Romans 10
v.1
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.
v.2
For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
Paradoxically, it is Israel’s zeal for God that constitutes their greatest barrier (v.2). The apostle knows whereof he speaks, for his zeal on behalf of Judaism had bee notorious (Ac 22:3; Gal 1:14). That zeal so preoccupied him that he considered Jesus and his followers as traitors to the faith of his fathers. But he persecuted in ignorance (1Ti 1:13). So here he diagnoses the zeal of Israel as lacking in “knowledge,” as ignoring “the righteousness that comes from God” (cf. 1:17). In trying to establish their own righteous standing before God, the Jews have refused submission to God’s righteousness. They have attempted to achieve a standing in righteousness by imagining success in meeting the demands of the law of Moses.
v.4
Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
v.6
But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?‘” (that is, to bring Christ down)
Do not let us continue to say, in effect, “Who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above.” In other words, do not let us consider Him as afar off, when God has made us one with Him, members of His very body.
v.8
But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:
At first sight, this passage seems inappropriate, since neither “righteousness” nor “faith” can be found here, and there is heavy emphasis on doing, as in Lev 18:5. But the context helps us, for the passage presupposes a heart attitude of loving obedience (Dt 30:6-10) rather than a legalistic attempt to attain righteousness. The whole burden of the passage is to discourage the idea that doing God’s will means to aspire after something that is too difficult and out of reach. Actually if life is attuned to God, his will is as near as the mouth and heart (the mouth as the organ that repeats the word of God and turns it back to him in prayer and praise; the heart as the source of desire to please him).
v.9
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
The priority of confession over believing is simply due to Paul’s preservation of the “mouth” and “heart” in Dt 30:14. The influence of the OT passage is also evident in that, whereas it provided a point of contact for citing the resurrection of our Lord (vv. 7,9), there was nothing to provide a basis the mention of the saving death of Christ (contrast 1Co 15:3-4).
v.10
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
v.11
As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
v.12-13
For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
v.14-15
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!“
v.16
But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?“
v.17
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
v.18
But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”