. But they did not have the discerning spiritual knowledge (epignōsis) that comes only from a saving relationship to God. They had the kind of superficial religious knowledge that causes pride and arrogance (1 Cor. 8:1), but not the godly knowledge that both comes from and produces humility and holiness.

In behalf of the Ephesian church, Paul prayed “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge [epignōsis] of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know [another term is used here for mature, full knowledge] what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:17–18). True salvation brings with it a true “knowledge of Him” that opens the door to spiritual wisdom and enlightenment.

THE IGNORANT UNRIGHTEOUSNESS OF ISRAEL

For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. (10:3)

Lack of knowledge is tied to lack of faith. Paul has already made clear that Israel’s failure in righteousness was due to failure in faith. “Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness,” he had said earlier, “did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone” (Rom. 9:31–32).

Israel’s rejection by God was not due to arbitrary divine election, as though He had withheld His grace from His chosen people. The entire Jewish Scriptures are a testimony to God’s calling Israel to Himself. He called her over and over again—through the law, the prophets, and the other sacred writings. Of all people on earth, Israel was entrusted with the very oracles of God (Rom. 3:2). She was therefore uniquely responsible for her rejection by God, who made every effort to bring her to Himself.

As with the rest of the world (cf. Rom. 1:18–21), Israel rejected God before God rejected Israel. The tragedy in the history of Israel was squandering the immeasurable privilege of having directly received the very Word of God—first His written Word in the Scriptures, and even more tragically the living Word, God’s only Son, Jesus Christ.

Israel was willingly and inexcusably ignorant of God’s righteousness because she sought to establish her own righteousness and refused to subject herself to the righteousness of God. Such a charge was a terrible blow to a people who prided themselves in knowing the truth about God and in being His chosen ones.

Paul makes clear that Israel’s most serious ignorance was about God’s righteousness, the central nature of His personhood. In light of having received the full revelation of the Old Testament, it is shocking to think that the Jews would underestimate God’s holiness and righteous perfection. But they had brought God’s holiness and purity down to their own sinful level, and their basic spiritual and moral flaw was in thinking that God was less holy and more tolerant of sin than He had clearly revealed Himself to be.

Through Jeremiah, the Lord warned His people, ‘“Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,’ declares the Lord” (Jer. 9:23–24, emphasis added). Man’s only cause for boasting is in God’s righteousness, never his own.

But most Jews of that day did boast in their own righteousness and considered themselves pleasing to God simply because they were His ancient chosen people. For that same reason they thought the many rabbinical traditions they had substituted for God’s Word were perfectly acceptable to Him. Not only were they willingly ignorant of God’s righteousness, but they also had no understanding of their own unrighteousness. They thought they were more holy and righteous than they were and therefore fully believed that any deficit in their own merit could be met by their own good works—measured by their own standard of righteousness.

Consequently, they felt no need for a Messiah to save them from sin but rather a Messiah to deliver them from their earthly oppressors, namely Rome. That heinous misjudgment and ignorance about God’s righteousness and their own unrighteousness was the basis for their whole system of legalistic self-righteousness. Through their rabbinical traditions they had brought the infinitely holy standards of God, which no man can achieve by his own efforts, down to a man-made level which they could achieve without divine grace.

Despite the clear and unambiguous teaching of the Old Testament, Jews chose to establish their own standards of holiness and righteousness and thereby did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God. They knew that Moses declared, “Who is like Thee among the gods, O Lord? Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?” (Ex. 15:11). But they chose instead to submit themselves to the much less demanding standards of their own traditions.

Jews knew of the earnest entreaty that the godly King Jehoshaphat made to his people: “Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed. … Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting” (2 Chron. 20:20–21). They probably often intoned, “Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, and give thanks to His holy name” (Ps. 30:4), but in their hearts they praised themselves for their own presumed worthiness.

Righteousness and holiness are basically synonymous, but they can carry slightly different connotations. Someone has said that righteousness is “transitive, manifest holiness.” In other words, holiness can be said to be the standard and righteousness its active fulfillment. Or it might be said that God’s holiness is His complete separation from all that is evil and sinful, and that His righteousness is the manifestation of that holiness. He is “majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders” (Ex. 15:11).

It is not that any man can begin to fully understand God’s holiness or His righteousness. Yet that very inability to comprehend God’s perfection should be reason enough to fall down at His feet in awe and praise. Men are able at least to acknowledge that God’s holiness and righteousness are absolutely perfect and flawless, because He has revealed that truth about Himself. As Paul declared earlier, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom. 1:18–21, emphasis added).

God has also clearly revealed that His perfect holiness abhors all evil and that He therefore hates even the smallest manifestation of sin. That realization alone should drive a person to his knees in repentance, knowing that God’s divine righteousness stands in judgment of his own sinfulness.

The Jews of Paul’s day were not much different than most people of any day, including our own. Because men think God is less holy than He is and that they are more holy than they are, they believe they can achieve acceptance with Him. They measure both God and themselves by human standards of right and wrong and are deceived in both regards. The psalmist Asaph wrote of such self-deception:

The true God is not like the gods that men invent to accommodate their sinfulness. The boastful self-righteous “shall not stand before [God’s] eyes; [who hates] all who do iniquity” (Ps. 5:5), because “God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day” (Ps. 7:11).

The natural man abhors such a God, just as he abhors the idea that he is inherently sinful and stands condemned under God’s holy wrath. He much prefers a lesser god of his own making that will tolerate his moral and spiritual shortcomings.

Tragically, much Christian teaching and evangelism today proclaim God’s love and mercy at the expense of His perfect holiness and His righteous judgment. People do not like to hear that, in His perfect righteousness, God condemns all unrepentant and unforgiven men to eternity in hell.

Not surprisingly, a weakened understanding of God’s righteousness brings a weakened view of His judgment. When we do not see God as He really is, we cannot see man as he really is. When Isaiah came face-to-face with the holy God, he cried, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5). When Peter witnessed Jesus’ miraculous filling of their nets with fish, “he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’” (Luke 5:8). When he saw Jesus’ awesome deity manifested, Peter became terrified of his own sinfulness. When a sinner comes into the presence of a holy God, he becomes fearfully aware of his own unholiness. In fact, man can never be aware of his own unholiness apart from an awareness of God’s perfect holiness.

All other attributes of God function in concert with His divine perfection. He is love, and His love is perfect love. He is wise, and His wisdom is perfect wisdom. He is all-powerful, and His power is perfect power. He is omniscient, and His knowledge is perfect knowledge. He is just, and His justice is perfect justice. He is gracious, and His grace is perfect grace.

Not only is God Himself perfect, but He demands perfection of all men. Jesus’ said, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). Quoting from Leviticus, Peter wrote, “It is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Pet. 1:16; cf. Lev. 11:44).

Only the most arrogant fool would claim to be perfectly holy. Yet perfect holiness is the only standard acceptable to God. For that reason it becomes obvious that, apart from God’s graciously granting that holiness, no man can hope to achieve it.