Romans 9:32,33 - Whoever believes in Him

9:32,33

Why did the Jews fail to attain salvation? Because they sought to attain it by works, not by faith. Things should work like this: the Law shows up our sinfulness, Christ is the Son of God and lives a perfect life of obedience. He is offered up as a perfect sacrifice and we attain salvation by believing in Him. Instead, quoting from Is 28:16, He became “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence”. The Jews did not want to admit their inherent sinfulness, they did not want to humble themselves. So instead of leading to salvation, He led to condemnation, because of their stubbornness. Or, rather they remained in a state of condemnation (Jn 3:18). At the same time as being a stumbling block, He is also a source of salvation for those who believe, which many Gentiles were doing. And this applies to anyone who believes in Him. Human pride is a great obstacle to salvation. 

As I mentioned near the beginning of my notes on this chapter, some use this chapter to “prove” predestination (others will use it to “prove” the opposite!), but that was not the purpose of Paul in writing this chapter (noting that, of course, it wasn’t a chapter when he wrote it). His emphasis is that salvation is by faith, and everything is built upon the sovereignty of God. Israel needed to snap out of her prideful state, as does anyone else who wants to be saved. We need to be God focused, rather than self focused. Paul will go on to show that God has not given up on Israel, and there will be warnings to any Gentiles tempted to become as prideful as the Jews were. "Whoever believes in Him" is the key phrase.