Romans Series: Chapter 10
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Peace to Live By Romans Series: Chapter 10 - Daniel Litton
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We are continuing along in our study of the book of Romans, and today we arrive at chapter 10. Last week, in chapter 9, Paul was discussing how the Jewish people have rejected the Messiah, how they have mainly decided not to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Within that chapter, Paul also discussed God’s call on people, and how that works. He talked about how God calls certain individuals to salvation, and how he doesn’t call others. That was a great discussion, and if you missed it, you’re going to want to make sure you go back and listen to that one.
Nonetheless, in our text today Paul is going to continue talking about his fellow Israelites, and how he wishes for them to come into right relationship with God. And he’s going to reiterate how they can do that, or how anyone, no matter who they are can do that. This chapter kind of runs in the theme of Romans chapter 3, but perhaps in a little more elaboration and detail. Anyhow, this is a grand chapter and one that I think we tend to overlook at times. There is much for us to consider here.
So, Romans chapter 10, starting in verse one. The text says, “Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
You knew it was coming, or at least you should have. How much time do you spend praying for the lost? I know for myself, I love praying for lost people—it truly is my heart's desire. I would say that I pray for three to five people a day that I would like to see saved. And these are people I know in my own life. Like I’ve said in the past, I believe it is good when we have proper ‘standing’ in praying for a person. I mean, I think it’s good if we know them—if they are in our lives. I believe our prayers are more impactful that way. God has Christians in the lives of those we don’t know, and it will be their responsibility to pray for them.
I have always had a special place in my heart for those who are Jewish. And I know a lot of people do actually. I was taught that growing up—that the Jews are special and should be treated with extra respect. I think a lot of American homes teach this, and this surely is a good thing. Being God’s original chosen people, they have the promises, as we talked about last week. And we also are aware of the serious horror which happened at them during the Second World War. In blessing a Jew we will be blessed—it’s a guarantee from God in his Law. And, if we curse a Jewish person, we will surely be cursed—you can count on it. It’s from God’s Law, and it’s still applicable nowadays.
I remember a few years ago my old roommate from college was in town visiting and we went to one of the local malls here in Columbus to just hang out, walk around, and shop. And, as I recall it, we were walking in the mall and there was a Jewish lady who was selling certain skin products, and she roped me in to show me some of her products. And I didn’t mind it all. She was pretty attractive, as of course, most Jewish girls are. But that’s beside the point. She tried to sell me some products, but, not wanting to spend the money, I told her I would give it some thought and get back to her.
My friend left town and as I was going about my life, and for some reason, that Jewish girl from the mall kept popping in my head. I thought, “You know, I need to go back to the mall and share the Gospel with her.” So, when a good day for me to do that came, I went back to the mall and sure enough, she was there. I had already decided beforehand that I was going to buy products from her, and I told her that at the beginning of the conversation. I really didn’t want her to have to sales pitch me again. And too, I did this because I wished for the conversation to be genuine; I didn’t want her just talking to me so I would buy things. As we started conversing, I told her what I desired to purchase. I learned she was from Israel, and her home was just north of Jerusalem. She told me about her time in the Israeli military, and how that made her to grow up. I was kind of amazed as I was talking to her, but I think I managed to hide it. I was amazed because she had been taught so well; she had such a high level of intelligence. She had been educated far above any American girl I had ever known.
Anyhow, I started discussing the Bible and she showed me her Bible that she carried with her in her purse, which was an Old Testament by our standards. It had a beautiful white, apparently leather casing. She turned to a few Psalms and explained to me how she reads them in Hebrew. It was pretty impressive to say the least. And I explained I was a Christian and told her about how I was a Bible teacher. I said that I was currently teaching on my radio show Isaiah 52 and 53. When Jesus came into the picture, I could sense her starting to get nervous. Since we know that Jewish people are always looking for a sign, I believe sometimes they get nervous at the moment they think God might be talking to them. Anyway, after speaking with her for a while there, I decided to give her my card to my radio show and I told her to listen to the next Sunday, which was going to be Isaiah 53, and she told me she would. So, I had accomplished my mission. Coincidence? Not by any stretch. God wanted me to go talk to her and he wanted her to hear about Jesus. Everything lined up. And she was flying back to Israel the next week.
