Righteousness, Law and Israel
Romans 10:1-5 · Roger Henderson · Apr 15, 2007
Romans (2005-07), No. 78
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926023466311

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, this morning we're going to go into chapter 10. Bob has an aggressive schedule here. Actually, it's by our direction. I knew he'd like that. I knew he'd like that. The elders say, this time period, Bob does it, and it's all back on us. Anyway. Actually, I want to step back into chapter 9, because if you look at the passage this morning, chapter 10 verses 1 through 5. If you look at the subject and kind of read that, you'll see that really the thought starts back in chapter 9 in verse 30.

So can I get someone to read this? They can read off the overhead or read it from your Bible for me. It's kind of good to kind of read the 30, Romans 9, 30 through 10, 5. And you read it from the version you have will be great. Bobby, you want to? Thank you.

What shall we then say, that the Gentiles who followed not up to righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith? That Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, have not attained to the law of righteousness? Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, the whole land lay on a stumbling stone, and rocked up against.

Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them witness that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law. The man who does these things shall live by that. So as we look through this section, the question that Paul is addressing here is, how does man, including Israel, attain righteousness?

And we're going to see two approaches. And they're going to be amplified even more when we get in the last half of chapter 10. But we're going to start off with a contrast. If you look at verse 30 here, I've highlighted in blue a couple of things. Basically, and Bob pointed this out when he taught here last week, the Gentiles did not pursue righteousness, but they attained righteousness, and they attained it by simple faith and trust in our Savior. But Israel was zealous, and we're going to see that. They were a zealous people, and they pursued the law of righteousness, in verse 31 there, But it's interesting, they didn't arrive at righteousness, or at the law of righteousness. And 32 tells us why. Because they did not pursue it by faith. They got off on a different track. They got off on works, their own self-effort. I'm going to come to understand and be righteous before God on my own efforts, my own works.

And basically it explains that they stumbled over the Savior in 33. They stumbled over Him. the very end of it, and he who believes in him will not be disappointed. But they stumbled over the Savior. So we're going to see in 1-5, as we get into it, that it's going to describe Israel's approach to knowing God, which is works, which is the law.

Self-effort. That was their approach. And we're going to see that there are several reasons why they went down that path. So it's kind of a contrast between the Gentiles. They did not pursue righteousness, but because they simply trusted by faith, they obtained righteousness. Where Israel set out to obtain righteousness, but they tried to do it by works.

So this is kind of condemning on Israel. But think about it. Is there someone that comes to mind in Israel that you can think about that didn't go down this path of works? Is there a notable person? This is not a real tough question, but just think about in Genesis. There's someone in Genesis that's talked about that didn't try to do it by works.

That comes to mind. Because all Israel, you know, didn't go this way. Excellent. Okay. Let's turn to Genesis 15. Abraham. Good choice. Genesis 15. So we'll see, even though this is pretty condemning on Israel, they all didn't go this direction. And that wasn't God's desire they go this direction. Genesis 15. Can I get someone to read verses... How about if we read 1-6 in Genesis 15? Can I have someone read that? I'll volunteer to read that.

After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram, and a vision was famous. Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you, your reward shall be very great. And Abram said, O Lord God, what wilt thou give me since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus? And Abram said, Since thou hast given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir. Then, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This man will not be your heir, but one who shall come forth from your own body.

He shall be your heir. And he took him outside and said, Now look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. Then he believed in the Lord, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. So that's what I was kind of focusing on.

Not all Israel went this direction. And it's interesting, Abraham, any Israelite would say, Abraham is our father. He went the path of faith, but Israel did not, to a large extent. They went the path of works. I'm going to grab onto the law, God's perfect standard, and I'm going to execute that. And we know what happened. They couldn't do it. They couldn't execute it. And that's a good point, and that's a good point, and I, you know, um... That's why I hesitated. Right. Okay, okay. All right. Okay, that's good. That's an excellent point.

And I actually didn't totally factor that in, but I don't think that's, you know... God's desire is that Israel respond by faith. But even though there was the law, there's always faith. True. The law was there, but... Right. Good. Well, thanks, Jim. That's that's a good point. That's a good point. Okay. All right here. So now let's go to the next. Okay, so now kind of zooming in on our verses here.

