The Present State Of Israel Series

(34) The Present State of Israel

Romans 10:1-4

Scripture

1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

2 For I bear them witness that they have a but not according to knowledge.

3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Introduction

We have seen the present state of Israel; they are lost. That is their condition today. They are lost just as the Gentiles are lost. The reason is that Christ is the end of the law of righteousness. Now Paul turns from the sovereignty of God to the responsibility of man. He began this thought in the closing verses of chapter 9.

1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

In the first three verses of chapter 10, Paul reiterates his feeling for his relatives, the Jews. He has already expressed this in the first three verses of chapter 9.

Paul’s teachings were revolting to the unconverted Jews. They considered him a traitor and an enemy of Israel. But here he assures his Christian brethren to whom he was writing that the thing that would bring the greatest delight to his heart and the thing for which he prays to God more attentively than anything else for Israel is that they may be saved. He is expressing the caring attitude that he has for his people and a fervent desire for their salvation. Spiritual desires should always be turned into prayer.

Israel is responsible for her unsaved condition. Jesus has said to them, “For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:43-44). That was the condition of Israel back then, and it is their condition today. Jesus says that the reason they are in such a state—unable to have peace—is that they did not recognize their time of visitation. So Paul says, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. Now notice the three great features in his statement:

Israel, with all they possessed (see Romans 9:4-5) of religion, were not saved. They rejected the Gospel. There was a time when Paul would have agreed with his people, for he himself opposed the Gospel and considered Jesus Christ an imposter. Israel considered the Gentiles in need of salvation, but certainly not the Jews. In several of His parables, Jesus pointed out this wrong attitude (read about the elder brother in Luke 15:11-32 and the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14 for two examples). Israel would have been happy for political salvation from Rome, but she did not believe she needed spiritual salvation from her own sin. You can be religious and still be lost. Israel had a God-given religion, but they needed to be saved. They had religion, but not righteousness. They have more than any other nation, but they were lost. Paul’s desire was that Israel might be saved. The sad thing is that though they are lost, they did not recognize their true condition. It is the same today; our churches are filled with people who believed they are saved but are not.

Israel was savable. Even though they have forfeited their original election to salvation, by their failure to accept the righteousness that comes by faith, the Jew can be saved the same way Gentiles are saved. Salvation comes only to those who believe in God’s Son, Jesus. And it comes by way of God’s grace.

They are on the same plane before God today as Gentiles and should be evangelized as any other people without Christ. There is no difference today, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Even though he is the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul takes no satisfaction in Israel’s rejection of God. He bears witness to the fact that the Jews have a definite zeal (see below—zeal, zealous) for God, but not according to knowledge, and therefore, he does not condemn them as godless and irreligious. Their religious zeal was apparent from their careful observance of the rituals and ceremonies of Judaism, and from their intolerance of every contrary doctrine. But zeal is not enough; it must be combined with the truth (knowledge). Otherwise, it can do more harm than good.