Vain Human righteousness and an opportunity for Salvation: (chap.10)
In this chapter, Paul speak of Israel’s (human) righteousness which is contrary to faith. After having said about the Stumbling block, where the Jews have stumbled over Christ, God did not reject them. God still loves Israelites but they need to come to Him by faith. The apostle gives very simple thoughts about God’s saving grace.
Prayer concerning God’s righteousness: (10:1-3):
Paul feels compelled to pray for Israel for God’s righteousness. He does not rejoice in their isolation. It is not enough to believe in God without knowing Christ. Just a belief in God, doing the daily chores what the Scripture says, does not entitle us for Salvation. This is Nicodemus way of trying to obtain salvation. We cannot fully know God apart from Christ. Every person including Jews, Gentiles, slave or barbaric (all human beings) can come to God only through Christ. Jesus said: “I am the way, the Truth and the Life, no man can come to the Father except by me.”
Paul’s heart desire was that all Jews may be saved. They are zealous, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. There are many religious people, even sincere Christians may go astray, they have plenty of zeal but little knowledge. Their zeal is not in line with the truth. They were ignoring the righteousness that comes from God. They knew that God is righteous, but they did not know how God would make them righteous. Instead of seeking God’s righteousness, they were trying to establish their own righteousness. Besides this, they also had moral problems that they were not submitting to the righteousness of God. 2-points to remember are:
- People cannot come to Jesus without giving the full gospel. Just giving gospel alone cannot save anyone. There must be a radical submission to the righteousness of God, putting away our own righteousness.
- Personal responsibility is all the more important.God’s election or predestination does not diminish man’s responsibility, in fact God’s predestination would make man more responsible rather than irresponsible, because “no one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God”(1 Jn.3:9).
Christ is the end of the law: (10:4):
The Mosaic law was given to the nation of Israel. Every Jew is required to fulfil the law. The law was given to the erring Jews as a foreshadow of what is going to come in the future. But the law ended when Christ came into this world. The law ends with representative sacrifices. Christ begins with the real offering. The law is like our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. The law leaves us at his door where Christ alone gives us salvation. Christ is an atoning sacrifice for our sin, was the grand object of the whole sacrificial code of Moses. The Lord Jesus Christ’s passion and death were the fulfilment of its great object and design for the universal salvation of mankind. If we separate this sacrificial death of Christ from the law, then the law has no meaning at all. “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.
with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, here I am, it is written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will, my God.” (Heb.10:4-7). Again David prophesies: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require” (Ps.40:6). God never desired to have sacrifices of the law should be the complete atonement for sin, but it was a type or representative of that atonement. Sacrifices were offered merely to procure pardon of sin. This atonement was the foreshadow of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. When Christ came, all the sacrifices of sin and burnt are ended. Through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have not only the pardoning of the sin, but justification, righteousness leading us to sanctification and further the glorification in Christ. In other words, all the Jews who rejected Christ rejected salvation, and that very salvation which the law could not have, but only through Christ Jesus.