Romans chapter 10

by Keith Simons. Free online Bible course and commentary from the Useful Bible Study Centre.

Paul's prayer for the salvation of Israel

(Romans 10:1)

Paul has already told us how desperately he prayed for the Jewish people, also called Israel (9:1-3).

Now he tells us what he was praying for them. He was praying for their salvation; in other words, for God to save them.

Salvation means rescue and safety; to save means to rescue and to provide safety. So, Paul has not changed his subject since he began his book. Romans 1:16 says that the gospel (God’s message about Christ) is the power of God to save both Jewish people, and people from other nations. The Jewish people are the people who come from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Salvation in the Bible means much more than physical safety. In particular, it refers to a right relationship with God (10:9-13). Nobody is in reality safe if they do not have a right relationship with God. It is God alone who makes people and nations safe (Psalm 27:1-3).

Paul’s prayer, therefore, is like the prayer in Psalm 122:6. That Psalm tells us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel; ‘peace’ in the Psalm has the same meaning as ‘salvation’. We ask God not just to save it from war, but to bring all its people into a right relationship with himself. Then, at last Israel’s people will know true success (Psalm 122:9).

Paul was praying for the salvation of the whole of Israel, and not just for some of its people. In Romans 11:26, he declares that God really will answer this prayer: God will save all of Israel. Paul is referring there to what will happen at the time of Christ’s return to this world.

Zeal for God

(Romans 10:2)

Zeal for God is the strong desire that God should receive the honour due to him.

Paul and the first Christians often met Jewish people (the people who belong to Israel) with this attitude. It was not always a pleasant experience. Many Jewish people sincerely believed that Paul’s message about Christ was wrong. So, because of their zeal for God, they considered that they had to argue fiercely with him. Sometimes they even joined in attacks against him. However, people from other nations attacked Paul, too; and sometimes their attacks were even worse (2 Corinthians 11:23-26).

Usually we can only speak as a witness about things that we ourselves see or hear. We cannot be a true witness of other people’s attitudes, because we do not know their thoughts. However, Paul can speak as a true witness here, because these were formerly his attitudes. As a young man, he too had opposed the Christians with great zeal. He had approved of the death of Stephen, the first Christian who died because of his belief in Christ (Acts 8:1). Paul even wanted to arrest the Christians in Damascus (Acts 9:1-2). However, on the way, Christ met with him, and that changed Paul’s life completely (Acts 9:3-6; 1 Timothy 1:12-16).

So when people were angry with Paul now, he felt only love towards them (Luke 6:27-28; Romans 11:28). He knew that only the knowledge of Christ separated him from them. That knowledge had not come to Paul by his own efforts, but by God’s kindness. He prayed eagerly that those people would know Christ too.

True and false righteousness

(Romans 10:3)

Righteousness means a life that is completely good and right.

God’s righteousness, therefore, means the life that God accepts to be completely good and right. The only person who has ever lived like that, perfectly, is Christ (Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 1:19). Therefore, the only way that God can accept us is by means of Christ (John 14:6; Philippians 3:9).

On the other hand, our own righteousness is what we ourselves consider good and right. It is not therefore true righteousness, because it depends on our opinions. Everyone’s opinion differs, and we choose our opinions to suit our circumstances. So, we complain about other people’s behaviour while we make excuses for our own actions (2:1-11).

The problem is that we are afraid to accept God’s standards for our lives. We know that God is good and perfect; and we are guilty in front of him (3:23). We cannot be perfect; so we try to satisfy ourselves that we are good enough. We choose which of his laws we are willing to obey. We follow the form of religion that suits us. In other words, we replace God’s standards with our standards; we follow our idea of righteousness instead of God’s righteousness.

However, God wants us to accept his righteousness, which we will find in Christ. By means of Christ’s death (5:8), God can give us his righteousness as a free gift (5:17). We are guilty people, but God can accept us because of Christ (5:19). When God forgives us, he accepts us as good, not because of our own deeds, but because of our relationship with Christ.

