The reason for Israel's failure mentioned in 9:32-33, namely her rejection of Christ, led Paul to amplify that subject further in this section.
10:1 This pericope opens with Paul returning to his feelings of compassionate concern for his fellow Israelites' salvation (9:1-3). Mention of their deliberate rejection of Christ (9:32-33) evidently triggered this emotional expression.
"The reality of his love is seen in the fact that he prayed for them."314
10:2 Ironically it was Israel's zeal that set her up for failure. Zeal also characterized Paul's life, which in many ways duplicated Israel's experience as a nation. It kept him from believing on Christ too (cf. Acts 22:3; Gal. 1:14). Paul and Israel both had zeal for God, but it was zeal that lacked knowledge, knowledge that Jesus is the Messiah (1 Tim. 1:13).
10:3 The Jews were ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God as a gift (1:17). They sought to earn righteousness by keeping the Law. Instead they should have humbly received the gift of righteousness that God gives to those who believe on His Son (cf. Phil. 3:9).
"The Law was designed not to bring about self-righteousness or self-hope, but contrariwise, self-despair."315
10:4 The Greek word telosand its English equivalent "end"can refer either to termination (as in "the end of the matter") or to purpose (as in "to the end that"). Paul believed that Jesus Christ was the end of the Mosaic Law in both respects. He spoke of the Law as having a function to fulfill in history after which Jesus Christ terminated it (7:6; Gal. 3:19, 23; cf. Mark 7:18-19; Luke 16:16; John 1:17; Acts 10:12; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 8:8; 2 Cor. 3:6-11; Gal. 4:9-11; 5:1; Col. 2:17; Heb. 7:12; 9:10). Furthermore he described the purpose of the Law as bringing people to Christ (7:7-13; Gal. 3:24; cf. Matt. 5:17).
"In the progress of salvation history the beginning of the end of the role of law is in the coming of Christ. Its end is based on the work he effected and applied to the church he established."316
In the verse before us Paul evidently meant that the Mosaic Law ended when Jesus Christ died. The support for this view is that Paul had just been contrasting, in 9:30-33, the Law with the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. The Jews incorrectly imagined that the Law was a means of justification, but when Jesus Christ came He provided the real means of justification. Paul did not mean that the Law was at one time a means of justification that ended when Jesus Christ died. The Jews only thought of the Law as a means of obtaining righteousness. It is that supposed function of the Law to justify that ends for "everyone who believes"in Christ.
God gave the Mosaic Law for two purposes primarily. One purpose was to reveal the character and standards of a holy God. Consequently man would recognize his inability to be good enough to earn acceptance by God and so look to God for salvation (7:13, Gal. 3:24). The second purpose was to regulate the moral, religious, and civil life of the children of Israel (Deut. 4:1). God never intended it to provide eternal salvation for the Israelites (3:20). He did not give it for a redemptive purpose. God has preserved the Mosaic Law in Scripture for Christians because of its revelatory value. He never intended Christians to regulate their lives by its precepts.
"It is because Reformed theology has kept us Gentiles under the Law,--if not as a means of righteousness, then as a rule of life,' that all the trouble has arisen. The Law is no more a rule of life than it is a means of righteousness."317
God has terminated the whole Mosaic Law. It is one unified code (cf. 7:6). God wants Christians to observe nine of the Ten Commandments because they are part of the Law of Christ. This is the regulatory code that God has given the church, namely the teachings of Christ and the apostles (Gal. 6:2).318
10:5 Paul supported his contention that justification results from faith in Christ (v. 4) through verse 13. He used the Law (Lev. 18:5) to prove that Moses showed that it was futile to trust in law-keeping for salvation. Moses revealed that those who practiced the righteousness commanded in the Law would live (cf. Gal. 3:12). Here living means experiencing justification (cf. 2:13). However no one can keep the whole Law (3:19-20).
10:6-7 Positively Moses taught that justification came by faith (Deut. 30:11-14). In the context of Moses' statement there is a strong emphasis on an attitude of loving obedience rather than a legalistic approach to earning righteousness (Deut. 30:6-10). Moses' point was that the Israelites should not think that pleasing God was something beyond their reach. A proper attitude of faith toward God is essentially what He required.
In quoting this passage Paul made his own application of it in harmony with his argument. It was vain for the Israelites to think that they had to be good enough to ascend into heaven to bring the promised Messiah down to earth to save His people. Likewise it was foolish for them to think that they had to be good enough to raise Messiah up from the death that the prophets had predicted He would die. God had already done those things for the ungodly in the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All they had to do was accept what God had done for them in Christ.
