The Tragedy of Establishing Your Own Righteousness

Romans 10:1-21

Welcome! Today we continue our series into the rich but challenging book of Romans. We are in the middle of a section about Israel that consists of Chapter 9 through 11. Really, to step back a bit, I believe the point of these three chapters is to answer the question: If salvation really is by faith in Christ, and not by works, then why don’t the Jews, of all people, who should have known God more than any other people, because to them the history happened, to them the Scriptures were given – if this salvation by faith thing is really true, why don’t the Jews believe it? It is a good question, and in Chapter 9, Paul lays the groundwork says in effect that this is not a surprise to God; indeed, it is part of God’s sovereign will. The chapter concludes with the thought that, from a human perspective, the rejection of Christ as savior is because they “stumbled over the stumbling stone” – because they pursued righteousness not by faith but as if it could be attained through works. Paul continues in Chapter 10:

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.  – Romans 10:1-3

Over the past few weeks I have been building and designing a new website for our church. It is very nearly finished. One thing that has taking more time than any other is the building up of a graphical index of our past sermon series going all the way back to 2006. This index includes links to web pages on each series which in turn has links to our individual messages. Ultimately, both audio and text transcripts will be available.

Looking at the graphical index, I was impressed by all the various books of the Bible we have covered in the past 14 years. At roughly 40 minutes per message, 50 messages per year, 14 years, that is 28000 minutes of messages, 467 hours, 19 ½ continuous days of messages. If you tried to “binge-listen” to them all in a row without sleeping, you would probably not survive.

But reflecting on today’s passage, I was struck that even Christians can succumb to the error of the Israelites that Paul describes in Romans 10. Even though the Bible is God’s inspired Word, written by men but “breathed” by God Himself, studying the Bible, as beneficial as that can be, should never become a substitute for God Himself. Even those who study the Word in great detail, and who devote great amounts of time and resources to this study, even they can fall into tragic error if they do not “submit to God’s righteousness.

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There is no question that Jews at the time of Christ were people of the Word. They pursued knowledge about God as revealed in the Old Testament with a zeal and an effort that has probably been unmatched throughout history by any other people towards any other writings. From a very early age, their children (well, at least the male children) learned the Old Testament and memorized large portions of it. They then went on to study deeply multiple commentaries on the Old Testament. Studying the Word was a lifelong practice.

There were many people known as scribes, often called “rabbi,” “teacher,” who were the superstars of Biblical interpretation. Young adult Jews sought to sit at their feet and learn from them. Being chosen to sit at the feet of one of these superstars was a high honor – it was a lot like trying to get into one of the most prestigious colleges today. Your earlier training was scrutinized, as were your letters of recommendation. Only the best got to sit at the feet of the best. Paul the Apostle was one of these, as the Bible tells us that he sat at the feet of Gamaliel. The commentaries of Gamaliel are still read and studied by Orthodox Jews today. In fact, one of Gamaliel’s teachings is a part of the Passover ceremony celebrated by Jews around the world to this day.

But they studied about God rather than with God. They were less interested in simply learning what God requires and striving to do those things than they were in establishing boundaries and protections for all Jews to keep them from even the possibility of sinning. But in doing this they were quite selective. They worried so much about tiny details about, for example, keeping the Sabbath, that they lost the overall message – to love God with all your mind and strength, yes, but also your heart and your soul.

As the passage says so eloquently, despite their zeal, they ended up seeking to establish their own righteousness rather than submitting to God Himself. You can see this repeating itself today – in some cults you find the greatest zeal, the greatest devotion to following the rules, even to “evangelism”. You can find this among the most religious Jewish sects today. And I would argue you also find it among the most extreme sects of Islam. And, sadly, you can also find it within the broad umbrella of Christianity. Zeal without knowledge. Establishing your own righteousness.

  

Before we go on, I want to focus on the phrase “they did not know the righteousness of God.” What does that mean? Well, they either underestimated it or they overestimated it. Which one do you think it was? Yes, of course, they underestimated it.