The death of Christ and the law of God

(Romans 10:4)

God gave his law in order to bring people into a right relationship with him, by means of Christ (Galatians 3:24).

God’s law declares his judgement against our evil deeds (Galatians 3:10). We all have done wrong and evil things; therefore, we are all guilty (3:23). However, by his death, Christ suffered the law’s judgement against our evil deeds (Isaiah 53:4-6; Romans 4:25). In other words, Christ accepted the punishment that we deserve.

We cannot, therefore, obtain a right relationship with God by our own efforts. We can only receive such a relationship when we believe and trust God (3:27-28; 4:1-8). That is what the Bible calls ‘faith’.

Christ emphasised that he did not come to destroy God’s law (Matthew 5:17-18). Rather, he came to carry out, or to achieve the purpose of, the law. Without Christ, God’s law could not carry out its purpose. It could not, by itself, bring anyone into a right relationship with God (Galatians 3:21). So instead, God’s law taught people how they must come to God. It prepared them for the work that Christ would do.

The effect of Christ’s death is to make it possible for people to know God in a new way (Hebrews 10:19-22). This new relationship of faith in God does not destroy God’s law - it makes God’s law even stronger (3:31). The Bible says that God is writing his law on the hearts of his people (Hebrews 8:10; compare 2 Corinthians 3:3). In other words, they obey his law not just because of duty, but because they love it (Psalm 119:97).

How to receive the kind of life that God gives

(Romans 10:5)

Before Paul became a Christian, verses like this one (Leviticus 18:5) mattered much to him. At that time, Paul was working hard to obey God’s law. In that way, Paul believed that he could obtain a right relationship with God. This verse, Leviticus 18:5, seemed to say that, by those efforts, Paul would receive life.

Now, however, Paul understood that verse differently. He had seen that his own efforts were too weak to obey God completely (7:14-25). So, Paul realised that he must depend not on his own efforts, but upon God himself. He must believe and trust in God; then God, by his Spirit, would give Paul the strength to serve God properly (8:1-14). The result would be the kind of life, in Paul’s own spirit, that can never end (John 11:25-26; 1 Corinthians 15:51-54).

That fact changed how Paul understood the Bible. Now he could see that, long before him, Abraham and David had already discovered these things (4:1-8). They too did not depend on their own efforts, but on God’s kindness. They too had accepted God’s promises by faith (belief and trust in God).

Paul could even see that Moses himself was teaching these things. In the next few verses, Paul will discuss some of Moses’ final words to Israel’s people, from Deuteronomy 30:11-14. In that passage, Moses insists that God’s commands were not too difficult for his people to follow. God was not giving them rules that they could never obey. Rather, God was placing his word into their hearts and mouths. They simply needed to accept it; and then God would work in their lives. In other words, he would make them into the kind of people that he wanted them to be.

God is not asking people to do impossible things

(Romans 10:6-7)

It is impossible for people to earn for themselves a right relationship with God. It is impossible to live a life of perfect goodness. However, God is not asking people to do impossible things. Instead, God urges us to invite him into our lives (Revelation 3:20) and to accept his kindness (Isaiah 55:1-7). Then he will change our lives in the most wonderful way. Although we were formerly his enemies (5:10), he makes us into his children (8:14-17).

Paul was referring here to the lesson that Moses taught in Deuteronomy 30:11-14. However, Paul does not repeat Moses’ words exactly. Moses said that it was not impossible for the people to obey God. He gave two examples of impossible things: to rise into heaven, and to cross the sea. For Israel’s people both of these were impossible. They had no boats; and they did not then have the skills to make or to use them. However, Paul was writing to Christians in Rome, which had a great navy and many ships. So, his two examples of impossible things are to rise into heaven, and to return from death.

