Theological Proposition/Focus: The gospel really is a simple message, but that doesn't mean it is something that everyone believes.

Christ Focus: Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God, received not by human effort or religious zeal, but by faith alone. He is both the content of the gospel and the object of our faith.

Introduction

Image:

Growing up, we used to go hiking in the mountains all the time. With four boys, we did not always follow the trail. We would wander off, confident we could find a faster or more interesting route. But my dad always stayed on the trail.

And almost every time, our confidence ran into reality. We would hit a stream, a steep drop-off, or a wall of rock that forced us to turn around and backtrack—only to find my dad steadily making progress toward the destination.

It was fun, but it taught us something important: different people can want the same destination, but not every path actually gets you there. Wanting to arrive is not enough; you have to follow the right path.

When two people aim for the same destination—one following the directions given, the other insisting on their own route because they are confident and passionate—only one will arrive. Sincerity does not determine success; the path does.

Need: We assume sincerity, effort, or passion must count for something with God. Yet Scripture confronts us with a surprising truth: zeal is not the same as faith, and simplicity is often harder to accept than complexity. The right path is the path of faith.

Preview: In Romans 9:30-10:21, Paul shows us three realities about the gospel:

1. Faith and zeal are not the same.

2. God's way of salvation is remarkably simple.

3. Because the gospel is simple, we bear responsibility to share it.

Setting the Stage:

Both our culture—and the church itself—often suffer from a subtle but serious fallacy: pragmatism. Pragmatism assumes that something is true, right, or good simply because it seems to work. It confuses usefulness or perceived success with objective truth.

That way of thinking is especially dangerous when evaluating God's ways. Something may appear ineffective, inefficient, or unpopular, but if it is God's way, it is the right way—regardless of how well it seems to be working.

In Romans 9:30-10:21, Paul addresses this issue in a very specific context. Israel is God's chosen people. They received direct revelation from God, His commands, and His promises. And yet, by and large, they rejected the gospel.

From a purely pragmatic perspective, this looks like failure. If the gospel were effective, shouldn't it have been embraced first by those most prepared for it? Does Israel's rejection mean God's plan failed?

Paul's answer is clear: absolutely not. The problem was not a lack of effort, knowledge, or religious passion. The problem was a misplaced trust—pursuing righteousness by works rather than receiving it by faith. In the end, what matters is not whether something seems to work, but whether it is God's way.

Text: Romans 9:30-10:21 read with each point

Paul's response to pragmatism as an evaluation of God's way: "sorry, it doesn't work like that."

Paul is addressing Israel's rejection of Christ. The problem is not a lack of religious effort or knowledge, but a misplaced trust—pursuing righteousness by works rather than receiving it by faith. In other words, at the end of the day, what matters is doing it God's way.

Body

Faith or zeal — Faith and zeal are not the same thing (9:30-10:4).

The Gentiles attained righteousness without pursuing it—by faith (9:30).

Have you ever worked incredibly hard at something that seemed to come naturally to someone else? Paul paints a striking picture in Romans 9:30 using the language of pursuit and attainment.

Imagine a race in the hot, arid Mediterranean climate. You see a runner ahead of you and decide it is time to advance your position. You surge forward—your breathing quickens, your heart rate rises, sweat pours. This is effort. This is pursuit. But as you strain, you realize something unsettling: the runner ahead of you is not straining at all. They are gaining ground effortlessly, almost as if they are out for a casual jog.

That is the shock of verse 30. Israel pursued righteousness with intensity and discipline, while the Gentiles—who were not even pursuing righteousness—attained it by faith. Paul's point is not that effort is bad, but that effort aimed at the wrong goal or grounded in the wrong method cannot produce righteousness.

To understand this, we must understand what Paul means by righteousness. In contemporary usage, righteousness is often synonymous with behavior—being moral, ethical, upright, or virtuous. Merriam-Webster defines righteousness as "acting in accord with divine or moral law; free from guilt or sin" (Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003). In other words, righteousness is something a person does.

This understanding was common in the ancient world as well. In Plato's Republic, righteousness is something pursued and is contrasted with injustice (Thielman, Frank S. Romans. Zondervan Academic, 2018, 478). But Paul radically reshapes the concept. For Paul, righteousness is not fundamentally about behavior but about belief. It is not achieved through works but received through faith. This subtle shift is decisive.

Israel pursued righteousness but missed it by seeking it through zeal (9:31-33).

Paul continues the imagery of pursuit in verse 31. Israel pursued the goal of righteousness, but they failed to attain it—not because the goal was wrong, but because the path was wrong.

The Law was never given as a means of making someone righteous. Its function was to reveal sin, not to remove it. Israel was running hard, but they were running on a path that could never lead to the finish line.

