Jesus Is Lord Series

This week, Spain’s prime minister asked the head of the secession-minded Catalonia region the question that no one can seem to answer: Did he declare independence or not?...Clarifying Catlonia’s position is critical to map out Spain’s next move – including possible harsher measures against Catalonia if it now sees itself as a new nation. The head scratching came a day after Catalonia’s president, Carles Puigdemont, told the Catalan parliament in Barcelona that Catalonia had the right to be an independent country following last week’s referendum that backed secession from Spain. (http://nationalpost.com/news/world/spanish-prime-minister-asks-catalonias-president-did-you-declare-independence-or-not) In essence, the people of Catalonia, seek to be lords of their own destiny.

In Romans 10, the Apostle Paul shows how the desire for personal lordship will disappoint. Using the example of the Jews of his day, in the Rom. 10:1-3, Paul stresses how this desire is ignorant of the person of God, in particular His perfect holiness and righteousness. Consequently, they also were ignorant of the divine standard of holiness that He demands of people. Although law points us in the right direction, it provides no power to achieve its demands. It was never meant as a way to merit God’s favor. Its role was to reflect the character of God in terms of ethical goals. The Jewish legalists had perverted the divine intention of the law and made it into a way to gain God’s favor based on personal merit. (Mounce, R. H. (1995). Romans (Vol. 27, p. 208). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.).

Paul has been so clear throughout Romans (Rom. 3:23 et. al.) that personal merit falls shorts of God’s standard of acceptance yet people continually seek lordship over their own destiny. They desire to be their own bosses, their own rulers and lord of every aspect of their lives. The problem with this aim, revolves around power. Unless we have the ability to affect these desires, the goal of individual lordship will disappoint. There is only one in the universe who has the power to achieve what He desires: Christ the Lord.

The fact that Jesus is Lord is seen through:

1) The Antithesis of God’s Righteousness (Romans 10:4–5), 2) The Availability of God’s Righteousness (Romans 10:6–8), 3) The Acquisition of God’s Righteousness (Romans 10:9–10)

The fact that Jesus is Lord is seen through:

1) The Antithesis of God’s Righteousness (Romans 10:4–5),

Romans 10:4-5 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. (ESV)

Because of that arrogant self-satisfaction and self-righteousness, Jews were blind to the marvelous truth of the New Covenant, that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. The Greek word used here, telos, often translated “end,” could refer to a goal, result, or termination. Thus, Christ can be understood as the law’s fulfillment, in the sense that His death and resurrection achieved God’s purpose for the law.( Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Ro 10:4). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.) Paul’s …did not think of Christ and the law as two altogether unrelated entities; on the contrary, he saw the closest inner connexion between them. Christ is the goal, the essential meaning, the real substance of the law. It is therefore only as one sets one’s eyes on Christ, that one can see both the full significance of that graciousness of the law which comes to expression in this citation of Deuteronomy and also the full seriousness of its imperatives. (Cranfield, C. E. B. (2004). A critical and exegetical commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (p. 524). London; New York: T&T Clark International.) For those who sought righteousness by the law apart from Christ, “they stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense’ ” (Rom. 9:32–33; cf. Isa. 8:14–15; 28:16). Just as Jesus Christ, “the stumbling stone,” had declared early in His earthly ministry, the manmade self-righteousness characterized by the scribes and Pharisees was repugnant to God and would qualify no one to “enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20). To the Pharisees who criticized Him for eating with “taxgatherers and sinners,” Jesus said sarcastically, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick” (Matt. 9:11–12). In other words, those who think they are already righteous and acceptable to God will be ignorant of God’s true provision for righteousness. This is the basic problem with humanity.

Please turn to Philippians 3 (p.981)

Jews in New Testament times, and anyone who seeks to earn God’s favor by works seek to fulfill the law by their own efforts and thereby attain a righteousness acceptable to God. But Paul declares that Christ is the only end, the only fulfillment, of perfect, divinely acceptable righteousness.