Ct – Praying for the Jewish Community 10: 1-7

Praying for the Jewish Community
10: 1-7

Praying for the Jewish community DIG: What is the key to understanding all of Chapter 10? Why do you think that all major English versions of the Bible translate the Greek word telos as “end,” when it should be translated “goal,” or “purpose?” Why do you think all major English versions of the Bible translate the Greek word de as “but,” when it should be translated “moreover?” What does Paul mean by saying that Jews who obey the mitzvot in the Torah shall live by that righteousness? Why does Paul quote Deuteronomy 30?

REFLECT: Is your heart’s deepest desire and prayer for the salvation of the Jewish people in your area? Their rabbis? Why? Why not? Who are you praying for? How can you be sure you are zealous for the right reasons? Are you attempting to do something your own way right now, apart from what God wants you to do? What is that called? What is the remedy? More Jews live outside Isra’el than in Isra’el; therefore, we need to pray for the Jewish community at large in the world. Who can you help to understand these truths this week?

Paul prays for his fellow Jews because their zeal for the Torah is not based on a correct understanding. They do not understand that the righteousness of God is based on faith.

The paradox (10:1-2): O, [fellow Jews], my heart’s deepest desire and my prayer to God for Isra’el is for their salvation; for I can testify to their zeal for God (see the commentary on Galatians, to see link click Ao – God Set Me Apart from Birth and Called Me Through His Grace). Why does non-Messianic Jewish zeal for God go astray? Because it is not based on correct understanding (Greek: epignosis, meaning full knowledge) of the Torah. Zeal was not the problem, but their zeal was not based on correct understanding of the salvation issue. They were sincere, but they were, and still are, sincerely wrong. Their sincerity will not be enough to save them. They had a knowledge of God, but not a correct understanding of Yeshua Messiah. This statement is the key to understanding all of Chapter 10.

The curse of legalism (10:3-4): For, since they are unaware of God’s way of making people righteous and instead seek to set up their own, they have not submitted themselves to God’s way of making people righteous (10:3). Zeal is not the problem, but their zeal is not based on a correct understanding of the kind of righteousness that ADONAI is really after. And this we see beautifully in the Sermon on the Mount (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Dn – What True Righteousness Look Like). Because the Sermon on the Mount was showing that the Pharisees interpreted righteousness one way, it was not a correct understanding; or a full understanding. In other words, their sincerity will not be enough to save them. As in the past, today, observant Jews are sincere, but they are sincerely wrong. They refused to subject themselves to God’s righteousness. This refusal exposed their disobedience.²⁶² The reasons for the statements in verse 3 are explained in verse 4.

The evidence that non-Messianic Jews have not submitted themselves to God’s way of making people righteous (10:3), which in itself shows that their zeal is not based on correct understanding (10:2), is that they have not grasped the central point of the Torah and acted on it. Had they seen that trust in God – opposed to self-effort, legalism, and mechanical obedience to a set of rules – is the route to the righteousness which the Torah itself not only requires, but offers (9:30-32), then they would see that the goal (Greek: telos, meaning the goal, and is reflected in the English word “teleology,” the branch of philosophy dealing with goals the purposes) at which the Torah aims is the Messiah, who offers righteousness to everyone who trusts in Him (10:4). They would also see that Yeshua offers this righteousness to the Gentiles as well (see Cy – The Jealousy of the Gentile Believers).

Dear Kind and Gracious Heavenly Father, Praise You for Your great and merciful love! Thank You that You did not make the entrance into heaven, to be by works. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves – it is the gift of God. It is not based on deeds, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). Your holiness demands the payment for sin to be death. Your perfect wisdom knew that no person would ever be perfect (Psalms 53:3; Romans 3:23) and so in gracious love You planned for Yeshua to bear our sins in His body on the tree and all who trust/love/follow Him, You would credit His righteousness and be saved from eternal death. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we, removed from sins, might live for righteousness. “By His wounds you were healed” (First Peter 2:24). Though Yeshua’s blood was shed as the penalty for the sins of all (John 3:16), but only those who have faith/ love/ trust in You receive Your gracious gift. Please open the hearts of those in my family and friends that know all about You and think that because You love everyone that you will let everyone into heaven. Please help them to choose to love You, God, as number one in their lives, instead of living for themselves. They are nice people but being nice cannot get anyone into heaven. Trusting You and confessing You as Lord, is what is important. For if you confess with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart it is believed for righteousness, and with the mouth it is confessed for salvation (Romans 10:9-10).

I am so grateful for you taking my place when You died as the Lamb of God as our sin sacrifice. He made the One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (Second Corinthians 5:21). You are so worthy to be loved at all times, good and hard times. The hard trials on earth will soon be over. Great peace and joy in heaven will last for all eternity! For I consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us.  (Romans 8:18). I want to live my life in a way that pleases You! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen

This truth is not unimportant, but central to the gospel and it cannot be compromised, even if the whole of Christian theology were to oppose it! While there is a recent and encouraging strand of modern Christian scholarship which acknowledges that Paul is neither anti-Jewish nor anti-Torah, very little of this has penetrated popular Christianity. To Jews with even a modest amount of Jewish training, the Torah is correctly understood as a central and eternal element of God’s dealing with mankind in general, and with Jews in particular: How blessed are those who reject the advice of the wicked, don’t stand in the way of sinners or sit where scoffers sit! Their delight is in ADONAI’s Torah; in His Torah they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams – they bear their fruit in season, their leaves never wither, everything they do succeeds (Psalm 1:1-3). Therefore, the idea that Christ has brought the Torah to an end is for them both shocking, unreasonable and unacceptable. Fortunately, the idea is also untrue.