To make these matters even clearer, Paul explains his meaning. For God to give us a right relationship with himself, two things had to happen. Christ, God the Son, had to come down from heaven to live among us. Then, he had to die for us, and become alive again. If we could cause Christ to repeat those actions, then we could earn for ourselves a right relationship with God.

However, it is not necessary, because Christ himself has already done these things. Therefore, we do not depend on our own efforts, but on God’s goodness. So, we believe and trust in Christ.

God's message is simple to accept

(Romans 10:8)

‘God has a message for you.’ However, maybe that statement surprises you. Perhaps you thought that you must go to heaven to hear God’s voice. Perhaps you believed that you must pass through death first (10:6-7).

Most people would think that you must carry out some extraordinary effort to hear from God. However, both Moses (Deuteronomy 30:14) and Paul insist that people are wrong to think that. Both Moses and Paul teach that God has made it very easy for you to receive his (God’s) message. It is ‘in your mouth’, so you only have to speak it. It is ‘in your heart’, and you only need to believe it. Clearly, God wants very much for us to accept his message.

This message from God is so clear that you already know it. However, sometimes we might need a little help in order to recognise it. For Moses, the message was that we must obey God with glad and willing hearts (Deuteronomy 30:10). For Paul, the message was the ‘word of faith’. Faith means belief and trust in God. So, Paul’s message was that we must believe and trust God. Of course, the result of both these messages is the same. The person who believes and trusts God, is glad to obey him. The person who obeys God, must believe and trust him.

We accept God’s message by the attitude of our heart, and the words of our mouth (10:9-10). Even as the devil constantly urges us not to trust God, God constantly invites us to believe and trust him (God).

What a Christian must declare and believe

(Romans 10:9)

The main subject in the Book of Romans is how God saves (rescues) a person from sin (evil deeds), the devil and death (1:16). For that to happen the person must declare that Jesus is Lord. ‘Lord’ here means God - Paul is using the word that translates God’s most holy name into the Greek language. Also, the person must truly believe that God raised Jesus from death.

Often, people turn to Romans 10:9 in order to help someone who wants to become a Christian. The verse is simple and clear, but not everyone can follow its advice. A person can only declare that Jesus is Lord by the power of God’s Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). We can only believe these things when God shows them to us.

Jesus patiently helped people who had sincere questions and honest doubts (John 3:1-15; John 4:7-26). He encouraged people to think carefully (Luke 14:28) and to examine what the Bible says (John 5:39). God has promised to act in the lives of those people who sincerely ask him to do that (Isaiah 55:6-7; Revelation 3:20). His Holy Spirit has the power to show us things that we could never know without his help (1 Corinthians 2:9-11).

It is interesting to see the relationship between this verse and the previous verses. Christ came down from heaven (10:6). We declare that fact by our statement that Jesus is Lord (in other words, God). Christ rose from death to life (10:7). We believe that in our hearts. We could not cause these things, which are necessary for God to save us, to happen. However, God did these things. We need only to accept what he has done for us. We do that when we believe and trust in him. We show that inner attitude of trust, when we declare our belief in him.

The connection between our words and our beliefs

(Romans 10:10)

In the Bible, the ‘heart’ means the part of us from which our inner thoughts come (Mark 7:21-23). Today, we might refer to it as our ‘mind’. Other people cannot know the thoughts of our heart, but God knows them perfectly (1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 139:1-6). Even we ourselves cannot pretend to have perfect knowledge of our own hearts (Jeremiah 17:9-10). However, God can change our heart (Ezekiel 11:19).

A person’s words are the result of what is in his heart (Luke 6:45). A sincere person or a true witness speaks what he believes in his heart.

The first Christians truly were witnesses. They spoke about the actual events that they themselves had seen (Acts 4:20; 1 John 1:1-2). However, later Christians are also witnesses. They speak about the things that God has done in their own lives. They have not yet seen Christ; but they declare the truth about what they believe (John 20:29). It is as if they themselves saw Christ’s death (Galatians 3:1); they have accepted Christ’s death as part of their own experience (6:2-6). In other words, they truly believe that Christ died for them (5:8).

