The Dread of Sin; the Amazing Righteousness of God
Romans 10:1-13
There are moments when the human heart feels the weight of its own contradictions so keenly that it almost cannot breathe. We long to be right—right with ourselves, right with others, right with God—and yet we so often reach for that righteousness in all the wrong places. The apostle Paul felt this ache deeply, especially for his own people, the Jews. In Romans 10 he pours out his heart: “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” (v. 1). He saw their zeal, their passion for God’s law, and yet he also saw the tragedy: that same zeal had become a barrier, keeping them from the very righteousness they sought.
They were zealous, yes—but “not according to knowledge” (v. 2). They pursued a righteousness of their own making, built on meticulous obedience to the law, on being the chosen people who alone possessed God’s instructions. In their minds, the law was a wall that protected their identity and excluded everyone else. But the law they guarded so fiercely exposed something far more sobering: no one—not even the most devout—could keep it perfectly. Sin’s rebellion ran too deep. Their efforts to establish their own righteousness only hardened their hearts against the righteousness God longed to give them freely in Christ.
Paul’s diagnosis is as true today as it was two thousand years ago. We live in a world that is fiercely committed to its own versions of “rightness.” Whether through moral achievement, social approval, personal success, cultural ideals, or self-defined identity, people still strive to justify themselves apart from God. And the result is the same: we refuse to submit to God’s righteousness, the only righteousness that can truly make us right. In our determination to be right on our own terms, we reject the One who came to make us right through His cross.
Then comes the liberating sentence that changes everything: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (v. 4). Christ is the end—not in the sense of abolishing the law’s goodness, but in the sense of bringing the law’s purpose to its true fulfillment. The law pointed to holiness, to life in God’s presence, to a sacred existence shaped by His character. Jesus fulfilled every demand of the law perfectly, then offered Himself as the Passover Lamb to bear our failure. Through Him, righteousness is no longer something we must climb up to heaven to achieve or descend into the depths to retrieve. It has come near—very near.
Paul borrows Moses’ own words to make the point unforgettable. The law said, “Do this and you will live” (Lev. 18:5), but no one could do it consistently enough to secure life with God. The righteousness that comes by faith, however, is not far off. “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (v. 8, quoting Deut. 30:14). No one needs to ascend to bring Christ down from heaven; God has already come in the incarnation. No one needs to descend into the abyss to bring Him up from the dead; Christ has already risen. The saving work is finished. Our part is simply to believe and confess.
That confession and belief are not heroic feats. They are the ordinary, heartfelt response of a person who has finally stopped trying to save themselves. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (v. 9). The mouth speaks what the heart treasures. The heart treasures what has captured it with love and truth. And when that happens, shame falls away, blessing overflows, and salvation arrives—not because we earned it, but because He is faithful.
Notice how inclusive this promise is. “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame” (v. 11). “There is no distinction” (v. 12). “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (v. 13). The righteousness of God in Christ is not reserved for the religious elite, the morally impressive, or any particular group. It is for you. It is for the person next to you. It is for the world.
So here is the tender invitation today: stop striving to manufacture your own rightness. Let the dread of your sin drive you not to despair, but to Jesus. Look at the cross and see the amazing righteousness of God—righteousness that covers every failure, heals every wound, and restores every broken place. In Him you are not merely forgiven; you are declared righteous. In Him you discover the sacredness of life you were made for—peace with God, joy in His presence, purpose in reflecting His character.
This with-God life is not a reward for the strong; it is a gift for the willing. All that is required is to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus—to trust Him, to call on Him, to rest in what He has done. And when you do, you will find that the righteousness you could never achieve on your own has been given to you as a permanent, unbreakable reality.
May your heart rest in that gift today, and may your life increasingly show the beauty of a soul that has been made right with God.