A major error made by all major English versions of the Bible, and by most commentators, is translating the Greek word telos as end, in the sense of termination. The word telos is used 42 times in the B’rit Chadashah, and is correctly translated finish, cessation or termination in only 5 instances. In the great majority of cases, it is correctly translated as either aim, purpose, or goal. The Good News Translation is typical of this error. It reads: For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God. Then why is telos regularly translated as end or termination? Because theology gets in the way of interpretation. Wrong theology that falsely understands the Torah as not offering the righteousness of ADONAI through faith; wrong theology that denigrates YHVH’s Torah, and thereby both the God who gave it and the Jewish people revere it.

However, Messiah has not brought the Torah to an end, nor is He the termination of the Torah as a way to righteousness. The Torah continues. It is eternal. God’s Torah, properly understood, is the very teaching which Yeshua upholds (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Dg – The Completion of the Torah). It remains the only way to righteousness – although it is the Messiah through whom the Torah’s righteousness comes. It is true that whoever comes to Yeshua for salvation ends his self-effort. But this verse doesn’t speak of ending anything! It says that the great sweep of God’s promise in giving the Torah as a means of righteousness achieves that goal and completion in the coming of the Messiah.²⁶³

Righteousness that comes from the Torah (10:5): For Moshe writes about the righteousness grounded in the Torah that the person who does these things will attain life through them (Romans 10:5). Paul is writing with Pharisees and legalists in mind, and also remembering his own experience as a Pharisee, and his conviction, no doubt, is that this road of legalism leads nowhere (see the commentary on Galatians Bi – All Who Rely on the Deeds of the Law are Under a Curse). Furthermore, Paul writes that Abraham was given a righteous standing before ADONAI in faith, not legalistic observance of the Torah (see Bd – Justification in the TaNaKh). So, when Paul quotes Moses by saying that Jews who obey the mitzvot in the Torah shall live by that righteousness (Leviticus 18:5), he does not mean that they would be given eternal life as a result of legalistic works.²⁶⁴ He is applying those words, not to the impossible, hopeless task which people think they can earn a right standing before Ha’Shem by their own works, but to the achievement of the one Man who has fulfilled all the requirements of the Torah. Among mankind, only Messiah has obeyed the Torah perfectly. And so, by virtue of His obedience, He also won a righteous status and eternal life for all those who have faith/trust/belief in Him.²⁶⁵

Righteousness that comes from Faith (10:6-7): Understanding the first word in 10:6, Moreover (Greek: de), is crucial. Conjunctions are little words that are easily ignored, but in a closely reasoned argument, they can be of vital importance, even to the point of changing its entire meaning. This is such an instance. The Greek conjunction de, used here, can be confusing because it can have any one of three very different meanings.

(1) And, moreover, or furthermore, implying that what follows, continues the thought already begun. For example, “I love you, and I will always love you.

(2) But, rather, in contrast to, or on the contrary, implying that what follows is different from, and contrasts with the preceding thought. For example, “I love you, but you don’t love me.”

(3) But, or but only if, implying that what follows is not in contrast with the preceding thought, but does limit, condition or modify it in some way. For example, “I love you, but I need you to return my love.”

Again, erring for the same reason in 10:4, namely, deep rooted antisemitism, all major English translations and most commentators translate de as but, in the sense of in contrast to. This makes 10:6-7 in contrast to 10:5 instead of continuing, or modifying its thought. Thus, the righteousness grounded in the Torah says one thing (10:5), but, in contrast to it, righteousness grounded in trusting, or faith, says something else (10:6-7). Wrong. This interpretation, like the one in 10:4 speak of bringing the Torah to an end, is antisemitic, even if today it unintentionally is so. It flows out of the Christian theology which mistakenly minimizes the importance of the Torah. The main reason 10:6-7 should be seen as explaining 10:5, and not starting something new, is that the quotation from Deuteronomy 30:11-14 below (which Paul uses to make his point, is from the Torah itself; the very Torah that is wrongly understood to teach legalism), Paul quotes from the Torah in order to show that the righteousness grounded in trusting (10:6) is exactly the same as the righteousness grounded in the Torah (10:5).²⁶⁶

Moreover, the righteousness grounded in trusting says: Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend to heaven?” – that is, to bring the Messiah down – or, “Who will descend into sh’ol?” – that is, to bring the Messiah up from the dead (10:6-7). This is a quote from Deuteronomy 30 where Moshe explains the nearness of God’s righteous living (see the commentary on Deuteronomy Fq – Choose Life). And Moshe says that one does not need to go up to heaven to bring [God’s Word] down, or go down into sh’ol to bring [God’s Word] up. The righteousness of God is near and accessible. But the point that Moses was making is now applied to Messiah by Paul. To attain His kind of righteousness, one does not need to go up to heaven or down to sh’ol because His kind of righteousness is not based on human deeds. In other words, one does not need to initiate the incarnation and bring Yeshua down from heaven, because that has already been done (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Aq – The Birth of Jesus); nor does one need to initiate the resurrection and bring Messiah up from sh’ol, because that has already been done (Psalm 16:10; Matthew 12:39-40; John 2:19-22; Ephesians 4:8-9; First Peter 3:18-19).²⁶⁷ Therefore, Paul quotes Deuteronomy to prove that the Torah itself teaches that righteousness requires faith.