Rom 10 | TNotes

10:2 ^a Zeal denotes a passionate and commendable commitment to God and his purposes (see Num 25:6-13 ^b). But in Paul’s day Jewish zeal was misdirected because it failed to understand that Jesus Christ is the pinnacle of God’s plan. (For Paul’s own misdirected zeal before his conversion to Christ, see Acts 9:1-2 ^c; Gal 1:13-14 ^d.)
10:3 ^e God’s way of making people right with himself: See 1:17 ^f; 3:21-26 ^g. Paul uses this phrase to explain Israel’s failure in terms basic to the gospel. God manifested his righteousness through the ministry of Christ, but most Jews did not understand it, partly because they were so focused on the law as a way of securing their own righteousness.
10:4 ^h The function of the law was to point forward and prepare the way for the Messiah; Jesus’ coming does not destroy the law but fulfills all of its requirements, so that the primary requirement for God’s people is to believe in him (see 3:31 ⁱ; Matt 5:17-18 ^j).
10:5 ^k requires obedience to all of its commands: See Lev 18:5 ^l, where these words encouraged the Israelites to obey the law in order to enjoy long life and prosperity in the land that God was giving them (see also Lev 26:3-13 ^m; Deut 28:1-14 ⁿ). Paul sees the implication that if people want to be right with God through the law, they can only do so by obeying all of it.
Summary for Rom 10:6-8: 10:6-8 ^o Here Paul quotes three phrases from Deut 30:12-14 ^p dealing with the law, and he applies them to the Good News about Christ. We do not need to go up to heaven to find Christ (and thus to be made right with God), because God has already brought him down to earth as a man. Nor do we need to go down to the place of the dead to find Christ, because God has already raised him from the dead. To find Christ, we must simply believe in the message that is close at hand.
10:13 ^q Paul quotes Joel 2:32 ^r, where the Lord in Hebrew is Yahweh, the personal name of God (see Exod 3:15 ^s). However, as Rom 10:12 ^t makes clear, the Lord in Romans is Jesus Christ. This verse shows that Christians from the time of the apostles have associated Jesus with God.
10:14 ^u It is natural to presume that the pronoun they refers to “all who call on him” from 10:12 ^v or “everyone” from 10:13 ^w. While this verse probably does refer to all people, it also continues the accusation against Israel from 10:2-3 ^x (see 10:18 ^y). Paul argues that Israel was in a position to know what God was doing through Jesus Christ, so they were culpable for their failure to understand or accept it. Israel was guilty both of failing to understand God’s plan in light of Christ (10:3-4 ^z) and of focusing so much attention on the law that they missed Christ when he arrived (9:30-32 ^aa).
10:18 ^ab Yes, they have: Paul quotes Ps 19:4 ^ac to show that the message of Good News was universally available through creation. And by the time Paul wrote Romans, early Christian missionaries had spread the Good News through most of the Roman Empire. Most Jews would have had ample opportunity to hear the message.
10:19 ^ad rouse your jealousy ... provoke your anger: This quotation from Deut 32:21 ^ae concerns God’s punishment of Israel for their idolatry. In Paul’s day, Israel remained guilty of idolatry because it put the law in place of God himself. God’s punishment involved using the Gentiles, people who are not even a nation, to make Israel jealous and angry (Rom 11:12-32 ^af elaborates on this theme).
10:20 ^ag This quotation is from Isa 65:1 ^ah. In Isaiah, the words people who were not looking for me refer to the people of Israel. As in Rom 9:25-26 ^ai, Paul applies them to the Gentiles to show that God has opened the way for them to be a part of the people of God.