Unfortunately, this Jewish lady, and many Jewish folks in general, take pride in who they are as a people as their righteousness before God. I don’t say that to be critical, but for us to understand how they are seeing things. This particular lady had explained the different parts of her education and understanding on varying things, and she was very smart. But her position as a Jew, her Bible, her education, none of that made her righteous in God’s eyes. He isn’t looking for what we already have, but he is looking to give us his own, personal righteousness. I asked her about Jesus, and she said she knew about him, but acted as though the whole thing was made up. She believed the lie that had been passed down from generation to generation, that the disciples stole the body. I don’t understand how someone as smart as she was could ascribe to these type of conspiracy theories. When you think about it, it still doesn’t make sense. If the disciples stole his body, then why did they all die (except maybe for John) in Jesus’ name, for the Gospel’s sake?
Getting back on track, don’t get me wrong, Christians can do this too. They definitely can. Believers can take pride in their church, their church status, the fact they went to this or that university, what their last name is, that their the son or daughter of a preacher, whatever, but that doesn’t make them righteous before God. It doesn’t even make them pleasing to God. It doesn’t make them better than most. As a matter fact, God often frowns on those things. He frowns upon them since they seek to establish our own goodness outside of Christ, in things we have and who we are in the world. I know, that’s a very hard pill for some people to swallow. To swallow that pill means they’d have to change their whole lives around, or change their whole philosophy of thinking. And most don’t want to do that. Instead, right now they may just ignore what I say and seek to justify themselves. And there they go around the same mountain again.
Any person who honestly reads the Old Testament can see that it calls for a Messiah to come. I mean, not realizing that fact would require a person to ignore quite a lot of passages that speak, prophetically, toward this subject, and yet that’s what a lot of Israelites have done. It’s not only Isaiah 52 and 53 that talk about the coming Messiah, though, those chapters are pretty explicit. They give a pretty clear picture to say the least. The Jews in fact do believe that a Messiah is coming for them, but recall, they have preconceived notions of what that Messiah will be like. Namely that he will be powerful and worldly, and yes, that is what they are going to get.
Verse 5: “For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
Bring to mind, and we should all understand this by now, that anyone who wanted to be perfect in God’s sight in Old Testament times had to keep every part of God’s Law perfectly. Even those in our present time who wish to pass on Christ’s sacrifice and do it themselves have to obey God’s Old Testament prescription without any fault or failure. I think most of us will admit, however, that’s simply not possible for us. Most of us would have to admit that we have failed in goodness—that, as matter of fact, we are far from perfect before God, not even close. So, it’s really amazing how one would even feel they could be righteous in and of themselves before God in his sight. Remember what James has told us, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:10, 11, ESV).
Nevertheless, Christ isn’t far off. He isn’t in a galaxy far, far, away for anyone. That’s Paul’s point here. Anyone can come into personal relationship with God. Finding faith in God certainly isn’t by our keeping of the Jewish Law, or any law system for that matter. That’s not how we become the righteousness of God. No, our righteousness depends on our faith in what Christ has accomplished, and this is not something that we have to go look for. I love space. I like the planets and stars; they are so interesting. But boarding a Space Shuttle and flying up into space won’t make us any closer to God. That’s not where we have to go to find Christ; we don’t have to search the universe to find our answers. We don’t need to search high in the Heavens or in the depths of Hell in order to find faith in Christ. God has made it easy to come into personal relationship with him.
We are all aware that verse 9 here is the famous one that is often quoted by believers when trying to provide a simple explanation for the Gospel. Paul tells of two end results of the one who truly accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior. First, he says that the person confesses with their mouth. And what do they confess? That Jesus is Lord—that he is the true and only way to God. And what’s the next step? The person believes in their heart that not only did Jesus die for their sins, but he also was raised back to life. He is alive right now. The true Christian believes that. So, our confessing is in front of others. We tell others about our faith in Jesus—not merely just to shine our light or be a witness but because we are so full of joy and conviction that we just can’t help ourselves. It’s what we now naturally—in our new nature—what we naturally desire to do. God has changed us. And our new belief in our heart makes us justified—aquitted for any guilt to sin.