So, their belief, and the declaration of that belief, gives them a right relationship with God. Perhaps a person can believe secretly - but the natural result of such a belief is to speak about it. God has done such a wonderful thing when he saves (rescues) a person (2 Corinthians 5:17). That person may not be able to tell everyone about what God has done in his life. However, he certainly should pray for an opportunity to speak to other people about God’s goodness to him.

Nobody who trusts in Christ will be ashamed

(Romans 10:11)

Paul repeats the same words that he used at the end of Romans 9:33. Clearly, he considered these words very important. Nobody who trusts in Christ will be ashamed. That is, they will not be ashamed of their belief and trust in Christ. God will not disappoint any of them. God will save (rescue) them all, from the power of their sin (evil deeds), from the devil and from death. He will establish the rule of Christ over all things. God cannot fail; he will certainly carry out all of his promises to his people.

Paul reminds us that these words were already in the Bible. They come from Isaiah 28:16. The first Christians believed that the whole Bible, including its older books called the Old Testament, is God’s word (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21). God provided the Bible for our benefit (15:4). He wants us to trust its promises (Hebrews 6:13-19). What God has said, is certain (2 Corinthians 1:20).

In order to emphasise the meaning, Paul adds a word here that he did not use previously (9:33). It is the word that means ‘everyone’. It is not easy to include that word when we translate the verse into English. We could say ‘Everyone who believes on Christ will not suffer shame’. Paul will explain in verse 12 why he includes that word. God’s promise is to everyone, from every nation. People from every nation can put their trust in Christ (Matthew 28:19). God will not disappoint any of them. He, the God of Israel, is the God of the whole world and the only real God. Therefore, he wants people from every nation to trust him. He will save everyone who does that (10:13).

God's kindness is for people from every nation

(Romans 10:12)

Clearly, there are many differences between the Jews (God’s people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), and the people from other nations. Paul gave a list of differences between them in Romans 9:4-5. However, in this important matter, there is no difference. The God of the Jews (in other words, the God of Israel) is the God of the whole world (Isaiah 45:3-6). He cares deeply about the people in every nation (Jonah 4:11). He very much desires to show kindness to people everywhere. So, people from every nation can put their trust in God, and God will accept them. He will forgive their evil deeds; he will give them a right relationship with himself (Acts 10:34-35). In every nation, people need only to turn from their evil deeds and to invite God into their lives (John 1:12).

That is why the gospel (God’s good news) is a message for the whole world (John 3:16; Matthew 28:19; Romans 1:16). Christ did not just die for the people from one nation. He died for the people from every nation (5:12-19). That includes both Jews and people who are not Jews (1:16). From many nations, God is making one new holy nation of people who truly know and love God (Ephesians 2:11-20; 1 Peter 2:9-10).

God is such a generous giver. However, he will not save (rescue) everyone. He works in the lives of those people who ‘call upon him’. In other words, they do not proudly try to depend upon themselves, but humbly they invite him into their lives. They believe him, and so they put their trust in him. It is those people who become the people of God. God has the most wonderful plans for their future with him (Romans 8:18-19; 1 Corinthians 2:9).

God will save everyone who calls upon his name

(Romans 10:13)

God will save (rescue) everyone who calls upon his name. That is the wonderful promise which Paul repeats from Joel 2:32. Paul emphasises that the promise is for all people, from every nation (10:12). To call upon God’s name, people must ask him for help, and they must place their trust in him. When someone does that, God accepts that person as one of his own children (John 1:12; Romans 8:14-17). That person is no longer an enemy of God, but has joined the people of God (1 Peter 2:9-10).

The subject of the Book of Joel is a terrible future attack against Israel by an enemy army. However, in this severe situation, Israel’s people return to God (Joel 2:12-17) and God gladly accepts them (Joel 2:18-27). Then God acts in judgement against the enemies that attacked them (Joel 3:1-16).

