For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.” But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down); or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)” But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;” that is, the word of faith which we preach: that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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Romans 10:3-9 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.” But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down); or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)” But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;” that is, the word of faith which we preach: that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”
Parallel Translations
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For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.”
But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down);
or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)”
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;” that is, the word of faith which we preach:
that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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For they are ignoraunt of the rightewesnes which is alowed before God and goo about to stablisshe their awne rightewesnes and therfore are not obedient vnto the rightewesnes which is of valew before God.
For Christ is the ende of the lawe to iustifie all that beleve.
Moses describeth the rightewesnes which cometh of the lawe howe that the man which doth the thinges of the lawe shall lyve therin.
But the rightewesnes which cometh of fayth speaketh on this wyse. Saye not in thyne hert who shall ascende into heven? (that is nothinge els then to fetch Christ doune)
Other who shall descende into the depe? (that is nothinge els but to fetch vp Christ from deeth)
But what sayth the scripture? The worde is nye the even in thy mouth and in thyn herte. This worde is the worde of fayth which we preache.
For yf thou shalt knowledge with thy mouth that Iesus is the lorde and shalt beleve with thyn hert that God raysed him up from deeth thou shalt be safe.
Show all 3 translations
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For they, being ignorant of the righteousnes of God, and going about to stablish their owne righteousnes, haue not submitted themselues to the righteousnes of God.
For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousnes vnto euery one that beleeueth.
For Moses thus describeth the righteousnes which is of the Lawe, That the man which doeth these things, shall liue thereby.
But the righteousnes which is of faith, speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heauen? (that is to bring Christ from aboue)
Or, Who shall descend into the deepe? (that is to bring Christ againe from the dead)
But what sayth it? The worde is neere thee, euen in thy mouth, and in thine heart. This is the worde of faith which we preach.
For if thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Iesus, and shalt beleeue in thine heart, that God raised him vp from the dead, thou shalt be saued:
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (101)
- Luke 12:8 (v9) “I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also confess before the angels of God;
- Acts 16:31 (vv8–9) They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
- Philippians 2:11 (v9) and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
- Matthew 10:32-33 (v9) Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before…
- Deuteronomy 30:14 (v8) But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
Show all 96 cross-references
- 1 John 4:2-3 (v9) By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit who…
- 1 Peter 1:21 (v9) who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.
- Romans 8:34 (v9) Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes…
- 1 Corinthians 15:14-18 (v9) If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain. Yes, we are also found false witnesses of…
- Galatians 3:24 (v4) So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
- Romans 14:11 (v9) For it is written, “ ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘to me every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess to God.’ ”
- Romans 8:3-4 (v4) For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for…
- Leviticus 18:5 (v5) You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.
- Deuteronomy 30:11-14 (v6) For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will…
- John 12:42-43 (v9) Nevertheless even many of the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they didn’t confess it, so that they wouldn’t be put out…
- 1 Corinthians 12:3 (v9) Therefore I make known to you that no man speaking by God’s Spirit says, “Jesus is accursed.” No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” but by the…
- Matthew 5:17-18 (v4) “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. For most certainly, I tell you,…
- 2 John 1:7 (v9) For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don’t confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the…
- Acts 13:38-39 (vv4, 8) Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins, and by him everyone who believes is…
- Philippians 3:9 (vv3, 6) and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the…
- Luke 16:15 (v3) He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men…
- John 9:22 (v9) His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he…
- John 20:26-29 (v9) After eight days again his disciples were inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the middle, and…
- John 1:17 (v4) For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
- Acts 2:24 (v9) whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.
- Acts 8:36 (v9) As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”
- Romans 1:16-17 (v8) For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first,…
- Nehemiah 9:29 (v5) and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they were arrogant, and didn’t listen to your commandments,…
- Proverbs 30:4 (v6) Who has ascended up into heaven, and descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in his garment? Who has…
- Ezekiel 20:11 (v5) I gave them my statutes, and showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he will live in them.
- John 6:69-71 (v9) We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered them, “Didn’t I choose you, the…
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 (v3) For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
- 1 Timothy 4:6 (v8) If you instruct the brothers of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the…
- Ezekiel 20:13 (v5) “ ‘ “But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, which…
- Ezekiel 20:21 (v5) “ ‘ “But the children rebelled against me. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and didn’t keep my ordinances to do them, which if a man does,…
- Isaiah 53:11 (v4) After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of…
- Luke 18:9-12 (v3) He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others. “Two men went up…
- Romans 1:17 (v3) For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”
- Romans 5:19 (v3) For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.
- Galatians 3:12 (v5) The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.”
- Hebrews 10:14 (v4) For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
- 1 Peter 1:25 (v8) but the Lord’s word endures forever.” This is the word of Good News which was preached to you.
- Revelation 3:17-18 (v3) Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable,…
- Ephesians 4:8-10 (v6) Therefore he says, “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to people.” Now this, “He ascended”, what is it but…
- Romans 3:22 (vv3, 4, 6) even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction,
- Isaiah 51:8 (v3) For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation…
- Isaiah 57:12 (v3) I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they will not benefit you.
- John 3:12-13 (v6) If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven but…
- Romans 7:1-4 (v4) Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? For the…
- Galatians 3:2 (v8) I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
- Luke 10:27-28 (v5) He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and…
- Romans 3:25-31 (v4) whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of…
- Romans 7:10 (v5) The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death;
- Romans 10:17 (v8) So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
- 1 Corinthians 1:30 (v4) Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
- Colossians 2:10 (v4) and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power.
- Colossians 2:17 (v4) which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.
- Nehemiah 9:33 (v3) However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.
- Isaiah 56:1 (v3) Yahweh says, “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is near and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
- Luke 10:29 (v3) But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”
- John 6:58 (v6) This is the bread which came down out of heaven—not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
- Acts 10:43 (v8) All the prophets testify about him, that through his name everyone who believes in him will receive remission of sins.”
- Galatians 3:5 (v8) He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
- Hebrews 10:8-12 (v4) Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in…
- Hebrews 13:20 (v7) Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord…
- Leviticus 26:41 (v3) I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they…
- Job 33:27 (v3) He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me.
- Psalms 71:19 (v3) Your righteousness also, God, reaches to the heavens; you have done great things. God, who is like you?
- Isaiah 64:6 (v3) For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our…
- Matthew 3:15 (v4) But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him.
- Mark 16:15-16 (v8) He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but…
- Romans 4:13 (v6) For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness…
- Romans 9:30-31 (v6) What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which…
- 1 Peter 1:23 (v8) having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever.
- Psalms 71:15-16 (v3) My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure. I will come with the…
- Lamentations 3:22 (v3) It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.
- John 6:33 (v6) For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”
- John 6:38 (v6) For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
- John 6:50-51 (v6) This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of…
- John 16:9-10 (v3) about sin, because they don’t believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me any more;
- Romans 3:25 (v6) whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of…
- Romans 3:26 (v3) to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.
- Romans 9:30-32 (v3) What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which…
- Galatians 5:3-4 (v3) Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. You are alienated from Christ, you who…
- Hebrews 1:3 (v6) His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had…
- Hebrews 11:7 (v6) By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which…
- 2 Peter 1:1 (v3) Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our…
- Isaiah 51:6 (v3) Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out…
- Isaiah 57:19 (v8) I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says Yahweh; “and I will heal them.”
- Jeremiah 23:5-6 (v3) “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will…
- Daniel 9:6-9 (v3) We haven’t listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people…
- Daniel 9:24 (v3) “Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make…
- Hebrews 9:7-14 (v4) but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the…
- Revelation 1:18 (v7) and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.
- Luke 15:17-21 (v3) But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! I will…
- Romans 4:25 (v7) who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
96 distinct cross-references across this passage (101 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 3. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God,…
3. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, etc. See how they went astray through inconsiderate zeal! for they sought to set up a righteousness of their own; and this foolish confidence proceeded from their ignorance of God’s righteousness. Notice the contrast between the righteousness of God and that of men. We first see, that they are opposed to one another, as things wholly contrary, and cannot stand together. It hence follows, that God’s righteousness is subverted, as soon as men set up their own. And again, as there is a correspondence between the things contrasted, the righteousness of God is no doubt his gift; and in like manner, the righteousness of men is that which they derive from themselves, or believe that they bring before God. Then he who seeks to be justified through himself, submits not to God’s righteousness; for the first step towards obtaining the righteousness of God is to renounce our own righteousness: for why is it, that we seek righteousness from another, except that necessity constrains us?
We have already stated, in another place, how men put on the righteousness of God by faith, that is, when the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them. But Paul grievously dishonors the pride by which hypocrites are inflated, when they cover it with the specious mask of zeal; for he says, that all such, by shaking off as it were the yoke, are adverse to and rebel against the righteousness of God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 The ignorance of the Law which we ought to…
The ignorance of the Law which we ought to know, excuseth none before God, especially it excuseth not them that are of his household.
The first entrance into the vocation unto salvation, is to renounce our own righteousness: the next is, to embrace that righteousness by faith, which God freely offereth us the Gospel.
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Ignorance hath always pride joined with it.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–9 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and…
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Ver. 3. For they being ignorant] The soul that is without knowledge is not good, and he that (without knowledge) hasteth with his feet, sinneth, Pro 19:2; the faster he goeth, the farther he is out.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv3–9 They being ignorant of God’s righteousness: here he shows…
They being ignorant of God’s righteousness: here he shows more particularly what knowledge the Jews wanted. They knew not the righteousness of God; of which see Rom 1:17, with the notes there. This was abundantly manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, Rom 3:21; and a thing very needful to be known, as being that wherein man’s happiness consisted; but they were ignorant of it.