Paul stated, “For with the heart one believes and is justified.” The key word there is the “heart.” That was Israel’s problem; they didn’t have a right heart attitude toward God. Yes, God cares considerably about the state of our heart. Israel had a polished performance in some angles. The Pharisees sure thought they were great—they had what seemed to be a perfect and gleaming performance. And an outward observer may have agreed to that. But the problem was with their hearts. A person is right in God’s eyes who has a perfect heart—not a perfect performance. The person who’s heart is right but performance needs help is right before God, while the person whose performance is right but heart is in desperate need of help is not right before God. A lot of legalistic believers need to understand this point. That’s why you don’t have power. You are depending on your performance and not God’s righteousness. Oh, you may say you’re depending on his righteousness, Christ’s sacrifice to make you right, but you’re really not. To prove it, that’s why you get so upset when you’re performance looks less than perfect in front of others.
Verse 11: “For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Yes, there’s no fear of being wrong at the time we believe in Christ. It’s like I’ve mentioned in the past, we know what we know. It’s just something that changes within us. We know Jesus is real. We know we have eternal salvation. We realize that we hold the truth—the truth to the whole world, to everything that exists. The great thing is, not only do we understand that truth, but we are aware that no matter who we are, we are going to receive “riches” from God. There’s that word again, riches. We’ve seen that recently. God is going to give us vast riches in this life, and surely immense riches in the next. We honor God, we seek to love him, and we help other people. Now, the riches in this life may not be entirely material. There are riches in our faith that we place in God’s ability. For God through his Word, for instance, gives us expansive riches in his truth, in unlocking the secrets of the kingdom of God. There are riches found in having faith, using hope, and administering love. Yes, with God, great riches exist.
Now, Paul quotes the famous verse here from Joel 2:32, when he says, “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That’s a powerful verse. Personally, I prefer the King James Version when it comes to this verse. It says it like this, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.” I like the word “delivered” here better than the world “saved.” Regardless, and I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but I think it needs to be said, note how Paul, in quoting this verse from Joel 2:32, really takes the verse out of context in doing so and applies it to eternal salvation. In Joel, the author there is talking about the end of time, not necessarily eternal salvation. Anyhow, I bring up this point since there are Bible teachers out there who are absolutely bent on the context of a verse, and always demand a verse not be taken out of context. They say to do so is wrong. But, here, in our text today, Paul took a verse out of context. My point is that verses can often have multiple meanings, not simply one meaning. There are multiple meanings, and many applications.
So, it’s definitely true that we become saved through calling on the Lord’s name—that’s how we come into personal relationship with God. That’s how we are delivered from our sins. It’s something we continue to do throughout our lives, as Christians. Notice also in looking at the verse right before that, where Paul talked about riches, notice also that a believer, by calling on Jesus’ name, can be delivered not only from Hell, but also is brought into God’s favor for good things in this life. Like for instance, a person can be delivered from demonic power, or demonic spirits, by calling on Jesus’ name. That’s part of God’s riches toward us. Have you ever tried that in a time of need? Let’s say you are suffering from some type of demonic oppression, and you have tried everything you know to overcome it, but you cannot seem to overcome it. Well, try this. Say, “Lord, you say if I call on your name, I shall be delivered.” Then say, “So, Lord, I call on you right now to deliver me from this demonic spirit that is troubling me.” And watch God work.
Verse 14: “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Americans need to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. That’s what the late Reverend Billy Graham spent a great deal of his time doing. That was God’s call on his life. That’s what he actually wanted to do. That was his vision from God, and his heart’s desire. It all started in Los Angeles and continued around the country and around the world. It was by Billy Graham that my mother was saved. Surely, he led a tremendous amount of people to faith in Jesus Christ. He certainly represents the one who’s feet are beautiful that bring the Good News! God calls people to share the Gospel with Americans, and he calls people to go to other parts of the world, and some to do both, as Billy Graham did. God desires to save people from all parts.
Note, then, God’s primarily method for reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus established this. God’s sends people to preach the Good News of Jesus. And people, hearing this preaching, respond to the good news. This is how God has chosen to deliver his good news. A large emphasis is often placed on one-on-one witnessing. Jesus did one-on-one witnessing for sure. Others in the New Testament did it as well. But, buckle in. That’s not God’s primarily way of delivering the Gospel. It is recorded that Jesus did far more public preaching than one-on-one witnessing. Jesus didn’t go around from house to house, knocking on doors, talking to people one-on-one, individually, like a politician running for office might do. He didn’t do that. He spoke publicly. The disciples spoke publicly. The Apostle Paul spoke publicly. That’s God’s primary method.