Now, as you kind of track through here, you'll see that basically Paul's going to testify. He's going to testify here in verse 2. For I testify about them. He's going to testify about the nation of Israel, the path they took, what they did. And he's going to point out that they sought to establish their own righteousness. That was their approach.

But we're going to see in the second part that God's desire is that man come to Him by faith, including Israel. When we go on, we're going to dissect each of these five verses here as we step through here. Verse 1. Brother, my heart's desire and prayer to God is for their salvation.

This is familiar. We've read this idea before. So I took this verse and Diagrammed it, kind of in block diagram form. This is my attempt, rather than doing the classical diagramming. So basically, it's a compound... Actually, before we get there, let me just...

The first word, Adelphos, brethren. I think Paul's talking to believers here, I believe. Brethren. This is his desire for his kinsmen, for their salvation. So that's kind of the first word. So now, I've got a little ahead of myself here. So the second part, my heart's desire. There's a compound subject here. and my prayer. And then there's kind of an implied verb, is, for three things. My heart's desire and prayer is to God, for them, for the Israelites, and for their salvation.

And there's three prepositional phrases, to God, for them, and for their salvation. What's interesting is, They're each a different preposition. Some are obvious, two and four are obvious, but the two fours are different as well. The first two is this neat preposition that talks, it's pros in the Greek, and it's the idea, and I remember Hal would do this many times, this is the face-to-face. Basically what Paul's saying here, my heart's desire and prayer is face-to-face with God.

You know, if you look in like Romans 5.1, we have peace with God. That's the same pros, the same Greek preposition. It's a face-to-face peace. Face-to-face peace. And this is a face-to-face desire and prayer to God. This fellowship that a believer has. And Paul can say that. My desire, Lord, and my prayer is to you. Face-to-face. There's no intermediary between Paul and God.

And the second preposition, which is for them, is on their behalf. It's huper, on behalf of them, on behalf of the Israelites. And the third for is for, or toward, or unto salvation. So his desire and prayer is to God, face to face, on behalf of them, and toward salvation, or directed toward salvation. I kind of summarized that with this little thing he just said. Basically, those three prepositions kind of show the focus of Paul's desire and prayer. He was focused that he wanted the Israelites to know the Savior.

Now I want to look at the two words, desire and prayer. It's kind of interesting. They're kind of related. The first is desire. Paul's desire here is actually, could be translated, good pleasure. It shows resolve and it's a willingness with which to resolve a matter, as Vine says. It actually reminded me of what was covered earlier in 9, back in the first part of 9.

In 9.1-3, I'm telling the truth in Christ, I'm not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have a great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. So I see kind of a correlation between this thing.

Paul's kind of going back and saying, you know, this is, you know, and he says here, for I wish I were a curse, which is impossible, separated from Christ. So his desire was for salvation for the Israelites. So that's the first part of that compound subject. And the second part is prayer. What's interesting here, this is a wanting, this is almost, he's almost saying desire twice. A double desire, if you will. Because the word prayer is a wanting, a need, an asking, a treatery, supplication is translated sometimes.

And actually, Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20. We beg you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. Right. In this case, it's a word that was translated as entreating. So this is actually where God is, as though God were entreating through us. So, we beg you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. So, desire is kind of wrapped into this word prayer here. So I thought that was kind of a neat aspect.

Does entreating mean inviting? The basic word is a wanting. If you look back to the basic prayer here, it's a wanting for something to transpire. But it's translated entreatery sometimes, or supplication. But the basic idea is a wanting for something to take place. And it's always directed to God, because, you know, in essence, God is the only one that can make that happen. Okay, good.

And actually, I always, you know, if Weist has a, I use Weist a lot, and he says, brethren, I like how the consuming desire of my heart and my supplication to God on behalf of them is with a view to their salvation. So this was no light matter with Paul. Bob, you have something you want to say? Paul had for Israel, we have no relatives. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, we have the same. We want that so much. I know. I know. I know. And it's very, the passion that we see in Paul, I mean, you know, we experience too.

I mean, all of us have family members, and you know, your heart aches for them. You say, why, you know, it could be so different. But, you know, you trust the Lord that He will carry that out. He will, you know, And he's the one that, you know, we can't save anybody. So that's why our prayer is to God.