Going about to establish their own righteousness; their personal and inherent righteousness, a home-made righteousness, which is of their own spinning; this they designed to set up in the room of God’s righteousness.
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Have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God; this notes the pride that accompanied their ignorance, and that is in the hearts of men by nature. They will not go abroad for that which they think they have, or may have, at home. They will not be beholden to another for that which they suppose they have in themselves. They have righteousness enough of their own working; and therefore they reject and withdraw themselves from that which is of God’s appointing.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 9 That is, the Jews being ignorant of God’s way…
That is, the Jews being ignorant of God’s way of justification by faith in Christ discovered in the gospel, and relying upon and trusting to their own works, their obedience to the ceremonial and moral law, to justify and save them, they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God; that is, to the way and method which the wisdom of God has discovered for the justification of a sinner by the blood of his Son.
Observe here, 1. That by God’s righteousness, we are to understand that righteousness which Christ has wrought for us, which God bestows upon us, and the gospel reveals unto us; by establishing their own righteousness, is to be understood their resolution and endeavour to depend upon their own works; their obedience to the law for their justification before God, in opposition against and in contradiction to, that way of justification which God has declared; namely, by faith in Christ Jesus, the one and only Mediator.
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Observe, 2. That upon the first opening of the gospel, no evangelical doctrine was more disrelished by the Jews than justification by the righteousness of Christ. They were possessed with this principle then, that eternal life was attainable only by the works of the law: and according to the example of the Jews at the beginning, persons ever since, even to this very day, are fond of that way of justification.
The natural man is a proud man, he likes to live upon his own stock, he cannot stoop to a sincere and universal renunciation of his own righteousness, and to depend wholly upon that of another. ’Tis natural to a man to choose rather to eat a brown crust, or wear a coarse garment, which he can call his own, than to feed upon the richest dainties, or wear the costliest robes, which he must receive as an alms from another.
Lord! how hard is it to subdue this pride of spirit, and to be thoroughly convinced of the absolute necessity of another and a better righteousness than our own to constitute us righteous in the sight of God!
From the whole learn, 1. How dark-sighted the wisest men are by nature in God’s way of justifying and saving sinners: Ignorant of God’s righteousness, that is, of the way which the wisdom of God has discovered for justifying guilty sinners by faith in his son.
This is known only by divine revelation: The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. Rom 1:17. It is purely an object of faith, and hangs all upon divine revelation, both as to the righteousness itself, and the manner of imparting it.
Learn, 2. How absurd is the attempt, and how injurious the design, to set up and establish a righteousness of our own, either in opposition to, or in conjunction with, the righteousness of God.
Alas! we fulfil the law only in sincerity, we cannot fulfil it to perfection; and if it be not to perfection, it cannot be to justification.
Therefore to trust to any righteousness of our own for justification before God, which is imperfect and polluted, is both sinful and unsafe. Sinful, because it is confronting the plain declarations of the gospel; and unsafe, because it evacuates Christ: for Christ is of no effect unto us: whosoever are justified by the law, are fallen from grace, Gal 5:4.
Learn, 3. What an hinderance is pride to the salvation of men! it stiffens the will, that it won’t stoop to God’s terms: they will not have justification in God’s way, and they shall not have it in their own. Here it stuck with the Jews; they would not submit to the righteousness of God: and here it sticks with too many at this day.
Learn, 4. Not to count a righteousness of your own needless to be possessed of, because you want of righteousness of another to confide and trust in. We plead the meritorious righteousness of Christ, to answer the demands of the law; but contend for a personal righteousness of our own, to answer the commands of the gospel.
Christ doth indeed ease us of the load of our sins, but not discharge us from the care of our duty. Our being in Christ frees us indeed from condemnation, but then that in-being must be proved by our holy walking; not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, Rom 5:1.
Learn, 5. To submit to the righteousness of God, as ever you would enjoy peace with God. The more holy we are, and the more sanctified we grow, the meaner opinion we shall have of ourselves, and the more need of a Saviour, and of justification by him; and shall bless God for the gospel, in which the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; and shall dread it as hell to be found amongst the number of those who, though they be not ignorant of God’s righteousness, yet will go about to establish their own righteousness, refusing to submit to the righteousness of God.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness,.... Either of…
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness,.... Either of the righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel, which is no other than the righteousness of Christ, and which they knew nothing of, the whole Gospel being a sealed book, and wholly hidden from them; or of the righteousness of God required in the law, they imagining that only an external conformity to the commands of the law, was all that was necessary to attain to a justifying righteousness by it, not knowing the spirituality of it, and that it required conformity of heart and nature, as well as life and conversation; or rather of the attribute of God's righteousness, the strictness of his justice, the purity and holiness of his nature: for though they knew that he was holy, just, and righteous, yet did not think he was so strict as to insist upon every punctilio, and to take notice of every little default and defect in obedience; and especially that he had any regard to the heart and the thoughts of it, and required perfect purity there or that he would accept of nothing less than an absolutely perfect and complete righteousness; nor justify any without full satisfaction to his justice: hence they were
going about to establish their own righteousness; which they would never have done, had they known the righteousness of God, in either of the above senses; the Alexandrian copy, and some others, omit the word "righteousness", and only read, "their own", leaving it to be understood, and which is easily done; and so reads the Vulgate Latin version: by "their own righteousness", as opposed to God's, is meant the righteousness of works, their obedience to the law, an outward conformity to it, an observance of the rituals of it, and a little negative holiness. This they endeavoured to "establish" or "make to stand" in the sight of God, as their justifying righteousness, which is all one as setting chaff and stubble, briers and thorns, to a consuming fire; as the attempt expresses madness in them, the phrase suggests weakness in their righteousness, which they would fain make to stand, but could not, it being like a spider's web before the besom, or like a dead carcass, which men would set upon its feet to stand alone, but it cannot; than which nothing can be a greater instance of egregious folly: their "going about" or "seeking" to do this, shows their ignorant zeal, and the toil, the pains, the labour they used to effect it, but all in vain, and to no purpose; as appears by their hearing, reading, fasting, praying, giving alms to the poor, and tithes of all they possessed; all which they were very careful and studious of, and especially to have them done in the sight of men: and so it was that they
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have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God; that is, the righteousness of Christ, so called, because approved and accepted of by God, imputed by him to his people, and given them by him as a free gift, and which only justifies in his sight; and because it is wrought by Christ, who is truly and properly God, and revealed and applied by the Spirit of God. This the Jews submitted not to, because they had no true humble sense of themselves as sinners, nor did they care to acknowledge themselves as such; which submission to Christ's righteousness requires and necessarily involves in it; no man will ever be subject to it, till he is made sensible of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and brought to an humble acknowledgment of it; the Spirit of God first convinces of sin and then of righteousness; and because they had an overweening opinion of their own righteousness, which they trusted to, and depended upon, imagining it to be blameless, and to contain all that the law required, and therefore they stood in no need of any other; and as for the righteousness of Christ they had it in contempt, their carnal minds being enmity to him, were not subject to his righteousness, nor could they, nor can any be, without the powerful efficacious grace of God, making them willing in the day of his power. This phrase denotes the rebellion of their wills, against Christ and his righteousness, they acting as rebellious subjects against their sovereign prince.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 For they being ignorant of the righteousness of God…
For they being ignorant of the righteousness of God - Of the method God has established for the justification of a sinner. And seeking to establish their own righteousness - Their own method of acceptance with God. Have not submitted to the righteousness of God - The way of justification which he hath fixed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 Verse 3. For - being ignorant of God's righteousness]…
Verse 3. For - being ignorant of God's righteousness] Not knowing God's method of saving sinners, which is the only proper and efficient method: and going about to establish their own righteousness - seeking to procure their salvation by means of their own contriving; they have not submitted - they have not bowed to the determinations of the Most High, relative to his mode of saving mankind, viz. through faith in Jesus Christ, as the only available sacrifice for sin - the end to which the law pointed.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv4–6 Rom 10:4. For — That they have not submitted…
Rom 10:4. For — That they have not submitted themselves to God’s way of becoming righteous is evident in this, that they reject Christ, by whom alone righteousness can be obtained; Christ is the end of the law — The scope and aim of it; for righteousness — Observe, 1st, The righteousness here spoken of is evidently that which is necessary in order to eternal life, and leads to it, (see Rom 5:21,) termed the righteousness of God by faith, Php 3:9; implying not only justification, Rom 3:24, Tit 3:7, without which we, guilty, condemned sinners, can have no title to eternal life, it being the only means of cancelling our guilt, and freeing us from condemnation; but also sanctification, spoken of Eph 4:17-24, Tit 2:5-6, without which we are not in Christ, 2Co 5:17, and have no fitness for heaven; and practical obedience consequent thereon, Eph 2:10, the grand evidence that we are righteous, Luk 1:6, 1Jn 3:7. 2d, This righteousness, in these three branches of it, is not attainable by the law, moral or ceremonial; not by the former, because it finds us guilty of violating its spiritual and holy precepts, and has no pardon to give us; it finds us depraved, weak, and helpless, and has neither a new nature nor supernatural aid to impart. But may we not have the help we want from the ceremonial law? Cannot the sacrifices of it remove our guilt? No. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats, &c., to take away sin, Heb 10:4, &c. Cannot the various washings or purifications of it renew and cleanse our souls? No: they can only remove the filth of the flesh, Heb 9:13; 1Pe 3:21. Cannot the various institutions respecting meats and drinks, and the observance of days, &c., assist us to attain practical righteousness or obedience? No: as they do not make the tree good, of course the fruit cannot be good; as they do not purify the fountain, the streams issuing thence cannot be pure, Mat 7:16-19. But, 3d. This righteousness may be found by us in Christ; the end, or the final cause, for which the law was instituted; the moral law being chiefly intended to convince men of sin, namely, of their guilt, depravity, and weakness, and thus to be a school- master to bring them to Christ; Gal 3:19-24; and the ceremonial, to shadow forth and exhibit his sacrifice and grace. Accordingly the law points to Christ, and directs the sinner to have recourse to him for all the different branches of righteousness above mentioned, which cannot be obtained by it, but may be had in and by Christ; namely, justification, through his obedience unto death, whereby he hath removed the curse of the moral law, being made a curse for us; and regeneration, or a new creation, with the practical righteousness proceeding therefrom, through his grace and Spirit; the information and direction, in the way of duty, afforded by his doctrine and example, and the motives to obedience furnished by his precepts, promises, and threatenings, co-operating as means to produce the same blessed effects. But, 4th, To whom is Christ thus the end of the law for righteousness? To every one — Whether Jew or Gentile; (see Rom 10:11-15;) that believeth — Namely, with the faith described Rom 10:5, &c. So that the very end and design of the law was to bring men to believe in Christ, whom it exhibited and pointed out, for justification, renovation, and universal holiness.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv3–9 For they being ignorant - The ignorance of the…
For they being ignorant - The ignorance of the Jews was voluntarily, and therefore criminal. The apostle does not affirm that they could not have known what the plan of God was; for he says Rom 10:18-21 that they had full opportunity of knowing. An attentive study of their own Scriptures would have led them to the true knowledge of the Messiah and his righteousness; see Joh 5:39; compare Isa 53:1-12, etc. Yet the fact that they were ignorant, though not an excuse, is introduced here, doubtless, as a mild and mitigating circumstance, that should take off the severity of what he might appear to them to be saying; 1Ti 1:13, “But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief;” Luk 23:34, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;” Act 7:60. Involuntary ignorance excuses from guilt; but ignorance produced by our sin or our indolence is no excuse for crime.
