Romans 10:1-13
1Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
5Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them." 6But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, ’Who will ascend into heaven?" (that is, to bring Christ down) 7"or ’Who will descend into the deep?" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Paul starts off chapter ten with a hope and a prayer for the lost people of Israel. That is that God would some day open their hearts so that they may accept Christ for who He is, the Son of God.
Paul states here in verse two that the Israelites have zeal for God, but they lack knowledge. This knowledge that Paul is talking about here is not the kind of knowledge that you read from a book and are just aware of it in your mind. It is a knowledge that comes from your heart. The word for head knowledge in the Greek is gnosis, but here the word epignosis is used which has a much stronger and deeper meaning to it. It is a deep faith.
He goes on in verse three to say what knowledge it is that they are lacking in, and that is the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ the righteousness of God. They would not submit it says to Gods righteousness that is Christ, but chose instead to believe in a righteousness obtained by their works.
Nowhere in the bible does it ever say that being a good person or doing good things will ever earn you salvation. But if you truly have Christ in your heart you will reflect at least in part these attributes of Christ and others such as love & kindness.
Last week I said that it is God who gives you the gift of faith that allows you to come to faith in Christ. God also does not hinder as a whole everyone else in attempting to come to faith on their own. But I would say from what we see in the Bible I do not believe that you can do it on your own. The Jews for the most part did not receive from God the Gift of faith as a whole, but some did come to faith through Gods gift as we have seen in Romans. The church in Rome as we see was made up of both Jews and Gentiles.
God Himself we read in the Bible has also at times hardened some, but it is not as if He took someone that was in anyway deserving of salvation and then hardened them, they lacked faith and salvation from the beginning.
Paul quotes the Old Testament here in Romans 10 more than any other of his writings of similar size. He wants to make sure that those in Rome who will read his letter are fully aware that it has been clear from generation to generation that God has done His part in informing them of Christ’s coming and what that will look like. No excuses.
Then in verse 4 - Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Both Jew and Gentile have the open call to come to faith. The law of the Jews is no longer, it has come to an end with the new covenant of Christ. Christ now is the only way to salvation.
John 14:6 - Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
That’s what we believe in, that’s what we have faith in. That Christ was sent to live that perfect life, the life we couldn’t live ourselves and then be put to death on the cross in payment for the sins of those who would believe in Him.
Maybe you think you can get there on your own? The Jews tried for a long, long time and couldn’t do it.
They tried to follow all their rules and regulations just to be faced with the reality that they could not accomplish it in perfection which is what God called for.
Maybe you think there are many paths to heaven, or that all roads lead to heaven through all religions. Then the deceiver has done a good job with you.
2 John 1:7 - Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
As we continue in to these verses we come across a mini gospel message of sorts, a compact version or short version.
Romans 10:9-11 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
We see in these verses two things that are a must if we are to gain salvation. We must have faith, and we must confess with our mouths.
Confess – If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord.”
Believe – And believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.
Deuteronomy 30:14 The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. (Old Covenant / New Covenant)
Believe – For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified.
Confess – And it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
These two things are a must (Belief & Confession) and Jesus Himself talks specifically about confessing or acknowledging Him in Matthew 10:32-33 "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
Confession of Jesus is something we must hold strong to, even under persecution.
In Foxe’s Book of Martyrs it tells the story of John Badby who was out spoken about his belief that the church was wrong in their belief that the Lords Supper actually turns in to the body and the blood of Christ.
After being found guilty of heresy they bound him to a stake and surrounded him with wood and set it on fire. As the fire began to burn him he screamed out “mercy” to the Lord. The prince then had the fire put out and asked Badby once more to conform but he would not and the fire was restarted and he was burned to death.
There are many, many stories of Christians over the last two thousand years that chose death over abandoning Christ and what they believed, the confessing of Christ.
That is a faith we should all strive for in our lives. That God would build in us a faith that is so strong that we did not even fear death.
Confessing Christ – Is there any way to be a Christian and not confess Christ, kind of like a closet Christian? I don’t think there is. And not only confessing Christ with our mouths, which is telling others about your faith in Christ and spreading the gospel message of Christ, but also we need to confess Christ in every aspect of our lives don’t we? We are a testimony to Christ in all that we do. That is why it is important for us to always reflect Christ in all that we do.
We are not always perfect… at least I know I am not. In my younger days I may have said I was but time has humbled me.
This past Friday evening I am at home about six o’clock taking a needed nap to relive myself of my headache and my phone rings and it is the alarm company for my business. They say that there is an irate customer that is out in front of my shop screaming like a wild man saying that he needs his car and he is going to break in if he has to and get it.
This customer was supposed to get his car the Wednesday before and I didn’t here from him. Being the car hadn’t been running for the last few months I assumed that he must not have been in a rush to come get it but of course all of a sudden he needs it now.
So I get in my truck and head on over there and on the way I am thinking about what I am going to say to him when I get there. As you can imagine I am not real happy at this point but I stop and think how much better this will be if I just reflect Jesus here.
Remembering the story of Christ casting the herd of possessed pigs in to the water, I get there I grabbed this guy and threw him in to this big puddle…
The reality is I get there and of course he is gone. But I called him and I was gentle with him and said I am here for you if you would like to come get your car, so he did. I guess that was the better way to handle it.
I was a bouncer at several night clubs when I was younger and manhandling people that were out of line came natural to me. It was one of the jobs that I really enjoyed in my life.
Romans 10:12-13 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
