Romans 10:1–4
Paul begins where we should all begin, with a desire that the lost be saved (Romans 10:1). Knowing that God is the One who chooses does not create in Paul an arrogant attitude. He truly desires their salvation.
But Paul immediately targets a common belief among many people, even Christians. Many times we have heard people say something like, “At least his heart is in the right place,” or “She’s sincere,” or “We’re all trying to reach God in our own way.” Paul confronts that thinking here. Zeal, while being ignorant of the righteousness of God, has caused Israel to establish a righteousness of their own making. Instead of submitting to God’s revealed plan through Christ Jesus, they decided to earnestly follow their own plan. They were genuine in their pursuit of a righteousness by works.
Paul is not speaking as a disaffected bystander. He himself was this way as well. In Philippians 3:4–6, he talks about his pedigree and his zeal: “as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:6). He was so zealous for the law that he personally persecuted the church. But note his own transformation: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:8–9).
Paul himself saw that no matter how genuinely or zealously he pursued a righteousness of his own, it could never give him the righteousness from God that he needed.
But here is the amazing reversal. He finishes his thought with, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). Paul is not now condemning the law. He has already said that the law is holy (Romans 7:12) and that we uphold the law (Romans 3:31). Jesus Himself does not say He comes to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). The Law was never the destination. It pointed beyond itself to Christ, in whom the righteousness we could never establish for ourselves is found. Because of Christ, we do not seek a righteousness of our own. We look to the One who said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
So now we test ourselves not by how genuinely we believe something, or by how zealous we are, but by whether we find all of our righteousness in Christ Jesus.
And Christ is enough.
-steve