Of God’s righteousness - Not of the personal holiness of God, “but of God’s plan of justifying people, or of declaring them righteous by faith in his Son;” see the note at Rom 1:17. Here God’s plan stands opposed to their efforts to make themselves righteous by their own works.
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And seeking to establish ... - Endeavoring to confirm or make valid their own righteousness; to render it such as to constitute a ground of justification before God; or to make good their own claims to eternal life by their merits. This stands opposed to the justification by grace, or to God’s plan. And they must ever be opposed. This was the constant effort of the Jews; and in this they supposed they had succeeded. see Paul’s experience in Phi 3:4-6; Act 26:5. Instances of their belief on this subject occur in all the gospels, where our Saviour combats their notions of their own righteousness. See particularly their views and evasions exposed in Matt. 23; compare Mat 5:20, etc.; Mat 6:2-5. It was this which mainly opposed the Lord Jesus and his apostles; and it is this confidence in their own righteousness, which still stands in the way of the progress of the gospel among people.
Have not submitted themselves - Confident in their own righteousness. they have nor yielded their hearts to a plan which requires them to come confessing that they have no merit, and to be saved by the merit of another. No obstacle to salvation by grace is so great as the self-righteousness of the sinner.
Righteousness of God - His plan or scheme of justifying people.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 8, 9 The justice of God. That is, the justice which…
The justice of God. That is, the justice which God giveth us through Christ; as, on the other hand, the Jews’ own justice is that which the pretended to by their own strength, or by the observance of the law, without faith in Christ. (Challoner) --- Seeking to establish their own. That is, for justice, or to be justified by their works, or the works of their written law. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–9 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness--that is, for…
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness--that is, for the justification of the guilty (see on Rom 1:17).
and going about--"seeking"
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to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God--The apostle views the general rejection of Christ by the nation as one act.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv3–9 3. Being ignorant—Or, rather, ignoring actively; just as the…
3. Being ignorant—Or, rather, ignoring actively; just as the following participle going about is active. People often wilfully ignore what they really know; and St. Paul tells us (Rom_10:19, where see comment) that Israel did know. Dr. Chalmers pertinently says that people are not always blamable for not seeing, but are blamable for not looking.
God’s righteousness—(See note on Rom_1:17.) The righteousness which God has ready to bestow on man through Christ. It includes in its various degrees and stages pardon, justification, sanctification, and eternal glorification.
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Going about—Old English phrase for engaging in or trying at a thing. The Greek word here literally signifies seeking, endeavouring.
Submitted—For faith is the submission of the whole man to God. Paul now shows what is the righteousness of God which the Jew ignored; namely, that righteousness of which Christ was the consummation.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–9 3. being ignorant of] not knowing: the verb refers…
3. being ignorant of] not knowing: the verb refers back to the “knowledge” just before mentioned.
God’s righteousness] His acceptance of the sinner as righteous, for Christ’s sake. See on Rom_1:17.
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going about] seeking.
to establish] Same word as Heb_10:9. They sought to make it good enough to stand (in the judgment). On Jewish theories of merit, see Appendix A.
have not submitted themselves] Lit., and better, did not submit; perhaps with reference to the definite ideal occasion of the first appearance of the Gospel amongst them.—The Gr. verb is passive in form, but may bear a middle meaning; and so probably here, as in E. V.—For an illustration of this “submission” see 1Pe_1:2, where the election of the Father and the holy influences of the Spirit lead to “obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” Acceptance of the one “hope set before us,” that of the Cross, is an act of submission as well as of trust. Human pride and human reason both, in different ways, have to bow before the Crucified.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 (3) God’s righteousness.—See Rom_1:17; Rom_3:21.
(3) God’s righteousness.—See Rom_1:17; Rom_3:21.
Their own righteousness.—A righteousness founded on their own works.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 8 For Christ is the end of Law unto righteousness…
For Christ is the end of Law unto righteousness to every one that believeth. The word "end" (telov) might in itself mean
(1) termination,
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(2) fulfilment,
(3) aim or purpose,
which is the evident meaning of the word in 1Ti_1:5 and 1Pe_1:9. This last seems best to suit the line of thought in this place. The Jews evinced ignorance, i.e. of the real meaning and purpose of Law, in resting on it for justification. This is St. Paul"s constant position in speaking of the office of Law that it could not and was never meant to justify, but rather to convince of sin; to establish the need of, and excite a craving for, redemption; and so prepare men to appreciate and accept the righteousness of God in Christ which was its telov . (see especially Ro 7; and cf. Gal_3:24, Wste o nomov paidagwgogonen eiv Cristostwv dikaiwywmen) Nomov being here anarthrous, we translate it according to the rule observed in this Commentary. The apostle has, indeed, in view the Mosaic Law; but it is the principle of law, as such, that he is speaking of. He next proceeds, as elsewhere throughout the Epistle, to quote from the Old Testament in illustration of the contrast between the two principles of justification, and this with the intention of showing that even in the Pentateuch that of justification by faith was intimated, and thus that it was all along the real telov of the Law. "Nam si prophetas suae sententiae testes citasset, haerebat tamen hic scrupulus, cum Lex aliam justitiae formam praescriberet. Hunc ergo optime discutit, quum ex ipsa Legis doctrina stabitit fidei justitiam" (Calvin).
The end of the Law.
The desire for righteousness has embodied itself in diverse and some of them grotesque forms. Gather together the Pharisee with his phylacteries and ablutions; the Chinaman burning his bits of paper for ancestral worship; the Hindoo bathing in the sacred river, or prostrating himself under the idol-car; the Roman Catholic telling his beads and performing his penance; and the moral youth, who never omits his daily portion of Scripture, or his morning and evening prayers, and would scorn to tell an untruth; and one would scarce imagine that the same motive actuates all these. Yet they all bear witness to man"s anxiety to be righteous in the sight of the Supreme Being, and those are abnormally Constituted who are never conscious of this yearning. It was not this strong desire for righteousness which the apostle tried to alter in the Jews, but the antiquated imperfect method to which they still clung after the one sure way of justification through faith in Christ had been proclaimed.
I CHRIST THE TERMINATION OF THE LEGAL ECONOMY. The rending of the veil at the Crucifixion indicated the passing away of the old dispensation, with all its gorgeous rites and external splendour. There arose another order of priesthood, from which the exclusiveness of the former caste was absent. Jesus the High Priest came not of the tribe of Levi. It is no longer necessary to become a Jew in order to reap the privileges of access to God. Christ has released men from the yoke of the Law, with its fasts and feasts, its observance of days and seasons. He has changed our state from pupilage to manhood; from slavery to a "reasonable service." Wherever a Christian is found, there is a spiritual priest and a living temple; wherever Christians meet, there is a holy convocation. The tabernacle disappeared when the temple was erected, and the earthly temple is no longer needed when the glorious building rises, reared without hands. The Jews who would not receive this teaching had to be convinced, by the capture of Jerusalem and the burning of their "beautiful house," that "the old order changed, giving place to new." The forerunner of Christ was the last of the Old Testament prophets.
II CHRIST THE DESIGN AND SCOPE OF THE LEVITICAL DISPENSATION. We cannot understand the Law unless we regard it as pointing unmistakably to the coming Messiah, preparing his way; a preliminary education of mankind and of one nation in particular; like a stock on which a new rose is to be grafted. The sacrifices, the moral and ceremonial precepts, were predictive, were prophecy acted in symbol and type. The chrysalis displays tokens of the winged perfect insect. "The Law hath been our tutor to bring us unto Christ." So that when men inquire, "To what purpose was all this cost of legislation and ritual?" the reply is that it paved the way for something better; it was the "shadow of good things to come.
