Chapter # 10 Paragraph # 1 Study # 1
May 6, 2018
Humble, Texas
(048)
1769 Translation:
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.
4 For Christ [
is] the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
1901 ASV Translation:
1 Brethren, my heart's
desire and my supplication to God is for them, that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth.
- I. Paul's Personal Attitude.
- A. This is, in a sense, a return to 9:1-3.
- B. The "desire".
- 1. The word is a combination of "well" and "seems" and is used when something appears in the eyes of one a "good" thing.
- a. In both Matthew 11:26 and Luke 10:21 Jesus is quoted as giving thanks to His Father because in the eyes of His Father it "seemed" like a "good" thing to hide significant truths from those who, in their own eyes (and, perhaps, in the eyes of other men), "seem" to be "wise" and "understanding" and to reveal those significant truths to "babes". The undercurrent here is that when men see themselves as "wise", pride is already in play and, as David said, "Thine eyes are upon the haughty, that Thou mayest bring them down" (2 Samuel 22:28).
- b. Paul is the only other in the New Testament to use the term and his use is consistent in its focus on certain issues "appearing to be good in the eyes of God". It is a revelation of the values by which God operates.
- 2. This notion of a revelation of the values by which one operates is reinforced by the fact that Paul ties his "desire" to his "heart" (which is the locus of his value system). What a person values is a potent determinative factor (or, perhaps, the determinative factor) of that person's life. The heart rules all of a man's choices and actions, and the values held therein rule it. Thus, the promise of the New Covenant is that of a "new heart" wherein the wishes of God are indelibly inscribed.
- C. The "prayer".
- 1. This term, one of many that address our speech towards God, is a word that is used 17 times in the New Testament, but only once in Romans.
- a. Luke uses the word to describe Zacharias' prayer for a son; a "prayer" that he had prayed many times in the past, but, probably, not so much at the time he was addressed by Gabriel in the temple because he had "given up hope" since both he and Elizabeth were "beyond the age" (Luke 1:13 and 1:18).
- b. 2 Corinthians 9:14 indicates that this is the "prayer word" when someone "longs" for the answer.
- c. Ephesians 6:18 uses it twice in connection with being extra vigilant.
- 2. The phrase "toward The God" is added by Paul in respect to this "prayer". This addition is not really necessary since these deepest longings would automatically be so addressed. But it is added because Paul is tying the "desire of his heart" to his "prayer to The God" as a way to emphasize the "objective" desired and the "method" of acquisition. "The God" is the chief Executor of Power and anything seriously "longed after" should always be both subject to His heart and sought after by His power.
- D. The Sought After Goal.
- 1. Paul wants "Israel" (a term found in the Authorized Version, but replaced by the Nestle/Aland 26 with "them") to be saved.
- a. This "them" identifies the "Israel" that pursued a Law-based, human-performance rooted kind of "righteousness" that is, at its root, completely "unrighteous". Paul taught very clearly that the pursuit of "works-righteousness" leads directly and inexorably to the kind of "boasting" that divides (Romans 3:27). This is the direct descendent of Lucifer's "boast" that he would take a throne that is higher than that of the High King of Heaven. It is the root of all of the unrighteousness that is in the universe at this time.
- b. This "them" also does another significant thing: it narrows and specifies the significance of Paul's values and subsequent prayers. He did not say that "Israel" occupied the highest place in his values, nor that his prayers were all about "Israel". He simply said that in respect to Israel, a single issue of all of the things that Paul's considered important, his "desire" and "prayer" was for "their" salvation. It is a mistake to think that Paul was fixated upon "Israel". "Israel" was simply one of his significant interests, but not by any measure the most significant.
- c. He wants this "them" to be "saved". This signals the highest good for "them". It also, however, indicates that he actively seeks to upend their objectives and methods because there is no "salvation" in seeking exaltation by performance.
- 2. In Paul's theology, "Israel" is a special term that often refers to "The Remnant". In 9:6 he makes a distinction between the massive number of the "sons of Israel" and the true "Israel", a thesis that he reinforces in 9:27.
- 3. Though there seems to be no such distinction in 9:3-4, where Paul is willing to perish for the sake of his "kinsmen according to the flesh" ("the sons of Israel"), Paul's actual "desire" and "prayer" is for "the Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16) who will be saved (Romans 11:26).
- a. That this reality of Israel's salvation is far into the future as respecting Paul (he doesn't know that), his "prayers" are not wasted as Revelation 5:8; 8:3 and 8:4 indicate.
- b. Philippians 2:13 actually declares that it is a part of God's activity on our behalf to put in us both to "wish for" and to "work for" God's "good pleasure" (the very word used in our text to describe Paul's "the good pleasure of my heart"). In reality, this is the only way that God's "good pleasure" is ever accomplished, given the problems involved in man's inherent self-interested pursuits.
- E. The Point.
- 1. Paul has just insisted that his readers "come to a conclusion" regarding God's intention to showcase His mercy upon vessels of mercy consisting of both Jews and Gentiles.
- 2. The conclusion that the Gentiles came out way ahead in terms of good results might be taken by some to indicate a kind of vindictive satisfaction in Paul because of all the evil that "Israel" had heaped upon him.
- 3. But, Paul clearly denies that assumption by making a definitive statement about the true objective of his own heart in respect to Israel and the approach he took in seeking that objective: prayer to The God.