His Glory Blog

Romans 10:1-4 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. ² For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. ³ For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. ⁴ For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes

Judaism uses knowledge of the law to create their own path to righteousness in their hearts. They learned the words and did not learn the meaning. The entirety of the Old Testament points to Jesus through prophecy and to the new covenant God would bring into existence. The Messiah was going to come and fulfill the laws and prophecies given to Israel in the Old Testament. When The Christ came and began explaining the fulfillment of the laws and completion of prophecy, the righteousness presented by God the Father through His Son the Messiah was rejected because the Jewish leaders believed they could be righteous without God. This was a direct contradiction to the submission to God’s righteousness. Overlooking Jesus was overlooking all of the Old Testament scripture and ultimately its author, God. In order to believe in the scriptures, the Jewish leaders had to believe in what they described in the Messiah. Not only did they reject and kill the Christ but they went even deeper into disobedience and made their own “Oral Torah” called the Talmud. God came to earth in human flesh to show the scripture in practice and the Jewish leaders killed Him in order to make their version and take the power away from God. Rejecting Jesus is rejecting every part of the Old Testament. Judaism rejects God by rejecting His Word, and rejects His Word by rejecting His Word made flesh. Any foundation they believed in was thrown away when religion was chosen over God. They rely on the humanized version of earning God (religion) while rejecting God when He calls them to Him through the purpose of the scriptures (Jesus).

God still desired to save His people in their disobedience. Romans 10:21But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” (Isaiah 65:2) So not only did He allow His Son to die by the hand of disobedience (to His direction) and rejection of Him, but He made a new covenant with the Gentiles who did not seek God but were found and chosen by Him.Romans 10:20Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me;I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” (Isaiah 65:1) God desired for His chosen to find justification but also used the faithful in His new covenant though Jesus to offer true salvation in His righteousness. The Gentiles then and current Christian believers are a message to Jews to return to God. The intention of the Father was always to draw His chosen both Jew and Gentile to Himself through the Messiah. That intention is still in full view to the world through believers led by His Holy Spirit.