God’s promise to rescue everyone who calls upon his name appears in the middle of the book, at Joel 2:32. We might think therefore that it is only for Israel’s people. However, in Joel 2:28, God promises to send his Spirit upon ‘all people’, that is, people from every nation.

This passage from the Book of Joel was of great importance to Peter, who repeated Joel 2:28-32 in Acts 2:17-21. Peter believed that such passages are about particular future events (2 Peter 3:1-13). However, he believed that many of them are also about the whole of the present age, from Christ’s death until his return (1 Peter 1:10-12; 1 Peter 1:20; 2 Peter 3:8). During this whole period, people may call upon God’s name and God will save them (2 Peter 3:9). However, it is foolish for anyone to delay. Today God is speaking to people (Hebrews 4:7); today he wants to save (rescue) them (2 Corinthians 6:2). Their opportunity to trust him will end very suddenly (Hebrews 9:27; 2 Peter 3:10); then the judgement will come.

We must hear and believe the message in order to act on it

(Romans 10:14)

Suppose that the inhabitants of a city are in a desperate situation. A cruel enemy has surrounded their city with his army, and he intends to destroy it. It seems that they must hand over their city to him. That was what happened to Jabesh in 1 Samuel 11:1-11.

However Jabesh had a powerful king, King Saul of Israel - although nobody had yet recognised his importance. Saul made a serious promise that he would gather a vast army to rescue Jabesh.

Before Saul reached Jabesh with his army, he sent an important message to the city’s inhabitants. He was coming soon, so they must not hand over their city to the enemy.

In that message, Saul was telling them to depend on him. They should put their trust in him. He was their king and he would save them. That is also the meaning of Paul’s words when he urges people to ‘call upon the name’ of Christ (10:9-13). People should depend upon Christ because he alone can save people from their sins (evil deeds) (Matthew 1:21); from the devil (Hebrews 2:14) and from death (John 11:25-26).

Jabesh’s inhabitants were very happy when they received Saul’s message. They saw that they could have confidence in his power to save them. They depended on him only because they believed him. They believed only because they heard his message. They heard it only because some men went back into Jabesh to declare it. Those men only went because Saul sent them with his message.

So, God’s message about Christ is even more important, and even more wonderful. The task to declare that message is both a serious duty, and a great honour.

God sends people to declare the news of his salvation

(Romans 10:15)

Only God can give us a right relationship with himself. Other people might tell us his message; however, the message still comes from God alone. It is God who works in our lives (Matthew 18:11-14). It is God who gives some of his people the special task to declare his message in public (Ephesians 4:11).

God directs his people in the work that they should do for him. Their work is not all alike; he gives each of them different tasks to do (1 Corinthians 3:6-9). He places proper limits on the work that each person should do (2 Corinthians 10:13-16). As servants of God, it is their duty to obey the instructions that God gives to them.

The honour for their work belongs to God alone. However, God himself gives great honour to his loyal servants (2 Corinthians 10:17-18). It is a wonderful thing to declare God’s good news, as Isaiah says (Isaiah 52:7).

This is news of God’s salvation, in other words, news of rescue, safety and freedom for all who trust God (1:16). It is the news that, because of Christ’s death, God is ready to forgive even his enemies (5:6-10).

That news brings great comfort to us, who have so often offended against God’s holy law (3:23). We know that we deserve to suffer God’s anger because of our wicked deeds (1:18). We know that the natural result of our evil deeds is death (6:23). However, God offers us life that never ends. God wants to adopt us as children in his family (8:15-18). That is the wonderful message which God has sent his servants to declare to us.

We should pray for those people who refuse God's message

(Romans 10:16)

When people hear God’s message about Christ, their reactions to it may be very different. Some people receive that message with great joy. Their reaction also gives joy to the person who spoke God’s message to them.

