Righteousness by Faith: Jews and Gentiles in Romans

Wrap up of everything that Paul has been saying for the last several chapters, sort of concluding it and getting ready for the next section. Paul is really talking about, in verse 6 of chapter 9, where he talks about, it is not as though God's Word had failed, for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. He's saying, it's not as though God's Word has failed, when he's talking about the fact that people who are simply circumcised or people who have done good works claim to be a part of the family of God. It doesn't mean, and it's been opened up to all the Gentiles, he's saying, it's not that the Word of God failed or the promise of God failed. God's failure didn't occur. Instead, what has happened is God is changing what he's doing. And he talks about the fact that it hadn't failed in two ways. One, in the Old Testament, God has expanded his message of the gospel to include not only Jews, but also Gentiles. So, it didn't fail because it included more people than it did before. He says it doesn't fail because Isaiah prophesied that this very thing would happen. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy with, and I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion with. And I will call them my people who are not my people. I will call her my loved who is not my loved one. These promises from Hosea and promises from Isaiah. Though the number of Israelites shall be like sands of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality. And unless the Lord Almighty has left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom and we would have been like Gomorrah. So, two things help Paul to be able to say, just because the Jews are not all converted, doesn't mean that the mission of God with the Jews has failed. For instead, it has expanded. For now the Gentiles have been included, so all that God started to do with the Jews has now not only prospered, even though many are the most rejected Christ, but it's expanded to a world far greater than what might have looked like it was going to be in the beginning. Now, skip to Paul verse 30, where he's talking about a wrap-up of his summary of what has happened in God's dealing with the Jews and with the Gentiles. What then shall we say? When you see this in the book of Romans, this phrase, what then shall we say? It's kind of like Paul is saying, I'm summarizing now and getting ready to move to a new direction. So, here is his summary of what he's saying, what he's been saying. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it. A righteousness that is by faith. Now, when Paul uses this word righteousness, he uses it in a couple of different ways that create a problem when you're reading through to discover exactly what he's talking about. In chapter 1 of the book of Romans, verse 17, Paul talks about what this righteousness is. For in the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. And what Paul is talking about here is this righteousness that is revealed by faith. The Gentiles who did not produce, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained a righteousness that is by faith. In this one sentence, he uses two different ways the word righteous. That is, to have a proper or right standing with God. The first use of righteousness is a reference to what he talks about earlier in the righteousness of the law. That is, the Jews who felt like, if we keep the law, we will become righteous. So, that their efforts in keeping all of the law was to produce righteousness. Now, that's the first way he uses this word. That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness, they didn't say, okay, we're going to try to live by the law. They didn't know the law. They didn't have the law. So, they weren't trying to be able to live a perfect life of obedience to the law. They never pursued it. However, whenever the gospel was preached and the proclamation of the truth of Christ came, they obtained this righteousness that came as the result of their trust in Christ. So, while the Gentiles were not trying to get righteousness as it was given in the Old Testament, obedience to the law, they did find this righteousness that Paul has been talking about that was found with Abraham who trusted God. It was found with all the great men of the Old Testament who by faith found a relationship with God. They have obtained the righteousness that comes by faith. But on the other hand, Israel who pursued a law of righteousness. Now, he means by that what I described earlier. They said, here's the law. God has given us the law. Now, we must keep this law. And if we keep it completely and fully in every kind of way, we will receive the righteousness of God. We will have a right relationship or a right standing with God. He will declare us innocent of any rebellion against Him. So, the Jews who saw this began to pursue obedience to the law as a way of finding the righteousness of God. Now, but Israel who pursued a law of righteousness has not attained it. They never received this righteousness from God because what they were doing was they were not acting in faith. They were not acting in obedience and submission to God. They were doing deeds of good deeds or acts of obedience in order to earn a right relationship or standing with God. And since the right relationship all the way back to Abraham was the result of trust, not result of good works, they never were able to achieve this. Now, he doesn't mean all the Israelites. But the majority of Israelites failed because they didn't understand the genuine nature of righteousness and how to have a right standing with God which was through faith. So, what do we say then about this? The Gentiles who did not try by obedience to the law have now found in the proclamation of the gospel this righteousness that comes by faith. In Paul's writing to the Roman church, the church where