Israel Reduced to Religion

10 1-3 Believe me, friends, all I want for Israel is what’s best for Israel: salvation, nothing less. I want it with all my heart and pray to God for it all the time. I readily admit that the Jews are impressively energetic regarding God—but they are doing everything exactly backward. They don’t seem to realize that this comprehensive setting-things-right that is salvation is God’s business, and a most flourishing business it is. Right across the street they set up their own salvation shops and noisily peddle their knockoffs. After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on his terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have nothing to show for it.

4-10 The earlier revelation was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it. Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it’s not so easy—every detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story—no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. So what exactly was Moses saying?

The word that saves is right here,
    as near as the tongue in your mouth,
    as close as the heart in your chest.

It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”

11-13 Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.”

14-17 But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That’s why Scripture exclaims,

A sight to take your breath away!
Grand processions of people
    telling all the good things of God!

But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: “Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?” The point is: Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ’s Word is preached, there’s nothing to listen to.

18-21 But haven’t there been plenty of opportunities for Israel to listen and understand what’s going on? Plenty, I’d say.

Preachers’ voices have gone ’round the world,
Their message to earth’s seven seas.

So the big question is, Why didn’t Israel understand that she had no corner on this message? Moses had it right when he predicted,

When you see God reach out to those
    you consider your inferiors—outsiders!—
    you’ll become insanely jealous.
When you see God reach out to people
    you think are religiously stupid,
    you’ll throw temper tantrums.

Isaiah dared to speak out these words of God:

People found and welcomed me
    who never so much as looked for me.
And I found and welcomed people
    who had never even asked about me.

Then he capped it with a damning indictment:

Day after day after day,
    I beckoned Israel with open arms,
And got nothing for my trouble
    but cold shoulders and icy stares.

10 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire(A) and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous(B) 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.(C) Christ is the culmination of the law(D) so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.(E)

Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.”[a](F) But the righteousness that is by faith(G) says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’”[b](H) (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’”[c](I) (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).(J) But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”[d](K) that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare(L) with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,”(M) and believe(N) in your heart that God raised him from the dead,(O) you will be saved.(P) 10 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. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”[e](Q) 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile(R)—the same Lord is Lord of all(S) and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord(T) will be saved.”[f](U)

14 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? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[g](V)

16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news.(W) For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”[h](X) 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message,(Y) and the message is heard through the word about Christ.(Z) 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.”[i](AA)

19 Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,

“I will make you envious(AB) by those who are not a nation;
    I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”[j](AC)

20 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.”[k](AD)

21 But concerning Israel he says,

“All day long I have held out my hands
    to a disobedient and obstinate people.”[l](AE)

Footnotes

  1. Romans 10:5 Lev. 18:5
  2. Romans 10:6 Deut. 30:12
  3. Romans 10:7 Deut. 30:13
  4. Romans 10:8 Deut. 30:14
  5. Romans 10:11 Isaiah 28:16 (see Septuagint)
  6. Romans 10:13 Joel 2:32
  7. Romans 10:15 Isaiah 52:7
  8. Romans 10:16 Isaiah 53:1
  9. Romans 10:18 Psalm 19:4
  10. Romans 10:19 Deut. 32:21
  11. Romans 10:20 Isaiah 65:1
  12. Romans 10:21 Isaiah 65:2