Israel’s unbelief
Returning specifically to the case of Israel, God’s Word has not failed nor have his promises expired. There still is hope. But, as Paul points out next, the matter of Israel’s guilty unbelief needs to be addressed.
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
The opening verse of chapter 10 is very similar to the opening paragraph of chapter 9. There Paul solemnly asserted that he had “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in his heart because of the lost condition of his “brothers, . . . the people of Israel.” Here he says much the same thing: “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.”
Some of our problems and faults are so delicate and sensitive an issue that “only your best friend will tell you about them,” as the saying goes. Paul is being a best friend by plucking up the courage to say some uncomfortable but much needed things about Jewish spiritual life. Although as a national group they were very “zealous for God,” that zeal was sadly misplaced and misdirected.
Paul’s analysis of their situation is outlined in verse 3. He again uses the rather flexible Greek verb for “to know,” which we’ve talked about a number of times. Its use here isn’t limited to knowing in the sense of having knowledge about something, but it implies “knowing with approval and acceptance.” Paul says of the Jews, “Since they did not know [approve of and accept] the righteousness that comes from God . . . , they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” Rather, they “sought to establish their own [righteousness].” That attempt was both impossible and inappropriate.
Establishing their own righteousness was impossible because it required perfect obedience to God’s holy law. Anything less would not do. But less than perfect performance is all that sinful, fallen humanity is capable of. Thus, instead of earning righteousness for themselves, sinners can earn only God’s wrath and punishment.
The attempt to keep God’s law was also foolish and inappropriate. It was attempting to do all over again what Christ had already done for them. By his perfect life of obedience, Christ had already fulfilled all the requirements of God’s holy law, so that Paul can now say, “Christ is the end of the law.” Paul’s compatriots, however, were operating as though keeping the law was still the requirement for salvation.