Imagine a trail filled with loose stones that cause runners to stumble repeatedly. At some point, wisdom calls for a change of course. Yet Israel pressed forward headlong. The problem was not their pace, but their path.

When hiking in the mountains, there were times when a trail had been closed or rerouted. Often, the entrance to the old trail was intentionally torn up to discourage travelers from continuing down a dangerous route. This is the image Paul evokes. God placed Christ directly in Israel's path—not to cause failure, but to redirect them toward the true way.

In fact, Paul uses a really cool construction to make this argument. Paul quotes from two different texts in Romans 9:33. The first, Isaiah 8:14, speaks of God coming to bring judgment on the corrupt leaders of Israel who trust in themselves more than God. The second, Isaiah 28:16, alludes positively to the laying of a stone that people can have confidence in. In Mark 12:10-11, Jesus alluded to Himself as the stumbling stone.

Let me try to bring all of this together. The Israelites were walking the path of the Law, trying to take that path to righteousness. Two thousand years ago, God intervened and placed a pretty big rock in that path to steer the people down the path of faith. Instead of trusting that rock in the path, the people tried to go right over it and have stumbled all over the place. Righteousness cannot be attained through the Law!

If it is not God's way, it is not the way—even if you are zealous about it (10:1-4).

Paul does not approach this reality with cold detachment. In Romans 10:1-4, he expresses genuine sorrow and continual prayer for his people. Their failure to attain righteousness deeply grieves him.

The fact that God's own people are not attaining righteousness is incredibly sad. In fact, Paul responds by telling us that he prays they will come to understand and accept God's provision of righteousness. Right here, already we have a profound lesson we can take away. A lot of people stumble over things like the problem of evil, the debate about predestination, or sorrow over loved ones who are stuck in sin. Paul's answer is: don't blame God, don't get more involved in the debate, don't forget the most important thing you can do—pray for those people.

Paul explains the core problem in verses 2-3: Israel has zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Their passion is real, but it is misdirected. They are insisting on establishing their own righteousness rather than submitting to the righteousness God provides.

Paul calls this a lack of knowledge because the Law itself points beyond itself—to Christ. Israel understood the surface demands of the Law but missed its deeper meaning. They were sincere and committed, yet still wrong because they refused God's way in favor of their own.

Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes (10:4). Zeal cannot justify, and effort cannot save. Only faith in Christ can.

MTR: Do a gut check—are you trusting in faith, or in your zeal?

Simple — God's way of salvation really is simple (10:5-13)

Righteousness without faith is unattainable, but righteousness by faith is accessible (5-8).

How is it that Paul can say the Law points to Christ? What is Paul's evidence? Leviticus 18:5 says, "Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord."

Within its context, Leviticus 18 is a section on sexual purity, with special emphasis on the demand to live differently than the Egyptians they were leaving behind and the Canaanites they were replacing. By the time Paul wrote Romans, some Jewish interpreters had begun to see this passage as a reference to eternal life for those who followed the Law ¹. In Paul's argument, however, he has already established that nobody keeps the Law, and therefore by the Law, nobody can secure eternal life.

With that background, Paul dives into some deep and rich imagery in verses 6, 7, and 8. As Moses was bringing the book of Deuteronomy to a close, he wrote in Deuteronomy 30:11-14:

"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?' No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it."

Moses told the people that they did not have to guess at what God was looking for from them, because it was not secret knowledge hidden in heaven or in a distant land. It was right there before them. But there is more. In Deuteronomy 30:1-10, Moses essentially told the people that they would fail to keep the Law, but a time was coming when God would circumcise their hearts (v. 6). The end of verse 10 calls upon the people to turn to the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul, and immediately following that, Moses tells them this is entirely possible.

Paul, in a brilliant use of Scripture, understands that while the Law itself was not something the people could consistently keep, turning to God was—and Moses knew it. In fact, Paul says, you do not have to go to heaven yourself to find Christ or raise Him from the dead yourself. Instead, the message of Christ is right here—accessible and near.

Salvation is received through believed and confessed faith in Christ (9-10).

In verses 9 and 10, Paul gives us some of the most important and significant words in Scripture: the means of salvation. And guess what—it is simple.

Paul outlines two key parts. First is confession, and that confession is the lordship of Jesus. Theologians have wrestled with the specifics here, but remember Paul's entire argument is about simplicity. The confession is that Jesus is the God of the universe and the rightful ruler of creation. Confession certainly involves using words, but the point is not the specific phrasing. The idea of confession is communal, and the emphasis has more to do with joining the community of faith in submission to Jesus as God of the universe.

