What then shall we say? That [they of the] nations, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained righteousness, but [the] righteousness that is on the principle of faith.
Paul closes his argument in chapter 9 with a result that should shock any religious mind. Gentiles — the nations outside Israel — never chased righteousness, yet they have it, while Israel chased hardest and fell behind.
The verse states the outcome of a long argument in one line.
The apostle sums up his argument. He shows that the Gentiles have obtained the blessing on the principle of faith. Israel has missed the blessing by seeking it on the principle of law. Trusting in their own righteousness they refused grace and rejected the One who came in lowly grace.
The people who obtained righteousness were not even looking for it. So where did it come from?
And Gentiles have received it, though they had not followed after righteousness. By grace they have still attained righteousness, receiving it in the gospel. For the gospel does not ask for righteousness: it brings it, and faith takes it. Simple, yet profound truth!
It is not their own righteousness either.
Gentiles, for all their dark ignorance and complete indifference to God, were brought into the right way. It was not a way of law, but righteousness on the principle of faith — righteousness outside themselves, by the grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Faith and works are not two roads to the same place. One gives glory to God; the other ends in self-righteousness.
The Gentiles believed, and so gave glory to God. The Jews clung to works, though they were far from what the law demanded. So they exposed their own empty self-righteousness, and they also stumbled at the stumbling-stone, despising their own Messiah. The law is not of faith, but the blessing is. So the blessing is open to the Gentile who believes, not to the Jew who does not believe.
The same writer notes that grace reaches the worst of people without lowering God's standard.
Grace goes out openly to the lowest and most careless. It gives and forms what is good, and it puts away the evil, to the praise of divine mercy. Yet it does all this righteously. This is no righteousness of law; it is righteousness of faith. So it is open to those who never knew the law. It is open too to those in Israel who broke down about themselves, and whom God taught to receive only of His grace in Christ.
Israel ran hard in the right direction and finished nowhere.
But Israel had followed after the law of righteousness. They only proved the sad truth that pursuing is not attaining. They still seek to follow, but it is a pathetic sight. Hobbling on their lame legs, they have dropped so far behind that righteousness is only a dim speck in the far distance. Refusing it as a gift, they still vainly pursue it as a goal.
This failure is not locked in the past. Anyone can repeat it, and the sign is that peace with God never comes.
The Jews sought righteousness by keeping the law, but never reached it. Is it not so to this day? All who take Jewish ground, and seek to be righteous by keeping law — no matter what law — never reach it. They can never be sure they are righteous enough for God to justify them, and so they never attain peace with God. The more religion an unconverted man has, the harder it is for the gospel to reach him.
Religion itself can become the trap.
A man's religion may be his ruin. His very strictness of life may land him in destruction. Why? Because the religious man tends to take pride in his religiousness, and the moral man in his morality. So he goes completely blind to the truth that he is a real sinner before a holy God.
This reversal did not catch God off guard. Israel's own prophets had written it down in advance.
Their own prophets were quite enough to explain the state of things around them. They also proved that Jewish rebelliousness against God was foretold just as surely as Gentile acceptance of His mercy. These are the great and unchanging marks of the present time. Christianity assumes these marks; Judaism denies them. In the Gentiles grace shows itself and triumphs; the Jews for the present refuse it and slander it.
- Not pursued. Those who obtained righteousness were not chasing it. That reversal is the whole point of the verse.
- Brought, not demanded. The gospel does not ask you for righteousness. It brings righteousness, and faith takes it.
- Open door. The blessing runs on faith, not on law. So it reaches people who never had the law, and Israelites who give up on themselves.
- Pursuit fails. Israel ran after righteousness by law and never arrived; refusing it as a gift left them chasing it as a goal.
- The modern warning. Religion chased as an achievement blinds a person to his own sin. Strictness itself can be the ruin, and peace with God never comes.
But Israel, pursuing after a law of righteousness, has not attained to [that] law.
Paul has just said that Gentiles who were not even looking for righteousness found it. Now he turns to Israel, the nation that ran hard after a law and never arrived. So how can a lifelong pursuit end in failure, while people who never chased the goal reach it?
One writer sets both halves of the reversal side by side: the runners who lost, and the onlookers who won.
It is interesting that the apostle Paul, in Romans 9:30-33, takes up this passage to explain how Israel failed. Israel pursued a law of righteousness. Gentiles did not pursue it, yet they attained it. The Gentiles believed, and so gave glory to God. Israel clung to works, though they were far from what the law demanded. So they exposed their own empty self-righteousness. They also stumbled at the stumbling-stone, despising their own Messiah. For the law is not of faith, but the blessing is, and so it is open to the Gentile who believes, not to the Jew who does not believe.
Older translations read "a law of righteousness" where the ESV has "a law that would lead to righteousness." One commentator weighs the small word Paul left out.
Verse 31. "A law of righteousness" — such a thing, not "the." So they did not attain to any.
The mistake lay in the job they gave the law. Another writer contrasts two tools.