III CHRIST THE REALIZATION OF THE MOSAIC IDEAL. The holiness which the Law ever kept in view, endeavouring to raise men to its standard of righteousness, has been exemplified in Jesus Christ. Wherein the Law was weak, Christ was strong. His condemnation of sin was thorough and effective, and the perfection of his sacrifice renders any subsequent atonement needless. To enter into the spirit of his offering is to "purge the conscience from dead works" and to give rest and peace to the troubled the region in which the Law was inoperative. The message of Divine love sounding from the cross has a constraining influence over the affections and life of the Christian, which the Law aimed at and failed to achieve. New Testament saints have frequently attained to an enlightenment of mind and conformity to the Divine will which was sighed after in vain by patriarch, psalmist, and prophet. Christ bring his followers into communion with God, and by faith in him are they sanctified. Love is proved a stronger principle than terror, knowledge than ignorance, example than precept. In abrogating, Christ fulfils the Law.
CONCLUSION. See, then, what faith does. It looks at Christ instead of a Law of ordinances. It is no longer tied by enactments and fearful of noncompliance, for it beholds the face of Jesus, "the Lamb as it had been slain." We may trust Christ as our Redeemer and Guide, without understanding or acknowledging all these points of superiority over the former covenant; as a woman knows she will be benefited by a certain medicine, though she could not name its ingredients, nor state the method of its working; or as a man may journey on the railway who comprehends little of the application of steam to locomotives, etc. And faith is content to submit to God"s righteousness, instead of seeking to establish its own. It relies not upon personal desert, but upon the provisions of mercy furnished in Christ. It is humble, and tries not to patch together a human garment to hide deformities and deficiencies. Accepting the gracious offer of God, faith discovers new elements of strength and joy in the very position assumed. S.R.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv4–5 For Christ is the end of the law for…
Rom_10:4
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
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Christ the end of the law
I. In what sense?
1. As its great antitype.
2. Its only sacrifice.
3. The source of its moral power.
II. For what end? To secure--
1. Pardon of sin.
2. Holiness of life.
III. Unto whom?
1. Every one.
2. That believeth. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Christ the end of the law for righteousness
I. The end of all law is righteousness--the production of the most perfect results.
1. In the natural world the use of the law is to perpetuate results essential to its well-being, e.g., the circulation of the atmosphere, ebb and flow of tide, alteration of seasons, motions and influence of planets, etc.
2. The great aim of law in the moral world is to regulate conduct so as to produce a righteous character. The aim of the law of Moses was to lead to a higher life (Rom_7:10).
(1) The ethical element in the Mosaic law discovered to man the havoc made by sin (Rom_7:7; Rom_7:11; Rom_7:13).
(2) The ceremonial element shadowed forth the remedy. The sacrifices and festivals were intended to show the necessity for the expiation of sin, by the atonement of Christ.
II. In Christ we have the grand end of both the ethical and ceremonial law--righteousness and holiness. Law depends for its authority upon the personal character of the lawgiver. The character of Christ was like His law--holy, just, and good.
1. From Christ proceeds the moral law by which sin is discovered to us. His character is a constant reproof to us. His words bring home the consciousness of violated law.
2. In Christ is the only remedy for sin. The arrangements of the ceremonial law terminated in Him--the shadow retired when the substance appeared. In His life and death He fulfilled the duties and endured the penalties of the law, thus vindicating the righteousness of God and providing a complete righteousness for sinful man.
III. Faith in Christ is accepted as a perfect obedience to the law. Law is powerless punitively when the end for which it exists is attained. We disarm the law by obeying it. All our unaided efforts to obey law--while in a state of lawless unnature--are futile. It is like running alongside a parallel pathway into which we are vainly trying to turn ourselves. Faith, and faith only, is the means of junction. This puts us into the position in which law would place us. The end of all law being the production of the most perfect results, this very end is answered when we believe in Jesus. For Christ, and all He has, becomes our own. He is made unto us, of God, wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption. The law and the gospel are evidenced in mans moral nature. The law the ideal of its life, the gospel the life of its ideal. Lessons:
1. It is hopeless to attempt to attain righteousness by law, because of our moral inability to obey all its requirements.
2. Faith in Christ is the only and universal way of obedience. (J. S. Exell, M.A.)
Christ the end of the law for righteousness
I. What is implied in these words.
1. That the law of God has been universally broken (Rom_3:10-12).
2. That, therefore, every man is under the curse of that law (Gal_3:13; Rom_2:8-11).
3. That, in order to be saved, this curse must be removed and sins remitted.
4. That no man of himself can remove this curse or obtain this remission of his sins.
5. That notwithstanding God cannot recede from His claims, nor abate one jot or tittle of what His holy law demands, either in penalty or precept.
6. That every person who would obtain salvation must look out for such a righteousness as shall be answerable to all the claims of the law, be perfectly satisfactory to God, and therefore available for his justification and peace.
II. In what way is Christ the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth? Consider--
1. The general purport of Christs coming (Psa_40:6-10; Heb_10:1-14; Isa_42:6-7; Isa_42:21; Dan_9:24; Jer_23:5-6; Jer_33:15-16; Isa_53:6, cf. 1Pe_2:24; 2Co_5:21).
2. The special character of His mediation. We must consider it as substitutional. We must behold Him rendering unto God, for those whom He represented, a perfect obedience to the law which they have broken, and suffering to its full and utmost extent the curse which they have incurred. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness--not by abrogating its authority, or lowering its requisitions, to meet the exigencies of our lapsed condition--but rather by asserting its full obligation and satisfying all its equitable claims. This is the great glory of the gospel--that God can be just--in exacting every claim of the law and in punishing every sin of those whom He saves to its full desert--and yet the justifier of them that believe in Jesus.
III. To whom is this provision available, or who are benefited thereby. Every one that believeth, and no more. But we must ascertain--
1. The testimony given in Scripture to this truth. We are again and again told that faith alone is the means appointed by God for granting the efficacy of this provision to the souls of men.
2. Why we can be benefited in this way of faith, and in no other? It is enough to say that God hath declared it. But we need not let the subject rest here. Man is utterly lost, helpless, and undone. Nothing that we can do can avail for our salvation. Our help and hope are based upon One, who only is mighty to save. It is therefore evident that the only way in which we can be benefited by what another has done for our salvation, must be by believing in Him for the execution of such an interposition, and for the advantage of the blessing procured thereby.
3. What is the nature of that faith by which we become interested in this righteousness. It is the act of a soul made willing in the day of Gods power, under a clear discovery of its lost condition, and a clear perception of the mediation of Jesus, by which it is brought to rely on that mediation, and to plead that righteousness with God for its pardon and peace (chap. 10:10; Heb_11:1).
4. To what extent is this truth to be carried in the justification of the sinner before God? To the full extent for which it is designed for that purpose. It takes in the sinners whole case--sins, guilt, condemnation, and deserved wrath. It brings him a full and complete deliverance and justification from all. Nay, more, it invests him with the perfect righteousness of Christ, as a perfect fulfilment of the law by which he stands accepted with God.
IV. What are the importance and advantages arising therefrom. Hereby--
1. The law is established in all its authority, obligations, and claims.
2. God is honoured and exalted in the possession and exercise of all His perfections.
3. A sure and certain way of life and salvation, of pardon and peace, is opened for guilty men.
4. A sure provision is made for a loving, devoted, and delightful obedience to the will of God.
5. There is afforded to the soul a sure rock for its present safety and a firm foundation for its future security, even for ever.
6. The Church of God is provided with an unerring test by which to try every doctrine proposed for her acceptance, and an indomitable weapon by which to conquer every antichristian foe. (R. Shittler.)
Christ the end of the law for righteousness
I. The proposition. Christ is the end of the law. The end of a thing is either mathematical or moral. The mathematical end is the utmost part of a thing, in which the length or continuance is determined; as a point is the end of a line, death the end of life, the day of judgment the end of this world. The moral end of a thing is the scope and perfection of it. Now Christ is the end of the law both ways.
1. The mathematical end of the ceremonial and moral. Of the ceremonial by a direct signification, of the moral by an accidental direction. The ceremonies signified Christ and ended at Him. Properly, the moral law leads sinners to the curse, but by account to Christ, as the disease leads to the medicine or physician.
2. He is also the moral end of both. For He is the body of those ceremonies and shadows, and He perfectly fulfilled the Decalogue for us, and that three ways.
(1) In His pure conception.
(2) In His godly life.
(3) In His holy and obedient sufferings, and all for us.
For whatsoever the law required that we should be, do, or suffer, He hath performed in our behalf. Therefore one wittily saith that Christ is Telos, the end, or tribute, and we, by His payment, Ateleis, tribute-free, we are discharged by Him before God. Christ is both these ends, but principally the last is here understood.
II. The amplification for righteousness. When thou art come to Christ thou must not cast away the law, but use it still to make thee more to cling unto Christ and as a rule of righteous living. Christ is the end of the law, not the killing, but fulfilling end; not to end, but to urge thy obedience. When the merchant is come aboard his ship by boat, he drowns not his boat, but hoists it up into his ship; he may have use of it another time. Or as a nobleman neglects not his schoolmaster when he is come to his lands, but prefers him. So certainly, if the law (though sharp) hath brought thee to Christ, thou canst not but love it for this office; if thou doest not, thou hast not Christ. Yea, it will be the delight of a man to be then doing, when Christ is with him, as Peter then willingly and with success cast out his net. Without Christ the law is an uncomfortable study; but with Him, nothing more delightful. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)
Christ the end of the law
Consider--
I. Christ in connection with the law. The law is that which we have cause to dread; for the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. Yet, like the fascination which attracts the gnat to the candle, men by nature fly to the law for salvation. Now, what has our Lord to do with the law?