Just one second comment. You know, in God's sovereignty, Paul's passion and great desire for his country will be answered on God's timing. Exactly. Excellent, Bob. Because God's going to make sure that Israel He's made promises to Israel about their salvation, about their being with Him. That's true. That's good. Very good. Okay. So that's basically verse 1.

So let's move on to verse 2. For I testify about them... We're still focused on Israel here. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. Over the years, you have verses that just really kind of hit you. I always think about this when I open my mouth. I have a zeal for God, but it's in accordance with who He is. I'm kind of convicted by that verse. We'll pick this one part here. The first part is, I testify And then the second part is, I testify about them, they have a zeal for God, and so it's actually a compound, I testify as a subject, testify as a verb, about them, and then this is like a compound direct object, but they have a zeal for God, but, it's a conjunction, but not in accordance with knowledge. So this is the word zeal, zelos, I think zeal gets a bad rap sometimes, and this verse is maybe one of the reasons why it gets a bad rap. But the Lord had zeal. He said, I have zeal. Zeal for thy house will consume me. He had zeal. I don't think zeal is a bad thing. But there's a condition on that zeal. Paul testifies about the Israelites. So here I have a question for you. What was Paul's lifestyle like before he became a believer? So what kind of guy was Paul before he came? Was he kind of meek and mild, sat in the corner, didn't say a word? What kind of guy was Paul?

Absolutely. Absolutely. I have some verses I want to look at in that respect. Exactly. So he's been there. So that's the same. I just kind of recopied that part. So let's look at some of these verses here. Maybe I can get people to read. Acts 22, 1-3. Can I get a volunteer for that? And then one for Galatians 1, 13-14. And then Philippians 3, 5-6. Donna, are you going to do the first one? Then brethren and fathers, hear me, my descendants, which I make now unto you.

And when they had heard that he spake, and he betoned to them, they kept them not from their faith. Notice the last part of that? He says, I'm zealous as you all are today. Israel was zealous. In a sense, rightfully so. God chose them, brought them out, and they were zealous for Him.

Galatians 1.13.14. Okay, thank you. You have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the Church of God beyond measure and try to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond the manner of my contemporaries, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. We're extremely zealous. It wasn't meek and mild Paul. And then Philippians, Philippians chapter 3, 5 and 6. Would someone like to read that? Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so he was, it's interesting that his zeal was for persecuting the church. So, so, you know, it kind of backs it. Accordance with knowledge is key in this. When is zeal proper? When is zeal for God proper? Based on this verse, when would you say it's proper? When you have the right knowledge.

Good. This is not hard. What was Israel's error? This isn't hard either. They didn't do it according to knowledge. So let's move on here. I'm going to kind of keep with this verse here. So now we're going to kind of look at... I don't know where it is, but when you do the verse that Jesus said to the Pharisees, you do error not knowing the Scripture. Right, right. And think about that. That's incumbent upon us, right?

The nation of Israel was given actually for our instruction. So we see that in Christianity today. People get off on something which is not in accordance with what God has said, and they're in error. It's sad, but they go down the same path that Israel did, too.

So it's to be in accordance with knowledge. So let's look at this word knowledge. The word for knowledge here is epinosis. And it's actually full, to observe, fully perceive, attentively discern, recognize. And I want to look at a couple of verses here. And it's interesting, as you go through Studying this particular word could be a study in itself, looking at the occurrences of epinosis, full, complete knowledge. And we'll see how it's translated in a couple of places, which I think is kind of interesting. So let's look at Philippians chapter 1. And I'll go ahead and read this one. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9.

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and in all discernment." So here it's translated, real knowledge. So Paul's here talking about, his prayer here is that your love abound. Interesting, knowledge is involved in love. In today's world we just, you know. In the vernacular, you just love everybody, oh it's wonderful, we all have love. No, we're to love in terms of knowledge, in real knowledge, in all discernment. So I found it translated real knowledge sometimes, and then there's some other possibilities too.

Look at Colossians. Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 2. I'll start reading in verse 1. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face.

