Israel's Mistake

Romans 10:1-4

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

It would be reasonable if someone asked: Why do we spend time in modern, 21st century thinking about the problem with Israel– especially the problem with ancient Israel in biblical times? It seems so remote – so distant from persecution in Iraq and Sri Lanka, and from terrorism in USA and from starvation in Ethiopia, and from budget deficits and depressed economy and low interest rates.
In Romans 9—11 Paul deals mainly with the problem of Israel’s failure to find righteousness before God and, therefore, salvation and eternal life. The rest of the world – the Gentiles (or us) – come into view starting in Romans 9:24 and stay in view the rest of the time, but they are secondary in Paul’s attention in these chapters. The main issue is, again and again: Is Israel God’s chosen people, and what went wrong?
Now why should this matter to us?

Let me focus on just one main reason. By God’s design Israel is the historical theatre where the drama of every human soul is played out for all to see. What goes on inside you spiritually – and every other person – has gone on in Israel historically, and the story is told so that we can see ourselves and see the world understand. If you want to know your own spiritual condition before God, as a human being – if you want to know the greatest issues for the entire world – you can learn it from watching the history of Israel as it is demonstrated in the Bible. Israel is an image of our spiritual state.

So what can we learn from this image? Now we turn to the above verses, where Paul anguishes about the people of Israel. Something went wrong, so that they were no longer saved. Something happened so that they missed out on God’s promises. We find the problem in verses 3-4: God did not accept the Israelites because they put their faith in their own law-keeping, and not in the Saviour. Christ is the point of the law; Christ is the goal of the law; Christ is the meaning of the law. So if you try to follow and obey the law, but avoid Christ, you have missed the whole point of the law.

What Paul is doing here is explaining for us why Israel missed the point of their own law. His aim for us is that we would not miss the point of that law or the law written on our hearts. They read their story and didn’t see the point. Are you reading your story and not seeing the point? Do you know what your conscience and your failures and your guilt feelings are all about? Have you watched the theatre of God’s dealings with Israel and learned about his dealings with you?

Paul is urging us not to make the same mistake as the Israelites. They too were God’s chosen, covenant people. Just like us, they were saved from slavery and given a glorious promised land. But they threw it all away.

They heard Moses’ words in Leviticus 18:5, “You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.” However they forgot, or ignored, the words of 1 Kings 8, “there is no one who does not sin” (verse 46). No one has ever measured up to this standard of perfectly keeping the law – except one.

Which leads to another kind of righteousness, namely, the righteousness by faith in Christ. That’s what Paul’s talking about in verses 9 onwards. Christ was the only one who could fulfil that requirement of perfect obedience. He has done so, and, through God’s miraculous design, that is now imputed to our account. All we have to do is confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead. That is the way to righteousness before God and eternal life in His glory.