so many Gentiles are part of this. So, in your church when you look around and you see that most of your people there are Gentiles, you realize that these Gentiles never were seeking the righteousness, the right standing with God by obedience to the Old Testament law. But you see them in your congregation and you know that they have received this standing with God because of the faith that they have or the trust in Christ. On the other hand, you see the Jews who are in your community, not in your church, but you see the Jews in your community who are very faithful in trying to keep the law, but they have rejected Christ and therefore have not found this righteousness that comes as a result of law. They do not have the righteousness in the Old Testament that they should have had by faith and then obedience to God. Instead, they've seen this righteousness as a matter of keeping the law and they've never achieved the real result that comes from faith or trust in God. Now he goes on to explain what this is about. Why not? He explains. Because they pursued this righteousness not by faith as if it were by works. They failed to be able to achieve this proper standing with God because they pursued righteousness not by faith but by the deeds that they would do. The law has been used here to describe obedience to the Old Testament and the instructions in the Old Testament. Now he goes back to talk about the quotation that's written here in the scriptures where Christ is called a stumbling stone. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. Now he uses the phrase for the stumbling stone as a reference to Christ. When Christ came and the Jews heard his message, they couldn't accept him. They found that his message was not what they thought it would be and they judged his message against their expectations of him. And because their expectations were different than who he really was, it caused them to be unable to accept him. So they stumbled over the stumbling stone as it is written. See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and the stone is Christ. And a rock that makes them fall. And the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Now, the phrase in him is not necessarily found in this quotation in the Old Testament. But here Paul identifies the stumbling stone as Christ and the stumbling stone as the rock also identifies with Christ. So when he adds this second line, And the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Now, in the Old Testament quotation, it could be the one who trusts the rock will never be put to shame. But here he identifies, since he's already done that, as the one who is responsible to accept Christ. Now, Paul is using this Old Testament quotation as a prophecy to say, here is what God promised. That when the messenger would come, when the Christ would come, people would hear him. But instead of recognizing him, the majority of people would stumble over who he really was and reject him. And therefore they would not be able to receive even the messenger that God sent to them. In this message, Paul is explaining what he meant by the word, by the use of righteousness before. He goes back now as he starts with chapter 10. And he is going back to the beginning of what he started to explain how burdened he was because the people of Israel were not included in this great part of God's plan. Chapter 9, I speak in truth. I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons. Theirs is the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple, the worship, the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs. And from them is traced human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all forever. Amen. Now, he is expressed in the beginning of chapter 9, his anguish over the fact that the majority of Jewish people rejected Christ and how difficult that is for him. And he opens chapter 10 with the same thing. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they might be saved. Paul has said a lot of things about the Jews, some of them very critical. And he's announced that most of them have not been able to receive Christ and therefore are not saved. But he wants the people in the church at Rome to understand that this is not anything he takes pleasure in. He's not anti-Semitic. He's not negative toward the Jews. He's not prejudiced against the Jews. He's not trying to put them down. He's simply proclaiming what he sees to be the truth. And he wants people to understand that his great desire is to see the people of Israel turn to God. My prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. Verse 2 of chapter 10, For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Paul gives them a compliment. There's nobody in all the world who is more faithful to be obedient to what they thought was the truth than Jewish people. There are abundant stories of people in the Old Testament, in the intertestamental period, who went through great persecution and suffering because they were Jewish. That's all the problem. It's the only difference it was Daniel who was thrown in the lion's den. Daniel who went through great trial. And the only thing that's wrong with Daniel was he was a Jew. I read a story in studying for this that a man told about a Jewish man who had been, his country had been captured and his enemies wanted him to worship the emperor and he wouldn't do it. And they wanted him to forsake setting aside the Sabbath day for worship, what you call Saturday, and he wouldn't do it. And they decided to make him set aside Sabbath and forget his Jewish teaching. And they locked him in prison. It didn't work. They took him out and they beat him until his flesh was bare. And they beat him until his flesh was torn and his bones were visible. And every time they gave him an option to not worship on the Sabbath or to work on the Sabbath, and he refused. The zeal of the Jewish people for obedience