Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

                                                                                                                   Romans 10:1-4

Praying for someone’s salvation is a noble pursuit. That is exactly what today’s passage is all about. A man named Paul is praying for his fellow Jewish brethren, and he’s praying for their salvation. Having met the Person of Jesus Christ, Paul, a man who formerly promoted Jewish law, now has knowledge about God previously veiled to him. His encounter with Jesus brought a new understanding regarding God and His provision of salvation through faith. The testimony about his fellow Jewish friends is that they had a zeal for God. To be zealous is to be eager and enthusiastic about a cause. It is having an intense desire to accomplish a task. They had zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. So what was the problem? Well, the passage points out three areas of misunderstanding. (1) They did not know about God’s righteousness. They were still operating under the idea that adherence to the Law of Moses was how an individual would be justified before God. This misunderstanding led to the second problem. (2) They were seeking to establish their own righteousness. Establishing your own righteousness is to focus on your behavior as a gauge for determining whether your being justified by God is warranted. When someone is ignorant about the truth that a man is only justified by faith in Jesus, a religious person will often attempt to gain God’s approval through his/her actions. (3) Therefore, seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God (by faith).

A lack of understanding leads to the substitution of God’s provision for our own ideas and efforts, causing us to fail to receive the gift of salvation by faith. “For Christ is the end (culmination) of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (v 4). Jesus’ death on the cross, established a new covenant with mankind, thus making the old covenant null and void (Hebrews 8:13, 2 Corinthians 3:6). A desire to please God (zeal) is not enough. That enthusiasm needs to be accompanied by proper knowledge regarding salvation. It is vital that we, as believers, understand that our righteousness is credited to us by faith and that this righteousness is credited apart from works (Romans 4:5-6). Is your zeal in accordance with knowledge?