WHY DID ISRAEL STUMBLE?
Romans 9:30–10:4
Paul has spent most of Romans 9 defending God's faithfulness.
God's word has not failed.
Physical descent from Abraham never guaranteed participation in the promise.
God is free to show mercy.
God's purpose cannot be defeated.
And God has called His people:
“Not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles.”
But now Paul asks another question.
And this question is extremely important because Paul himself tells us why so many Israelites were outside the salvation found in Christ.
“What shall we say, then?”
— Romans 9:30
Let's let Paul answer.
GENTILES FOUND SOMETHING THEY WEREN'T PURSUING
Paul says:
“Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith.”
— Romans 9:30
That is remarkable.
The Gentiles did not possess Israel's Law.
They did not have Israel's covenant history.
They were not descendants of Abraham according to the flesh.
Yet they attained righteousness.
How?
Paul tells us:
“A righteousness that is by faith.”
That shouldn't surprise us.
Paul has been making this argument since the beginning of Romans.
“The righteous shall live by faith.”
Abraham:
“Believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
Now Gentiles are receiving that same righteousness:
by faith.
BUT ISRAEL DID NOT ATTAIN IT
Then comes the contrast:
“But that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.”
— Romans 9:31
That raises the obvious question:
Why?
After everything Paul has just said in Romans 9, we should pay very close attention to his answer.
Was it because Israel wasn't among the people God had arbitrarily selected for salvation?
Paul doesn't say that.
Was it because God prevented Israel from believing?
Paul doesn't say that either.
Instead, Paul asks:
“Why?”
And answers:
“Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.”
— Romans 9:32
We should not hurry past that sentence.
PAUL TELLS US WHY
Paul has just spent a chapter discussing:
election,
mercy,
hardening,
the potter and clay,
and vessels of mercy and wrath.
Now he explains why Israel failed to attain righteousness:
“Because they did not pursue it by faith.”
That needs to remain part of our interpretation of Romans 9.
We should not construct an explanation of Israel's unbelief from Romans 9:1–29 that contradicts Paul's own explanation in Romans 9:32.
Israel stumbled because Israel did not pursue righteousness by faith.
THEY STUMBLED OVER CHRIST
Paul continues:
“They have stumbled over the stumbling stone.”
— Romans 9:32
Then he combines language from Isaiah:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
— Romans 9:33
The stone is Christ.
For some, Christ became the place where they stumbled.
But notice how Paul's quotation ends:
“Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Once again:
faith.
The dividing line is not ethnicity.
It is not Jew versus Gentile.
The issue is the response to Christ.
PAUL STILL LONGS FOR ISRAEL'S SALVATION
Chapter 10 begins:
“Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”
— Romans 10:1
That tells us something important.
Paul is still praying for these unbelieving Israelites.
He desires:
“that they may be saved.”
Whatever we conclude about Romans 9, our conclusion must leave room for Romans 10:1.
Paul does not speak as though the condition of these people makes prayer for their salvation meaningless.
He prays for them.
He wants them saved.
THEY HAD ZEAL
Paul does not accuse Israel of being indifferent toward God.
Quite the opposite:
“For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God.”
— Romans 10:2
These were religious people.
They cared about God.
They cared about Scripture.
They cared about obedience.
They had:
zeal for God.
But Paul immediately adds:
“But not according to knowledge.”
That should make every religious person stop and think.
Sincerity is not the same thing as truth.
A person can be deeply religious, completely sincere, and still be wrong.
ZEAL DOES NOT CORRECT ERROR
This is worth emphasizing.
Paul doesn't say:
They were sincere, so that was enough.
He doesn't say:
All roads eventually lead to God.
Their zeal was real.
But their zeal was:
“Not according to knowledge.”
Good intentions do not turn error into truth.
That's one reason careful Bible study matters.
We don't merely ask:
“Am I sincere?”
We also ask:
“Am I right?”
And the text—not our sincerity—must answer that question.
THEY SOUGHT TO ESTABLISH THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS
Paul explains the problem:
“For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.”
