----- Original Message ----- 
From: "H Dorrington" <hjdinfl@...>
> Whoa. Who is putting Romans 10:5 before Romans 3:21?
> "For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law...But the 
> righteousness of faith speaks in this way..."
> Romans 10:5 is not a Pauline endorsement of the righteousness of the law 
> but just the opposite!

Yes it is.  He both affirms righteousness by the law and outside of the law 
within two verses.  Both are true.  The only *reason* righteousness cannot 
be through the law for a sinner (this is the case being made in the whole of 
Romans) is because of man's inability to keep a law that would save him if 
he could keep it (Gal. 3:12).

>Read the verses before 10:5 and see that Paul describes the righteousness 
>of the law as a false righteousness.  Why >should we also be ignorant? 
>"They have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge."

Right.  They rightly understood that perfectly obedience to the law would 
get them righteousness.  They wrongly understood (not according to 
knowledge) that they had the wherewithall to keep the law.

There's a reason *why* the Jews in Christ's day and the Roman Catholic 
Church believe that obeying the law brings salvation: because the whole of 
the canon says so.  They don't have to do any finagling of the text to get 
them to their works oriented salvation.  They rightly understand "obedience 
for life".  They wrongly understand that man has any capability of doing 
what is necessary (perfection) for "obedience for life."

Chad Bresson
Xenia, OH