Summary of Romans, Chapter 10

Paul says his heart desires and he prays earnestly for the salvation of his racial kinsmen, the Jews. He testifies to them that they have zeal indeed, but it is misguided. For they do not know the way in which God gives justification [which is by faith]. Instead, they try to establish it their own way [by law], and so do not use God's way of getting justification. The goal of the law was Christ, for justification for all those who believe. Moses writes about the righteousness that comes from the law, saying: "The one who carries it out will live by it." But the righteousness based on faith says instead: Do not say in your heart: "Who will go up to the sky, that is, to bring Christ down to us." And do not say: "Who will do down into the abyss?" That is, to bring Christ up from the dead. What does it really say? It says that the word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith that we preach.

If they confess with their mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and believe in their heart that the Father raised Him from the dead, they will be saved [enter the Church]. For faith in the heart brings justification, and profession of faith leads to salvation [entering the Church]. Isaiah says: "No one who believes in Him will be ashamed. For Jew and Greek are alike, they all have one Lord, who is generous to all who call on Him." For: "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved." [enter the Church].

How will they [the Jews] call upon One in Whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in Him if they have not heard of Him? How will they hear unless someone preaches to them? How will they preach without being sent, as Isaiah says: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel." But not all accept the Gospel. As Isaiah says: "Lord, who believes what they hear from us?" So, faith comes from hearing the Gospel, through the word of Christ. So Paul says: They [the Jews] did not fail to hear did they? He replies in the words of Psalm 19: "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and to the ends of the world their words." So Israel has not failed to have a chance to know. Moses says: "I will make you envious by those who are not the people of God. I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding."

Isaiah boldly says: "I was found by those who did not seek me, and became evident to those who had not asked for me." But Isaiah says to Israel: "All day I stretched out my hands to a people who disobeyed and contradicted me."

Comments on Chapter 10

Paul opens this chapter again with an emotional expression of his love for his own racial kinsmen. He says they mean well -- but have a misguided zeal. They did not turn to faith for justification, as Abraham did. He wants them to reach salvation -- in the same sense as his words opening chapter 9, where he wanted them to enter the Church, the messianic kingdom. This will become clearer a bit farther down in this chapter.

The end of the law is Christ. The Greek telos could mean either the terminal point, where the law ceases, or the goal. Paul has said in Galatians 3:24 that the law prepared for Christ. He also could say the law comes to an end with Christ, who freed us from the law -- except that as we have seen, Paul so many times insists that if we break the law we are lost eternally, e.g., in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.

The quote from Moses is from Leviticus 18:5 which says a person will live, be well off, if he keeps the law. Next Paul does a remarkable thing: He takes the text of Deuteronomy 30:11-14 in which Moses tells them that they do not have to go up to the sky or into the depth to find the law, which brings such blessings. They already have it, and it will bring blessing. Paul substitutes Christ for the law! He says we do not have to go to the sky or the depths to get Christ and his regime of justification by faith. It is here right now!

Verses 9-12 have caused much misunderstanding on the part of simplistic fundamentalists. What Paul is really saying is this: If you make a profession of faith, the faith that is in your heart, you can be saved. But the word save in Scripture as we have seen, has three meanings: 1) rescuing from temporal evils, 2) entering the Church, 3) reaching heaven. Clearly it is the second here, for the whole context speaks of entering the Church, the people of God.

What of the meaning fundamentalists use in which they mean one takes Christ as his personal Savior and then is infallibly saved? This interpretation has no foundation in Scripture. Thus G. Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, in the article on save, Savior does not list such a meaning as even a possibility. What shows conclusively they are wrong is what we saw long ago, in commenting on chapter 1 of First Thessalonians, and in comments on Galatians 2:15. To really find what Paul means by faith we read every line where he speaks of faith and of believing. Keep notes, and add them up. It is something very different from the imagination of Luther and his followers. A standard Protestant reference work, Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Supplement, gives the same meaning of faith in Paul as we have given.³⁴

Paul quotes Isaiah 28:1 to say those who believe in Him will not be ashamed, whether they be Jew or Greek. Paul then cites Joel 3:5 (RSV and NRSV numbers are 2:32): "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." In context, it meant that on the day of the Lord, a remnant that call on Him will be rescued. For the reasons just given, it does not have the simplistic meaning that if anyone with his lips calls on the Lord he is infallibly saved no matter how much he has sinned, is sinning, will sin.³⁵

Then in verses 14-21 Paul returns to his concern for his beloved kinsmen the Jews. He works through in detail what is needed for them to have the faith. He says that Christ must be preached, and that has been done, for the preaching has gone forth everywhere (He uses Psalm 19:5 which speaks of nature proclaiming the glory of God. Paul adapts it to preaching the Gospel). So Paul concludes that the unfaithful Jews have heard the preaching of the Gospel. Of course they have! To bring this out he cites the song of Moses from Deuteronomy 32:21 in which God says that they have provoked Him with idols who are no-gods. So He in turn will provoke them with a no-people: they will be humiliated by pagans. So now the unfaithful Jews will be shown up by the gentiles who have accepted Christ.

When he says in verse 17 that faith comes by hearing, he does not mean faith depends on the ears in contrast to the eyes. No, he means faith comes by responding to the preaching of the Gospel, by hearing it, and listening to it, or obeying it.³⁶ (In those days, there would be no question of their learning the faith by reading: copies were expensive, and not nearly all could read. To suppose Christ told the Apostles: Write some books, get copies made, pass them out, tell the people to figure them out for themselves -- that is ridiculous. Actually, the Church depended on its own oral transmission of doctrine, not on private interpretation of Scripture!)

We should add: Paul's words have nothing to do with the desire of some to forbid people to have missals or missalettes, saying: they must hear the lector, not read!

Then, he quotes Isaiah 65:1-2 which says He was found by those who did not seek Him, but verse 2 adds: "I have stretched out my hands [in invitation] all day to a people that disobeyed, and contradicted!" A sad picture indeed for Paul to face.