However, some other people will refuse to accept the message - perhaps even in an angry or nasty manner. Of course, that may greatly upset the person who tried to tell them about Christ. It may even seem like a personal insult. However, such people are not really opposing any person - they are opposing God (compare 1 Samuel 8:7).

Of course, a really sincere servant of God cares deeply about the honour of God. It is much worse to refuse God’s kindness than to insult a person. However, the servant of God must not think too much about his own emotions. Instead, he brings the matter to God in prayer.

So, Paul refers to Isaiah’s prayer in Isaiah 53:1. (Paul shows that passage to be a prayer because he begins his translation of it with the word ‘Lord’. That is the word that the first Christians used to translate God’s most holy name from the Hebrew language.) God had told Isaiah long before that many people would refuse to accept his message (Isaiah 6:9-10). Paul too was aware of how often people refused to accept his message (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). He had often seen and suffered from people’s evil reactions to God’s message (2 Corinthians 11:23-26). However, their reaction against God’s message only caused Paul to pray even more strongly for them (9:1-3; 10:1).

There are many other similar prayers in the Bible. Paul will soon refer to Elijah’s anxious prayers (11:2-4). Such troubles must not stop our work for God - but they should cause us to pray more.

How to receive faith

(Romans 10:17)

God does the most wonderful things when people have faith in him. So, we should believe God’s promises and we should trust him.

Faith means belief and trust in God. Faith is not merely the belief that God exists (James 2:19). Rather, it is our trust in God’s word, and especially in his promises, which shows itself in our actions.

Faith, therefore, does not come from people’s desires, their ideas, their hopes or their imagination. True faith is not a religion or an attitude of the mind. We cannot obtain or increase our faith by means of our thoughts. We can only receive it as a gift from God. We receive faith when we hear God’s word. The Bible is God’s word (2 Peter 1:20-21), and from it we receive faith.

In other words, God has given us wonderful promises in the Bible. All of God’s promises are certain (2 Corinthians 1:20). God will do everything that he has promised to do. He has given us these certain promises so that we can depend on them (Hebrews 6:13-19). So, it is wise and sensible to trust what God has said (Matthew 7:24-27).

Therefore, we need to hear and to understand what God says in the Bible. That is why God sends people to explain the Bible to us. God uses his word, and their explanations of it, to increase our faith. In other words, what we hear helps us to trust God more.

The Bible's message reaches across the world

(Romans 10:18)

Paul’s subject is why so many of Israel’s people had not put their trust in Christ. That question matters because Israel is God’s special holy nation. God shows great kindness to Israel’s people (9:4-5). However, when Christ came, Israel’s people behaved like the people in other nations. Only some of them placed their trust in him, and many did not.

So, Paul tries to explain the reason. People put their trust in God when they hear his word, the Bible (10:17). So Paul next asks himself whether Israel’s people had heard God’s word.

Of course they had heard it. Paul was a witness of that fact. Israel’s people, also called the Jews, were living in many different countries, often with just small groups in each town. Both before (Acts 22:19) and after Paul became a Christian, he was travelling constantly between these places. In each place Paul first visited the synagogue, the building that the Jews erected for public prayer. In towns without a synagogue, Paul expected to find a place for prayer by the river (Acts 16:13).

Wherever the Jews went, they had taken the Bible with them. In every synagogue, they read from the Books of Moses (the first five books in the Bible) each week (Acts 15:21). The Psalms were their songs and their prayers (Mark 14:26; James 5:13). The words of the prophets (the holy men who received messages from God) were familiar to them. Many of them discussed these things constantly.

With a reference to Psalm 19:4, Paul compared this to the way that the skies give constant evidence of God’s greatness. God had given his perfect word to Israel’s people, so that they could know him (Psalm 19:7-8; Deuteronomy 30:11-14).

Is it ever right to be jealous?

(Romans 10:19)

I have known many people who became Christians in a truly extraordinary manner. Before they became Christians, they may have lived in an evil and wicked manner. They knew very little about God then; perhaps they even hated him.

