Romans
Chapter Ten.
The Jew has only himself to blame for having missed the
way. The one thing that is clear from
chapter 10 is that if men miss the way, it is their own fault. It is because of unbelief they fail to attain
God's righteousness though the way of faith is accessible to all. This chapter emphasizes the catholicity,
freeness and availability of salvation.
Chapter 10 must be placed alongside of chapter 9.
10:1. The Jew in
his proud zeal strives to justify himself before God. His great error consists in the attempt to
establish his own righteousness.
10:2. A zeal for God. However, zeal without enlightenment will lead
far along the wrong road. The more
passionate the zeal, the further astray it becomes, unless it submits to Divine
truth.
10:3. Faith is submission. It is a new obedience. This is the obedience of faith. It is to give up the rebellious plan of
establishing one's own righteousness and to submit to God's righteousness.
10:4. This submission to God's righteousness is
really submission to Christ. He is
the end of the law for righteousness.
'Telos' means, termination, abrogation, cessation. See 2.Cor.3:13; Gal.3:23. It is generally agreed that this is the
meaning here. For the Christian the age
of law has terminated. Christ has
abolished it. But the law remains to
condemn the evil-doer. (See 1.Tim.1:9).
Barht, Boylan and some others understand 'telos' here to
mean goal, aim. (See Matt.5:17). Bt. takes 'telos' as termination, but also as
intention, purpose, "Christ is the end of the law, not with a view to
anarchy, but righteousness. He put an
end to the law, not by destroying all the law stood for, but by realizing
it." Both meanings may be present
and explain each other. Christ is
himself the goal of the law, and so terminates its era. It can hardly mean that the law was the way
of righteousness to Christ, but when Christ came, the law could no longer serve
any useful function in the new order of righteousness, except as it stands as
it witnessed to Christ.
10:5-13. The two ways of righteousness contrasted.
10:5. The
righteousness of the law consisted in doing the things prescribed by the law.
(Levi.18:5). However men are unable to
give the complete obedience that the law demands. They are unable to attain the righteousness
which is based on the law.
10:6-8. The righteousness of faith is accessible to
all. Paul takes pieces of Old
Testament Scriptures and applies them to the Gospel. (Deut.9:4;
30:11-14). Moses spoke of the Law
but Paul sees a deepened meaning in the words.
The law bore witness to Christ and that human righteousness (8:17; 9:4)
could not merit the inheritance, neither could men achieve anything by any
great deeds. The important thing is what
God has done. Faith does not ask us to
do great things. (2.Kings 5:13). The Incarnation, Death and Resurrection are
accomplished events. Christ is near and
available to all.
10:8-13. The words
could state more emphatically the nearness, availability, accessibleness and
freeness of salvation through faith. It
is freely available to all and so near, for it is in the mouth to confess and
in the heart to believe. More near, more
free, and more available, it could not be than this.
The word "mouth to confess." 'Homologeo' means declare, confess, affirm,
acknowledge. It is opposite to denial
and disowning. The matter of the
confession is that Jesus is Lord, R.V.
It is the verb, an affirmation of one's allegiance to Jesus as Lord.
10:9. "Believe in the heart." Faith is personal trust and reliance upon its
object. The words "in the
heart" denote more than sincerity but indicate a function that takes place
in the heart. This function or attitude
is that of personal trust. This is
further borne out by the relation of heart to mouth. Some ecclesiastical authorities define faith
as the general observance of the whole Christian cultus. That is not its meaning here.
For Paul faith is personal trust in God and especially the
revelation of Himself in raising up Jesus from the dead. The inwardness of faith is indicated in that
it occurs in the heart and bears a certain relation to confession, whose
outwardness is seen in that it is "with the mouth."
The heart (Gk. 'kardia,
Hebrew 'leb') is not the physical organism, neither is it to be
contrasted to the intellect, but it designates the human personality, with
emphasis upon the hidden, inward and real self.
There is a certain contrast between the heart and the external and
merely apparent. But the qualities of
the heart are the qualities of the whole or real person. To believe in the heart means that the whole
personality believes and its inwardness and centralness guarantees its
wholeness and completeness. The
activities of the heart include emotional volitional and intellectual
activities. Such a use of the heart no
doubt arose through primitive people attaching psychological functions to the
physical organism.
10:10. The Lordship
of Jesus and God's act of raising Him from among the dead are two things that
go together. The resurrection is the
divine attestation of his Lordship.
Faith and Confession also go together and are not to be sharply
distinguished. Confession is faith
expressed in words. Righteousness and
salvation also go together and are not to be separated, for without
righteousness there is no salvation.
10:11. Isaiah (28:16
see also Rom.9:33). The freeness and
accessibleness of the Gospel leaves Israel without excuse. They are guilty of rejecting the Gospel.
10:12. It is no more
difficult for the Jew to be saved than it is for the Greek. There is now no distinction. (2:23). The
resurrection marks out Jesus as Lord of all and this gives the same opportunity
to Jew and Greek. The same universal
Lord is all sufficient to give freely of His riches to all men that call upon
Him.
10:13. Paul quotes
Joel 2:32. In Romans it is God who is
generally shown as the object of man's faith,but in 10:12-13, the Lord Jesus is
the One upon whom men call. However,
Joel speaks of Yahweh (Jehovah), which is translated 'kurios' in the LXX. The prophet speaks of salvation available to
all men in the Name of Yahweh and Paul finds the fulfilment of that promise in
the Name of the Lord.
10:14-17. Israel
cannot plead ignorance for Christ has been preached by fully accredited
messengers. The means by which the
Gospel is communicated is at once authoritative, simple and of universal
application. It consists of preaching,
hearing, believing.
Paul carefully probes the matter of Israel's
disobedience to the Gospel. He pursues
his inquiry with a number of questions.
He shows there has been no fault in the presentation of the Gospel, for
there has been an authoritative and universal proclamation of the message. And while the most unlikely people have found
the Lord, Israel
has refused to respond to the most prolonged and patient entreaty.
The reason why Israel has missed out becomes
plain. They simply refused to have the
Gospel. It is just and fitting that God
should become known to the Gentiles and that the Jews should be rejected for
their inexcusable indifference. But the
bringing in of the Gentiles is an abiding token of God's continued interest in Israel for it
is God's last resort that He might provoke them to jealousy.
Preaching. These verses are instructive as to the
importance of preaching the Word. The
righteousness of faith is not received by the observance of the sacraments but
by faith in the preached word. Romans
and Galatians are the two epistles that develop the doctrine of justification
by faith and neither of them refer to the Lord's Supper. Both epistles mention baptism, but not
specifically in connection with justification.
Paul joins together preaching, hearing, believing. Faith comes as the result of hearing and
hearing comes through the preached word concerning Christ. Preaching is the important and basic
function. The preaching of 'Christ
crucified' is the power and wisdom of God, (see 10:8,14,17; 1.Cor.1:18, 21).
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