1. He is its purpose and object. The law is our schoolmaster, or rather our attendant to conduct us to the school of Jesus; the great net in which the fish are enclosed that they may be drawn out of the element of sin; the stormy wind which drives souls into the harbour of refuge; the sheriffs officer to shut men up in prison for their sin, concluding them all under condemnation in order that they may look to the free grace of God alone for deliverance. It empties that grace may fill, wounds that mercy may heal. Had man never fallen, the law would have been most helpful to show him the way in which he should walk: and by keeping it he would have lived (Rom_10:5). But since man has fallen, a way of salvation by works has become impossible. The law is meant to lead the sinner to faith in Christ, by showing the impossibility of any other way. It is the dog to fetch the sheep to the shepherd, the burning heat which drives the traveller to the shadow of the great rock in a weary land. The law is adapted to this; for--
(1) It shows man his sin. Who can lay his own character side by side with it without seeing how far he has fallen short of the standard? When the law comes home to the soul it is like light in a dark room revealing the dust and the dirt which else had been unperceived. It is the test which detects the presence of the poison of sin in the soul. A true balance discovers short weight, and such is the first effect of the law upon the conscience of man.
(2) It shows the result and mischief of sin. The types were intended to lead men to Christ by making them see their unclean condition and their need of such cleansing as only He can give. Men put apart because of disease or uncleanness were made to see how sin separated them from God; and when they were brought back and purified with mystic rites, they were made to see how they can only be restored by Christ, the great High Priest. Without shedding of blood is no remission.
(3) It teaches men their utter helplessness. Such holiness as the law demands no man can reach of himself. Thy commandment is exceeding broad. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. How can he be clean that is born of a woman? In grace there is hope, but as a matter of debt there is none, for we do not merit anything but wrath. The law tells us this, and the sooner we know it to be so the better, for the sooner we shall fly to Christ.
(4) It shows us our great need. The law is the surgeons knife which cuts out the proud flesh that the wound may heal. The law by itself only sweeps and raises the dust, but the gospel sprinkles clean water upon the dust. The law kills, the gospel makes alive; the law strips, and then Jesus Christ robes the soul in beauty.
2. Christ is the laws fulfilment.
(1) God by immutable necessity demands righteousness of His creatures, and the law is not compelled to lower its terms, as though it had originally asked too much; but Christ gives the law all it requires. The law claims complete obedience, and Christ has brought in such a righteousness as that, and gives it to His people. Only as righteous ones can we be saved, but Christ makes us righteous, and therefore we are saved.
(2) Jesus has thus fulfilled the original demands of the law, but since we have broken it there are other demands. God will by no means clear the guilty, but every transgression shall have its just punishment. Here, then, Christ is the end of the law as to penalty. The claims of the law both as broken and unbroken Christ has met: both the positive and the penal demands are satisfied in Him.
(3) Not only has the penalty been paid, but Christ has put great honour upon the law in so doing. If the whole race had kept the law it would not stand in so splendid a position as it does now that the Son of God has paid obeisance to it. Who shall say a word against the law to which the Lawgiver Himself submits?
(4) The laws stability also has been secured by Christ. That alone can remain which is proved to be just, and Jesus has proved the law to be so, magnifying it and making it honourable. He says, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. As to the settlement of the eternal principles of right and wrong, Christs life and death have achieved this for ever. We establish the law, we do not make void the law through faith.
3. Christ is the end of the law in that He is the termination of it in two senses.
(1) His people are not under it as a covenant of life. We are not under the law, but under grace.
(2) We are no longer under its curse. Jesus has given us all the righteousness it demands, and the law is bound to bless. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
II. Ourselves in connection with Christ--for to every one that believeth. To believe is not merely to accept a set of doctrines but to trust, to confide, to rest in. Dost thou believe that Christ stood in the sinners stead and suffered the just for the unjust, and that He is able to save to the uttermost? And dost thou therefore lay the whole weight of thy souls salvation upon Him alone? Then Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to thee, and thou art righteous. It is of no use to bring forward anything else if you are not believing, for nothing will avail--sacraments, prayers, etc. Observe--
1. There is no question raised about the previous character, for it is written, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. But, Lord, this man before he believed was a persecutor and injurious. Yes, and that is the very man who wrote these words. So if I address one who is defiled with every sin, yet I say if thou believest thine iniquities are blotted out, for the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin.
2. There is nothing said by way of qualification as to the strength of the faith. He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, whether he is Little Faith or Greatheart. The link may be very like a film, a spiders line of trembling faith, but, if it runs all the way from the heart to Christ, Divine grace can and will flow along the most slender thread. It is marvellous how fine the wire may be that will carry the electric flash. If thy faith be of the mustard-seed kind, if it be only such as tremblingly touches the garments hem, if it be but the faith of sinking Peter, or weeping Mary, yet Christ will be the end of the law for righteousness to thee as well as to the chief of the apostles.
3. If this be so then all of us who believe are righteous. We are not completely sanctified, but still, in the sight of God, we are righteous, and being justified by faith we have peace with Him.
4. The connection of our text assures us that being righteous we are saved (Rom_10:9).
Conclusion:
1. If any one thinks he can save himself, and that his own righteousness will suffice before God, I would ask, if your righteousness sufficeth, why did Christ come here to work one out?
2. For any to reject the righteousness of Christ must be to perish everlastingly, because it cannot be that God will accept you or your pretended righteousness when you have refused the real and Divine righteousness which He sets before you in His Son. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ the end of the law for righteousness
I. What that righteousness is, spoken of in the text. Evidently that which is necessary in order to eternal life, and which infallibly leads to it (Rom_5:17; Rom_5:21). It is termed The righteousness of God (Rom_10:3; chap. 1:17), and said to be by faith (Rom_3:21-22; Php_3:9). It implies--
1. Justification (Rom_3:24; Tit_3:7); without which, as guilty condemned sinners, we can have no title to eternal life.
2. Regeneration or sanctification (see Php_3:9); spoken of Eph_4:17-24; Tit_3:5-6; Joh_3:5-6; without which we are not in Christ (2Co_5:17; Gal_6:15), and have no fitness for heaven.
3. Practical obedience (Eph_2:10); the grand evidence that we are righteous (Luk_1:6; 1Jn_3:7). As to the necessity of this, see Rom_2:6-7; Rev_22:14; and especially Mat_7:20-21.
II. Where and how this righteousness is to be found.
1. Not in, or by, the law.
(1) The moral law (Rom_8:3) which requires perfect obedience. This we have not paid, do not, and cannot in future, pay. Hence it finds us guilty, and has no pardon to give us; it finds us depraved, and has no new nature for us; it finds us helpless, and has no supernatural aid to impart.
(2) The ceremonial law. Its sacrifices could not remove sin (Heb_9:23; Heb_10:4). Its purifications could only impart a ceremonial cleanness, or remove the filth of the flesh (Heb_9:13; 1Pe_3:21). Its institutions respecting meats, days, etc. As they did not make the tree good, of course the fruit could not be good (Mat_12:16-19).
2. But wherefore, then, serveth the law? In Christ was the end for which the law was instituted; the moral law being chiefly to convince men of sin (Rom_3:19-20; Rom_7:7-8), and thus to be a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ (Gal_3:19-24), and the ceremonial law to shadow forth His sacrifice and grace. The end may mean--
(1) The scope; the law continually points to Christ; the moral law directs the sinner to Him who fulfilled and removed the curse of it, for that justification which itself cannot give; and the ceremonial law directs him to look from its sacrifices and purifications to the atonement and Spirit of Christ.
(2) The perfection, or completion (1Ti_1:5). Christ fulfilled the moral law in fully explaining its meaning, and freeing it from the glosses of the Scribes; in obeying it, in suffering its penalty, and in providing that it may be written in our hearts; He also answered in His person all the types and shadows of the ceremonial law.
(3) The period or termination (Rom_6:21). Thus the whole Mosaic dispensation gives way to the gospel (2Co_3:11), and its ceremonies are taken out of the way by Christ (Col_2:14).
3. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
(1) For justification, or righteousness imputed, is only to be found in His obedience unto death (Rom_3:24; 1Co_1:30; 2Co_5:21).
(2) Regeneration, a new creation, and entire sanctification are only to be found in Christ, by His Spirit and grace, who is made of God to us sanctification (Joh_1:14; Joh_1:16; 2Co_5:17; 1Co_1:30).
(3) Practical righteousness is likewise to be had in Him, His laws direct us how to walk; His promises and threatenings enforce His laws; His example allures us; and His grace enables us to walk in His ways (2Co_12:9; Heb_4:14-16).
III. By whom this righteousness is to be found. By every one that believeth (verses 5-10).
1. Its object is that God hath raised Christ from the dead. This--
(1) Demonstrated Him to be the Son of God (Rom_1:3-4), and, therefore, the only Saviour able and willing to save to the uttermost. Of this faith is persuaded, and, therefore, trusts in Him for salvation.
(2) Was the broad seal of heaven set to His doctrine, of which faith is so thoroughly persuaded as to lay it to heart and walk according to it.
(3) Was to show that His atonement was sufficient and accepted; of this faith is also persuaded and, therefore, relies solely on the propitiation in His blood for justification (Rom_3:23, etc.; Gal_2:16-20).
(4) Was that He might ascend, and intercede, and receive for us the promise of the Father, for which faith thirsts and comes to Him (Joh_7:37-38).
(5) He rose and ascended as our Forerunner. This faith believes, and, consequently, anticipates immortality and glory. He rose to give evidence that He will judge all mankind (Act_17:31). Faith is persuaded of this, and prepares to meet Him.
2. Our faith, in these respects, must be such as will enable us to make confession with our mouth, therefore it must be with the heart man believeth unto righteousness (verse 10). As to the faith that does not part with sin, and give up everything that stands in competition with Christ, it is dead (Jam_2:20-26).