Verse 16: “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”
Recall, Paul is speaking to his fellow Jews here. He says, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel.” Really, the Gospel is a command. Peter commanded the Israelites in Acts chapter 3, remember? He stated, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus” (Acts 3:19, 20, ESV). Peter also explained when he was preaching: “God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness” (Acts 3:26, ESV). You see, there Peter told the Israelites the good news of Jesus Christ, as did Paul. However, many refused to listen them, and still refuse to obey the Gospel even to this day. God wants to bless his people. That’s what Peter said. Coming from sin into righteousness is definitely a blessing. But it’s God’s righteousness. Not our own. Not righteousness in who we are or what we do.
Paul cites Psalm 19:4 here by David, which says, “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” David was pointing out the handiwork of the heavens (outer-space) and the sky of the earth. The Heavens surely do declare that there is a God—that God is real. The verse has a double-meaning. We are all familiar with the fact that Jesus told his disciples to go to the ends of the earth with the good news. We call it the Great Commission, and assuredly, it is great. It is grand in that it is God’s plan, and it is great in the scope of what it seeks to accomplish. God unquestionably has called individuals whom he has gifted with the gift of evangelism to go to different places—to preach the Gospel. He even sends teachers of his Word to go to different places. I mentioned at the time we studied Romans chapter 1 that it is like when our President appoints ambassadors to different countries. Well, God does the same thing. He calls certain individuals to go to certain places. And they want to do it. They’ve been gifted for it, and they are therefore eager to do it. We’ve all met individuals who visit our churches who, we recognize right off the bat, that this is where their heart is at, this is what they desire to do.
The citation here from David in Psalm 19:4 is also prophetic in that David predicts that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will go throughout the whole world, for he stated “all the earth” would hear God’s message bearers. The church has been seeking diligently to do this from the very beginning. Remember, Paul himself wanted to go all the way to Spain, and that was a long way off for him back then. We’re going to talk about that a little more in Romans chapter 15. Every time Psalm 19:4 is spoken, it is calling into existence David’s prophecy, really, the reality that the Spirit of God has spoken. This is a reminder, again, of the power of what God has said, in that God has the ability to see into the future and tell us ahead of time what is going to happen. That’s one reason we can have a firm foundation of confidence in his Word. God has spoken things in the past, and those things in fact came to pass just as he said. And it’s no different with the things we are waiting on--namely the Rapture and Christ coming to the earth to reign as King of the World. That’s the way it’s going to happen. It’s as sure as I am standing here talking, and as sure as you are sitting where you are listening. We have a trustworthy God, and what he speaks, whether of grand things in his Word, or howbeit individual promises to us as believers in our lives, whatever he speaks, he always ends up doing. You can rest in that fact today.
Now, verse 19 of Romans 10: “But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
We come to that hard to understand truth again, which is the fact that God knew the Israelites would reject him from the very beginning. He told Abraham that at the beginning of Genesis chapter 12. There, he declared, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3, ESV). The way for that promise of God to Abraham to have been fulfilled was if the Israelites had rejected him. Perhaps God could have fulfilled it another way had the Israelites not rejected him, but it seems more likely that God had already known that fact and said what he said knowing that. Realize too that God calls the Gentiles a foolish nation compared to Israel. That certainly is true in the Jewish people’s eyes. And, it’s kind of true in reality because the Jews have all of God’s blessings; they have everything from God. And the Gentiles really don’t have all of that. The Jews know it all, and the Gentiles not near as much, and yet, they are the ones who have been more eager to believe in God’s plan.
To end the chapter, let’s look at Paul’s citation of Isaiah 65:2, which says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” He is saying this refers to Israel. God is so gracious. The verse says that God held out his hands “all day long.” God isn’t quick to give up and judge. Nope. God is eager to help, hopeful for a positive response. He longs for people to make the right choice, to turn from their sins and come into saving relationship with him. He helps in every way that he can. But, he cannot do for people what they are responsible to do for themselves. Everyone born into our world is responsible to trust in God’s provision for their sins. God cannot do that for anyone. We call that free will, free choice. Not sure that’s the best way to call it. It’s more like, the one free will or choice. Unbelievers aren’t free. Christ is actually the only ‘free’ choice they can make. That choice has no influence from Satan.
Anyone today can come to make the right choice—the only choice that will really make you free today. But trusting in Christ, you can gain everything. You can gain new life today, and eternal life for the future. As I stated, that involves riches in this life with God now, and all kinds of riches for the future. By trusting in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for your sins, and believing God raised him from the dead, you can come into right relationship with God today. Now, confess that to God and then go tell someone else about your newfound faith in him.
