Such was the mystery of the facts, alike in the older and in the later story of Israel. A remnant, still a remnant, not the masses, entered upon an inheritance of such ample provision, and so sincerely offered. And behind this lay the insoluble shadow within which is concealed the relation of the Infinite Will to the wills of men. But also, in front of the phenomenon, concealed by no shadow save that which is cast by human sin, the Apostle sees and records the reasons, as they reside in the human will, of this "salvation of a remnant." The promises of God, all along, and supremely now in Christ, had been conditioned (it was in the nature of spiritual things that it should be so) by submission to His way of fulfilment. The golden gift was there, in the most generous of hands, stretched out to give. But it could be put only into a recipient hand open and empty. It could be taken only by submissive and self-forgetting faith. And man, in his fall, had twisted his will out of gear for such an action. Was it wonderful that, by his own fault, he failed to receive? [Sidenote: Ver. 30.] =What therefore shall we say?[161] Why, that the Gentiles, though they did not (τὰ μὴ) pursue righteousness,= though no Oracle had set them on the track of a true divine acceptance and salvation, =achieved righteousness,= grasped it when once revealed, =but[162] the righteousness that results on faith;= [Sidenote: Ver. 31.] =but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness,= aiming at what is, for fallen man, the impossible goal, a perfect meeting of the Law's one principle of acceptance, "This do and thou shalt live," =did not attain that law[163];= that is to say, practically, as we now review their story of vain efforts in the line of self, did not attain the acceptance to which that law was to be the avenue. The Pharisee as such, the Pharisee Saul of Tarsus for example, neither had peace with God, nor dared to think he had, in the depth of his soul. He knew enough of the divine ideal to be hopelessly uneasy about his realization of it. He could say, stiffly enough, "_God, I thank Thee_" (Luke xviii. 11, 14); but he "went down to his house" unhappy, unsatisfied, unjustified. [Sidenote: Ver. 32.] =On what account? Because= it was =not of faith, but as of works[164];= in the unquiet dream that man must, and could, work up the score of merit to a valid claim. =They stumbled[165] on the Stone of their (τοῦ) stumbling;= [Sidenote: Ver. 33.] =as it stands written= (Isai. viii. 14, xxviii. 16), in a passage where the great perpetual Promise is in view, and where the blind people are seen rejecting it as their foothold in favour of policy, or of formalism, =Behold, I place in Sion,= in the very centre of light and privilege, =a Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of upsetting;= and =he who[166] confides in Him,= (or, perhaps, in it,) he who rests on it, on Him (ἐπ' αὐτῷ), =shall not be put to shame.=