And I would argue that this is the primary reason so many people around us who have some basic knowledge of Christianity do not turn to faith in Christ. They underestimate the righteousness of God. Anyone who says they are “probably” going to heaven because they “aren’t that bad” is severely underestimating the righteousness of God. God’s righteousness, His holiness, His purity, is so perfect, so extreme, that to even look on the Lord is to perish. For the unsaved, understanding the righteousness of God should lead to panic and despair. The Lord knows us far better than we know ourselves – we conveniently forget what we are like, and we ignore our pride and selfishness and so many other sins – but He sees it all. We are not the good guy in the story – we are the villain!

I have shared in the past about some of the “inconsistencies” I saw growing up Jewish, such as the Rabbi who drove on the Sabbath to park on the street a few blocks from the synagogue and then walked the rest of the way. If you really understood the righteousness of God, and you (wrongly) believed that God forbids driving on the Sabbath, would you do this? No, you would live close enough to the synagogue so that you could really walk. I mentioned my grandparents who had separate sets of plates for milk and meat (to keep them separate because of a verse that says not to boil a kid in the milk of its mother) and another set for Passover (so that no crumbs could be on them) but had a fourth set for “chazerish” foods like pepperoni pizza (which with pig product, milk and meat together brook every rule all at once) – if you really understood the righteousness of God, would you do this? Of course not.

And if you really understood the righteousness of God, would you dare add to the Law of Moses at all? Would you presume to say that your rules must be followed because if you don’t follow them, you will be breaking the Law even though the Law doesn’t directly address such things? No, you wouldn’t. And this is what the Jews at the time of Christ had done in all areas of life.

Modern “teachers” have done the same thing within Christianity. They extract “principles” and “best practices” that aren’t really there. When I prepare my teachings, I often worry that I might inadvertently do the same thing. Even when I “summarize” something, I am very careful and ask myself whether I might be leading people astray. Sometimes I wish I could just read Scripture and add nothing at all, because it is only then that I am absolutely certain that I am teaching only what God says, and not at all what I say. The Bible says people were “amazed” at Christ’s teaching. One of the things that amazed them was the authority by which He spoke – this means in part that He saw the big picture and could teach how all of Scripture came together and what it all really meant. The teachings of the teachers before Him were no doubt seen as dull, uninspired, and boring compared to that of Christ. I believe the same should be true of the teachers after Him. The only thing we should be amazed at, when we teach, is Christ. All praise should go to Him, because all other praise is completely misplaced.

 

Paul continues:

 

Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” 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) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). – Romans. 10:4-7

First, Christ is the culmination, or the end, of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Moses explains that doing the law makes you live, or experience life, by the law. When sharing the gospel with people, I sometimes tell them that there are two ways to eternal life in heaven. The first is to be absolutely perfect and never sin. Most people immediately want to know the second way. Why? Because they know that they aren’t absolutely perfect – far from it! Christ is the end of the law in the sense that He is the second way, which is the only way for all of us. In fact, Christ is the only one who ever made it the first way – only Christ was completely without sin. And it is because of this fact that He is the second way. Only He could pay the penalty for our sin, and He did that on the cross.

Now the second part of this passage is based on Deut. 30:12-13. I don’t have time today to go into this in depth. But the phrases about who will ascend or descend in Deuteronomy have the point that you don’t have to go to extreme measures to find out what God wants. Paul uses a similar phrasing to emphasize that the righteousness that is available through Christ similarly does not require extreme measures. It requires faith. It is available to everyone who believes. So no, you don’t have to go up to heaven to bring Christ down in order to be reconciled with God. Neither do you need to go down into the sea (or the underworld) to bring Christ up. You simply need to depend on Christ through faith, through a personal relationship with Him based on faith in Him. And I should point out that we don’t need to go up to heaven to bring Christ down because He already came down for us! And we don’t need to go down into the underworld to bring Christ up from the dead because He already rose from the dead for us! Not that we could possibly do either thing – indeed the whole point is that we don’t “do” anything! We believe and trust in Him. He has already done everything for us.

But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” – Romans 10:8-13

“The word is near you; it is in your mouth and your heart” is a continuation of the passage in Deut. 30. If it is in your heart, it will come out of your mouth. We have all experienced times when something is in our heart and we want to share it with our mouth it is either the wrong time or the wrong place or the wrong people to share it with. It’s hard to keep our mouths quiet when are hearts are excited!