-Daniel Litton
We are continuing along in our study of the book of Romans, and today we arrive at chapter 10. Last week, in chapter 9, Paul was discussing how the Jewish people have rejected the Messiah, how they have mainly decided not to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Within that chapter, Paul also discussed God’s call on people, and how that works. He talked about how God calls certain individuals to salvation, and how he doesn’t call others. That was a great discussion, and if you missed it, you’re going to want to make sure you go back and listen to that one.
Nonetheless, in our text today Paul is going to continue talking about his fellow Israelites, and how he wishes for them to come into right relationship with God. And he’s going to reiterate how they can do that, or how anyone, no matter who they are can do that. This chapter kind of runs in the theme of Romans chapter 3, but perhaps in a little more elaboration and detail. Anyhow, this is a grand chapter and one that I think we tend to overlook at times. There is much for us to consider here.
So, Romans chapter 10, starting in verse one. The text says, “Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
You knew it was coming, or at least you should have. How much time do you spend praying for the lost? I know for myself, I love praying for lost people—it truly is my heart's desire. I would say that I pray for three to five people a day that I would like to see saved. And these are people I know in my own life. Like I’ve said in the past, I believe it is good when we have proper ‘standing’ in praying for a person. I mean, I think it’s good if we know them—if they are in our lives. I believe our prayers are more impactful that way. God has Christians in the lives of those we don’t know, and it will be their responsibility to pray for them.
I have always had a special place in my heart for those who are Jewish. And I know a lot of people do actually. I was taught that growing up—that the Jews are special and should be treated with extra respect. I think a lot of American homes teach this, and this surely is a good thing. Being God’s original chosen people, they have the promises, as we talked about last week. And we also are aware of the serious horror which happened at them during the Second World War. In blessing a Jew we will be blessed—it’s a guarantee from God in his Law. And, if we curse a Jewish person, we will surely be cursed—you can count on it. It’s from God’s Law, and it’s still applicable nowadays.
I remember a few years ago my old roommate from college was in town visiting and we went to one of the local malls here in Columbus to just hang out, walk around, and shop. And, as I recall it, we were walking in the mall and there was a Jewish lady who was selling certain skin products, and she roped me in to show me some of her products. And I didn’t mind it all. She was pretty attractive, as of course, most Jewish girls are. But that’s beside the point. She tried to sell me some products, but, not wanting to spend the money, I told her I would give it some thought and get back to her.
My friend left town and as I was going about my life, and for some reason, that Jewish girl from the mall kept popping in my head. I thought, “You know, I need to go back to the mall and share the Gospel with her.” So, when a good day for me to do that came, I went back to the mall and sure enough, she was there. I had already decided beforehand that I was going to buy products from her, and I told her that at the beginning of the conversation. I really didn’t want her to have to sales pitch me again. And too, I did this because I wished for the conversation to be genuine; I didn’t want her just talking to me so I would buy things. As we started conversing, I told her what I desired to purchase. I learned she was from Israel, and her home was just north of Jerusalem. She told me about her time in the Israeli military, and how that made her to grow up. I was kind of amazed as I was talking to her, but I think I managed to hide it. I was amazed because she had been taught so well; she had such a high level of intelligence. She had been educated far above any American girl I had ever known.
Anyhow, I started discussing the Bible and she showed me her Bible that she carried with her in her purse, which was an Old Testament by our standards. It had a beautiful white, apparently leather casing. She turned to a few Psalms and explained to me how she reads them in Hebrew. It was pretty impressive to say the least. And I explained I was a Christian and told her about how I was a Bible teacher. I said that I was currently teaching on my radio show Isaiah 52 and 53. When Jesus came into the picture, I could sense her starting to get nervous. Since we know that Jewish people are always looking for a sign, I believe sometimes they get nervous at the moment they think God might be talking to them. Anyway, after speaking with her for a while there, I decided to give her my card to my radio show and I told her to listen to the next Sunday, which was going to be Isaiah 53, and she told me she would. So, I had accomplished my mission. Coincidence? Not by any stretch. God wanted me to go talk to her and he wanted her to hear about Jesus. Everything lined up. And she was flying back to Israel the next week.
