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Romans 9:30–33
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness (Rom. 9:30–31).
The opening words in today’s passage, “What shall we say then?” seem to preface a summary. Actually, as Dr. James M. Boice notes, Paul here is beginning a third argument to show that the Jews’ rejection of Christ does not indicate a failure of God’s redemptive purpose. He has countered such thinking by arguing that all whom God elects to salvation are saved (Rom. 9:6–24) and that God never intended to save all Israel but did plan to save some gentiles (Rom. 9:25–29). Now Paul asserts, in an argument that will carry us to the end of chapter 10, that the Jews alone are to blame for their failure to believe, not God.
Of course, this is not a particularly Jewish failing. It is a human failing. Whenever there is unbelief, in Jews or gentiles, it exists because the unbeliever chose not to believe. But as we learned when we studied Romans 9:19–21, it is also typical of all humans to pass the blame for their faults, even to God. Paul, once again, is exposing this tendency. The Jews, he says, have no one to blame for their lostness but themselves, for they have sought to be right with God in the wrong way. They insisted on relating to Him on the basis of obedience to His law, trying to earn His favor, when they should have been approaching Him on the basis of faith in His promises of redemption, just as their great patriarch Abraham did. Of course, their efforts were hopeless, for their sinful natures prevented them from keeping the law. They were trying to reach an unreachable goal, which is why Paul says that “Israel . . . has not attained” righteousness. The Jews should have done as gentiles who have come to Christ. They did not seek to be justified by keeping the law, but having been chosen by God and regenerated, they came to Him on the basis of faith in Christ. And so they “attained” (or, as the NIV translates it, “obtained”) righteousness. By not trying to earn righteousness, they received it as a gift.
Why did the majority of Israelites refuse to come to God by faith? Simply put, they were offended by Jesus. He declared the Israelites to be woeful sinners and Himself to be mankind’s only hope. But they had too much confidence in themselves to believe that. And so Jesus was for them “a stumbling stone and a rock of offense,” as Isaiah puts it. He should have been for them a foundation for faith, for “whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
If you are a believer, it is your task to place a stumbling block in the paths of unbelievers. You must proclaim Christ to them, though they may not like it, for only He can break their pride and self-reliance. It is far better that unbelievers stumble on Christ now than that they fall in the ultimate sense. Never fail to herald Christ out of fear of offending.