Romans 10
 1Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Verses 1 and 2 are how I feel about a great many people I know, particularly many Jews and even many Christians. They have what appears to be a relationship with God, and actually appear to be close to Him… but they are not Christians, or at least they are not church-goers, and they do not believe many of things that I — in my arrogance perhaps — think that Christians should believe. Some have the audacity (as I see it) to call themselves Christians, while some would rather not wear a religious moniker at all. And it is at these times that I simply give to God the situation, because how can I tell such people that they are going to Hell unless they say or do certain things? How can I have such audacity, when they really are honestly living accroding to their religion?
Surprised that a Christian who believes in Christ and voted for George Bush can think such things? Well, I’m just being honest. But here’s the thing… I think in this chapter, Paul had an answer in verse 3. They did not know “the righteousness that comes from God.” Instead, they “sought to establish their own.”
Remember from Guidelines for Righteousness that the first two verses in the Bible on Righteousness tell us two absolute requirements (yes, absolute) about righteousness. The first is believe God, and He will account it to you as righteousness. The second is to obey His Word, and it will be your righteousness. In Christianeze, if you have faith in Christ, you will be saved, and the Holy Spirit will work through you. Essentially, your obedience to God is evidence of your trust in Him, as you do works that would not otherwise do. So then, who is Paul addressing above? What kind of person performs godly acts to establish a righteoussness apart from God? Though Paul was talking to Jewish people, this applies to all who do righteous acts, but not because they believe God; that is, not as a fruit of faith. It is not because they believe what God has said about their lack of ability to be righteous apart from Him. They may not even realize this about themselves, but they think that one can skip the “belief” step… the trusting God step (for that is what Abram’s belief amounted to, trust), and they jump right to the “obedience”. But then, why wouldn’t that work? Why wouldn’t that mean they are righteous? Especially if they really can perform the kind acts on their own that God prescribes? Good question. It is because when you do good things because the rule its to do good things, then your trust is no longer in God, but in the rules; rules and law become your god.
Going back to verse 2, a person who follows God’s rules and God’s laws, but without mindfulness of the God who provided them, will be living a life that is zealous for God. However, by not starting with trust in God, the righteoussness God would account to them is not there. Now, does that mean there is no righteousness in them at all? Actually, no. As we also saw, there is another way to be accounted righteousness by God, and that is to be zealous for God’s name, and Paul references that fact in verse 2, that the kind of person we’re discussing may be a slave to the law, but one of those laws is not to take God’s name in vein… zealousness for His name is built into the God’s Law. Therefore, an opportunity to be accounted righteousness does present itself, even through self-righteous obedience. But here’s the thing… if their obedience to the Law stems from a life that is not trusting God, then while living zealously for God, that trust in God is still missing. So think about this… by not trusting God, I would not expect them to receive tap the righteoussness God has credited them with for their zealousness. Their obedient acts are still not to God. It tells us that God can credit righteousness to someone as He chooses… even someone who doesn’t trust Him. But is such a person saved? Is such a person justified? Well, God can do as He pleases, but Paul has the response that we should live by, in verse 4: “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”
In other words, we do not have to know the answer to my last question. Christ saves through our belief, through our trust in God. Might God save others through the zealousness expressed in the lawful acts? Paul’s answer could be, “no,” or it could be, “don’t worry about it.” But because “don’t worry about it” even applies if the answer is “no”, then I would say not to worry about it. For who will live the more rewarding life here on earth, and eventually in Heaven? The one who trusts God. And isn’t God just? Well, you may not know what God’s justice is, but I will tell you one… you can trust Him to act justly toward all, toward the faithful and toward the legalists, who both are accounted righteousness. Do you really believe Him? Do you really trust Him? Then trust Him in this.