The Millennium: Pre, Post, or Realized? #5

I continue my study of millennialism by moving forward through Romans 10.

Romans 10

1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Paul is speaking about the Jews in his day that did not believe that Jesus was the Christ. Like the ones in that day to whom, when they cry out “Lord, Lord, but we cast out demons in your name…” Christ will say, “…I never knew you.” it is also said about those Jews that they were eager for God, but they knew not what they were doing, or for whom they were to be fervent. And it is all the more convicting that the Jews, to whom the Law and the prophets were given, did not pursue God in passionate knowledge. In general the Jews did not pursue righteousness by faith but by works. Verses 3 & 4 are so clearly a parallel to verses 31 & 32 of the previous chapter, and Paul here in chapter 10, just a few verses later said that they did so being ignorant of God’s righteousness, which is the righteousness of Christ imputed on the believer, thus they tried, as all foolish men in all ages, to put on their own righteousness to go before the throne of God, and that righteousness (even in the most pious of degrees) is as a filthy rag. For the believer, Jesus the Christ obeyed the Law of God in the place of all those who submit to God’s righteousness, yes, for everyone who believes.

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 or "'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

In verses 4 &5 Paul contrasts two different types of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ in verse 4 that is the end of the Law and the righteousness that is “based on the Law”. This later type of righteousness is described as the righteousness that is pursued by the person who attempts to live by the commandments. This is not the righteousness that is by faith, a faith in Christ who actually did pursue and attain righteousness by obedience to the Law. It is futile for one to attempt to obey the Law of God for righteousness because we know that James tells us in chapter 2:10, that if we break just one point of the Law we are guilty of breaking the entire Law; to offend God at even the most hidden and smallest part, regarding our guilt, is to affront His holiness with the most offensive evil deed, thus to endeavor is unreasonable. The righteousness of faith admits that we cannot call Christ down to saved us because we have obeyed and He is obliged to serve us as Savior, nor is our righteousness so pure that it warrants the resurrection of Christ’s body. No, it was His own righteous works; He did what Adam could not do so as to fulfill the obligations of the covenant and guarantee His own resurrection. Those who have the righteousness of faith are those who confess the “word of faith” with their mouths and truly believe that it is God who raised Christ and not our faithfulness. Verses 5-9 are intended to show the difference between the righteousness of faith and the empty self-righteousness of religious hypocrite. Verse 10 contains several elements: heart belief, justification, confession, and salvation. All of those who are justified before God, truly have the faith of righteousness in Christ, and it is their confession; they say that thy believe it, and it is them that are saved from the wrath of God. And as an echo of what was said in 9:32, “and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."”, Paul here quotes again, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” And Paul places the emphasis on the “whoever” and the “everyone” in verse 11 by noting the lack of distinction that the physical Jews have regarding those who will be saved. Paul fails to mention here a different, future hope for the physical Jew (namely a pre-millennial, earthly reestablishment of the glory of the exclusively Jewish kingdom) but he points out that the salvation that comes from Christ is the salvation for Jew and gentile alike, the same righteousness of faith is the one that saves whoever calls on the name of the Lord, Jew or gentile.

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. 18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." 19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry." 20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me." 21 But of Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people."

With all that said, Paul goes into a description of the means that God has ordained to accomplish Hi intended end…saving his people. So Paul concludes that the righteousness of faith is granted through hearing the Word of God preached by men who are sent like the “runners” bearing good news from the front lines of the battle, so that persons can believe and call out the name of Christ. But he is quick to add that the preaching, though it is a necessary cause, is not a sufficient cause for one to believe, because reality persuades him to point out the fact that everyone who hears the Word of the Lord preached does not obey the gospel command to repent and believe. It is faith, which in Paul’s theology is a gift from God, that comes along side the preached Word to cause belief in the person receiving the Word with his physical ears so that he hears it with the ears of his heart. And this leads to the rhetorical question Paul poses in verse 18. The answer is assumed, of course Israel has heard the gospel with their physical ears and they have seen it illustrated in all their cultic rituals, from the sacrifices to the Sabbaths, the coming Christ was preached to them all the while. As the gospel writer recalls, in Luke 24:27, Christ is in the Old Testament scriptures and they concern Him. And Paul continues with another question in verse 19 noting how ridiculous it is that Israel would not understand the presentation of Christ in the Old Covenant, thus he quotes God’s description of the people as disobedient and contrary. Moses declared a mysterious thing when he spoke of God’s plan to make the nation jealous and angry by using a “foolish nation”. He goes on to describe just how God would do this by quoting Isaiah who boldly declares that He will be found by a people who were not blessed with the covenantal stipulations of Moses, by those who did not receive His Law on tablets. It might even be said that, “in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls”—God says, “I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me."

I hope to continue soon with an exposition of Romans 11, at least in part.