“Saved: It’s a Bible Word”
(Romans 10:1-21)
Series: Not Guilty!
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
First Baptist Henderson, KY
(9-20-09) (AM)
- Take your Bibles and open to Romans, chapter 10.
We’re continuing our study of the Book of Romans. If you’ve visiting with us, this is what we do. We preach through books of the Bible, Bible-Book exposition; expository preaching through the books of the Bible, verse-by-verse wherever possible.
When I was a parole officer, I was trained to make arrests. And one of the things that was stressed was to be aware of “tunnel vision.” One can get so wrapped up in trying to do this one particular thing, going into a house, for example, looking for this one particular parolee, that you completely miss the larger stuff going on around you. It is a dangerous thing because there could be other things you don’t see that could trip you up in your focus on this one thing. Israel had a sort of “tunnel vision.” They were so concerned about keeping the law that they began to focus on it as the means to an end. The law became their salvation. But Paul writes to correct their tunnel vision. They are missing the forest for the trees. He wants to widen their understanding of spiritual things so that they see that the law was given primarily to point us to Christ.
- Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.”
6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above)
7 or, ” ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
- Pray.
Introduction:
My title this morning is, “Saved: it’s a Bible word.” I went with that title because this passage is all about salvation, about being saved, and it is a reminder to us that this word is not a word invented by Baptists. It is a glorious Bible word that is more important than other words like “church membership” or even “baptism.” When I talk to people about their spiritual background, I listen for whether they use this word. Some talk freely of their “church membership” or their “baptism,” but make no mention of salvation. Yet, salvation is what makes baptism and church membership possible.
Romans 9 Paul stresses the doctrine of election. Salvation is entirely of God. Paul taught about foreknowledge, predestination, and so forth. But look at the first verse of chapter 10. Paul says, “My heart’s desire and prayer for Israel is that they may be saved.”
Some wrongly conclude that if salvation is all of God, then what is the point of praying? Or, what’s the point of evangelizing? If God has determined everything, what is the point of doing anything? It’s all been determined. You know, “Que sera, sera; whatever will be will be.” But election does not mean fatalism. While chapter 9 stresses God’s sovereignty in salvation, chapter 10 stresses man’s responsibility in salvation.
I. Be Careful on the Righteousness of the Gospel (1-10)
The word “righteousness” occurs 7 times in these verses. Remember that the key verses in the book of Romans tell us how we receive righteousness—right standing before God.
Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
Zeal without knowledge. Look around and see how society rewards those who seek to establish their own righteousness. Men and women are busily trying to justify themselves by works and the newspapers praise them for it. God says if we are doing these works as a means by which to obtain right standing with Him then we are fools.
This was the condemnation the Pharisees heard from the Lord Jesus in Luke 16:15: “He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.’”
Theology matters. Content is essential.
Think of the many applications of misplaced zeal. Busyness does not necessarily mean biblical. Programs, etc, activity, good deeds done in the community, ecumenicalism,
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.”
But who can live by the law? See, the problem with Israel was that, like many today, they believed righteousness was something you earned. They believed you kept the Law as given by Moses as a means to obtain righteousness, right standing before God. But Paul is teaching that the Gospel is received by faith.
The Law was never given as a means to obtain eternal life. It was given for a number of reasons, reasons such as bringing about civility and order in a society, but it was never meant to grant salvation. In fact, the primary reason the Law was given was to point out how woefully inept we are at keeping it. And James reminds us in his letter in James 2:10, “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” You see, it doesn’t matter if we’re 90% good at keeping the law. To fail in just one small point of the Law means we are condemned before God.
Our failure to keep the Law consistently, consistently keeping the 10 Commandments, for example, shows us how sinful we are and, consequently, how needful we are to be saved from our sin. Paul said this earlier in Romans 3:20, “by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” And this all points us to Christ.
This is why Paul writes there in verse 4 that, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Christ fulfilled the demands of the Law. He carried out the Law’s commands, both actively and passively—actively by keeping the commandments perfectly during His earthly ministry and passively by dying on the cross for our sins, perfectly and satisfactorily exhausting the wrath of God. In this sense, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. So when the devil accuses us and says, “You are no good! Look at how you live!” We answer, “You are right, but you see, Christ is good. And look at what He has done on my behalf. He fulfilled the law perfectly for me. Because of Christ, I am free!”
6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above)
7 or, ” ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
One need not make some grand investigative journey into truth. It is not that truth is some mysterious thing “out there, somewhere” that one must find. Paul says it’s right here, near you! It is Jesus.
