ISRAEL’S UNBELIEF
Romans 9:30–10:4
Rom
9:30 What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to
follow God's standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that
this took place. Rom 9:31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get
right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.
Rom
9:32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law
instead of by trusting in Him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.
What is the great
rock, it was Jesus Christ. The Jews did not see Christ as their redeemer. Where
the gentiles who had not been exposed the Mosaic Law accepted by faith. I
thought it would be appropriate to put the laws that the Jews followed down so
that we could see what they believed.
- the Ten Commandments
- Moral laws - on murder, theft, honesty, adultery, etc.
- Social laws - on property, inheritance, marriage and divorce,
- Food laws - on what is clean and unclean, on cooking and storing food.
- Purity laws - on menstruation, seminal emissions, skin disease and mildew, etc.
- Feasts - the Day of Atonement, Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks etc.
- Sacrifices and offerings - the sin offering, burnt offering, whole offering, heave offering, Passover sacrifice, meal offering, wave offering, peace offering, drink offering, thank offering, dough offering, incense offering, red heifer, scapegoat, first fruits, etc.
- Instructions for the priesthood and the high priest including tithes.
- Instructions regarding the Tabernacle, and which were later applied to the Temple in Jerusalem, including those concerning the Holy of Holies containing the Ark of the Covenant (in which were the tablets of the law, Aaron's rod, the manna). Instructions and for the construction of various altars.
- Forward looking instructions for time when Israel would demand a king.
If you click on the
hyperlinks, which could take a few hours, you will dumbstruck by the complexity
of the “LAW”. When all they had to do was accept Jesus by faith.
Rom
9:33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when He said, "I am placing
a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced."
Rom
10:1 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is
for the people of Israel to be saved. Rom 10:2 I know what enthusiasm they have
for God, but it is misdirected zeal. Rom 10:3 For they don't understand God's
way of making people right with Himself. Refusing to accept God's way, they
cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. Rom
10:4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was
given. As a result, all who believe in Him are made right with God.
Life
Application New Testament Commentary:
The Israelite's did
not understand the extent of God’s righteousness, how it would be achieved, and
how it would be made available to all people (the point Paul explained in
chapters 3–6). Instead, they were clinging to their own way of getting right
with God by trying to keep the law. They were not creating some new kind of
righteousness; rather, they wanted to achieve God’s righteousness by observing
the law and their rituals. Once their minds were set, they could not see God’s
way—that righteousness had been provided for them through faith in Jesus
Christ, that the whole purpose of the law had been accomplished in him. Christ
fulfills the purpose and goal of the law (Mat_5:17)
in that he perfectly exemplified all that the law requires.
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