RomansChapter 9

30 10 What then shall we say? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have achieved it, that is, righteousness that comes from faith;
31 but that Israel, who pursued the law of righteousness, did not attain to that law?
32 Why not? Because they did it not by faith, but as if it could be done by works. They stumbled over the stone that causes stumbling, 11
33 as it is written: "Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion that will make people stumble and a rock that will make them fall, and whoever believes in him shall not be put to shame."

10 [30-33] In the conversion of the Gentiles and, by contrast, of relatively few Jews, the Old Testament prophecies are seen to be fulfilled; cf Romans 9:25-29. Israel feared that the doctrine of justification through faith would jeopardize the validity of the Mosaic law, and so they never reached their goal of righteousness that they had sought to attain through meticulous observance of the law (Romans 9:31). Since Gentiles, including especially Greeks and Romans, had a great regard for righteousness, Paul's statement concerning Gentiles in Romans 9:30 is to be understood from a Jewish perspective: quite evidently they had not been interested in "God's" righteousness, for it had not been revealed to them; but now in response to the proclamation of the gospel they respond in faith.
11 [32] Paul discusses Israel as a whole from the perspective of contemporary Jewish rejection of Jesus as Messiah. The Old Testament and much of Jewish noncanonical literature in fact reflect a fervent faith in divine mercy.

Reflection
I heard a comercial on the radio last time I was home about a man that wanted to get into heaven. He got points for being a good person, father, husband. He ran into a burning house and saved someone. He never cheated, etc, etc. The person he was talking to was adding up his points and he got like 2 points or each of the above. He ended the commercial with 8-9 points. He was told he needed 1,000 to get into heaven. I thought the commercial might be saying you need to do good acts over your whole lifetime. I thought the commercial might be saying that these things are what a person is suppose to do so you don't get as many points. The end of the commercial says that most people don't take the test because Jesus took it for them. "WHAT" I understand that Jesus died for all of us and that is why we believe what we believe, but I cannot understand this idea of "we don't have to do anything because we believe in Jesus." And I am not saying all people who don't believe what I believe are bad, that has never been my position. I just feel like there should be more to it.

Could it be the "stone" we stumbled over was the pride and greed that caused the split in the church way back when. It says it right there. There was a stone put in our way to make us stumble and with all the trouble that has come because of the split in the church, I would say we fell hard.