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Paul says essentially the same thing in verses 9 and 10. Verse 10 really just repeats verse 9, but from a different standpoint. Verse 10 is verse 9 “in reverse.” Verse 9 is about the Christian’s making a statement or confession about his belief in Christ. Verse 10 is about how he’s able to make that statement. He is able to make it because it flows from his heart.
Psalm 116:10, the psalmist says, “I believed, therefore I spoke.” Or, as Jesus says in Matthew 12:34, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
Verses 9 and 10, incidentally, are not like a sort of formulaic way of becoming a Christian. It’s not like we’re to use Romans 10:9-10 as a “magical prayer” formula to get people into heaven. It is not, “Can you say this? Can you “confess with your mouth that ‘Jesus is Lord?’ Will you do that right now? If you will, you will be saved.” That is not it. That would mean we were saved by making this statement. We would be saved by our own faith. But we are not saved by our faith, we are saved by grace through faith. Faith is the instrument of salvation, not the means of salvation. If faith were the means of salvation, then we would be saved by our faith, which is just another way of saying that we are saved by something we do, earning our own righteousness before God by making this statement, you see.
But we are not saved by faith. We are saved by grace, through faith. When Paul writes verse 9, he is writing about a Christian, a person who has already received God’s grace, the grace that enables him to believe. That’s why Paul follows verse 9 with verse 10. A paraphrase might be something like this, “If a man is a Christian, you will know so because his heart is changed. In His grace, God has moved upon this man’s heart, changing his heart, giving him the ability to believe, giving him the ability to receive Jesus Christ as Lord. The reason this Christian can confess and declare that Jesus Christ is Lord is because his heart has been changed and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
Note again how content matters. We must believe some specific things about Jesus. We must believe that, verse 9, God has raised Him from the dead. This means, of course, that we must understand why He died in the first place. We must understand these matters related to the atonement that Paul has been writing in previous chapters. Being a Christian is not just, “I have this feeling.” Or, “I love Jesus as my example.” Being a Christian means we affirm certain doctrinal truths about Christ.
Any time you ask questions of Jesus you are dealing with doctrine. Doctrine is the biblical answers to your questions.
II. Be Grateful for the Reach of the Gospel (11-13)
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
Here is one of the great delights of the Gospel! The reach of the Gospel is wide enough and far enough to include all who desire salvation. Note the two times the word “whoever” occurs here. Who may be saved? Whoever believes on Him, verse 11, and whoever calls on Him, verse 13. Whoever believes on Him, verse 11, will not be put to shame. That is, whoever believes on Christ will experience the full benefits of God’s wonderful purposes through Christ Jesus. How?
Because there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. That is, the same Lord over all will “richly bless” all who call upon Him.
How wonderfully equalizing is the Gospel! Nothing puts one category of persons higher or lower than another. All are on the same plane. We often say, “the ground is level at the foot of the cross.” All are equally in need of salvation, so all may equally receive the benefits of salvation.
When it comes to salvation no one is beyond the reach of the Gospel. Race does not make one more worthy or less worthy of salvation. It doesn’t matter. Our education does not matter. Our wealth—or lack of it—does not matter. Our influence in the community does not matter. Our background does not matter. In a word, our sin does not matter. Be grateful for the reach of the Gospel. No one is beyond it and it is attained by “believing on Christ; calling upon Him” as the heart cries out for salvation from sin by submitting to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Be careful on the righteousness of the Gospel. Be grateful for the reach of the Gospel. Thirdly:
III. Be Mindful of your Response to the Gospel (14-21)
Verses 14-21 are a stark reminder that no one is saved automatically. No one is saved simply because of he or she has been born into a family of believers. We are all responsible before God to believe Him and to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Interestingly, we find this passage on humanity’s responsibility in the role of salvation following closely after the stress of God’s election in salvation. What Paul does here in these latter verses is to basically say, “the reason the Jews, in the main, have not received Christ as Lord and Savior is not God’s fault. It is their own fault.” It was not lack of information concerning the promises of God. They had heard the Word and they had read the Word. The problem is not a lack of information. The problem is a lack of humble submission to the truth. Paul quotes generally here from Isaiah in these verses to substantiate the fact that the Jews had been given a steady stream of prophets over the years who have preached the purposes of God, but they have not believed.
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”
You see how Paul is using this language from Isaiah? He is using it to demonstrate that Israel’s problem is not a lack of preachers. In some sense he is saying, “At least since Abraham Israel has had men who have spoken the truth of God, preachers who have been sent with the Good News.” Paul may have said, “I myself am one of these preachers sent to proclaim this good news,”—but—verse 16, “they have not all obeyed the gospel.” Borrowing again from Isaiah, “Lord, who has believed our report?” That is, where is the evidence that the majority of the Jews are believing these truths about a coming Messiah that is now fulfilled in Christ?