3. As to the origin of this faith (see verses11-17). It arises from the Word and Spirit of God (Act_16:14; Eph_2:8-9; Col_2:12). Therefore, hearing, reading, and prayer, are the important means. And in the exercise of that measure of faith we have received, however small, it will be increased. (Joseph Benson.)
Christ the end of the law for righteousness
I. The immutability of the law is a fundamental truth. This rests on its nature and the immutability of God. The evidence is found in nature and conscience.
1. This the Jews believed, and it lay at the foundation of their error, which was twofold.
(1) That the law was to be fulfilled by their own righteousness.
(2) That the form in which the law was immutable was Mosaism.
2. This error led--
(1) To the effort to establish their own righteousness.
(2) To their making righteousness consist in ceremonial obedience.
3. Paul taught--
(1) That the law is immutable.
(2) That it cannot be satisfied by our righteousness, but only by the righteousness of God.
(3) That Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
(4) Consequently the immutability of the law is consistent with its abrogation, because its abrogation is effected by its fulfilment.
The law is immutable so far as it demands righteousness as an indispensable condition of justification. But it is abrogated so far as it says, Do this and live, i.e., so far as it requires our own righteousness.
II. In what sense is Christ the end of the law.
1. Not in the sense of its completion. Telos never occurs in the sense of pleroma.
2. But in the sense of having made an end of it, abolished it. This He has done--
(1) In so satisfying its demands that it ceases to require our own personal righteousness as a condition of justification.
(2) In putting an end to the Mosaic institutions, so that obedience to that law is no longer necessary to salvation.
3. In the sense of being its aim or object. This means either--
(1) That the end of the law is righteousness. Christ is the end of the law because He is our righteousness; its design is secured in Him. So that it is by faith, not works, that the end of the law is to be attained.
(2) Or, Christ is the object aimed at in the law. It was designed to bring us to Christ.
III. Consequences.
1. Out of Christ we are exposed--
(1) To the inexorable demands of the law.
(2) To its awful curse.
(3) To its slavish spirit.
2. In Him we are righteous.
(1) We meet all the demands of the law by pleading what He has done.
(2) We are free from its curse as He was made a curse for us.
(3) We are delivered from the spirit of bondage again to fear and are filled with the Spirit of adoption.
Conclusion: As a result of faith in Christ our righteousness we have--
1. Peace with God, and peace of conscience.
2. Assurance of eternal life, as no one can condemn those whom God justifies.
3. A principle of obedience, for until we are reconciled there can be no holiness.
4. All the benefits of Christs triumph. Having obeyed and suffered for us as our representative, we share in all the blessings promised as His reward. (C. Hodge, D.D.)
Christ the end of the law
Christ was revealed to abrogate, to annihilate, utterly to abolish sin. Now, we all know what it is to have a thing abrogated. Certain laws have held good up to the first of January of this year with regard to the hiring of public carriages, but now are under a new law. Suppose a driver complies with the new law, gets his license, puts up his flag, gives the passenger his card of prices, and afterwards the passenger summons him before the magistrate for asking a fare not authorised by the old law; the magistrate would say, You are out of court, there is no such law. You cannot bring the man here, he has not broken the old law, for he is not under it. He has complied with the requisition of the new law, by which he declares himself no longer under the old rules, and I have no power over him. So he that believeth in Christ Jesus may be summoned by conscience when misinformed before the bar of God, but the answer of peace to his conscience is, Ye are not under the law, but under grace. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The relation of the law to the gospel
(text and 1Ti_1:5):--The law of God may be viewed in a twofold aspect, to distinguish between which is to prove a safeguard against both the errors of legality and the errors of antinomianism. We must regard the law--
I. In relation to the righteousness which constitutes the title to its rewards.
1. When we strive to make this out by our own obedience, the aim is to possess ourselves of a legal right to heaven. We proceed on the imagination of a contract between God and man--whereof the counterpart terms are a fulfilment of the laws requisitions upon the one side, and a bestowment of the laws rewards upon the other. The one is the purchase-money--the other is the payment. They stand related to each other, as work does to wages. Now this spirit of legality, as it is called, is nearly the universal spirit of humanity. They are not the Israelites only who go about to establish a righteousness of their own. There is, in fact, a legal disposition in the heart, and, long after the utter shortness of human virtue has been demonstrated, yet will man, as if by the bias of a constitutional necessity, recur to the old legal imagination, of this virtue being a thing of desert, and of heaven being the reward which is due to it.
2. Now, for man to establish a right by his righteousness, is in the face of all jurisprudence. Both the law and the gospel alike disown mans legal right to the rewards of eternity; and if he be too proud to disown it himself, he remains both a victim of condemnation by the one, and a helpless, hopeless outcast from the mercy of the other. If man will persist in seeking to make out a title-deed to heaven by his own obedience, then that obedience must be perfect. Even if he have but committed one sin--there is the barrier of a moral necessity in his way, which it is impossible to force. The God who cannot lie, cannot recall His curse upon every one who continueth not in all the words of the book of His law to do them. And one of two things must happen. Either, with a just conception of the standard of the law, he will sink into despair; or, with a low conception of that standard, he, though but grovelling among the mere decencies of civil life or the barren formalities of religious service, will aspire no farther and yet count himself safe.
3. Now herein lies the grand peculiarity of the gospel. It pronounces on the utter insignificance of all that man can do for the establishment of his right to the kingdom of heaven; and yet, he must be somehow or other provided with such a right, ere that he can find admittance there. It is not by an act of mercy alone that the gate of heaven is opened to the sinner. He must be furnished with a plea which he can state at the bar of justice--not the plea of his own deservings, which the gospel holds no terms with; and therefore with a plea founded exclusively on the deservings of another. Now what we reckon to be the very essence of the gospel is the report which it brings to a sinful world of a solid and satisfying plea; and that every sinner is welcome to the use of it. In defect of his own righteousness, which he is required to disown, he is told of an everlasting righteousness which another has brought in; and which he is invited, nay commanded, to make mention of. It is thus that Christ becomes the end of the law for righteousness.
II. As holding out a method by which we might acquire a rightness of character in the cultivation and the exercise of its bidden virtues. The legal right which obedience confers is one thing. The personal rightness which obedience confers is another. Obedience for a legal right is everywhere denounced in the New Testament, but obedience for a personal rightness is everywhere urged. For the one end, the law has altogether lost its efficacy; and we, in our own utter inability to substantiate its claims, must seek to be justified only by the righteousness of Christ. For the other end, the law retains its office as a perfect guide and exemplar of all virtue; and; we, empowered by strength from on high to follow its dictates, must seek to be sanctified by the transference of its bidden uprightness upon our own characters. It is no longer the purchase-money by which to buy your right of entry to the marriage supper of the Lamb; but it is the wedding garment, without which you will never be seated among the beatitudes of that festival. To be meet in law, and without violence done to the jurisprudence of heaven, we must be invested by faith with the righteousness of Christ. To be meet in character, and without offence or violence to the spirit or the taste of heavens society, we must be invested with the graces of our own personal righteousness. (T. Chalmers, D.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv3–9 3. Being ignorant of God's righteousness. It is now…
3. Being ignorant of God's righteousness. It is now shown that their zeal was not according to knowledge. They had no knowledge of God's plan of righteousness, righteousness by believing upon Christ, but rejecting it they sought a righteousness of their own, of works, secured by keeping the law, and by obeying the traditions of men (Mark 7:7, 8). On the other hand, they refused to submit to God's righteousness through faith.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v5 Rom_10:6. Say not in thine heart.—Unbelief originates from self-confidence.…
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom_10:6. Say not in thine heart.—Unbelief originates from self-confidence. Who shall ascend?—Indicating unbelief in a risen Saviour. Salvation is a completed work; do not trouble about its vastness or its difficulty.
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Rom_10:7.—ἄβυσσος, the place of departed spirits, supposed by the Jews to be far below the surface of the earth. The Jerusalem Targum renders the words thus: “Oh that there were one like Jonas the prophet who would descend into the depths of the great sea! “Now we know that Jonas descending into the deep was a type of Christ; “being brought again,” say the LXX., “from the abyss of the earth.” Philo asks, “What need is there to take long journeys or go to sea in search of virtue, we having the root of it within us?” or, as Moses saith, “In our mouth, in our heart, and in our hand.”
Rom_10:8.—A holy and sweet play of the Spirit on His own inspired word.
Rom_10:9. The Lord Jesus.—Jesus as Jehovah. Paul is referring to Jer_23:6. Mouth confession important towards men, heart belief towards God. The law is works; the gospel is faith, and works following. The resurrection of Christ is a foundation fact; receive that, and we shall include all it implies.
Rom_10:10.—In the heart faith is seated; with the tongue confession is made. Between these two salvation is completed.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH—Rom_10:5-11
Life on divine conditions.—God is not a Pharaoh demanding bricks without straw; God does not require a Samson’s strength from an infant’s weakness, a Solomon’s wisdom from the unfortunate possessor of imbecility. If God’s plan of salvation seem difficult, it is not because of divine conditions, but because of human perversity. Humble souls, receptive natures, find God’s method of salvation an easy, unencumbered plan. Life on divine conditions is in striking contrast to life on human conditions.
I. Notice life on human conditions.—Sometimes we rail against the hardness and perversity of nature. Man battling for life is often worsted in the encounter. The struggle for life ends, with too many, in death. But life would not be so hard if selfishness were eliminated from humanity. Natural life is hard on human conditions. It is not God but man that makes moral life hard. The human conditions are:
1. Life by doing. The law done, the life secured. Grace was there in Old Testament times, but men too often ignored the grace and went about to establish their own righteousness. God had then a blessing for contrite souls.
