21.

The elder brother rejects the father’s feast

Romans 10: 1-10

  • Session: 21
  • Week: 3
  • Day: 6
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Introduction

In this session, chap 10: 1-10, we focus on today’s Isreal church, including the Gentile church. God’s servants face two challenges in the Father’s service: those who know what needs to be done but are not willing, and secondly, those who have the zeal to do it but without knowledge. The Israel brother suffers from the spirit of self-righteousness at his father’s table. He has zeal but not according to the understanding of right living. The father has accepted both sons based on believing that salvation is by grace not by works. Believing in the heart and confessing with your mouth. The prodigal son believed and confessed, and so he was accepted by the father

Objectives

By the end of this session, the learner will have:

  • Understood the current state of Jews, the chosen race, regarding the Good News of Jesus Christ. Why they are in that state
  • Compared the two ways of making people right with God and their timelines
  • Appreciated that salvation is by believing the grace of God only.

Outline

  • State of Isreal today and why
  • Making people right with God compared
  • Calling on the name of the lord

Group Study Time

Romans 10: 1-10

Connecting

  • Gather with two or more people for a community discovery bible study session.
  • Start with a heartfelt prayer, inviting God to guide and bless your understanding.
  • Explore the passage by reading it at least twice, using different Bible versions if available, then retell the story together as a group.
  • Reflect and share the challenges and blessings you experienced from the previous study.

Comprehending

  • What four things did Paul say concerning the Jews God had sovereignly chosen? 10:1-3.
  • Why would the chosen race (Abraham’s race) live behind God’s timeline? 10:4. (I.e., Without the law, given the law, given the Grace to fulfill the law)
  • Describe the law’s way of making a person right with God. 10: 5
  • Describe the Faith’s way of getting right with God. 10: 6-8
  • What does the faith message that makes us right with God say? 10: 9-11.

Committing

  • Engage with the Bible—read, study, memorize, meditate, pray, listen, and live it out.
  • List three lessons you have learnt as an agent of change that you would like to put into practice and teach others about.
  • Take time and worship Jesus with the attributes revealed about Christ.
  • Use the SPACEPETS model, to assist you in putting God’s word into practice. Look for:
    • Sin to confess
    • Promise to claim
    • Attitude to change
    • Command to keep
    • Error to change
    • Prayer to make
    • Example to copy
    • Truth to obey and
    • Something praiseworthy

Communicating

  • Identify one person you can connect with and share the valuable insights and lessons you gained from this session.
  • Reach out to a new believer—either in person or by phone—and pray with them to support them through their challenges, including any concerns about attending church.
  • Create a new group and guide others through this study to help them grow in their understanding.

Post Lesson Teaching Summary

Great job completing the study! Take a moment to listen to this summary to reinforce your group’s understanding of the text and ensure you’re all on the same page. We’re here to support your learning journey!

The elder brother rejects the father’s feast

Romans 10: 1-10

Romans 10:1-10

  • Context:
    • Israelites (firstborn, Luke 15) shift from past privilege (Romans 9) to present self-righteousness; Romans 10 contrasts their zeal with faith.
    • Paul mourns Jews’ salvation, stuck in law-based effort, not grace.
  • Misguided Zeal (Romans 10:1-3):
    • Paul prays for Israel’s salvation (v. 1); their zeal for God lacks knowledge of His righteousness, clinging to law over faith (v. 2-3).
    • Self-righteousness—refusing grace—mirrors the firstborn’s rejection of the prodigal’s welcome.
  • Christ Fulfills the Law (Romans 10:4):
    • Christ ends law’s purpose as the path to righteousness; faith in Him justifies all believers (v. 4).
    • Law points to sin but can’t save—Jesus completes it, offering grace.
  • Faith vs. Law (Romans 10:5-10):
    • Law’s way demands perfect obedience, impossible (v. 5, Leviticus 18:5); faith’s way—believing Jesus died and rose, confessing Him as Lord—saves (v. 6-10).
    • Prodigal walked faith’s path (belief in father’s grace); Jews stick to law, missing Jesus’ fulfillment.
  • Application:
    • Abandon self-righteous effort; embrace faith in Christ’s finished work—Jews and Gentiles share the table by grace, not works.