— Romans 10:3
Notice Paul's word:
submit.
Their problem wasn't lack of religious effort.
Their problem wasn't lack of zeal.
They were trying very hard.
But they were pursuing righteousness in the wrong way.
Rather than submitting to God's righteousness, they sought to establish their own.
This takes us back to Paul's argument earlier in Romans.
“By works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.”
And:
“The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
The problem wasn't that Israel needed to become more religious.
They needed to submit to what God had done in Christ.
CHRIST IS THE “END” OF THE LAW
Then Paul makes one of the most important statements in the section:
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
— Romans 10:4
What does “end” mean?
We should be careful.
The Greek word telos can carry the idea of an end, goal, outcome, or culmination.
So before building a doctrine around the English word “end,” we should look at Paul's argument.
The Law was moving God's purpose toward Christ.
And now Christ has come.
Paul has already said:
“We have been released from the law.”
— Romans 7:6
And:
“Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Whatever nuances we attach to telos, Paul's central point is clear:
Righteousness is not found by pursuing the Law apart from Christ.
Christ is where God's purpose has brought us.
NOTICE THOSE LAST WORDS
Paul does not merely say:
“Christ is the end of the law.”
He continues:
“For righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Again:
believes.
Romans 9:30:
“Righteousness that is by faith.”
Romans 9:32:
“Because they did not pursue it by faith.”
Romans 9:33:
“Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Romans 10:4:
“To everyone who believes.”
Paul is making it difficult for us to miss his point.
ROMANS 9 CANNOT BE SEPARATED FROM ROMANS 10
The chapter division can mislead us.
Paul didn't finish Romans 9, close his Bible, go home for the evening, and begin a different subject in Romans 10.
The argument continues.
And that matters.
If we read Romans 9 and construct a doctrine in which the faith or unbelief of Israel has little importance, we need to keep reading.
Paul himself says:
“Why?”
Why didn't Israel attain righteousness?
“Because they did not pursue it by faith.”
Then he says they:
“Stumbled over the stumbling stone.”
Then:
“They did not submit to God's righteousness.”
Those statements belong to Paul's explanation just as surely as the potter and clay do.
WHAT WAS ISRAEL'S PROBLEM?
Paul gives us several descriptions.
Israel pursued righteousness the wrong way.
They did not pursue it by faith.
They stumbled over Christ.
They had zeal without knowledge.
They sought to establish their own righteousness.
They did not submit to God's righteousness.
None of this means God's word failed.
It means Israel's physical relationship to Abraham did not exempt them from the same requirement Paul has announced for everyone:
“The gospel...is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
Paul told us that in Romans 1.
Now in Romans 9–10 we see the consequences.
READ PAUL BEFORE READING A SYSTEM INTO PAUL
Suppose we stopped reading at Romans 9:24.
We might build our entire explanation around:
election, mercy, hardening, potter, clay, vessels.
Those are Paul's words.
We must take them seriously.
But Paul keeps talking.
And within only a few verses he also gives us:
faith,
unbelief,
stumbling,
zeal without knowledge,
failure to submit,
and:
“everyone who believes.”
Those are Paul's words too.
A sound interpretation has to make room for all of them.
We don't get to choose the verses that fit our system and ignore the ones that put pressure on it.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE
Ask Paul's own questions.
Why did Gentiles attain righteousness?
Because it was righteousness by faith.
Why did Israel fail to attain righteousness?
“Because they did not pursue it by faith.”
What did Israel stumble over?
Christ.
Were they sincere?
Yes. They had “a zeal for God.”
Was sincerity enough?
No. Their zeal was “not according to knowledge.”
What did they fail to do?
“Submit to God's righteousness.”
Where does righteousness now center?
In Christ:
“For righteousness to everyone who believes.”
And Paul isn't finished.
Next he will explain just how near God's saving message really is.
It is not hidden.
It is not unreachable.
The word is near.
And then Paul will say something that should be read very carefully in the context of everything he has just said about Israel:
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
NEXT: THE WORD IS NEAR YOU
Romans 10:5–13
TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.
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