Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Romans 9:30-31

30-31. What shall we say then?--"What now is the result of the whole?" The result is this--very different from what one would have expected.

That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained--"attained"

to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith--As we have seen that "the righteousness of faith" is the righteousness which justifies (see on Ro 3:22, &c.), this verse must mean that "the Gentiles, who while strangers to Christ were quite indifferent about acceptance with God, having embraced the Gospel as soon as it was preached to them, experienced the blessedness of a justified state."