to the law was legendary. Every nation who came to conquer Israel understood how hard it was to get the Jewish people to abandon the law. Paul does not downplay the passion that the Jewish people had for keeping the law. He elevates their zeal for God. I can testify about them that they're zealous for God. And Paul knew that. His job, whenever he became a follower of Christ, was to go out and find people who had left the Jewish faith and were following Christ, and to put them in jail. He was standing with the people, holding the coats of the men who stoned Stephen. He knew their passion for demanding obedience of their own people. These were Jewish people who were killing Jewish people because of their refusal to keep the Jewish faith. Instead, they became followers of Jesus, who they declared to be a heretic. who they declared to be a heretic to the Jewish nation. Paul indicates that he has admiration for the passion and the zeal that the Jewish people had. I can testify about them. He knew what it was like. He said in their meetings where they were trying to figure out how to stop the Christian movement, he knew their passion. But their zeal is not based on knowledge. That was a problem. Their zeal was not based on the knowledge of who Christ was. Instead, it was something else. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God, and sought to establish their own, it means their own righteousness, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Here is the key ingredient that Paul has as a charge against the Jews. They did not know the righteousness that comes from God. Now, he's talking about in chapter 9, verse 32, where he says, Why not? They pursued it not by faith as if it were by works. That is, that's righteousness. They didn't know the righteousness that comes by faith. What they did know was what they perceive righteousness to be. I keep the law, and then I become righteous. They did not see or understand this righteousness that comes from God. Now, the righteousness that comes from God, as Paul describes it, is simply this. You hear the message of Christ. You trust the message of Christ. You yield your life to Christ as the Lord of your life. He then tells you how he wants you to live the law. And then you live the law, not to get righteousness, but as a result of the righteousness. You hear the message of Christ. You accept the message of Christ by faith, and then he gives you righteousness. And because you are righteous, you now live the righteous life, as a result of having righteousness already. The Jews had it the other way around. You hear the message of God in the Bible. You hear what God tells you to do, and you do all the things that he tells you to do, and then you have the righteousness. So they were zealous to receive the righteousness of God, but the way they went about it did not allow them ever to receive it. They were zealous about all of this, and they did not know the righteousness that comes from God. This righteousness that is the result of faith. He goes all the way back to Abraham in talking about this. The righteousness that came because Abraham placed his faith and trust in God. And he was counted righteous because of his faith. And because of his trust in God, he then began to live this life of obedience to what we might call the law, or the instructions from God. That was what he was saying is this great stream of righteousness that God has. But when the law was given, the Jewish people made a difference. They said, this is the law. If you keep the law, you're circumcised, you do everything the law says, then you will become righteous. Now he calls this the righteousness they sought to establish their own righteousness. Now he's not talking about here the righteousness that is the opposite of what the righteousness of faith, but they sought to establish righteousness that belonged only to them. To establish, that is to make this righteousness, this pattern of righteousness they saw. You hear the word, the law. You say, okay, I'm going to keep the law. This is only for us. They saw the law only for the Jewish nation. So we will keep the law and we will become righteous. So they established this law the way they saw this righteousness of God. They established it, but it was only for their community. The great problem, one of the great problems the Jewish nation had was they didn't have the vision that God had when he established that nation. When he established that nation, whenever he told Abraham, I want you to come and follow me and I will make you a great nation. All the nations of the world will be blessed by you. God's vision for Abraham was to be a great evangelistic missionary nation. And they were to bless all the nations of the world. Through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed. God's intent in the beginning was that this righteousness of theirs would be missionary, open to all the world. But the Jewish community was not able to see it that way. They saw it as only for them. So they sought to establish, that is, make this for themselves, their own righteousness only for them. They did not submit to God's righteousness. You might say the kind of righteousness God wanted. This act of faith that causes you to trust God and then take his law and live in faithfulness to that. They didn't establish that. Instead, they established something that was their own. They did not submit to this righteousness of God. Christ is the end of the law, so there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. When he says it's the end of the law, he means it's the completion of it or fulfillment of the law. Everything God was doing in the Old Testament led up to Christ. Now with Christ, everything changes. For now, the temple veil is torn in two. A new regime starts, not what was done in the Old Testament, but built on what was done in the Old Testament to be a whole new way in which the gospel is to be proclaimed in the world. Opened up to everyone, Jews, Gentiles, everyone who had faith and trust in God. Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment, the succession of it, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Now it's not the end of the law, meaning the Old Testament law is put aside. It's the end of the law as the Jewish people saw it. No longer will it be, if you do the law, you will be righteous in God's eyes. But the law was never given, never taken away. What Jesus said when he came was, I've come to fulfill the law. Not even one little comma will be removed from the law. It wasn't that Jesus came saying, you shouldn't do the things in the Old Testament. He came saying, this is not the end result. You place your trust in me and then the guide as to how I want you to live is found in these things in the Old Testament and what I'm teaching you. So what Jesus was doing was saying, a new regime has started. The gospel is now open to everyone in the world, not just to this group of people, but to everyone in the world. Paul is not saying that the Jews are thrown away, but they're open to the same gospel as everyone else is. What has changed for everyone is that the finality of all in the Old Testament is found in Christ. I will fulfill the law and everything I teach you will teach you how to fulfill what the Old Testament says. When Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount, he does not change the Ten Commandments. What he changes is the way you see the Ten Commandments. It is not whether or not you commit an act of murder, but whether or not inside of you, you are transformed from a person who hates to a person who cares and forgives. What is happening is there is a transformation in what I'm expecting of you. One of the great problems I think that Protestants have, certainly Baptists have it, and many Evangelicals have the same problem, is in this stream of what Paul is teaching, he says to the Jewish people, you say, here are the rules by which you live. And if you live by all of these rules, then you're a righteous person. Sometimes in our rule keeping as Protestants and Baptists, we have a long list of things you don't do and a long list of things you do, and if you keep all those, then you're a good person. That's not what the Bible teaches brings salvation. In fact, if you talk to people around you about some relative that died, they'll often say, well, I know they're a good person and I know they've gone to heaven because they were really a good person. Anybody had anything they needed, they'd give it to them. They were always willing to help friends around them. What they're telling you is, they're righteous, therefore they have faith in God. Their action gives them righteousness. And you don't have to listen very far before you hear people talk like this. When you talk to people who've lost relatives or friends, I would say 95% of the families I talk to, they make the same mistake the Jews made. I know my uncle, grandfather, brother, sister, whoever they are, are in heaven because they were a good person. They were nice to their neighbors. They were nice to their family. They did good things for people. It's exactly what Paul here is criticizing. People who think that keeping the law of good behavior makes you righteous. It doesn't. It is faith in Christ. Now, does God want you to be a good person? Does He want you to be kind to your neighbors? Yes, He does. But He wants you to do it because you are living in obedience to Him. Why do you think the mob people take care of each other so well? If you kill one of my main people, I'm going to come over and kill you. Why are they protecting their buddies so much? It's not because they're trying to be nice. It's because it's in their best interest. And whenever a person does good deeds, and he thinks that it earns him a place in heaven, he's not done that in obedience to Christ. He's not done that as an act of faith. I have given my life to you, God, and I will do anything that you want me to do. Now, I read in this that I should be kind to people, and I should treat people in a way that shows compassion for them, like the story of the Good Samaritan. So I see this person, and I know this is what you want me to do. And I go over to help this person in obedience to what you tell me. I have trusted you with my life. You've given me a right standing with you, a righteousness. And because I'm your child, and you've given me this righteousness, I'm going to act righteously. I'm going to do good. That's what the Bible is talking about, what Paul is talking about, about the righteousness of faith. People can, even in our time, say, if I do good to people, and I treat people right, and I'm better than most of the people around me, then I will be righteous enough to get into heaven. This is the righteousness that Paul says was doomed. Because it's a righteousness that they have established, not the righteousness of God. It's the righteousness of the law. People use it in a lot of different ways. If you do more good than bad, then you're going to go to heaven. If you do good things for the people around you, then you're going to go to heaven. Your righteousness, or your standing with God, is directly related, not to your trust in God, but to your doing good deeds and good things. All around us are people with this false concept of how to get to heaven. If you take a survey of the people around you, what does it take to get to heaven, you're going to find that this is one of the big mistakes that people are still making. The righteousness of the law. I can become righteous by doing good deeds. The gates to hell are crowded with people who think that way. That's why whenever Jesus talks about the last judgment, and people come, and He says, I don't know who you are, they begin to tell the righteous deeds they've done. How can I go to hell