They misused the law. They treated it as a ladder to climb up into righteousness, instead of a plumb-line to test all the righteousness they thought they had. Israel had missed righteousness by law, and Gentiles had reached righteousness by faith.
The verse puts two verbs against each other: they followed, and they did not attain. One writer says the chase is still going on.
But Israel had followed after the law of righteousness — only to prove the sad fact that pursuing is not attaining. They still seek to follow, but it is a pitiful sight. They limp along on lame legs. They have dropped so far behind that righteousness is only a dim speck in the far distance. Refusing it as a gift, they still vainly pursue it as an object.
Israel's failure has two easy explanations, and one writer rules both out.
Israel then has not come to a law of righteousness. "Why?" As it was through no lack of privileges from God, so it was through no lack of their own efforts in pursuing it. But they pursued wrongly. They overlooked both God and themselves, as unbelief always does. They forgot what is due to His majesty, and what flows from His nature. They forgot too what sin has done to man: the moral ruin and helplessness, as well as the guilt.
The verse describes more than one nation in the past. One writer shows what a person on this road never gets.
The Jews sought righteousness by keeping the law, but never reached it. Is it not so to this day? All who take Jewish ground and seek to be righteous by keeping law — no matter what law — never reach it. They can never be sure they are righteous enough for God to justify them, and so they never attain to peace with God. The more religion an unconverted man has, the harder it is for the gospel to reach him.
Another writer states the danger even more sharply.
A man's religion may be his ruin. His very strictness of life may land him in eternal ruin. Why? Because the religious man tends to be proud of his religion, and the moral man proud of his morality. So he becomes completely blind to what he really is: a sinner before a holy God.
- Pursuing. Israel ran hard and had every advantage. They did not fail through laziness or lack of privileges. They failed because they pursued wrongly.
- Missing. Israel made the law a ladder to climb into righteousness. God gave it as a plumb-line to test the righteousness they thought they already had.
- Nothing. The original says "a law of righteousness", not "the". They did not just miss one law. They arrived at no such law at all.
- Refusing. God offers righteousness as a gift. Chase it as a prize instead, and it stays a dim speck in the distance.
- Repeating. Anyone who seeks righteousness by keeping law — any law — walks the same road. He never arrives at peace with God. Religion itself can blind a person to his need.
Wherefore? Because [it was] not on the principle of faith, but as of works. They have stumbled at the stumblingstone,
Paul has just said that Gentiles who never chased righteousness found it, while Israel, who chased it hard, came up empty. Verse 32 gives the reason in two parts: a wrong principle, and a Person they tripped over.
Israel had every privilege, and they tried hard. The question is why the effort failed.
Israel, then, has not arrived at a law of righteousness. "Why?" It was not for lack of privileges from God. And it was not for lack of their own effort in pursuing it. But they pursued wrongly. They overlooked, as unbelief always does, both God and themselves. They forgot what is due to His majesty, and what flows from His nature. They also forgot what sin has done to man: his moral ruin, his inability, and his guilt. … The last thing a sinner likes is to take all the blame for his evil on himself. Of all men, the Jews were the least willing to do it, and the most stubborn in their own thoughts. Why, they reasoned, should we have the law of God, if not to gain acceptance with God by faithfully keeping its commands? What else is its value and its use?
The law was not the problem. They put it to a use it was never made for.
Israel stumbled at that stumbling-stone, which was Christ. They also misused the law. They treated it as a ladder to climb up into righteousness. But it was a plumb-line, meant to test all the righteousness they thought they had. Israel had missed righteousness by law, and Gentiles had reached righteousness by faith.
Christ came low. That lowness is what they tripped over.
They flatly rejected God's principle of faith, and so they stumbled at the Stumbling Stone. That stone was Christ in His grace, come low enough for men to trip over Him. His humiliation expressed both His perfect grace and the need that grace came to meet. In their condition, that very grace became a stumbling block to them, and God had declared it would be so… The nation was filled with self-righteousness. To such men, the fullness of God's love shown in Him could be nothing else. They did not know their need. So they rejected the very goodness that met it — grace — because it was grace.
It happened in Jesus' own lifetime. Many who had been following Him gave up and walked away.
The Messiah had indeed come, but in a form completely unexpected. They had looked for a King, and here was a carpenter's Son! What is more, He hinted from time to time at His coming death… "They have stumbled over the stumbling stone," the Apostle said later (Rom. 9:32). Those who followed the Lord Jesus for merely earthly reasons gave it up at once. If death really lay before Him, there was nothing in Him to interest them.
The same mistake did not die with Israel.
The Jews sought righteousness by keeping the law, but never reached it. Is it not the same to this day? All who take Jewish ground, and seek to be righteous by keeping law — no matter what law — never reach it. They can never be sure they are righteous enough for God to justify them, and so they never come to peace with God. The more religion an unconverted man has, the harder it is for the gospel to reach him.
The stone does not only trip people. What ruins the proud is the very thing that holds up the one who trusts it.
