Romans 9:29-31 - The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness

9:29

Paul now quotes from Is 1:9. Is there any hope? The answer is a resounding yes. For God has left a remnant. The key message that Paul wants to get across is our unworthiness, and our salvation by grace. He is applying it primarily to Jews here, but the whole of Romans applies to all of us, and Paul will soon go on to give warning to any Gentile believers who might be tempted to go down the same pride route that the Israelites had gone down. Acknowledging, facing up to the reality of our sin is vital. If we think that in some way we deserve to be saved we are hopelessly deluded. It is only when we face up to our state that we can find the fullness of salvation in Christ.

9:30,31

So where does all this lead us? Paul is wanting to correct the mistaken thinking of the Jews, and indeed of all of mankind. The Gentiles, who did not seek righteousness, i.e. being right with God, found it. Now Paul is not saying that all Gentiles attained salvation, but that the Gentiles as a class have found it, i.e. salvation has come to those who believed in Christ. Conversely the Jews, as a class, had not found salvation. Again, this does not mean no Jews had found salvation, but that the Jewish way was not leading to salvation. The mistaken thinking on the part of the Jews was that they thought they were privileged because they had the Law, and that they could attain righteousness by obeying the Law. Now if they had indeed been able to follow the Law it would have led to salvation, but they could not do so, as their history proved time after time. Their thinking was “we are good enough, show us the target and we will reach it”. What the Law actually did, and was intended for, was to highlight mans’ inability to reach the target, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).