Romans 10:3

For they being ignorant of God's righteousness--that is, for the justification of the guilty (see on Rom 1:17). and going about--"seeking" to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God--The apostle views the general rejection of Christ by the nation as one act.

The dissolving of the peculiar church-state of the Jews, and the rejection of that polity by the repealing of their ceremonial law, the vacating of all the institutions of it, the abolishing of their priesthood, the burning of their temple, and the taking away of their place and nation, and in their room the substituting and erecting of a catholic church-state among the Gentile nations, though to us, now that these things have long since been done and completed, they may seem no great matter, yet to those who lived when they were doing, who knew how high the Jews had stood in God's favour, and how deplorable the condition of the Gentile world had been for many ages, it appeared very great and marvellous, and a mystery hard to be understood. The apostle, in this chapter, as in the foregoing and that which follows, is explaining and proving it; but with several very useful digressions, which a little interrupt the thread of his discourse. To two great truths I would reduce this chapter: - I. That there is a great difference between the righteousness of the law, which the unbelieving Jews were wedded to, and the righteousness of faith offered in the gospel (Rom 10:1-11). II. That there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles; but, in point of justification and acceptance with God, the gospel sets them both upon the same level (Rom 10:12 to the end).

10:3 God’s way of making people right with himself: See 1:17; 3:21-26. Paul uses this phrase to explain Israel’s failure in terms basic to the gospel. God manifested his righteousness through the ministry of Christ, but most Jews did not understand it, partly because they were so focused on the law as a way of securing their own righteousness.