“For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” -Romans 10:3
As has been shown, zeal without knowledge had lead the Jews to miss the mark of God’s righteousness. Instead of submitting to God’s revelation of himself in Christ Jesus, the Jews tried harder to do better on their own merits and ushered themselves toward damnation all the more quickly. Being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they sought to establish their own.
What it would have looked like to have had a zeal with knowledge, zeal that submitted to the righteousness of God, seems to be worked out rather aptly in Paul’s letter to the Philippians through his own testimony. Note carefully that in which he has to boast if he were to seek to establish his own righteousness. And note further that he counted it all as loss compared to the value he realized in the knowing Christ Jesus.
“For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—” -Philippians 3:3–9
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