10
“My Heart’s Desire and Plea to God for My Fellow Israelites Is That They Would Be Saved”
1 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and plea to God for them is that they would be saved.
2 For I can vouch from personal experience that they are for God very zealous, yet their zeal is not in line with an accurate understanding.
3 Indeed, failing to understand the righteousness of God, and doing all they can to establish their own, they have to God’s righteousness refused to submit.
4 The Messiah is the goal, you see, of Torah, unto righteousness for all who place their faith in him.
5 Moses, in this regard, writes about the righteousness that is by Torah: “The person who does these things will have life by them.”+
6 The righteousness that is by faith, however, speaks in this way: “Don’t say in ˢyour heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ”+ (that is, in order to bring down the Messiah),
7 or, ‘Who will go down into the Abyss?’ ”+ (that is, in order to bring the Messiah up from the dead).
8 But what does it say? “The message is near ˢyou, on your lips and in your heart”+ (that is, the message of faith that we are proclaiming).
9 For if ˢyou acknowledge your allegiance with your lips by professing Jesus as Lord, and have faith in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 It is with his heart, you see, that a person has faith, resulting in righteousness, and it is with his lips that a person acknowledges his allegiance, resulting in salvation.
11 Indeed, the Scripture says, “All who place their faith in him will not be disappointed.”+
12 The same terms apply to both Jew and Gentile, you see, because the same Lord is Lord over all mankind, giving generously of his riches to all who call on him.
13 Indeed, “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”+
14 Now then, how can people call on one in whom they have not placed their faith? And how can people place their faith in one about whom they have not heard? And how can people hear without someone proclaiming the message?
15 And how can messengers proclaim the message if they aren’t sent out? Just as it written: “How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the gospel!”+
16 Not all have obeyed the gospel, however. Isaiah, after all, says, “Lord, who has had faith in our message?”+
17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the proclamation of the Messiah.
18 On the other hand, I ask, “Have people really not heard the message?” Indeed they have:
“It is to all the earth that their voice has gone out;
it is to the very ends of the world that their message has gone forth.”+
19 On the other hand, I ask, “Did Israel really not understand?” First, Moses says,
“I will stir ᵖyou to jealousy by those who are not a nation;
it is with a foolish nation that I will provoke ᵖyou to anger.”+
20 Isaiah, moreover, is so bold as to say,
“I was found by those who weren’t even trying to find me;
I became well-known to those who weren’t even asking me for guidance.”+
21 Concerning Israel, however, he says,
“Without cease I have held out my hands
to a people who are disobedient and defiant.”+