Now they love God much (Luke 7:47); they are very grateful to him. They are sure that they did nothing to deserve God’s kindness to them. They insist that God’s goodness is the only explanation of the wonderful change in their lives.

Other people may find it difficult to accept what God has done for those people (compare Luke 15:21-30). In their opinion, God should only work in the lives of the best people. They cannot see why God would help an evil person (Mark 2:15-17).

So their reaction, as Moses says in Deuteronomy 32:21, is to be jealous and angry. In that passage, God tells Israel’s people that he will work in the lives of people from other nations. Many of Israel’s people did not expect that, because God has a special relationship with their nation. However, when they were not obeying God, God chose to make them jealous by his kindness to people from other nations.

Usually, it is wrong to have jealous attitudes (Deuteronomy 5:21). However, it is right and good to desire God’s kindness in our lives. Cain’s jealous attitudes caused him to be proud and angry (Genesis 4:1-9); but Jacob’s jealous attitudes caused him humbly to desire God’s help and kindness (Genesis 25:24-34 and 28:10-22). So God makes Israel’s people jealous of his work among the other nations. In other words, they will want him to show them the same kindness that he has shown to those other people. Then they will humbly ask him to help them, and they will invite him into their lives (11:11-16; 11:25-27).

By the gospel, God helps people in an extraordinary manner

(Romans 10:20)

Isaiah 55:6-7 describes how God usually deals with people. If people want God to help and to forgive them, they should ask him. They should stop their evil behaviour and they should pray to him. That is what we would always advise people to do.

However, Isaiah 65:1 boldly declares that God can work in a different way. It is not the way that we would usually expect God to act. However, God can cause people to discover his kindness, even if they were not praying to him. He can give people who did not care about him, an opportunity to trust him. He can work powerfully in anyone’s life, even before that person desires to know him.

God can work in any way that he chooses to act (Isaiah 55:8-9). Of course, his perfect character never changes (James 1:17) and he will always carry out his promises. However, God chooses the way in which he will act in people’s lives. Sometimes he acts in the most extraordinary manner.

God had to act in that way to bring people who were not Jews into a right relationship with him. The Jews are people from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God gave his law to the Jews, and their nation knew much about him (9:4-5). However, the people from other nations had their own gods, and they knew almost nothing about the real God. So God sent people with his gospel (the message about Christ) to them (Matthew 28:19-20). He had decided that he would make it possible for them to know him.

Romans 1:16 tells us that the gospel is powerful. By its power, God saves (rescues) people from every nation. By its power, God makes it possible for people to turn from their evil behaviour and to trust him. By its power, people receive a right relationship with God.

God's sad words about the people who would not obey him

(Romans 10:21)

In verse 20, Paul repeated some words from Isaiah 65:1. Now, in verse 21, he turns to the next verse, Isaiah 65:2. These are sad words. They seem to describe a father who wants to help his child. He calls his child, but the child will not come to him. The child has firmly decided that he will not obey his father.

Paul tells us that these words are about Israel. However, he will soon explain that they are not about the whole of Israel (11:3-5). The Book of Isaiah also emphasises that fact (Isaiah 65:8-10). Even at the worst times in Israel’s history, some of its people have remained loyal to God. God has chosen those people to be his people - not because of their good works, but because of his kindness (11:5-6).

However, people who do wrong and evil things on purpose can expect no kindness from God. It is evil to refuse to obey God. It is wrong and foolish to oppose or to argue against him. God is the judge of all people, and all his judgements are right and proper (Genesis 18:25).

It is particularly sad that some people in Israel were behaving in that wrong and evil way. Israel is God’s special nation, and God shows great kindness to its people (9:4-5). Israel’s people had the opportunity to teach people across the world about God, and some of them did that. However, many chose instead to behave in the same evil ways that many people in other nations were doing (2:17-24).

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