when I preached? How can I go to hell when I did miracles? How can I go to hell when I've been a good follower of yours? I've done all these things I should have done. You never trusted me. I don't know who you are. There is not a relationship between you and myself of trust. It's one great problem that Protestants have, and Baptists have, and our community has. The other side of that is, just as big a mistake is being made. There are many people who go through the process of becoming a part of a church. They take the catechism. They're baptized, or if they're Baptists, they go to church camp, and they make a profession of faith, and they're baptized. And then they say, okay, I'm saved by faith. And they find no requirement to live in obedience and righteousness to God. So you find a lot of people who are doing nothing. I can't ever get over the illustration I've used a lot of times. I walked into a hospital room years ago, and there was a lady on TV, and she was the president of the Organization for Prostitutes to be approved for a legal standing. She wanted good wages for the prostitutes, good medical care for them, and so they formed a prostitute union. She was on one of those talk shows, and the person who was interviewing said, well, aren't you afraid of being a prostitute, that you are in danger of, when you die, not being able to be approved by God? She said, oh no, I'm not worried about that. I was in Bible school, because I'm a Southern Baptist, and I was in Bible school, I gave my heart to Jesus, and I know I'm going to heaven because I've given my heart to Jesus. No person who is serious about following God can have a lifestyle of professional prostitutes. You can't obey God and do that. But there is abroad in the world the idea that if you come to the front of the church and you pray the sinner's prayer, or ask Jesus into your heart, or you make a profession of faith, that there is no requirement for righteous living. And a lot of people out there have every confidence in the world that they're going to die and go to heaven, like this lady, even though she's a prostitute. Robbers, thieves, every kind of disobedience to God you can imagine. People think, well, I've given my heart to Jesus, that one day when I was praying, when I was in camp, or when I was in Bible school, or when I was in church, whatever the situation is, oftentimes as young adults, young people and adults, and they never have caught the idea that the righteousness of God results in obedience to the law. Why is that true? If somebody goes to work for you, what do you expect them to do, Alan? You expect them to do what you tell them? If they were to come and say to you, I want to work for you, but I'm not going to do the things you tell me, I'm going to go off and do whatever I want, but I expect you to pay me every month, probably you would say, I'm not willing to that arrangement. When a person says to God, I give my life to you, but I'm going to do the things I want to do, when I want to do them, the way I want to do them, and I don't expect any bad consequence from that. God's not swayed by that argument. What Paul's talking about is a very important ingredient. How does the righteousness of God come to us? It doesn't come because you earn it with good deeds, nor does it become because you say some single, simple words to God. It comes because you say to God, I recognize your supreme authority, and I surrender my life to your authority. From now on, I will live under your authority in obedience to all that you tell me to do. This is my goal and my intent. In all of your life, then, you're learning what God wants you to do, putting it in practice. Both sides of this are big heresies, but they're alive and well in our world. So you see all the time people who are caught in terrible, immoral circumstances, who think that because one time or other in their life they prayed a prayer or joined a church, that they're perfectly safe, even though there is no righteousness of faith. That's what Paul calls it. You have faith, and there's a righteousness that follows that faith. Why? Because Christ is in us, guiding our lives, directing what we're doing, and we're living in obedience to him. So the righteousness that comes as a result of our faith. And there's the other crowd that thinks, if I can do this list of things that I think are good, then surely the gates of heaven will be opened for me. And that is the righteousness that comes by obedience to the law. Both of these are not biblical righteousness. This is really important for us to understand. Because if we don't, we end up making people who are righteous in their own eyes. It's just righteousness that they establish. This is what I think righteousness is. And even though we may get them in our church, we have not helped them to become righteous in the eyes of God. So Paul's point is a powerful one which we must take into consideration in all the things that we do. How does a person become righteous? It is by faith and trust in Christ. A faith that results in surrendering ourselves to the authority of Christ. Let's pray. I'd like to encourage you to listen to people talk about their faith. I would encourage you to ask people, what do you think it means, what does it take for a person to go to heaven? Don't argue with them about it, just take the survey. See in the people you're around what they're trusting to get to heaven. I think we will find it frightening how many people have a false confidence because of this righteousness that they've misunderstood. Help us, Father, in our Sunday school classes to teach this righteousness of faith. Help me as I preach and proclaim the scriptures to never compromise this righteousness of faith. Help each of us, Lord, be able to live out this righteousness of Abraham, the righteousness that leads to a life of faithfulness to you. In the name of Christ we ask it, amen. Amen.