Be Zealous!
Romans 10
Pastor Todd Barnes
Part of Sunday Morning Sermon Notes
May 4, 2025

Romans 10:4 – “For Christ is the end of the law

to everyone that believeth.”

When the scripture says Jesus was the end of the law as a means of righteousness, it does not say He ended the law! God does not, nor did He, change His mind – Heb 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”

We must consider the Jewish people, being who Paul is speaking to here, and still find the applicable truth. Paul would not have worked so hard and sacrificed so much to teach them about Christ. Because Jesus is the most complete

of God, we cannot fully know God apart from Christ; and because God appointed Jesus to bring God and people together, we cannot come to God by another way. John 14:6

This means we have the atoning work of Jesus – our only means of salvation & hope – but not an exclusion from the law! The law has great purpose in revealing our fallen nature and continual need and purpose of true repentance, but the call we see in Paul’s discourse in Rome is to find our

“for” Jesus and a desire for others to find it as well.

The context of Romans Ch. 10 is established in Romans 9:30 – Paul boar this burden for others to know Jesus. Paul expresses this burden in Romans 9:3, I believe, in a very thoughtful and meaningful way; not just dramatics. Paul couldn’t lose his salvation, even if he wanted to (For I could wish – Hebrews 6:1c)… However, he was willing
to be forever damned (that myself were accursed from Christ) if that meant saving his people.

Romans 9:4 identifies God purpose for His chosen people (the Jews) to bring forth the

and empowered them with the separation from other peoples to do so. – even (vs 5) identifying Jesus as the Messiah John 14:42.

Notice Romans 9:6 – the Jews rejected the MESSIAH (For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel), while the

, having no religious background whatsoever, accepted CHRIST as the promised Old Testament Messiah.

Let’s go back to our scriptures for this morning in Romans 10 and see that Paul’s in Rome (house arrest) and pleading with the Jews for their surrender to Jesus as the Christ/Messiah and their salvation.

Paul’s ministry in Rome is to show the vast difference between the righteousness of the law and that of

.

Romans 10:2a the G/W for Zeal is zēlos (zay’-los) meaning a jealousy (husband over his spouse) fervent mind towards

Romans 10:2b-3 - they had a zeal of God, but they knew neither God nor Christ aright; they did not know God in Christ, nor Jesus to be the true Messiah; they understood neither law nor Gospel truly. They worked their own righteousness through their own defined works. We have accountability to the truth in Jesus!

We see this application in the “Parable of the Heart” shared in three of the four Gospels each pointing to individual aspects concerning our Heart and growing in truth:
1. Mark 7:14-23 - learn to “Catch the Intended truth”
2. Luke 6:39-45 - learn to “Mature in the Truth”
3. Matthew 15:10-20 - learn “Place truth above our feelings and others”

Rather than living by faith in God, the Jews established

to try to make themselves acceptable in God’s sight. But human effort, no matter how sincere, can never substitute for the righteousness God offers us by faith.

As we see Paul calling to attention vast difference between God’s righteousness in Jesus and our won efforts, what are we to discern from this today? (this isn’t a Jewish problem only) WE may find ourselves is in a right standing with the Jesus concerning our salvation in His righteous, but what about our Zeal towards Jesus and a passion for others to find their salvation or proper Zeal! (let’s look at Revelation 3)

In Revelation 3:2 Jesus, speaking to John when imprisoned on the Island of Patmos, said, “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain…”) – watchful is the G/W grēgoreuō (gray-gor-yoo’-o) meaning to “wake up”

Jesus is warning the Church of Sardis that, though they looked alive, they were dying inside! This illustrates that our calling/purpose/the Lord’s will in our life isn’t finished… we should, and must, be fanning the fading embers of our faith!

This takes repentance, which takes humility, and accountability for our life and its direction… whether we are walking with a Zeal for the Lord, having a burden for others’ relationships with Jesus, or if our Zeal is in the world!

Revelation 3:1 - The wealth of Sardis was so abundant it covered the mountain tops to the riches in the valley.

The problem in the Sardis church was not heresy but spiritual death. In spite of its reputation for being active, Sardis was spiritually dead in their flesh and self-will.

Revelation 3:4 Even though Christ called Sardis a dead church, He also affirmed a few who were faithful believers.

QUESTION:
Are we spiritually/faithfully alive or are we dead in our

? Such isn’t based on religious appearance!

The Father sees through appearances and longs to complete what He had began in you (Philippians 1:6

Romans 10:2 is two-fold:
1. Do we have a zeal for God?
2. Do we have scriptural (not emotional) knowledge of God?

We see a powerful example of this in Paul’s conversion, one who was once a persecutor of the Jews is now the voice of hope for them.

Paul had zeal like no other, and knowledge was self-evident…

Being accountable for our Zeal and where it’s situated, if it’s in this world, I see it as chasing butterflies! The time we spend chasing butterflies (this world’s allure) to only end up seeing them fly away. But if spend our time investing in

, finding our Zeal in Him, then we begin to make a beautiful garden, and the butterflies will come to us!

When we focus on improving ourselves and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us into the likeness of Jesus, we will find, we attract based on who we are, not what we want! Don’t chase! Attract others to Jesus and help them also find the same ZEAL Paul calls us to!

Are we growing in our ZEAL, are we attracting others as well to become more fully devoted followers of Jesus?

If the spotlight that is shining on us is brighter than the light coming from within us, we have the wrong zeal!