Romans 10
Israel has the zeal but not the knowledge; the word of faith is near; and faith comes from hearing, hearing through the word about Christ — and someone must be sent.
Summary
Romans 10 opens with Paul's stated desire: his heart's desire and prayer to God is for Israel's salvation. He grants Israeli zeal — they have a real zeal for God — but argues it is not according to knowledge. They have not recognized the righteousness that comes from God, which is Christ himself, and have sought instead to establish their own righteousness through the law. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. The verse — Christ is the telos of the law — is one of the most debated in the letter; end can mean termination (Christ abolished the law) or goal (Christ is what the law was aiming at), and scholars argue both.
The central section of the chapter is a statement of the word of faith Paul proclaims and its universal reach. The confessional formula — Jesus is Lord; God raised him from the dead — is available to everyone: there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, the same Lord is Lord of all. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Then the missionary chain: calling requires belief, belief requires hearing, hearing requires a preacher, preaching requires being sent. The quotation from Isaiah — how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news — is Paul's authorization for the whole Gentile mission. But Israel has heard — the message has gone out to the ends of the earth — and has not believed. Moses and Isaiah both foretold this; the chapter ends with God's own voice from Isaiah: all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.
- Romans 1Chapter 1 is the opening of a long letter to a community Paul did not found and has not yet visited.
- Romans 2Chapter 2 is the turn in Paul's argument.
- Romans 3Chapter 3 is the hinge of the letter's first movement.
- Romans 4Chapter 4 is Paul's exegetical demonstration of justification by faith, built entirely from the figure of Abraham.
- Romans 5Chapter 5 opens the second major movement of the letter (chapters 5-8), which draws out the consequences of the justification argued in chapters 1-4.
- Romans 6Chapter 6 opens with Paul's most pointed rhetorical question: Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? The question follows logically from the last verse of chapter 5, where he said grace abounds where sin increases, and it is the objection he expects.
- Romans 7Chapter 7 addresses the role of the law in the new life.
- Romans 8Chapter 8 is the climax Paul has been building toward since chapter 1.
- Romans 9Chapter 9 opens the three-chapter meditation on Israel — the hardest sustained argument in the letter.
- Romans 10Chapter 10 continues the argument of chapter 9 but shifts from divine sovereignty to human responsibility.
- Romans 11Chapter 11 brings the three-chapter meditation on Israel to its resolution.
- Romans 12Chapter 12 opens the practical movement of the letter with the word therefore, gathering everything from chapters 1-11 into a single imperative.
- Romans 13Chapter 13 contains the verses that have generated more controversy in the history of Romans' reception than any other passage in the letter.
- Romans 14Chapter 14 addresses a concrete dispute in the Roman church.
- Romans 15Chapter 15 continues directly from chapter 14.
- Romans 16Chapter 16 is the longest closing greeting in any of Paul's letters.