Latest Commentaries

Paul has moved from specific gifting to overarching principles that apply to all believers as we pursue righteousness, this harmonious living, through faith. 

The body of believers can only work in full harmony with one another if each member is using their gift to serve one another. These gifts are given to us by the grace of God for His purpose.

Paul is telling believers what it looks like to pursue righteousness (harmonious living) through faith. One major feature is humility, recognizing who God is and what He has given you. We should realize we are each one part of a living body.

This verse shows that we live out God’s will when we change our thoughts to God’s thoughts. We live life to please God, rather than living as the world dictates and seeking its rewards. The world will always pressure us to live sinfully and selfishly, but to live the good life God wants from us requires changing how we behave—by changing our thoughts.

Paul is giving believers a picture of what it looks like to pursue God’s righteousness by faith. Righteousness means harmonious living or right living; the first ingredient for this harmony is sacrificial living.

God is God. It is impossible to completely understand Him. He is all powerful and He doesn’t owe anything to anyone. He will keep His covenants. He will continue to pursue those He has called.

We are all sinners—Jews and Gentiles. We choose to sin. Gentiles are not better than the Israelites. God has shown mercy to Gentiles, nevertheless, and for now He has set aside His people, who have rejected Him. But that does not mean He has abandoned them. God allows us the freedom of choice, but He also shows us limitless grace and forgiveness.

Israel is currently under a temporary disconnection of fellowship with God. Until the time of the Gentiles ends, He will keep Israel set aside from Him. But eventually God will redeem Israel from her sins and bring salvation to her.

If we let ourselves become arrogant, if we lord over others, God will discipline us. God is in the business of redeeming. He will bring Israel back to Him; therefore Gentiles should not look down on unbelieving Jews.

Just because Gentiles have been adopted into God’s family does not mean they are superior to the children who have wandered away. Jews have rejected God, and God has taken this opportunity to save Gentiles. Gentiles are no better than the Jews. Jews are no worse than Gentiles. All of humanity needs salvation, all men are sinners.

When Israel is restored, it will be like a dead body coming back to life. God is a God who redeems and restores.

Israel has not been cast aside forever. They have sinned, but through their sin God is ushering the Gentiles into salvation. In part, God has done this to make the Israelites jealous, so they would remember their need for Him. Even so, God has worked Israel’s transgression to richly benefit the Gentiles, and He will work to restore Israel to Himself. Imagine how much greater that restoration will be. God’s sovereignty works the sin of man into blessings for the world and for Israel.

Israel has sought righteousness through following the Law’s rules and has failed to obtain it. Only the remnant that God has chosen have found righteousness (through faith). God has allowed the rest of His chosen people to rebel against Him.

God has not rejected His chosen people. He foreknew them, He chose them as His blessed nation, so He has not given up on them. God has chosen a new remnant through His own Grace, not because any human deserves it.

God has not rejected Israel. Paul, both an Israelite and an apostle of Jesus Christ, is evidence that this cannot be true.

Paul is making it very clear that the Jewish people have heard this message of faith but have chosen to reject it.

Paul states an obvious point, that we can’t believe something that we have never heard. But it is also the case that we can hear and not believe.

Paul is restating to his audience of believers in Rome that there is no distinction between the Jews and Greeks who believe; God is Lord of both, and anyone who calls upon Him gains riches and salvation.

Here, Paul restates the lesson of the previous verses, Romans 10:6-8, with a saying in the form of a chiasm.

Paul uses the words of the Lawgiver Moses to demonstrate that even the law shows that true righteousness does not come by the law, but by faith.