They tried to achieve their own perfection
1 ① My brothers and sisters, I wish with all my heart that the Jews be saved and I pray to God for them. 2I can testify that they are zealous for God, but this is not the way. 3They don’t know God’s way of righteousness and they try to achieve their own righteousness: this is why they did not enter God’s way of righteousness. 4For Christ is the aim of the Law and it is then that the believer reaches this righteousness.
5Moses, indeed, speaks of becoming just through the Law; he writes: The one who obeys the Law will find life through it. 6But the righteousness coming from the faith says instead: Do not say in your heart: Who will go up to heaven? (because in fact Christ came down from there) 7or who will go down to the world below? (because in fact Christ came up from among the dead). 8True righteousness coming from faith also says: The word of God is near you, on your lips and in your hearts. This is the message that we preach, and this is faith.
9You are saved if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart you believe that God raised him from the dead. 10By believing from the heart, you obtain true righteousness; by confessing the faith with your lips you are saved. 11For Scripture says: No one who believes in him will be ashamed. 12Here there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; all have the same Lord, who is very generous with whoever calls on him. 13Truly,all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
14But how can they call upon the name of the Lord without having believed in him? And how can they believe in him without having first heard about him? And how will they hear about him if no one preaches about him? 15And how will they preach about him if no one sends them? As Scripture says: How beautiful are the feet of the messenger of good news. 16Although not everyone obeyed the good news, as Isaiah said: Lord, who has believed in our preaching? 17So, faith comes from preaching, and preaching is rooted in the word of Christ.
18I ask: Have the Jews not heard? But of course they have. Because the voice of those preaching resounded all over the earth and their voice was heard to the ends of the world. 19Then I must ask: Did Israel not understand? Moses was the first to say: I will make you jealous of a nation that is not a nation, I will excite your anger against a crazy nation. 20Isaiah dares to add more: I was found by those not looking for me, I have shown myself to those not asking for me. 21While referring to Israel, the same Isaiah says: I hold out my hands the whole day long to a disobedient and rebellious people.
- Rom 10,1 Paul continues to develop the same theme of Israel's unbelief using the Jewish method of discussion of the time. He distinguishes in the Bible various lines of thought. Apparently a great number of Old Testament texts only speak of fidelity in keeping the commandments but other texts make more of the gratuity of God's gift. This once more makes clear that there is not one religion of the Bible: it is not enough to read any text and take it literally (which is called fundamentalism). The Bible gives us a series of testimonies where we recognize a path and a pedagogy from God. Throughout the centuries and in different cultures, Jewish and then Greek, he leads his people to the fullness of truth. We have, perhaps, become used to a progressive view of history, rather as if all had to develop or radiate from what exists. Yet Jesus has shown that times succeed one another but are not alike. If there is progress, and in a sense that is evident, it happens through upheavals and changes of perspectives. Even in the Church there have been turning points in the course of this century. We must surely abandon the idea of a Church which, starting from western Christianity, would by means of missions gradually extend to the rest of the world. Paul points out a different perspective: the current of grace could desert zones it had previously enriched to make other lands fruitful. He affirms that it is not caprice on God's part; for him it is a matter of bringing the whole of humanity to maturity and he alone knows the way. We note at the same time how he defends the privileged role of the Jewish people. The same could be said of our ancient Christian bastions: their role, much less prominent, surely remains decisive, in as much as a remnant still remains faithful.