The second ingredient for salvation is belief in the heart. What must one believe? That God raised Jesus from the dead. We could reasonably conclude—given Paul's overarching argument in Romans—that this belief includes the notion that the resurrection is the beginning of the rolling back of the problem of sin. But we must be careful not to complicate things. The point is very simple: confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in the resurrection are the sufficient and necessary responses for salvation.

In fact, Paul clarifies this further in verse 10, stating that when one believes God raised Jesus from the dead—defeating death—one receives the righteousness of Christ, that is, justification. And when one confesses the deity of Christ, one receives salvation.

The simplicity of salvation makes it universally available to all who call on Him (11-13).

This is the key. Since salvation is simple, it is available to all—but only if it is done God's way. Simple does not mean there are no guidelines; simple means anyone can follow the guidelines.

Image: Keep it simple, stupid.

We like to overcomplicate things—like flying with an instructor who wanted to add to the lost-engine checklist.

When flying airplanes, one of the most important acronyms is KISS: "Keep it simple, stupid." Why? Because when your life depends on it, you do not want unnecessary complexity.

About ten years ago, I was flying with an instructor who liked to add his own two cents to everything. Once, while preparing to fly, he thought it would be fun to talk through emergency procedures. He asked, "What is your flow if you have an engine failure?" I ran through it: airspeed best glide, fuel flow checked, mixture checked, throttle checked, magnetos checked, radio declared emergency, landing area located, passengers notified, landing configuration checked, doors popped.

Then he would say, "And what else?" I would respond, "That's everything on the checklist," to which he would say, "How about checking that your cell phone is in your pocket?" No matter the procedure, he always wanted to add something insignificant and silly to make it his own.

Here's the thing: when my life depends on it, I want things as simple as they can be so I can do them right. Salvation is simple, and we must resist the urge to complicate it.

MTR: Check your understanding—do you grasp the gospel in its simple, biblical form?

Responsibility — Because the gospel is simple, we are responsible to share it (10:14-21).

Faith begins with proclamation; people must hear the gospel (14-15).

At first glance, this seems obvious, but Paul intentionally highlights this truth, and in reality, it is one we need emphasized in our own lives. How many times do we say, do, or proclaim things that actually hurt our ability to proclaim the gospel?

Someone might respond by saying, "Well, that's something preachers need to be concerned with." Unfortunately, that is not at all what this passage is saying. In fact, the word translated ''preach, κηρύσσοντας, can refer to an official declaration—such as what happens from a pulpit—but it also includes the idea of a public statement or general public proclamation.

In fact, when we take the whole of Scripture into account, we find that the role of the pastor is not primarily about personally bringing individuals to salvation, but about equipping others to do so. In other words, my job is to encourage you to share the gospel.

Now I want to return to verse 15. We could misapply this verse by asking, "Who are we sending?" but I think that misses Paul's point. Paul's point is that God has already provided people every opportunity to accept Him. In other words, God has sent people—and I would argue that those people are each of us in this room.

So what do we need to do? We must proclaim the gospel. But now, a warning.

The message we proclaim must be the word of Christ, not personal opinion (16-17).

I want to be very explicit here. Over the years, I have heard many people use the word gospel to support their own positions. Often, those positions are biblical, but we must be careful to distinguish between what is biblical and what is the gospel.

Let me be incredibly direct. I believe God cares about the unborn. I believe God cares about immigrants. I believe God cares about the poor. I believe God cares about the sanctity of marriage and the family. I believe God desires our government to be free of corruption, and I believe God desires us to live peaceably with all people.

However, none of those things is the gospel. This is what Paul means when he says the message is heard through the word about Christ—or more precisely, in the Greek, διὰ ῥήματος Χριστοῦ, the words of Christ.

Paul has already very narrowly defined the gospel just a few verses earlier: confession that Jesus is Lord and belief that God raised Him from the dead. All of those other issues matter deeply, but nothing matters more than the gospel itself. We must get back to basics and stop weaponizing the gospel. Speak truth, yes—but do not forget the gospel. Make sure you are proclaiming it, not replacing it.

As you do this, you can have confidence. You are speaking the words of Christ, and while some will reject them, we must remember—

All the while remembering: rejection of the gospel is a real occurrence—but it does not nullify our calling (18-21).

I am going to summarize these verses briefly. The gospel will be met with rejection. But when you are faithfully proclaiming the gospel, that rejection is not ultimately a rejection of you—it is a rejection of Christ.

MTR: Make a commitment to clearly and faithfully share the gospel.

Conclusion

The gospel is not complicated—but it is costly to our pride. We must abandon trust in our own effort, receive Christ by faith, and faithfully proclaim Him, even when the message is rejected.

Footnotes

1. Thielman, Frank S. Romans. Zondervan Academic, 2018, 490 ↩