Unbelief of grace — self-righteousness — is far more inexcusable now than in the past. For Christ the Son of God has come, and He has accomplished redemption… But men still stumble at the stone of stumbling, the Lord Jesus, just as Israel stumbled. Even baptized men stumble. If they felt their real state, how they would bless God for such a Saviour! But they were proud, and blind as well. They were satisfied with their own obedience, or at least with their own efforts. They stumbled at the stumbling-stone; but the same Christ delivers the believer from hurt, from shame, from confusion.
- Effort — Israel did not fail for lack of privilege or lack of trying. They chased righteousness the wrong way. They were blind to what God is and to what sin has made of man.
- Method — the law is a plumb-line to test righteousness, not a ladder to climb. Used as a ladder, it never reaches the top.
- Person — the stumbling stone is Christ, who came low enough to be tripped over. His grace met a need the self-righteous would not admit.
- Pride — they rejected grace because it was grace. Religion without a sense of sin still shuts the gospel out.
- Refuge — the same stone that trips the proud holds the believer up. Christ delivers him from hurt, shame and confusion.
according as it is written, Behold, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling and rock of offence and he that believes on him shall not be ashamed.
Paul ends his argument about Israel by quoting Isaiah. God Himself laid a stone in Zion — and the same stone ruins some people while it keeps others from shame.
The location matters. God did not lay the stone among distant nations. He laid it at the centre of Israel's own national life — and the stone is a Person.
God is gracious, but holy; He is faithful, but righteous. The apostle refers to Isaiah to show that God would "lay in Zion a stumbling-stone." It is in Zion that He lays it. It is not among the Gentiles, but in the honoured centre of Israel's national life. The stumbling-stone would be found there. What was to be the stumbling-stone? It could hardly be the law: that was the boast of Israel. There could be only one satisfactory answer. The stumbling-stone was their despised and rejected Messiah.
Two pictures stand side by side here. Each has its own word behind it.
Jehovah of hosts was to be a sanctuary for the believing remnant. But to both the houses of Israel He would be "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence" — He would become this through their unbelief... In Isaiah 8:14 the word is negeph, 'the act of stumbling.' When the Lord was on earth He became this stone of stumbling to the Jews... For the same thing the word skandalon is used: it literally means 'the catch of a trap,' which ensnares when touched.
A stone only trips you if it lies low. That is how Christ came.
They flatly rejected God's principle of faith, and so they stumbled at the Stumbling Stone. Christ in His grace had come low enough to be stumbled over. That humiliation expressed His perfect grace, and it also expressed the need which that grace came to meet. It was the very thing which in their condition became a stumbling block to them, and God had declared that this would be so.
The verse before this one says Israel chased righteousness the wrong way. Part of the trouble was what they thought the law was for.
Israel stumbled at that stumbling-stone, which was Christ. They also misused the law. They treated it as a ladder to climb into righteousness, instead of a measuring line to test all their supposed righteousness. Israel had missed righteousness by law, and Gentiles had reached righteousness by faith.
The failure went deeper than broken rules.
Their cutting off does not simply follow from the scripture. It results from Israel's own conduct. It came not only from their failure to keep the law, which they undertook to do under the fearful penalties of Sinai. Far more, it came because they rejected their own Messiah, and so forfeited their title to the promises.
Paul's closing line comes from Isaiah, where the wording is different.
The believer is not ashamed. This is quoted from Isaiah 28:16... The "make haste" of Isaiah becomes "ashamed" in Romans, and "confounded" in Peter. A good illustration of how New Testament quotations enlarge the sense of Old Testament predictions. Anyone who believed Isaiah's word would never have to flee in panic before the avenging judgment. Neither shall we.
Isaiah describes the same stone in much warmer terms too.
It is instructive to notice Isaiah 28:16, from which verse 33 is quoted. There "the stone" is spoken of as "a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation."... But Romans 9 adds a further thought: such a stone must also be "a stumbling-stone and rock of offense." Christ came so low in humiliation that people set on their own honour and self-righteousness take offence. That offence works only their own ruin. They will be brought to a humiliating shame in the end. But "whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame."
Paul wrote this about Israel, but the same stone still stands where people can trip over it.
But men, baptized men, stumble still, as Israel stumbled, at the stone of stumbling, the Lord Jesus. If they felt their own real state, how they would bless God for such a Saviour! But they were proud, and blind as well, satisfied with their own obedience — at any rate with their own efforts. They stumbled at the stumbling-stone; but the same Christ delivers the believer from hurt, from shame, from confusion.
- One Stone. God laid it, and He laid it in Zion — at the centre of Israel's privilege, not somewhere far off. The Stone is the rejected Messiah.
- Laid low. He came low enough to be stumbled over, and that lowliness expressed His grace.
- Two responses. Israel treated the law as a ladder to climb, not a line to measure by. Those who worked for righteousness tripped; those who believed received it.
- Two outcomes. The same Stone ruins the self-righteous. For faith it is tried, precious, a sure foundation.
- One promise. Isaiah's "shall not make haste" becomes "will not be put to shame" — no panic, no confusion, for anyone resting on Him.