Unfortunately, this Jewish lady, and many Jewish folks in general, take pride in who they are as a people as their righteousness before God. I don’t say that to be critical, but for us to understand how they are seeing things. This particular lady had explained the different parts of her education and understanding on varying things, and she was very smart. But her position as a Jew, her Bible, her education, none of that made her righteous in God’s eyes. He isn’t looking for what we already have, but he is looking to give us his own, personal righteousness. I asked her about Jesus, and she said she knew about him, but acted as though the whole thing was made up. She believed the lie that had been passed down from generation to generation, that the disciples stole the body. I don’t understand how someone as smart as she was could ascribe to these type of conspiracy theories. When you think about it, it still doesn’t make sense. If the disciples stole his body, then why did they all die (except maybe for John) in Jesus’ name, for the Gospel’s sake?
Getting back on track, don’t get me wrong, Christians can do this too. They definitely can. Believers can take pride in their church, their church status, the fact they went to this or that university, what their last name is, that their the son or daughter of a preacher, whatever, but that doesn’t make them righteous before God. It doesn’t even make them pleasing to God. It doesn’t make them better than most. As a matter fact, God often frowns on those things. He frowns upon them since they seek to establish our own goodness outside of Christ, in things we have and who we are in the world. I know, that’s a very hard pill for some people to swallow. To swallow that pill means they’d have to change their whole lives around, or change their whole philosophy of thinking. And most don’t want to do that. Instead, right now they may just ignore what I say and seek to justify themselves. And there they go around the same mountain again.
Any person who honestly reads the Old Testament can see that it calls for a Messiah to come. I mean, not realizing that fact would require a person to ignore quite a lot of passages that speak, prophetically, toward this subject, and yet that’s what a lot of Israelites have done. It’s not only Isaiah 52 and 53 that talk about the coming Messiah, though, those chapters are pretty explicit. They give a pretty clear picture to say the least. The Jews in fact do believe that a Messiah is coming for them, but recall, they have preconceived notions of what that Messiah will be like. Namely that he will be powerful and worldly, and yes, that is what they are going to get.
Verse 5: “For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
Bring to mind, and we should all understand this by now, that anyone who wanted to be perfect in God’s sight in Old Testament times had to keep every part of God’s Law perfectly. Even those in our present time who wish to pass on Christ’s sacrifice and do it themselves have to obey God’s Old Testament prescription without any fault or failure. I think most of us will admit, however, that’s simply not possible for us. Most of us would have to admit that we have failed in goodness—that, as matter of fact, we are far from perfect before God, not even close. So, it’s really amazing how one would even feel they could be righteous in and of themselves before God in his sight. Remember what James has told us, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:10, 11, ESV).
Nevertheless, Christ isn’t far off. He isn’t in a galaxy far, far, away for anyone. That’s Paul’s point here. Anyone can come into personal relationship with God. Finding faith in God certainly isn’t by our keeping of the Jewish Law, or any law system for that matter. That’s not how we become the righteousness of God. No, our righteousness depends on our faith in what Christ has accomplished, and this is not something that we have to go look for. I love space. I like the planets and stars; they are so interesting. But boarding a Space Shuttle and flying up into space won’t make us any closer to God. That’s not where we have to go to find Christ; we don’t have to search the universe to find our answers. We don’t need to search high in the Heavens or in the depths of Hell in order to find faith in Christ. God has made it easy to come into personal relationship with him.
We are all aware that verse 9 here is the famous one that is often quoted by believers when trying to provide a simple explanation for the Gospel. Paul tells of two end results of the one who truly accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior. First, he says that the person confesses with their mouth. And what do they confess? That Jesus is Lord—that he is the true and only way to God. And what’s the next step? The person believes in their heart that not only did Jesus die for their sins, but he also was raised back to life. He is alive right now. The true Christian believes that. So, our confessing is in front of others. We tell others about our faith in Jesus—not merely just to shine our light or be a witness but because we are so full of joy and conviction that we just can’t help ourselves. It’s what we now naturally—in our new nature—what we naturally desire to do. God has changed us. And our new belief in our heart makes us justified—aquitted for any guilt to sin.
Paul stated, “For with the heart one believes and is justified.” The key word there is the “heart.” That was Israel’s problem; they didn’t have a right heart attitude toward God. Yes, God cares considerably about the state of our heart. Israel had a polished performance in some angles. The Pharisees sure thought they were great—they had what seemed to be a perfect and gleaming performance. And an outward observer may have agreed to that. But the problem was with their hearts. A person is right in God’s eyes who has a perfect heart—not a perfect performance. The person who’s heart is right but performance needs help is right before God, while the person whose performance is right but heart is in desperate need of help is not right before God. A lot of legalistic believers need to understand this point. That’s why you don’t have power. You are depending on your performance and not God’s righteousness. Oh, you may say you’re depending on his righteousness, Christ’s sacrifice to make you right, but you’re really not. To prove it, that’s why you get so upset when you’re performance looks less than perfect in front of others.
