Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.
Paul is still talking about the Jewish people, his relatives.
For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.
Like Paul, himself, when he was still Saul of Tarsis; he was very passionate in fighting for God, but he didn't know that he was fighting against the Messiah until Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and completely turned him around.
For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
Since they wanted to be righteous, they tried to establish their own righteousness; but they didn't realize what God's righteousness consisted of, and being fixed on their own ways, they didn't open their hearts to God's ways.
I don't want to be so set in my ways that I'm not open to changing them for God's ways.
For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law to establish righteousness for each of us: He lived a perfect life, then He obeyed His Father and went to the Cross as the Sacrificial Lamb of God to cleanse us with His Blood, taking upon Himself our sin.
Now when each one of us believes that He took our place in death as our personal Sacrifice: God places our sin on Christ's side of the ledger, and puts His perfect life on our side, declaring us righteous, justified.
For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on Law shall live by that righteousness.
This means that the one who wants to earn righteousness by following rules, will have to follow every rule perfectly all the time and never make a mistake, in order to attain it. This is impossible for any of us, because we still are living in our flesh, with the damaged DNA. That's why the righteous Law brings death, when we mess up (see, "Why Good Law If It Brings Death?" in Chapter 7).
But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows:
Do not say in your heart, "Who will ascend into Heaven?" (that is, to bring Christ down) (Deuteronomy 30: 12), or "Who will descend into the abyss?" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).But what does it say?
The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (Deuteronomy 30: 14)--Moses was telling the people that the Commandment he had given them, "is not hidden from you, nor is it far off. It is not in Heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us into Heaven, and bring it down to us, that we may hear it and do it?" Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it? But the Word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it" (Deuteronomy 30: 11-14).
Paul is bringing out, using this passage, that even when they had the Ten Commandments and the other precepts and laws and rules, that they still needed to trust God to have given them a true record of His will for them, to take it to heart, and speak and do it as a lifestyle.
That is, the Word of Faith which we are preaching,
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Paul is distilling everything He has just said in the last nine chapters into these two statements. These are not simplistic statements that stand alone, they must be understood according to all that has gone in to them. We must believe, not just go through the motions. And we must believe all that God says, and acknowledge that Jesus is your Lord, your Boss who directs your life. And this includes sharing with others what God has done for you through Christ Jesus, and how much He loves them, too.
for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness,
Believes what? A person trusts that Jesus took his place in death, and His precious Blood cleansed him thoroughly, resulting in Christ's righteousness being placed on his side of the ledger, being justified.
and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
And he actually verbally admits to what he believes, and witnesses to others, sharing this Good News that Christ is our Savior, which shows that he is saved.
For the Scripture says,
Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed (Isaiah 8: 14).We talked about this verse yesterday. Faith in what God has told us has always been what God requires of us, and believing Him will always prove to be the best, most beneficial way for us to go.
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;
for
Whoever will call on the Name of the Lord will be saved (Joel 2: 32).God told Joel that He would pour out His Spirit "on all flesh" when that time came, and this doesn't preclude anyone. No matter who you are, who your parents were, where you're from, you are invited to participate in this pouring out of God's Spirit, by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Joel only talked about the Day of the Lord. Joel saw a lot of what John wrote about in the Revelation, and Peter quoted from Joel 2: 28-32 on the Day of Pentecost, about God putting His Spirit on ordinary people to see visions and dream dreams in Acts 2: 15-21, to explain that the languages they were speaking were not drunkenness, but the work of God.
So from the Day of Pentecost, we've been in "the Last Days" before the Day of the Lord comes. And every day is another day closer to that Day.
O my Father, You are God over all creation, and You have put everything into the hand of Your Son to be Lord over all You have made.
Now You have chosen the human race to be Your children. You are not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to the repentance to turn around and accept Your gracious gift. You have opened the door of Salvation to every member of Mankind.
And when every living person has heard what You have accomplished for them in Your Son Jesus Christ, with sufficient understanding to make an informed decision, and has decided whether to accept or reject Your gift; that's when the Day of the Lord will come upon us, and the King will return to claim His Kingdom over the whole Earth.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is Christ, Lord God Almighty, King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