And that their hearts may be encouraged, and then knit together in love, attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ himself. So the word here is true knowledge. It's a translation of epinosis. So it's true knowledge of God's mystery. So knowledge is key. Knowledge is key in knowing who we are and what we have in Christ. There's actually one more in 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1. Actually, I could help you. I have it on the chart. I don't know why I didn't click it. Second Peter, chapter one. Yeah, thank you. Right.

It's true knowledge in this case. So it's translated true knowledge, real knowledge. So the admonition here is that The zeal for God must be in accordance with true knowledge of Him. And I like how Wyss renders it. For I bear testimony to them that a zeal for God they have, not according to a full and accurate knowledge. So he renders it full and accurate knowledge. So knowledge is key in having a zeal for God.

Questions about that before we move on to the next part? So, zeal is a good thing. Okay? His word there is that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his heart and the riches of his grace. Excellent. That is. It wouldn't be just knowledge, but their hearts would be open. I think you have an excellent point.

Knowledge for knowledge's sake is not what we're talking about. We're talking about knowledge of Him, which is a relationship, which is knowing Him. It's a relationship that you have with Him, and that knowledge comes by knowing Him and growing in grace the knowledge of Him. And it comes by the Holy Spirit. Exactly. Okay, so let's go on to verse 3.

So this is going to further amplify, and we kind of started out that Paul had a strong desire for their salvation, and he said they had a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. Now he's going to kind of amplify that a little bit, about that poor understanding.

For not knowing about God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. So kind of breaking this guy down here. I'm going to kind of cover, in the Greek, it actually turns out that the last part of the sentence is really the structure, it starts out like that. So the idea is they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

That's kind of the thought. And then there are two aspects of that that follow. So it kind of flips the verse around. Hopefully that's helpful. It helped me in kind of understanding what's going on here. They did not subject themselves with the first part. Okay, so let's look at the word subject. Pupil patasso. Actually, it's too bad that Matt isn't here. Shucks.

I had I was thinking about that and I was thinking, well, Matt's going to come. But he said I knew he went to Wyoming. But anyway, because if he knows this is a military term, I thought, well, I could get great examples. I can use Matt here as my. But, you know, what can you say? So who is to rank under to line up under? And what was I going to say about that? Actually, I had I had some verses in here, you know, kind of support that. But OK, so let's look at. A lot of turning here today. Luke chapter 2. This is a pretty familiar verse. Luke chapter 2 and verse 51. I'll go ahead and read that.

And this is talking about the Lord Jesus when he was a child or a young man. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth. And he continued in subjection to them. And his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And this word, subjection, is this word, hupopotasso, to line up under, to rank under, to say, you know, this is my commander. If you're like in the military, I'm going to line up under you. This is my authority. And then in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Can I get someone to read Romans chapter 8 and verse 7?

If you look at that carefully, because the mindset on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself, our word, hupopotasso, does not line up under, and why can't it do that? For it is not even able to do so. So when our mindset is on the flesh, and we're abiding in the flesh, walking in the flesh, we can't line up under God. It's impossible. We're trying to do it our way. We're trying to do the works of the flesh. We're trying to do it our system. We invent the laws. We invent the system.

So basically, Israel didn't subject themselves, didn't line up under the righteousness of God. Even though it was available, they did not do that. So then the question is, why didn't they do that from this verse? I was just saying, looking at this verse, I was just trying to get you to observe the verse, and I was going to go on and explain it.

And then the second part is seeking to establish your own. There are two aspects. Go ahead, Bob. Well, I think that the knowledge of God, there's only one vehicle to get there. It's by faith, is it not? In other words, the old man, in this way, is sort of the antithesis to a faith-based existence. And when I think you start questioning God's Word and start trying to figure it out and say, well, this applies. I mean, you know, it's just kind of dissecting away in the human sense the truth of the Word of God. You move into a domain where faith has nothing to do with your existence.

And isn't that true of Israel and of the world today? I mean, Israel, you know, they took the law, God's perfect law, And they made their own version. We're going to tell you what it really means. And then they put all these other parts in here. And that wasn't God's intent. God's intent was to come to him by faith, as Abraham demonstrated. We've also done that on the Christian side.

Absolutely. That's what we can add to the Word and to the truth. Making it all in righteousness. Yeah, exactly. Because we want to do it our way. And I think consequently with that, where is God in the world today? Excellent. That's really good. It's not lack of knowledge. I mentioned last week that the first part of Romans where it says that even though they knew God, they knew him.