2. Life by fruitless search. Who can ascend to heaven? Who can fathom the abyss? In these modern days men can explore and investigate to marvellous heights and depths; they can almost travel along the pathway which the vulture’s eye hath not seen; but they do not discover the treasure of moral life. The eye of the scientist has not seen it in the depths; the far-reaching knowledge of the philosopher has not discovered it in the heights of his sublime soaring. Spiritual life eludes the search of the wise and prudent of this world, but is revealed unto babes.
II. Notice life on divine conditions.—Natural life on divine conditions is pleasant. The life of unfallen man was life on divine conditions—life in a garden where birds sang, brooks musically rippled, flowers bloomed, fruits ripened, and where there was not the offensiveness of decay and of death. If flowers decayed, they presented no unsightly aspect, they gave forth no offensive odour. If death visited, it came in comely form. Man had no monotony, no feeling of unrest. The conditions of life are changed; but even now if we got nearer to divine conditions we should live more pleasantly. One image this of spiritual life. Pleasantly flows the stream of spiritual life to those who exercise faith. Spiritual life is in:
1. A word of nearness. God’s words are near. Day unto day uttereth divine speech. Nature is divinely vocal. Time expresses the divine thought. Providence utters the purposes of the infinite Spirit. God’s words are round about us everywhere. The atmosphere is thick with the thoughts of the Eternal. But God’s words are carried by a still, small voice, and our souls are not hushed so as to catch the message. “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart”; but time words stifle the heaven word. Let us be still, and then we shall hear the near word of God.
2. A word of faith. A little word, and yet very large. It carries a whole heaven in its embrace. It conquers the world, the flesh, and the devil—triumphs over death, and opens the gates of paradise. The word of faith is great, and yet its greatness is not inherent, but derived. Faith must have an object, and that object is a divine Person. Faith embraces a living Saviour; faith concerns itself with a perfect life, an atoning death, an evidencing resurrection, a victorious ascension, and an intercessory existence; faith is emotional, its seat is in the heart; faith works by love. God is emotional, and so are His true children. The intellectualist may despise the emotional; and yet to stifle emotion is to do violence to the perfection of human nature. Emotions play a large part in human doings. Emotion is a strong motive force. God would have perfect men in His kingdom, and such are those who let emotion have fair play. Faith of the head will not save. Faith which accepts the axioms of mathematics, the deductions of logic the recorded experiments of science, or the statements of history will not save. There is a faith which accepts a perfect creed, and yet is not saving. Our want is heart faith. To-day we are developing heads and minimising hearts; our brains are weighed and measured, while our hearts are dying for want of nutriment. The light of moral knowledge may play about the head while the heart is untouched; and where hearts are unaffected there can be no true moral reformation. A heart faith clinging to a loving Christ climbs the rugged steeps of time, and gains the height of moral perfectness and spiritual beauty. Heart faith resting in Christ is the greatest motive power in the universe.
3. A word of confession. In these days Christ-confessing is too much confined. If the heart were full of Christ, would the mouth be full of the world? Have things changed? Are the great Teacher’s words untrue, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”? Are they untrue? or is it sadly true that Christ-abundance is not found in modern hearts? The head and the heart, the body and the soul, must move onwards to the accomplishment of a perfected salvation.
4. A word of divine encouragement. “Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” Here we have a divine universality, a divine invitation, and a divine declaration—the largeness of divine love, the regulating force of divine wisdom, the provisions of divine power. “Whosoever.” Jew or Gentile, rich or poor. “Whosoever.” If a word could measure the vastness of the infinite love, that word would be the word “whosoever.” Finite words, however, cannot gauge infinite realities. Enough for us to know that the love is vast, and that love invites whosoever believeth to the banqueting-house where the banner of divine love is displayed.
Rom_10:6-8. The Saviour near the soul.—By the phrase “the righteousness which is of faith” we are to understand Christianity. Therefore Christianity is the speaker. The apostle desires to answer the question of questions, How may I be saved from my sins for the service of my God? and assumes Christianity to be speaking in answer. Christianity does not say it is necessary to go to a distance for your religion, but “the word is nigh.” In answer to the question, How may I become a Christian indeed? the gospel reply is, Look not for the marvellous, leave the speculative; listen to the Saviour: “Behold, He stands at the door, and knocks.”
I. Christianity discourages a craving for the miraculous.—Do not occupy yourselves with any fond conceits of a manifestation of God more striking and convincing than that which you have already. Had miracles been the likeliest method of eliciting Christian faith, they would have been continued. But they did their work, and were laid aside. Though the need has passed, the craving remains. Hence the lying legends of the Church of Rome. The last thing men will acknowledge is that the blessing is already their own if they have faith to receive it. The last power they consent to trust is Christ, the power of God. Yet, needing Christ, it is the word of Christ we already have. “The word is nigh.”
II. Christianity discourages a passion for the speculative.—Do not consider it necessary that you should have adequate notions respecting those deep subjects before you can attain to the righteousness of faith and the blessings of salvation. Do but believe. You need not then despair of receiving heavenly teaching. The wisest of men are sent back by the gospel to the simple faith of children. This is the heavenly order: first trust, then knowledge. Theology is not religion. Theologies change, but Christ changes not.
III. Christianity recalls us, then, from the miraculous and the speculative to the evangelical and the spiritual.—The word of faith very familiar to those who heard Paul. And the word is nigh now. The letter of the word is nigh—a free, cheap Bible. More than that, you have Christian language already in your mouth. Mark the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the name of Christ. In a certain sense the word is in your heart already. Every troubled heart has a witness for Him who did what the law could not do for man. Christ speaks to the heart, and in a language which the heart comprehends. He has done this in many ways—by sorrows, by consolations, by memories. And the Saviour is near to the soul at all times. It is a familiar good. It is Christ, then, not this world, that can bless us.—J. Gage Rigg, D.D.
Rom_10:10. Outward observances.—Man, a being of two parts: outward, material; inward, immaterial. Therefore two facts must be brought into play in all relationships to God and to men.
For man’s religion to be thoroughgoing, heart must be in it, body must be in it. Meaning of “worship in spirit and in truth”—not spirit without body, but spirit along with body.
Examples:
1. Family prayer proves your belief in God in the eyes of your household. [Note.—No position more honourable than Christian man—like patriarchs, priest of his household, conducting family worship.]
2. Going to church, witness to belief in God in the eyes of the world. [Note.—A duty, therefore, even for the deaf or blind.]
3. Confirmation a similar ceremony, witness that when of age of discretion you put trust in God and decide for Him,
4. Kneeling in prayer, testimony of reverence before God. Story of heathen chief, who sees Charlemagne kneeling in church, and asks, Where is the greater King? I know one must have been there, for the king was kneeling.
5. Lord’s supper, testimony that you have support from someone beyond yourself.
Remember, inward, if real, must be expressed by something outward. Beware of outward without inward.—Dr. Springett.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom_10:5-11
The will of God made clearly known.—The obvious import of this passage is that the knowledge of the will of God had been made perfectly accessible; no one was required to do what was impossible, neither to ascend to heaven nor to pass the boundless sea in order to attain it; it was neither hidden nor afar off, but obvious and at hand. Without directly citing this passage, Paul uses nearly the same language to express the same idea. The expressions here used seem to have become proverbial among the Jews. To be “high” or “afar off” was to be “unattainable “; “to ascend to heaven” or “to go down to hell” was “to do what was impossible.” As the sea was to the ancients impassable, it is easy to understand how the question, “Who can pass over the sea?” was tantamount to, Who can ascend up into heaven? Among the later Jews the same mode of expression not infrequently occurs.—Hodge.
The world to be regenerated by doing our nearest duty.—My object has been and is, and I trust in God ever will be, to make people see that they need not, as St. Paul says, go up into heaven or go down to the deep to find Christ; because He the word whom we preach, is very near them—in their hearts and on their lips—if they would but believe it; and ready, not to set them afloat on new and untried oceans of schemes and projects, but ready to inspire them to do their duty humbly and simply where He has put them; and, believe me, the only way to regenerate the world is to do the duty which lies nearest us, and not to hunt after grand, far-fetched ones for ourselves.—Charles Kingsley.
The duty of confessing with the mouth.—As believing with the heart leads to righteousness, so confessing Christ with the mouth conduces “to salvation.” Confessing Christ with the mouth is at all times an important duty; but, at the first publication of the gospel, it was peculiarly indispensable, both for promoting the diffusion of the Christian religion and for the edification of individuals. For the open avowal of Christianity by all the disciples of Christ, accompanied with that moral purity which distinguished them and which was so striking in an age of great corruption, would naturally lead other men to examine a religion which produced such remarkable effects; and thus many might be induced to embrace the gospel who would not otherwise have given it any consideration. In like manner, by associating continually with the Church in all the services of religion, the Christian converts would gradually become better acquainted with the gospel and more strongly induced by the influence of general example to live as became the disciples of Christ. Hence our Saviour makes confessing Him before men an express condition of His confessing men before His Father who is in heaven; and adds, that whosoever shall deny Him before men, him will He deny before His Father which is in heaven.—Ritchie.
