10 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.
We saw in Chapter 9 that Israel was given immense privilege - they were chosen by God, adopted by God, they saw His glory, they were given the covenants, the law, the promises of a Messiah and men of faith through which was born the Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ.
But they didn't believe. We saw that in yesterday's passage. Jesus was a stumbling block, an offense. And they didn't believe.
And Paul wept for them. He desperately wanted the Israelites to be saved, and he reiterates that here. And he says that they think they know God, but the reality is that they do not. They do not. They do not believe because of God's sovereignty and because they are willfully ignorant. They sought salvation by works not by faith.
As MacArthur says....
God's sovereignty always acts concurrently with man's willful choice. The two must go hand in hand. And so Paul shows, first of all, that Israel's unbelief fits the sovereign plan of God, doesn't change it, isn't a surprise to God, isn't a shock, doesn't overturn the plan, fits into it. But God is not independently responsible for what happened to Israel, they made a choice themselves. And that's where we move into chapter 10. And if the theme of chapter 9 is the sovereignty of God, the theme of chapter 10 is the volition or choice of man. And chapter 10 goes on to unfold the factors of Israel's unbelief, that Israel is set apart because of ignorance, that's the basic theme here...because of ignorance. And remember last time I told you five things that we need to note. They were ignorant of the person of God, they were ignorant of the provision of Christ, they were ignorant of the place of faith, they were ignorant of the perimeters of salvation and they were ignorant of the predictions of Scripture. And that takes us right through the tenth chapter.
It's important to note, first of all, that they weren't naively ignorant. They were willfully ignorant. They had the information but they chose to ignore it.
They were ignorant of God's righteousness.
God's right. That's right, always right, always does what's right, thinks what's right, says what's right. God is right. If you want another word for righteousness it's...just take out the middle, rightness, the rightness of God. He's never wrong. He's never erring, never sinning, always right, the rightness of God. They were ignorant of His moral perfection. Another way to say it is His holiness. His holiness and His righteousness are inextricably linked. And I guess we could say that His rightness or His righteousness is His manifest holiness...holiness is that which is true of His essence, it manifests itself in His rightness....
They missed the fact that God was absolutely holy. They thought God was less holy than He was and they were more holy than they were. They didn't understand how absolutely morally perfect God was. They didn't know how utterly free from wrong, how utterly unable to touch sin. I'm just enthralled with that thought because I fear that so many people today don't understand that either and they are equally ignorant of God's righteousness. Most people think God is just...just a nice guy, just somebody up there who wants everybody to feel good. I mean, we sort of make God into that. And that's the God of the liberals, isn't it? Just loves everybody. They don't know how really right He is, they misjudge His moral perfection. They misjudge His utter and absolute holy purity. They imagine that God is more tolerant of evil than He is. And that we're better than we are. So we pull God down a little, shove us up a little and we're pretty close....and a few religious activities and we're right on the line. That's a fatal error....
He is holy in that He is totally separated from us. He is holy in that He is manifestly right and morally perfect....
The truth here is so basic. If a person doesn't understand God's rightness, that is the supreme ignorance. If we imagine that God is less than He is, we have made a fatal mistake because we find God less than perfect, therefore He tolerates sin and imperfection, therefore we're going to be okay if we just improve a few things...fatal mistake
Clearly the Jews were willfully ignorant. It's certainly not that they didn't have the information - they had the revelation of God Himself! He set the standard for holiness and He let them know it. He gave them rules about family life, worship, society, wealth, morality, everything to do with day to day life and all those rules revealed to them the absolute perfection and holiness of God. God's standard has always been and will always be, absolute perfection. They had the information.
MacArthur says....
God says be holy. You say, "How holy?" Just as holy as I am, now that's God's standard. Now if we don't know how holy God is then we don't know how holy we ought to be. And if we don't know how holy we ought to be, we don't know how holy we aren't. Did you get that? That's the essence of what the Old Testament is endeavoring to communicate that you have an infinitely holy God who conveys an absolutely perfect standard of righteousness against which we fail miserably and are left with the overwhelming guilt of sin to be alleviated by a redeemer who is pictured in all of the sacrifices and symbols of the old covenant....
He has to always demand perfection because it is His nature to be perfect and a perfect God must demand perfection. So all His laws are always perfect and they are to point up our imperfection and our need of a Savior. And God's grace then and God's mercy come to our rescue because and only because of the provision of Jesus Christ....the death of Jesus Christ was just as efficacious and applicable to people who lived before the cross as it is to people who live after the cross. And it was the death of Jesus Christ that released the grace and the mercy of God.....
He is holy. Ask Nadab and Abihu who thought they could fool around a little the first day in the priesthood and they offered strange fire and instantly dropped dead on their very day of ordination. Ask Uzzah who thought he ought to reach his hand and steady the ark so it not fall off and was instantaneously dead. Ask those who were swallowed in the ground when they tried to usurp the role of a priest. Ask Ananias and Sapphira who gave a lot, they just didn't give all they said they'd give and dropped dead in front of the whole congregation. God is an infinitely holy God and history is marked with illustrations of what every man deserves. And listen, we look at that and we say that's unjust but that's because we're so used to mercy that we think justice is unjust. We are so used to mercy. We are so used to grace. That when God does what an infinitely holy God has every right to do, we think He's unfair. Why? Because we don't know how righteous God is. And if we knew how righteous He was, we would know how utterly unrighteous we are.
We must not make the same mistake the Jews made. We must not ignore the information we've been given. We must not be willfully ignorant. God is holy. We are not. And Christ is our only hope of reconciliation.
But the Jews didn't understand that either. V4 shows that they were ignorant of the fact that Jesus Christ came to provide the righteousness that they could never attain on their own.
MacArthur explains that verse this way...
this verse is saying Christ is the termination of the law for righteousness only to people who believe. The point is, once a person believes in Christ the quest for righteousness through works ends....When people come to believe in Christ, He ends the effort at self- salvation. There never was, there never will be righteousness by law by works. But in a lot of peoples' minds there is and they're after it with all they can get. They're going to get into heaven by their good works.
And then they see the reality of Christ and His gracious gift of faith and their impossible quest ends. And in faith they receive Him and given to them is the righteousness they never could attain on their own. So when a person sees Christ and the gift of His righteousness, the legal ritual religious quest is ended....
It isn't necessarily talking about Mosaic law, it's just talking about the idea of law. That is, saving myself by keeping commandments, keeping laws, religious rules and so forth.
And the key is faith. The key is believing.
Believers receive what workers never get. And not believing in Christ forfeits the righteousness of God. Faith signs the covenant and makes His righteousness our own.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 10:5-13
2 comments:
"God says be holy. You say, "How holy?" Just as holy as I am, now that's God's standard. Now if we don't know how holy God is then we don't know how holy we ought to be. And if we don't know how holy we ought to be, we don't know how holy we aren't."
This, more than anything else, sums up what I've been learning since we started this journey. There is so much more, of course, but it kinda falls all into this category. A really basic, fundamental truth and every Christian should know.
My thoughts exactly!
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