Distinction & No Distinction | An Expository Sermon of Romans 10:5-13

Scripture

• Romans 10:5–13

About this sermon

Introduction: How did the Jewish people miss their promised Messiah? Why did they stumble over Him, and why do they stumble over Him to this day? Paul says that it is explained by a zealous ignorance. They are not lost for lack of sincerity. They are not lost for lack of passion. They are not lost for lack of effort. They are lost because of sinful ignorance. And by ignorance, he doesn’t mean lack of awareness of the contents of the law. What he means is an ignorance of the true nature of its teachings. IGNORANT OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD The righteousness God requires. The righteousness that only God can GIVE. The righteousness that depends on faith. AND AS A RESULT, IGNORANT OF THEIR INABILITY TO ACHIEVE THAT RIGHTEOUSNESS The sincerity, the passion, the effort, has all been centered on an entirely misguided VIEW of the law, and therefore a misguided APPROACH to the law. Instead of allowing the law to prepare them for, and point them to, the Savior, they took the law as a means by which they would save themselves. They embraced a religion of human achievement in the place of the gospel of divine accomplishment. And what this boiled down to, was a misunderstanding of the law that meant a misunderstanding of the Messiah Himself, and of His mission. Had they understood Christ properly —– had they submitted to God’s righteousness, had they BELIEVED in the one whom God sent to save them — it would have put an end to such an approach to the law of God. Why? Because Christ is Himself the “telos”, the goal, the aim, the end, of all the law’s teaching with respect to righteousness (vs.4). The law rightly understood is a tutor that leads a person to Christ Himself. Jesus is the goal toward which the entire OT revelation points. Believers see this. We can summarize all of this by saying it this way: Their current confusion, and error, is an ignorance concerning DISTINCTIONS. An ignorance that fails to recognize a distinction that exists, and an ignorance that makes a distinction where it does not exist. That is what we think about this morning. Distinction and No Distinction regarding gospel truths. And where error existed 2,000 years ago, it still exists today. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF WORKS AND THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH (vs.5-10) This is a distinction that actually exists. And Paul’s point is that the law recognizes that distinction. Now, let me just say as we begin to walk through these verses, that while Paul’s basic point is clear in these verses, the way commentators understand Paul’s use of these OT texts to make that point, is all over the map. There is an unusual diversity among commentators about how to understand Paul’s use of the OT here. And, his use of these Old Testament texts, is meant to explain further the statement that he makes in verse 4. He says that Christ is the “telos,” the end, the aim, the goal, of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. When you trust in Christ, it is because you see that His finished work, to make us right with God, is what the law is pointing us to. The law, like a tutor, prepares us for and leads us to Christ. And then Paul says, “FOR Moses writes.” So, his goal is to show from the law itself that the righteousness that is given by God, the righteousness of justification, is received by faith in Christ, and not by works. ESV Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- HOW DO THESE OT TEXTS DEMONSTRATE THAT? *Some, who see that Christ is the goal, the aim, the end of the law for righteousness, understand Jesus to be THE MAN who LIVES as a result of obedience. He is the man who kept all of God’s commandments. He is the man, in whose obedience, we now live. So that the promise to live by the commandments was not a promise that we could ever arrive at, but HE DID. And now we have our perfect obedience in Him. *Some understand the conjunction in verse 6 not to be adversative but continuative. So that the obedience called for in verse 5 is a demonstration of the obedience of faith. Verse 6 simply takes it a step further and the two OT texts both demonstrate the same point. That true obedience to the Old Testaments is not achievable apart from faith, and that faith is a gift, and the result of that faith is the righteousness of justification, and that faith is demonstrated by obedience.