Verse 11: “For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Yes, there’s no fear of being wrong at the time we believe in Christ. It’s like I’ve mentioned in the past, we know what we know. It’s just something that changes within us. We know Jesus is real. We know we have eternal salvation. We realize that we hold the truth—the truth to the whole world, to everything that exists. The great thing is, not only do we understand that truth, but we are aware that no matter who we are, we are going to receive “riches” from God. There’s that word again, riches. We’ve seen that recently. God is going to give us vast riches in this life, and surely immense riches in the next. We honor God, we seek to love him, and we help other people. Now, the riches in this life may not be entirely material. There are riches in our faith that we place in God’s ability. For God through his Word, for instance, gives us expansive riches in his truth, in unlocking the secrets of the kingdom of God. There are riches found in having faith, using hope, and administering love. Yes, with God, great riches exist.
Now, Paul quotes the famous verse here from Joel 2:32, when he says, “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That’s a powerful verse. Personally, I prefer the King James Version when it comes to this verse. It says it like this, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.” I like the word “delivered” here better than the world “saved.” Regardless, and I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but I think it needs to be said, note how Paul, in quoting this verse from Joel 2:32, really takes the verse out of context in doing so and applies it to eternal salvation. In Joel, the author there is talking about the end of time, not necessarily eternal salvation. Anyhow, I bring up this point since there are Bible teachers out there who are absolutely bent on the context of a verse, and always demand a verse not be taken out of context. They say to do so is wrong. But, here, in our text today, Paul took a verse out of context. My point is that verses can often have multiple meanings, not simply one meaning. There are multiple meanings, and many applications.
So, it’s definitely true that we become saved through calling on the Lord’s name—that’s how we come into personal relationship with God. That’s how we are delivered from our sins. It’s something we continue to do throughout our lives, as Christians. Notice also in looking at the verse right before that, where Paul talked about riches, notice also that a believer, by calling on Jesus’ name, can be delivered not only from Hell, but also is brought into God’s favor for good things in this life. Like for instance, a person can be delivered from demonic power, or demonic spirits, by calling on Jesus’ name. That’s part of God’s riches toward us. Have you ever tried that in a time of need? Let’s say you are suffering from some type of demonic oppression, and you have tried everything you know to overcome it, but you cannot seem to overcome it. Well, try this. Say, “Lord, you say if I call on your name, I shall be delivered.” Then say, “So, Lord, I call on you right now to deliver me from this demonic spirit that is troubling me.” And watch God work.
Verse 14: “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Americans need to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. That’s what the late Reverend Billy Graham spent a great deal of his time doing. That was God’s call on his life. That’s what he actually wanted to do. That was his vision from God, and his heart’s desire. It all started in Los Angeles and continued around the country and around the world. It was by Billy Graham that my mother was saved. Surely, he led a tremendous amount of people to faith in Jesus Christ. He certainly represents the one who’s feet are beautiful that bring the Good News! God calls people to share the Gospel with Americans, and he calls people to go to other parts of the world, and some to do both, as Billy Graham did. God desires to save people from all parts.
Note, then, God’s primarily method for reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus established this. God’s sends people to preach the Good News of Jesus. And people, hearing this preaching, respond to the good news. This is how God has chosen to deliver his good news. A large emphasis is often placed on one-on-one witnessing. Jesus did one-on-one witnessing for sure. Others in the New Testament did it as well. But, buckle in. That’s not God’s primarily way of delivering the Gospel. It is recorded that Jesus did far more public preaching than one-on-one witnessing. Jesus didn’t go around from house to house, knocking on doors, talking to people one-on-one, individually, like a politician running for office might do. He didn’t do that. He spoke publicly. The disciples spoke publicly. The Apostle Paul spoke publicly. That’s God’s primary method.
