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“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.” (Romans 10:1-4, ESV)

Pastor Abel’s sermon on this passage is titled, “Us vs. Them or Us for Them?”

In this passage Paul gets to the heart of the tragedy of the nation of Israel. They had a true zeal for God, but, because they didn’t know God as he had revealed himself in the Old Testament, their zeal was misplaced. They were like an Olympic gold-medalist sprinter running in the wrong direction.

The thing that Israel did not understand was, as Paul says, ‘the righteousness of God.’ Because they didn’t understand this, they tried to ‘establish their own’ righteousness.

The entire beginning of the book of Romans was written to define and explain what ‘the righteousness of God’ means (Romans 1:16-17, Romans 3:21-26). In short, it means that God gives his perfect righteousness to unworthy sinners as a gift, to be received by faith. God’s righteousness is not something sinners can ever live up to on their own, which is exactly what Israel tried to do.

This passage reminds us of two errors we can make as Christians. First, we can be like Israel, zealously seeking to prove that we are somehow better than all those sinners out in the world. This is a serious error because it shows that we don’t really understand how the gift of God’s righteousness works. Apart from it, we are no different in God’s eyes than the worst serial killer on death row.

The second mistake is to go the opposite way: all knowledge, and no passion. We admit that we are sinners, we understand God’s forgiveness, but we don’t put in the energy or effort to live in a way that honors God. Instead of stiving, we coast, comforted by our knowledge, forgetting that without holiness, no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).

Further Study

 

Questions

  • What stood out to you from the sermon? Which section of Romans 10 was most impactful and why?
  • Do our hearts break for the lost, the way Paul’s heart was broken?
  • According to Paul in Romans 10, why is evangelism necessary?
  • Who is an enemy you can pray for this week?