Rom 10:1-4 Is it enough for a person to just be zealous for God in order to find salvation? I.e., many believe that so long as people are sincere in what they believe, God will accept them; how does the example of the Jews refute this notion? What is necessary? See Rom 10:2, 1 Tim 2:4, 2 Tim 2:25, 3:7. Note: Rom 10:3 reads literally that the Jews were ignorant about God’s righteousness; is ignorance bliss when it comes to salvation, as many suppose? See also 2 Thess 2:10. What does Paul mean that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes? See NASB text note, Rom 7:1-4, Gal 3:24.
Rom 10:5-10 Why is it significant that Paul appeals to Moses to contrast the righteousness based on faith with the righteousness based on law? What is the contrast? See Deut 30:11-14, and note that from ancient times people have made long and dangerous journeys to and from the ends of the earth in search of wisdom and truth (consider for example the Queen of Sheba, many of the Greek philosophers, Marco Polo, etc…). Is the knowledge of the truth something difficult to obtain or hard to understand? Is the righteousness based on faith something difficult to obtain? Does it require us to ascend to the heights of heaven by our own righteous acts in order to prove ourselves worthy of salvation? Does it require us through our own efforts to live a resurrection life free from the control of sin? What does it require? See Rom 10:9-10.
Rom 10:11-15 How does Paul in Rom 10:11-13 indicate that God’s promises had not failed and that it is not God who has been unfaithful to the Jews? Was the failure with God or with the Jews? What was their failure? See again Rom 9:32-33. What do Rom 10:13-15 teach us about the importance of missions? What do they lead us to believe about the possible salvation of those who have never heard? Even if salvation is possible for one who has never heard (because in faith he walks in the light that he has and trusts in God to provide some means of salvation of which he is unaware), is it likely?
Rom 10:16-21 What additional reason does Paul give in Rom 10:16 for why responsibility rests on the Jews for their failure to believe, and not on God? Is the context of the quote Paul makes in Rom 10:16 from the OT significant? See Isaiah 53:1ff. How does Paul answer the objection that Israel’s failure to heed the good news of the gospel was because they had never heard? In Rom 10:18, whose voice and words have gone out into all the earth and to the ends of the world? See Psalm 19:1-4. How does Paul answer the objection that the Jews didn’t know that God’s mercy was to extend to the Gentiles, and they must be rejected if they would not believe? See Rom 10:19-20. How does Rom 10:21 summarize Paul’s argument that responsibility for the Jews’ failure to believe rests solely upon them and not with God? In what way might his words also apply to many in the Church today? Are there other parallels between today’s Church and the Jews of the first century to which we ought to give heed? See Rom 11:19-22.