Romans 10

Romans 10:1-21 . SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED--HOW ISRAEL CAME TO MISS SALVATION, AND THE GENTILES TO FIND IT.

1. Brethren, my heart's desire--The word here expresses "entire complacency," that in which the heart would experience full satisfaction.
and prayer--"supplication."
to God for Israel--"for them" is the true reading; the subject being continued from the close of the preceding chapter.
is, that they may be saved--"for their salvation." Having before poured forth the anguish of his soul at the general unbelief of his nation and its dreadful consequences ( Romans 9:1-3 ), he here expresses in the most emphatic terms his desire and prayer for their salvation.

2. For I bear them record--or, "witness," as he well could from his own sad experience.
that they have a zeal of--"for"
God, but not according to knowledge--(Compare Acts 22:3 , 26:9-11 , Galatians 1:13 Galatians 1:14 ). He alludes to this well-meaning of his people, notwithstanding their spiritual blindness, not certainly to excuse their rejection of Christ and rage against His saints, but as some ground of hope regarding them. (See 1 Timothy 1:13 ).

3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness--that is, for the justification of the guilty
and going about--"seeking"
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God--The apostle views the general rejection of Christ by the nation as one act.

4. For Christ is the end--the object or aim.
of the law for--justifying
righteousness to every one that believeth--that is, contains within Himself all that the law demands for the justification of such as embrace Him, whether Jew or Gentile ( Galatians 3:24 ).

5-10. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man that doeth--"hath done"
those things--which it commands.
shall live in them--( Leviticus 18:5 ). This is the one way of justification and life--by "the righteousness which is of (or, by our own obedience to) the law."

6. But the--justifying
righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise--"speaketh thus"--its language or import is to this effect (quoting in substance Deuteronomy 30:13 Deuteronomy 30:14 ).
Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down, &c.--that is, "Ye have not to sigh over the impossibility of attaining to justification; as if one should say, oh! if I could but get someone to mount up to heaven and fetch me down Christ, there might be some hope, but since that cannot be, mine is a desperate case."

7. Or, Who shall descend, &c.--another case of impossibility, suggested by Proverbs 30:4 , and perhaps also Amos 9:2 --probably proverbial expressions of impossibility (compare Psalms 139:7-10 , Proverbs 24:7 , &c.).

8. But what saith it? It saith--continuing the quotation from Deuteronomy 30:14 .
The word is nigh thee--easily accessible.
in thy mouth--when thou confessest Him.
and in thine heart--when thou believest on Him. Though it is of the law which Moses more immediately speaks in the passage quoted, yet it is of the law as Israel shall be brought to look upon it when the Lord their God shall circumcise their heart "to love the Lord their God with all their heart" ( Romans 10:6 ); and thus, in applying it, the apostle (as OLSHAUSEN truly observes) is not merely appropriating the language of Moses, but keeping in the line of his deeper thought.
that is, the word of faith, which we preach--that is, the word which men have to believe for salvation (compare 1 Timothy 4:6 ).