Chapter 10

¹Brothers, my heart is full of good will toward them; my prayer to God is that they may be saved. ²I can testify to their sincere devotion to God, but it is not an intelligent devotion. ³For in their ignorance of God’s way of uprightness and in the attempt to set up one of their own, they refused to conform to God’s way of uprightness. ⁴For Christ marks the termination of law, so that now anyone who has faith may attain uprightness. ⁵Moses said that anyone who carried out the uprightness the Law prescribed would find life through it. ⁶But this is what the uprightness that springs from faith says: “Do not say to yourself, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ ” that is, to bring Christ down; ⁷or “ ‘Who will go down into the depths?’ ” that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. ⁸No! This is what it says: “God’s message is close to you, on your lips and in your mind”—that is, the message about faith that we preach. ⁹For if with your lips you acknowledge the message that Jesus is Lord, and with your mind you believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For with their minds men believe and are made upright, and with their lips they make the acknowledgment and are saved. ¹¹For the Scripture says, “No one who has faith in him will be disappointed.” ¹²There is no distinction between Jew and Greek for they all have the same Lord, and he is generous to all who call upon him. ¹³For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. ¹⁴But how are they to call upon him if they have not believed in him? And how are they to believe him if they have never heard him? And how are they to hear unless someone preaches to them? ¹⁵And how are men to preach unless they are sent to do it? As the Scripture says, “How welcome is the coming of those who bring good news!”

¹⁶It is true, they have not all accepted the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what we have told?” ¹⁷So faith comes from hearing what is told, and that hearing comes through the message about Christ. ¹⁸But I ask, had they no opportunity to hear it? On the contrary,

“Their voices have gone all over the earth,

And their words to the ends of the world.”

¹⁹But I ask again, did Israel fail to understand? Why, to begin with, Moses said,

“I will make you jealous of what is no nation at all,

I will exasperate you at a senseless nation.”

²⁰Then Isaiah broke out boldly and said,

“I have been found by men who were not looking for me,

I have shown myself to men who were not asking what my will was.”

²¹But of Israel he said,

“All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”