Study 24 (Tthe task remaining")
We ran through Paul's sequence of thought in Romans 10. In Romans 9 he has began to answer the question of why the Jews, God's chosen people, have remained unsaved. And there his answer is, "They were not elect". In Romans 10 his answer is that they were "disobedient and contrary people" (v.21). So here we see the 2 truths that must always be held together: God is absolutely sovereign, and man is is absolutely morally responsible. Paul begins the chapter by declaring that the Jews (like he was) had a zeal...but not according to (true) knowledge of God. They did not know His righteousness provided for them and did not submit to its revelation in Christ, who is the 'end' (= the terminus, the fulfillment) of the law (v .4). Then he goes on to a more complicated argument based on a passages in Leviticus 18:5 and Deut 3):12-14. Here he takes the accessibility of the law spoken of in these passages and applies it to Christ. Christ has come from heaven ...