They did not glorify him. They did not line up under him. They said, hey, I'm not going to do that. And so, what did God do? Their hearts were darkened, and they go down that spiral in Romans chapter 1. Well, Roger, this knowledge is not an intellectual process, is it? No. The intellect is involved, obviously, but the focus is not on the intellect, you're right. The focus is faith, and trusting Him. And walking with Him, and fellowshipping with Him, to know who He is, and what He's done. I wonder if that plays into this verse, because God couldn't have expected them to subject themselves to something that they were ignorant of.

Maybe you're going to get into that. Yeah, well, actually, we're going to cover the next part of that. And that's a good part. I thought a little bit about that. But it seems like he's saying, just like he said in Romans 1, that they knew about me, but they made a choice. It seems like that's the thrust we're going to see here. He said, they knew about me, like in Romans 1, but they decided, no, I don't want him. No, I'm going to go my own path.

And that seems like what they did, but that crossed my mind. I said, well, boy, Israel was uniquely, they had more knowledge of God than the pagans did. I mean, just leaps and bounds. I mean, they were way over the curve, but they still didn't, they still didn't. Right. Right. That's good. That's excellent.

So let's look at the two aspects here we're going to get to and see if that will help answer your question there. Okay, so let's go ahead here. So the two parts, you know, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God, not knowing about God's righteousness was one part, and then part two, and seeking to establish their own. So the two parts, so not knowing, And the word for knowing here, or not knowing, is to be ignorant. They were ignorant. They simply did not know. They were ignorant about God's righteousness.

And then the other word, establish, is cause to stand, and it's to stand up, and this is another one I was thinking about Matt here too a little bit, all these examples from Matt. Anyway, to establish, I work with the military a lot, and they're always standing up some new program. We're going to stand up, we're going to have this new program to do this job or that job. So I'm thinking, here's Israel, they didn't know about God, but they thought to stand up this new program.

We're going to establish our own system. I don't understand about your system. I'm ignorant of that. I'm going to put my own system in place. And I was thinking about like on the mount when Moses didn't come down from the mount. What happened? Man started, we'll get our own idols here. We'll get our own gods here going because this Moses guy is gone. He's out of here. We're going to get our own going.

That seems like it's a classic picture that they don't know or they're ignorant about something. They try to establish something on their own outside of what God has done. What's the beeping? I got so many things on here. I don't know, anyway. We don't hear any beeping. Not nice. Not nice. Not nice. OK. OK. All right. All right.

Here's Wiese's rendering of the verse, "...for being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to set up their own peculiar private righteousness." I thought that was kind of cool. "...to the righteousnesses of God they did not subject themselves." So I'm not sure we really answered Jim's question. That's still maybe a somewhat open question. And I didn't actually go down that path more than just thinking about it. The question is, was God unfair because they were ignorant? I don't think he was.

I think that God actually goes back and says, you know, like he talks about, like in Luke there, he talks about how he brought the prophets, he brought all these people to tell him about himself. He certainly showed who he was to the Israelites. And we look back to Abraham again, even though it's before the law, accepting by faith is what he desired.

There was sufficient knowledge, but because they didn't come by faith, they were ignorant. I think that's the tie. they didn't believe in it, and therefore subject themselves to it. In that sense, they didn't know. They sit on it. Therefore, they didn't know it, and they went about to establish their own, to build their own system. They did it for the purpose of righteousness there. They just chose not to go that path. And don't you think, too, that, I mean, he started in Genesis, basically, showing them who he was.

Then there's Abraham. The law still hadn't been brought. I mean, he's, I mean, it's over and over and over, and then he brings the law to even, okay, they hadn't gotten it yet, so let's give them the law, and then they're really going to be able to see, they're going to believe me then, because they can't get the law. They can't get, yeah, the idea of the law was, right.

I wonder, is it a matter of their belief or their obedience to what God said? Well, I mean, the focus of Abraham was on God declared this, and he said he believed him. So I think it's God declares who he is, and man believes. And what flows out of that is obedience to his word, because the Spirit of God works through you to obey his law. Belief has always been accounted to all of us.

