In the next Romans 10 he carries on the subject, showing in the most touching manner his affection for the people. He at the same time unfolds the essential difference between the righteousness of faith and that of law. He takes their own books, and proves from one of them (Deuteronomy) that in the ruin of Israel the resource is not going into the depths, nor going up to heaven. Christ indeed did both; and so the word was nigh them, in their mouth and in their heart. It is not doing, but believing; therefore it is what is proclaimed to them, and what they receive and believe. Along with this he gathers testimonies from more than one prophet. He quotes from Joel, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He quotes also from Isaiah—“Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” And mark the force of it” Whosoever.” The believer, whosoever he might be, should not be ashamed. Was it possible to limit this to Israel? But more than this—“Whosoever shall call.” There is the double prophecy. Whosoever believed should not be ashamed; whosoever called should be saved. In both parts, as it may be observed, the door is opened to the Gentile.
But then again he intimates that the nature of the gospel is involved in the publishing of the glad tidings. It is not God having an earthly center, and the peoples coming up to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. It is the going forth of His richest blessing. And where? How far? To the limits of the holy land? Far beyond. Psalm 19 is used in the most beautiful manner to insinuate that the limits are the world. Just as the sun in the heavens is not for one people or land alone, no more is the gospel. There is no language where their voice is not heard. “Yea verily, their sound went forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” The gospel goes forth universally. Jewish pretensions were therefore disposed of; not here by new and fuller revelations, but by this divinely skilful employment of their own Old Testament Scriptures.
Finally he comes to two other witnesses; as from the Psalms, so now from the law and the prophets. The first is Moses himself. Moses saith, “I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people,” and so forth. How could the Jews say that this meant themselves? On the contrary, it was the Jew provoked by the Gentiles” By them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.” Did they deny that they were a foolish nation? Be it so then; it was a foolish nation by which Moses declared they should be angered. But this does not content the Apostle, or rather the Spirit of God; for he goes on to point out that Isaiah “is very bold” in a similar way; that is, there is no concealing the truth of the matter. Isaiah says: “I was found of them who sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.” The Jews were the last in the world to take such ground as this. It was undeniable that the Gentiles did not seek the Lord, nor ask after Him; and the prophet says that Jehovah was found of them that sought Him not, and was made manifest to them that asked not after Him. Nor is there only the manifest call of the Gentiles in this, but with no less clearness there is the rejection, at any rate for a time, of proud Israel. “But unto Israel He saith, ‘All day long have I stretched out My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people’.”
Thus the proof was complete. The Gentiles—the despised heathen—were to be brought in; the self-satisfied Jews are left behind, justly and beyond question, if they believed the law and the prophets.