The Law Kills....but the Spirit Gives Life...

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.  For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
 
For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.”--Romans 10:1-5


Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,

Chapter 9 dealt with God's sovereignty and Israel's past.(see previous posts)  Chapter 10 with  human responsibility and Israel's present rejection of their Messiah.  Both deal with righteousness. The righteousness that  comes from the law and cannot save versus the righteousness that comes from faith in Christ and results in the salvation of our souls.

Chapter 10 begins with Paul laying it all on the line saying that it is his heart's desire and prayer for Israel to be saved.  Then he says that the Jews have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge.  No one could understand this better than Paul since prior to his Damascus Road conversion he was a pharisee of pharisees and led in the persecution of believers.   The Jewish people ever since the Babylonian exile had been zealous for the law and God. They even added their own laws and traditions.  Babylon cured them of idol worship but our (their)  good deeds and outward religious ceremonies will not get us (them)  into heaven....even if we believe sincerely and are zealous for them.  In fact, these very practices will keep us from heaven if we are trusting them to get us there. The Bible says that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and that by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight. So as it says in verse 3 by seeking to establish their own righteousness they had not submitted to the righteousness of God.  The only way to earn salvation is to live a perfect, sinless life which none of us can do.  (See Romans 7) Again, no one understood any of this better than Paul, the author of Romans.   Here is what he says in Philippians Chapter 3: 1-11:

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, ^] rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,  though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;  concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.  Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ  and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,  if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.


Verse 4 tells us that Christ is the end of the law for everyone who believes.  Jesus speaking in Matthew 5:18 says this, "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled." Every jot and tittle was fulfilled in Christ.

Romans 8:4  that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,

Colossians 2:14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.


The law cannot make us righteous it can only lead us to the One who can save us through His righteousness imputed to us at salvation.  

Verse 5 says that if we want to keep the law we must keep every part.  We must do it and not stop doing it. Girls...even if this were possible it would mean that we could never ever let down our guard.  Are you seeing God's grace, mercy and compassion here.  The work of God for those who are not under the law but grace is to just simply believe!  I love the example that Jon Courson uses to contrast the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law.

On the day the law came down from Mount Sinai three thousand people died...

Exodus 32:28:  So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day.

On the day the Spirit descended, three thousand were saved.

Acts 2:41:  Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.


The law kills, the Spirit gives life.

Romans 7:4-6  Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.  But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Love
Mom