So too with Christ. I love being around new believers because they are eager to share with their mouths what has recently come into their hearts. I recall that when I was a new believer I sought out an old friend while visiting California to tell her the good news. In my newness and ignorance I didn’t realize that, although she talked a lot about going to other countries to do “ministry”, she wasn’t actually saved. She listened patiently to my story but didn’t share my excitement, and at the end she warned me not to get “too extreme”. It was only then that I figured out the terribly basic truth that “Protestant” does not necessarily equal “Christian.”

Before we baptize someone in our church, we always first have a discussion with the person to see what they profess. And at the baptism event, we give the person an opportunity to share why they are doing this today. We do this because if the faith is real, the person will be able to say something about their new relationship with Christ; it will be in their mouth and heart. We certainly don’t expect perfection, or a theological treatise – one of my favorite confessions of faith in Scripture is the man whose refrain is “I don’t know. But what I know is that I was blind but now I see!”

Part of the “stumbling block” for Jews at the time Paul wrote this letter was the “whoever” in this passage. The Jews viewed themselves as God’s chosen people – which in itself was not wrong, as God had indeed chosen them to be those from whom the Messiah would come. But the idea that that had meant that they did not need to confess their utter need for Christ to save them, or the idea that anyone who did this would be accepted by God, Jew or Gentile, these ideas were summarily dismissed by most Jews as outrageous nonsense, despite the fact that Scripture taught that all nations of the earth would be blessed through the offspring of Abraham. The passages Paul quotes (Isaiah 28:16 and Joel 2:32) give a similar message.

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? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” – Romans 10:14-15

Who is the “they” here? It is everyone, but especially, from Paul’s perspective, the Gentiles. Because they were the ones who had not heard. Today, it includes people in remote parts of the world who have never heard anything about God, but it also includes people here in America who have only the most basic understanding of God and Jesus, and it also includes the Jews. Despite us being in a so-called Christian nation, only a minority could tell you the gospel message of the Bible if asked. And so yes, we absolutely need to send more people to the remote areas where God is unknown, but we also need the people who remain to share the message right where they are. Spoiler alert, but our next series after we finish Romans will delve into this topic more fully.

But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. 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.”– Romans 10:16-18

This first sentence might well be the “climax” of the chapter. Remember that the chapter started by saying that the Jews – at the time of Christ and at the time Paul wrote this letter – were zealous about God, but that their zealousness was not based on knowledge. This begs the question, “Why?” And here we have the answer. It’s not because they weren’t told, but it is because they rejected the message.

And this is sadly true for many people, Jews and Gentiles, today. Faith comes from hearing, but to use terminology we use in mathematics, hearing is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for coming to faith in Christ. Because it is necessary, we have a responsibility to share the gospel with those God brings into our life who are not of faith, to the degree that they will listen to us. But because it is not sufficient, the results (or lack of them) are not something that is in our control.

Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.” And Isaiah boldly says, “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me.” But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” – Romans 10:19-21

Paul ends the chapter on this rather sad note. Do they have knowledge? No. Did they hear? Yes. Did they understand? They chose not to understand through their disobedience (sin) and their obstinance (stubbornness). Pardon my bluntness, but you can choose to make yourself stupid. What is sad (and extremely ironic) is that those who most famously reject Christ often agree with this statement but don’t realize how completely it applies to them. Just a few examples:

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see. – Ayn Rand

Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids. – John Steinbeck

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. – Charles Darwin

That sin which is unpardonable is knowingly and willfully to reject truth, to fear knowledge lest knowledge not pander to [your] prejudices. – Aleister Crowley

I don’t want to end on such a negative note, so let me return to the passage: God, through Paul, says, “all day long I have held out My hands…” Literally, this is, “all day long I have stretched out My hands…” This, along with the quote before it, is from Isaiah 65:1-2. Like many passages from the Old Testament, it has a surface meaning and a deeper meaning, which you will see if you look for it. The surface meaning is the statement that again, and again, over time, God has reached out to the Jews, the Israelites, but they again and again reject Him. I picture a parent with his arms wide open expecting the child to run to him so he can embrace the child. But the deeper meaning is a hint of prophecy – stretching out His hands had a quite literal fulfillment on the cross. Jesus remained there, stretching out His hands, in agony with every breath, for a long time. Never was love more fully on display as it was on the cross. May we run to Him and remain in His embrace!