Right, exactly. As far as Israel was concerned, not Abraham, but the nation or the people, I wonder if I think they knew more. Their belief wasn't at all as much as their obedience to what God said. Well, they couldn't really obey until they believed. Right. That's right. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Right.

Actually, we're going to see a few verses that kind of speak to that, the fact that faith is a starting point. The Gentiles weren't looking for... they weren't zealous like Israel. They simply had faith, and as a wonderful benefit by His grace, they received righteousness. So, you know, faith is the beginning point.

Okay. Sure, go ahead. I think another thing that seems potentially confusing is the word about. Okay. If you take that out... Okay. You know, not knowing us. OK. They knew about it. They knew it existed. Uh huh. And it's like the definitions you have on the screen and don't have the word about. Yeah. You know how it is. Yeah. I have to look. Let me just see here real quickly. Sure. I have that one. OK. OK. Sometimes it's supplied and.

The literal Greek is being ignorant of the righteousness of God. The about is supplied. Not knowing God's righteousness is the idea. Or being ignorant of the righteousness of God. Hopefully for understanding, that's what they've supplied it for. But it's just literally being ignorant of the righteousness of God.

It's in the Greek. So let's go on to the next. This is a neat one here. This is cool. For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone who believes. This is really neat. This is exciting. So the first part, Christ is the subject, is as a verb, And the end of the law is what's called a predicate nominative. And a predicate nominative, it's equated to Christ.

So Christ, by definition, is the end of the law. His very life, the fact that he came, is the end of the law. So you say, well, but the law, Isn't the law perfect? Isn't the law wonderful? I mean, the law in and of itself is who God is. So what's it saying here? So it's important to see what the word end is about. Termination might be a better word. For Christ, it is the termination of the law, resulting in righteousness.

And then I had this kind of parallel Let's speak to some of the things that were said in Galatians 3.23.

Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to faith, which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now, faith has come. We are no longer under a tutor. So the law was to be our tutor, to show us our need for faith. I want to show you something else here too. Let's just go to the next chart. So what's the relationship now between righteousness and the law? Or is there any? Is there a relationship between righteousness and the law? And the verse sort of answers it. I try to ask these questions, but it gets tough to ask some of these questions, so I won't belabor this. Let's look at Wiese's rendering of the same verse.

He uses termination. For the termination of the law is Christ. That's really cool. Is Christ. That's that predicate nominative kind of his rendering of that. For the termination of the law is Christ. Christ is a very, by his very life, who he is, terminated the law. Here's my kind of summary, if you will.

When Christ came, the law was terminated in terms of obtaining righteousness. So before Christ, the law was the way to righteousness. Nobody could do it. That's where you kind of get wrapped around the axle, you kind of go around a big circle. But that's what it's saying. God wanted to show them that they could not keep the law. But they never caught on to that. They never saw that. So they made up their own law. And when Christ came, the law ended in terms of obtaining righteousness. Right, they did. And that was their answer to Christ. I kept the law when he came to John 3 there. I kept the law my whole life. What law haven't I kept? Tell me one. But still, there were godly people who might not be keeping the law totally, but by faith, they were righteous.

Right, exactly. The ones who came by faith, Faith is the doorway to righteousness, if you will. Faith in the right object, though. The right object is God's essence, who he is. When Abraham heard God, he believed him. He did. Because of who God is. Exactly. He didn't doubt him. No, he did not. God declared who he was, what he was going to do, and he said, I believe that. He was righteous then. It's that essence of faith in who God is. His righteousness is part of that, revealed by Christ more explicitly.

So you see confusion there? I just didn't want us to say that because you couldn't keep the law you weren't righteous. It's still by faith, always by faith. David fell short of the law many times. You're right. Okay, what you're pointing out is that in us, as believers, we are righteous because we have trusted Christ as our Savior.

That doesn't mean that we can perfectly keep the law. No, we know we can't keep the law. No one can keep the law. Couldn't you say that the real purpose of the law actually was to reveal the perfection of God and to reveal to man? But he could not keep it. Therefore, he would need to reveal it.

Right. No, I think that's right. I think it's a tutor. It instructs you. It was to show us, it was to say, look at the standard. I can't do that. Thou shalt not covet. I mean, that's, you know, you get to that one, you think, man, I, that's, you know. Bob? Roger, just a reminder, in 2 Corinthians 3, it talks about Moses coming down from the mount with the ministration of death. The law was talked about as the ministration of death and how glorious that was.

