Romans 9:31

31 while God's people, who were seeking a law that would put them right with God, did not find it.

Romans 9:31 Meaning and Commentary

Romans 9:31

But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
&c.] The Israelites, the far greater part of the Jews, who were not called by the grace of God, were all very zealous of the law, called "the law of righteousness"; because the matter of it was righteous, it was so in its own nature; and because perfect obedience to it is righteousness; as also because they sought for righteousness by the deeds of it. They very violently and eagerly pursued after it, they tugged and toiled, and laboured with all their might, as persons in running a race, to get up to the law, and the righteousness of it; and yet Israel, with all the pains and labour taken,

hath not attained to the law of righteousness:
some of them fancied they had, supposing an external conformity to it, to be all that it insisted upon; not knowing the spirituality of it, that it required truth and holiness in the inward parts; and that he that offended in one point of it, was guilty of all, and therefore could not be justified by it.

Romans 9:31 In-Context

29 It is as Isaiah had said before, "If the Lord Almighty had not left us some descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah."

30 So we say that the Gentiles, who were not trying to put themselves right with God, were put right with him through faith;

31 while God's people, who were seeking a law that would put them right with God, did not find it.

32 And why not? Because they did not depend on faith but on what they did. And so they stumbled over the "stumbling stone"

33 that the scripture speaks of: "Look, I place in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall. But whoever believes in him will not be disappointed."