You see, these verses—especially verse 14 and 15—are often taken out of context and used in missionary services as a call for preachers today to go to the ends of the earth. While that may be a valid application of the text, that is not Paul’s primary purpose here. He is writing about the failure of the Jews to believe those preachers who had been sent over the years. This is why Paul is writing chapters 9-11 of Romans. He anticipates that someone will say, “Well, if the Gospel is so good and so in keeping with God’s purposes then why are so few Jews embracing it?” And Paul says, “Well, you need to understand that the reason there are so few Jewish believers in the church is not the fault of God, but the fault of the Jews. They had a witness to the truth, they simply refused to believe. This point Paul develops in the remaining verses.
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, have they (Israel) not heard? Yes indeed: “Their sound has gone out to all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.”
Paul again borrows language from the Old Testament to make his point. Israel has heard the sound of truth that has gone out all over the earth, all over the world, but they have refused to believe.
19 But I say, did Israel not know? (and the implication is yes, they did! Yes, they did know the truth. It wasn’t lack of knowledge. It was failure to believe and submit to the truth.) First Moses says: “I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation (the Gentiles) I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.”
20 But Isaiah is very bold and says: “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”
And here again Paul is borrowing language from the Old Testament to illustrate that God’s perfect purposes through the Gospel, through the saving work of a coming Messiah fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, were made known for thousands of years. What is remarkable is that the Jews—who should have known better, indeed did know better—refused to receive that truth while the Gentiles, non-Jews identified here as “those who did not seek Me” are the very ones to whom the Lord “was made manifest.” Paul says this is why there are more Gentile believers than Jewish believers in the churches there at Rome and, we would add, in the churches today. It is not God’s fault there are so few Jewish believers. It is Israel’s fault. So Paul concludes in verse 21:
21 But to Israel he (God) says: “All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people.”
So God wants the salvation of the Jews. He has held out His hands to them just as He holds out His hands to all who will come to Him. But, you see, the Jews had largely rejected Him, just as many Jews reject God’s purposes in Christ today—and just like many Gentiles reject God’s purposes in Christ today.
Do you see the loving patience of God in verse 21? “But to Israel God says: ‘All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.’” Despite her stubbornness, God has lovingly and patiently held out His hands. But God will not simply overlook their sin. This is why Paul prays for the salvation of Israel in verse 1. This is why Paul says at the beginning of chapter 9, “I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren (9:3).” He knows that while God is loving and kind and offers salvation to all, not all will receive it. And there will be a judgment upon all who refuse to surrender to the lordship of Christ.
And God lovingly and patiently stretches out His hands today. He says, “Whosoever will, let Him come. Come believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Come receive Him as your only means of escape from sin, death, and hell. Come be saved today.”
- Stand for prayer.
I was listening to a sermon recently where the speaker stressed the importance of being ready for the day of judgment. He did so in terms with which I could relate. Have you ever taken a final, comprehensive exam in school? I have taken many of these exams over the years and so many of them are in essay form. And you know how it is. You sit there at your desk with others in a quiet room. All you hear is the teacher’s footsteps when he or she periodically rises and begins to walk around the class. Every 10 minutes or so, the silence of the room is interrupted by the clap of his shoes on the floor as the sound echoes through the room. Then, you know it is coming, the teacher rises for the last time and says, “Finish the sentence you are writing and put your pencils down.” And you know, you look down there at this pitiful stuff you have been writing and you think, “I’m nowhere near where I should be!” And you begin to write furiously, hoping somehow to make up for all the stuff you didn’t say, somehow trying to fill up the space with something remotely intellectual, but you look it all over and it just looks ridiculous. And then you hear the instructor say, “Time. Put your pencils down.” Now it’s over. You can do nothing else.
The beauty of the Gospel is that, applied to the spiritual realm, God through Christ rescues us from that anxious scenario. There will be a judgment day for every single one of us. In the end, if we are hoping to gain God’s approval through our own efforts then we are in trouble. We are like a poorly studied student trying to make the best of it through his pitiful last-ditch efforts at an examination. If that is the case, we will be judged a failure. We cannot earn forgiveness. We cannot please the righteous Heavenly Father through our efforts.
The Gospel means we flee to the cross for forgiveness. The Gospel means we look to Christ who is “the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” The Gospel is not “do” it is “done.” Jesus Christ takes the examination for you. He passes the test for you. But you must believe. So come into the outstretched arms of God and be saved.
- Stand for prayer.
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