Types of Righteousness

Paul acknowledges in 10:2 that the Jews are zealous in their obedience to God’s law, but he says they lack knowledge. What exactly are they failing to grasp? As the apostle explains in today’s verse, they are confused as to the nature of righteousness.

Dr. James M. Boice points out that Romans 10:3 “distinguishes sharply between our righteousness (human righteousness) and God’s. It is saying that although we use the same word when we are talking about God’s righteousness and our righteousness, we are actually speaking about two entirely different things.” He goes on to explain that “God’s righteousness is His very nature, for God is righteous, just as God is love. It is associated with His holiness. . . Holiness is what sets God apart. It is what makes Him utterly unlike us. Human righteousness is merely a social quality achieved by the avoidance of certain gross forms of depravity and the contrary accumulation of outwardly good deeds.” These definitions unveil the heart of the Jews’ confusion. They were completely caught up in striving to obey God’s law, thinking they thereby could achieve righteousness and thus merit salvation. They sincerely believed this to be possible, and they actually thought the law was given precisely to show people how to live so as to be saved. But they failed to see, as Boice puts it, that “the accumulation of human righteousness through avoiding evil and performing good deeds can never add up to the true, divine righteousness that God requires of us if we are to be saved from sin and have fellowship with Himself.” We need true holiness, true moral perfection. But we can never achieve that by our efforts, for we are fallen beings. The Jews were failing to grasp the height of God’s holiness and the depth of human moral inability.

As Paul writes elsewhere and as the Scriptures make clear, all people think this way, seeing themselves as capable of pleasing God. The natural human preference is to rely on one’s own efforts rather than submit to God. The Jews clearly displayed this tendency. They were so pleased with themselves, so confident of their performance, that they would not listen to Christ and His apostles’ teaching on human need. As Paul already has said, they pursued righteousness through the law; therefore, they did not attain it (Rom. 9:31).