Romans 10:1-3
1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Paul had a great desire to see his kinsmen according to the flesh (the Jews) to be saved. The problem was they believed their position with God was already secure because they saw themselves as righteous before God. After all, they were of the lineage of Abraham and had the law of Moses as their heritage. But Paul clearly warns them that what they were relying on was a righteousness based on who they perceived themselves to be rather than a righteousness that can only come through who God is.
There is a need to gain an understanding of the truth (“according to knowledge”) so we all can grasp the reality that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6) We can never have a personal proper position before God in our own efforts. It took the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins and our receiving him as our Savior to make it possible for our position before God to be proper. We are “ignorant of God’s righteousness” if we believe we can stand before him alone. We must be in Christ to stand before the Lord in righteousness (for it is not our righteousness but his that makes us worthy.)
The question to consider today is, what are you trusting in to stand before God? Is it your benevolence, your work ethic, your ethnicity, your kindness, or anything else other than the righteousness of God that comes through salvation in Jesus Christ? If you are saved today, REJOICE. You have a personal proper position before God through Christ. If you are not saved today, please realize “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) You must be born again.
Consider these verses in Colossians 2. We must be in Christ to have a personal proper position before God.
Colossians 2:8-12
8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
-Adrian Moore
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