And verse 7 goes on to say, Israel could not stand to hold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away. I mean, the concept is there's nothing about the law that's relevant to us, nor ever will be. I mean, Christ and the law are totally different dimensions. I mean, the law was the bringers to Christ. I mean, that was its sole purpose, from ministration to death. Even though it was perfectly holy and righteous before God, it was intended only to die.

That's good. I thought it was what they wanted. I think you're right. They wanted the law. They wanted a leader over them. Just give us some rules. Give us something to do and we'll do it. No problem. Give us some rules here and we'll be real good. But we say that today. I know. How do we get there? Carol, back to your point.

Who were the righteous of the Old Testament? Who were these men and women? What was their faith based on? Well, and that God had outlined a plan that by faith they would respond to the plan that he had outlined. Not necessarily seeing Christ in any of them, but at least believing that that animal sacrifice on an annual basis by the high priest is sufficient as an atonement, right? I mean, their faith was in what God had revealed. and they may have tied into Abraham's promises that God had given them, maybe they didn't intellectually, but the issue is they still responded by faith to what God revealed. And as Bob said in the text, what is revealed to them at that time. Right, that's true.

Okay, we've got one last verse here. This is kind of interesting. It kind of goes back to Moses. It's where Moses writes that a man who practices righteousness which is based on the law, shall live by this righteousness." So what he's saying is, if you want to go that route, here's what the concept is. And this is pretty heavy stuff here. So Moses writes, he says that a man who practices, and actually practices could be translated does, a man who does the righteousness which is out of the law or based on the law, shall live by that righteousness. I'm going to zoom on here. So Moses had several things that he, and the law came through Moses. Here's several things that were said, that Moses said, basically. From Leviticus 18, 4-5. And this stuff is to show them they can't do it.

You are to perform my judgments and keep my statutes, to live according to them. So he wanted them to live according to them. I am the Lord your God. So you shall keep my statutes and my judgments by which a man may live if he does them. So he says, the only way you're going to live is to have true life. But they didn't say, that's impossible Lord, we can't do that. And then another one is in Deuteronomy. Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them. So, and the people said, Amen.

Have you ever been some place, especially like in a class, in a university situation, the professor will, here's all the requirements, and sometimes you want to say, that's impossible, I can't do this in a semester. You never do, but you're thinking it all the time. So, the Israelites never did that.

And then Weiss had a summary statement I liked. He said, Israel sought a righteous standing by law obedience. Paul says it can only be appropriated by faith. And we're going to see that in the verses to come. Jim's going to cover that. We're going to see it's faith that is God's method to obtaining righteousness. Faith in the Lord Jesus. Any last thoughts or questions? Yeah, thanks for all your great comments. You made it easy for me. I was looking at how far you were. I thought, well, I'm going to be finished in five minutes, but you guys are great. Not around here. Not around here. Thanks. Any last, okay.

I was saying, Jesus kept it all perfectly. He did. And we're in him. And that's exactly right. So the question is, people ask, well then, The law is God's perfect standard. Christ said, I kept the law perfectly. Well, as Bonnie said, we're in Him. So as we walk by faith in Him, we keep the law. That's not to be our focus, but we do, because He's perfect. And when we walk outside of that, in our fleshly nature, we, you know...

But you know, the Lord doesn't see us that way. He only sees us in Christ, who kept the law perfectly. So that's why we're righteous. He doesn't see all this. No, absolutely. We see it, but he only sees it in Christ. Well, but in a sense, Christ was above the law. He was healing on the Sabbath, consistent with the law. He was challenging Israel to say you're misinterpreting.

Right. Right. Right. That's good. Show where they were based. Right. Right. Right. Great, great, great, great questions and a great participation. This is this is good. Can I keep you guys? No, this is great. It's fun. It's fun doing this. It really is. And that's it. See, I'm trying to drag it out here, so I'll be like Bob.

Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you that we can study your word, Lord. We thank you that you've given it to us for our understanding so that we might really know you and know about you and base our faith upon the facts of what you declared in your word. We thank you for that. In Christ's name, amen.