The true misery to be ashamed of oneself.—This is being confounded; this is shame itself; this is the intolerable, horrible, hellish shame and torment wherein is weeping and gnashing of teeth; this is the everlasting shame and contempt to which, as Daniel prophesied, too many should awake in that day, to be found guilty in that day before God and Christ, before our neighbours and our relations, and, worst of all, before ourselves. Worst of all, I say, before ourselves. It would be dreadful enough to have all the bad things we ever did or thought told openly against us to all our neighbours and friends, and to see them turn away from us—dreadful to find out at last (what we forget all day long) that God knows them already; but more dreadful to know them all ourselves and see our sins in all their shamefulness in the light of God, as God Himself sees them—more dreadful still to see the loving God and the loving Christ turn away from us; but most dreadful of all to turn away from ourselves—to be utterly discontented with ourselves, ashamed of ourselves—to see that all our misery is our own fault, that we have been our own enemies; to despise ourselves and hate ourselves for ever; to try for ever to get rid of ourselves, and escape from ourselves as from some ugly and foul place in which we are ashamed to be seen for a moment, and yet not to be able to get rid of ourselves. Yes, that will be the true misery of a lost soul—to be ashamed of itself and hate itself. Who shall deliver a man from the body of that death?—Charles Kingsley.
How will proud boasters answer?—”For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” What answer will be made to the above words of St. Paul by those proud boasters who glory in a certain imaginary faith, which is lodged, as they presume to say, in the inmost recesses of their hearts, and which is completely to supersede the confession of the mouth? Surely it is the veriest trifling to assert that fire exists where there is neither flame nor heat.—Calvin.
What is to confess Christ?—It is Jesus who is to be confessed. To confess Him is to accept Him as our Saviour, and to say so. It is to profess belief in Him as the Son of God, who died for us, in whom through believing we have eternal life; for all this He said of Himself. It is before men that we are to confess Him (Mat_10:32),—before good men, that our mutual faith may be strengthened; before bad men, that their unbelief may be shaken. How confess Him? Publicly, with our lips. Men who are ever ready to say that they believe in Christ, and never ready to say it openly, in connecting themselves with some branch of His Church, would do well to question their own sincerity. Privately, with our lips. It is a shame for Christians to dwell together, or to often talk together, and never say a loving word about their Saviour. And “not only with our lips, but in our lives.” When? Now and always, in word and in deed. Why just now? Because no other moment belongs to us—because the confession must be made before men; and how soon may we cease from among men!—Robert Westly Peach.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 10
Rom_10:8. Healing at her own door.—A lady who was very ill went from place to place on the Continent, hoping to recover her health, but all in vain, for she daily grew worse. At last, in despair, she asked a physician what she must do. “Medicine,” replied he, “is useless. You have one chance, and that is to drink the waters of Pit Keathley.” “What?” exclaimed she; “why, those waters are in my own estate!” She went home and recovered her health. Thus salvation is near. The word is nigh thee. The Saviour stands at the door of the heart. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv3–9 3. “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness and…
3. “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness; but did not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv3–9 For being ignorant of God's righteousness [Here Paul shows…
For being ignorant of God's righteousness [Here Paul shows wherein they lacked knowledge. "For they," says Scott, "not knowing the perfect justice of the divine character, law and government; and the nature of that righteousness which God has provided for the justification of sinners consistently with his own glory"-- Rom_3:26 ], and seeking to establish their own [Refusing to "put on Christ" ( Gal_3:27 ), they clothed themselves with a garment of their own spinning, which they, like all other worms, spun from their own filthy inwards. Or, to suit the figure more nearly to the language of the apostle, refusing to accept Christ as the Rock for life-building, they reared their crumbling structure on their own sandy, unstable nature, and as fast as the wind, rain and flood of temptation undermined their work, they set about rebuilding and re-establishing it, oblivious of the results of that supreme, unavertable, ever-impending storm, the last judgment -- Mat_7:24-27 ], they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God . ["Subject" is the keyword here. The best comment on this passage is found at Joh_8:31-36 . Those who admit themselves bondservants of sin find it no hardship to enter the free service of Christ, but those whose pride and self-sufficiency and self-righteousness make them self-worshipers, can bring themselves to submit to no one. By use of the phrase "righteousness of God," Paul indicts them of rebellion against the Father and his plan of salvation, rather than of rebellion against the person of the Christ, who is the sum and substance of the Father's plan--the concrete righteousness whereby we are saved.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv3, 9 The word "righteousness" here, and in the passages having…
righteousness
The word "righteousness" here, and in the passages having marginal references to this, means legal, or self-righteousness; the futile effort of man to work out under law a character which God can approve.
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(See Scofield "Rev 19:8").
righteousness Cf. (See Scofield "Rom 3:21").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v5 The universality of the righteousness of faith proved by…
The universality of the righteousness of faith proved by the Old Testament:
v. 5. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the Law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
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v. 6. but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above;)
v. 7. or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
v. 8. But what saith it? The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy he art, that is, the Word of faith, which we preach;
v. 9. that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
v. 10. For with the he art man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
The apostle had clearly shown that faith in the righteousness provided by God was at all times a condition of salvation. And he now brings proof from the Old Testament which clearly indicates that Moses taught the distinction between the two forms of righteousness. For Moses writes concerning the righteousness of the Law, Lev 18:5, that the man who doeth it will live in it. Every person that keeps all the commandments and precepts of the Law perfectly will by that token obtain life, the true, eternal life, Deu 27:26; Gal 3:10; Jas 2:10; Luk 10:28. That is the prerequisite, the one condition upon which salvation depends: perfect obedience to the Law. Not, indeed, as though any person had ever been saved by the keeping of the Law, for the simple reason that no one, since the fall of Adam, ever did fulfill its precepts. The righteousness of the Law does not exist in reality, but is a demand of God upon all men, a condition of salvation, just as Moses writes of it in the passage quoted. Moses describes the righteousness of the Law, but he does not assert that it exists in any human being. If a person thus understands the situation, he will despair of the righteousness of the Law and turn to the righteousness of faith as the one possibility of being saved.
This contrast is brought out in the next verses, where the content of Deu 30:11-14 is brought in a free rendering. But the righteousness which is of faith has this to say, the righteousness which God imputes by faith describes its own character in words taken from the writings of Moses, but applied to the situation as created by the work of Christ. The advice which this righteousness gives, is this: Do not say in thine heart: Who will ascend up into heaven? or: Who will descend into the abyss? That the righteousness of the Law, by means of works, is unattainable, the words of Moses had implied. But how about the righteousness of faith? No one should have the idea or propose to himself: Who will go up into heaven, in order to get Christ down from heaven? Who will go down into the deep, into the place of the dead, to fetch Christ from the dead? Such desponding and anxious inquiries are altogether foolish. It is not necessary to go to all that trouble, it is not required to fetch Christ from a great distance, for He is not so unattainable. On the contrary, the Redeemer is present; Christ has come down from heaven, He has arisen from the dead for the salvation of all men; He has done His work on earth and fulfilled the righteousness of the Law. In and with Christ perfect righteousness has been gained for all men. And therefore the righteousness of faith has a bold and joyful admonition: Near to thee is the Word, in thy mouth and in thy heart: this is the Word of the faith which we proclaim. For Christ, of whom he has spoken in the first part of his admonition, Paul substitutes the Word of the Gospel, the Word which had been entrusted to him to proclaim, the Word of faith, which should simply be believed, whose content, Jesus Christ, should be accepted by faith. Christ and His full salvation is always present with us, in the Gospel message which is proclaimed, in the Scriptures which are read, in the texts from the Bible which are memorized. And nothing more is needed than faith in this Word, assent to its content, and confidence in its promises.
The apostle further explains this statement and applies it to the average believer in his life: Because, if thou with thy mouth confess Jesus Christ, and believest in thine heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved; for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth one confesses unto salvation. Faith and confession are here mentioned as the two requisites for salvation. So near is the redemption of Jesus to every person in the world, in the Word of the Gospel-message, that it is necessary only to believe with the heart and to confess with the mouth in order to become a partaker of all its blessings. If any person believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth that Jesus is the Lord and that God has raised Him from the dead, then he has the faith which will give him salvation. Note that Paul here represents Jesus the Lord as the summary and content of the Gospel, of faith and salvation. The thought is so important for every person in the wide world that Paul repeats it in a parallel sentence, placing a heart believing unto righteousness and a mouth making confession unto salvation side by side. The faith of the heart is sufficient for the attainment of righteousness, and the confession of the mouth is sufficient for the attainment of salvation. The faith of the heart, as expressed in the confession of the mouth, brings righteousness and salvation to the believer, and no work and merit will have this result. Just as the heart and the mouth are mentioned together, so faith and confession cannot be separated: faith must find its expression in the confession of the mouth. "The faith of the heart, followed by the confession of the mouth, results in righteousness and salvation. " Paul is speaking of a true and living faith, not of a hypocritical makeshift and substitute. In Christ, in the Word of salvation, God has brought salvation to all men, and He recognizes only that confidence of the heart which, by His working, actually appropriates the redemption and makes an open confession of that fact before all men.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4, 6, 8 For Christ is the fulfillment of the law
For Christ is the fulfillment of the law
"For Christ completely fulfilled the law"
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for righteousness for everyone who believes
Here "believes" means "trusts." AT: "in order that he may make everyone who trusts in him right before God" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
the righteousness that comes from the law
Paul speaks of "righteousness" as if it were alive and able to move. AT: "how the law makes a person right before God" (See: Personification)
The man who does the righteousness of the law will live by this righteousness
In order to be made right with God through the law, a person would have to keep the law perfectly, which is not possible. AT: "The person who perfectly obeys the law will live because the law will make him right before God" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
will live
The words "will live" can refer to 1) eternal life or 2) mortal life in fellowship with God.
translationWords
Christ
fulfill
law
righteous
believe
Moses
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3–6 10:3 God’s way of making people right with himself:…
10:3 God’s way of making people right with himself: See 1:17; 3:21-26. Paul uses this phrase to explain Israel’s failure in terms basic to the gospel. God manifested his righteousness through the ministry of Christ, but most Jews did not understand it, partly because they were so focused on the law as a way of securing their own righteousness.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.