Verse 16: “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”
Recall, Paul is speaking to his fellow Jews here. He says, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel.” Really, the Gospel is a command. Peter commanded the Israelites in Acts chapter 3, remember? He stated, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus” (Acts 3:19, 20, ESV). Peter also explained when he was preaching: “God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness” (Acts 3:26, ESV). You see, there Peter told the Israelites the good news of Jesus Christ, as did Paul. However, many refused to listen them, and still refuse to obey the Gospel even to this day. God wants to bless his people. That’s what Peter said. Coming from sin into righteousness is definitely a blessing. But it’s God’s righteousness. Not our own. Not righteousness in who we are or what we do.
Paul cites Psalm 19:4 here by David, which says, “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” David was pointing out the handiwork of the heavens (outer-space) and the sky of the earth. The Heavens surely do declare that there is a God—that God is real. The verse has a double-meaning. We are all familiar with the fact that Jesus told his disciples to go to the ends of the earth with the good news. We call it the Great Commission, and assuredly, it is great. It is grand in that it is God’s plan, and it is great in the scope of what it seeks to accomplish. God unquestionably has called individuals whom he has gifted with the gift of evangelism to go to different places—to preach the Gospel. He even sends teachers of his Word to go to different places. I mentioned at the time we studied Romans chapter 1 that it is like when our President appoints ambassadors to different countries. Well, God does the same thing. He calls certain individuals to go to certain places. And they want to do it. They’ve been gifted for it, and they are therefore eager to do it. We’ve all met individuals who visit our churches who, we recognize right off the bat, that this is where their heart is at, this is what they desire to do.
The citation here from David in Psalm 19:4 is also prophetic in that David predicts that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will go throughout the whole world, for he stated “all the earth” would hear God’s message bearers. The church has been seeking diligently to do this from the very beginning. Remember, Paul himself wanted to go all the way to Spain, and that was a long way off for him back then. We’re going to talk about that a little more in Romans chapter 15. Every time Psalm 19:4 is spoken, it is calling into existence David’s prophecy, really, the reality that the Spirit of God has spoken. This is a reminder, again, of the power of what God has said, in that God has the ability to see into the future and tell us ahead of time what is going to happen. That’s one reason we can have a firm foundation of confidence in his Word. God has spoken things in the past, and those things in fact came to pass just as he said. And it’s no different with the things we are waiting on--namely the Rapture and Christ coming to the earth to reign as King of the World. That’s the way it’s going to happen. It’s as sure as I am standing here talking, and as sure as you are sitting where you are listening. We have a trustworthy God, and what he speaks, whether of grand things in his Word, or howbeit individual promises to us as believers in our lives, whatever he speaks, he always ends up doing. You can rest in that fact today.
Now, verse 19 of Romans 10: “But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
We come to that hard to understand truth again, which is the fact that God knew the Israelites would reject him from the very beginning. He told Abraham that at the beginning of Genesis chapter 12. There, he declared, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3, ESV). The way for that promise of God to Abraham to have been fulfilled was if the Israelites had rejected him. Perhaps God could have fulfilled it another way had the Israelites not rejected him, but it seems more likely that God had already known that fact and said what he said knowing that. Realize too that God calls the Gentiles a foolish nation compared to Israel. That certainly is true in the Jewish people’s eyes. And, it’s kind of true in reality because the Jews have all of God’s blessings; they have everything from God. And the Gentiles really don’t have all of that. The Jews know it all, and the Gentiles not near as much, and yet, they are the ones who have been more eager to believe in God’s plan.
To end the chapter, let’s look at Paul’s citation of Isaiah 65:2, which says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” He is saying this refers to Israel. God is so gracious. The verse says that God held out his hands “all day long.” God isn’t quick to give up and judge. Nope. God is eager to help, hopeful for a positive response. He longs for people to make the right choice, to turn from their sins and come into saving relationship with him. He helps in every way that he can. But, he cannot do for people what they are responsible to do for themselves. Everyone born into our world is responsible to trust in God’s provision for their sins. God cannot do that for anyone. We call that free will, free choice. Not sure that’s the best way to call it. It’s more like, the one free will or choice. Unbelievers aren’t free. Christ is actually the only ‘free’ choice they can make. That choice has no influence from Satan.
Anyone today can come to make the right choice—the only choice that will really make you free today. But trusting in Christ, you can gain everything. You can gain new life today, and eternal life for the future. As I stated, that involves riches in this life with God now, and all kinds of riches for the future. By trusting in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for your sins, and believing God raised him from the dead, you can come into right relationship with God today. Now, confess that to God and then go tell someone else about your newfound faith in him.
-Daniel Litton