Last week, when my wife and I were doing a 10 hour car trip with our four-year-old nephew, we did everything that we could to keep him entertained. As you do that, you can really scrape the bottom of the barrel in trying to find ways to keep him entertained and happy. At one point, we were looking around at our surroundings, and started to play Ispy. I would look around and see an object in the distance and say, “I spy with my little eye, something green! Where is it?” And he would take a look around and try to find something that was green. This only lasted a few minutes before the novelty of it wore off, but the concept that came into my mind didn’t. I wondered: what would this look like with spiritual things? How would this look with things of our faith?
For example, if I were to say, “where is God?” what would you say? A child might answer with heaven, church, or the cross. An adult might answer something similar. An unbeliever might answer “nowhere” since that person doesn’t think that God exists. How would you answer that question though? What would you say? Today, Paul helps us with our question of “where is God?” and all that the answer entails.
To help us answer this question, Paul takes us back to a pivotal point in the history of Israel. When you have a significant moment in your life, you can often remember the words that are spoken to you on those big days. Whether is what your parent may say as you make your first big purchase of a car or home. Maybe it is what your Dad told you as you graduated or got certified. You might be able to recall what a spouse told you at the birth of your first child. Whatever the event may be, we can remember what is spoken to us at big moments in our lives. These words stick with us.
As the people are about to enter the Promised Land, a high point in their lives, they are hearing the words of Moses, and these words stick with them. In Romans 10, Paul brings us back to this event. The people of Israel had been saved and brought out the land of Egypt. God had provided them water, food, and clothing throughout their 40 years of wandering in the desert. Before they enter the Promised Land, the people hear how they are to respond to what God has done for them. They were not told these things so that they could earn salvation by doing them. They never could. Moses tells them: “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.”
Moses tells them that this word is not far from them. They know what it says and how they are live in response to what God has done for them. They know the story and their history. They don’t need to go all over the world searching for these things. In fact, it is in their very midst and accessible to them.
Paul the apostle sees this text from Deuteronomy 30 as having a fuller meaning and application in Jesus. He says that we don’t need to go up to the highest heights, heaven, to bring Christ down, or go to the deepest depths, down below, to bring Christ up from the dead. We don’t need to search all over or do impossible things. With the people of Israel, we too hear, “The Word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart.” Our God and the message of salvation is found in Scripture. It is where our God chooses to be revealed. We don’t know Him apart from it, nor can we fully. Lutheran father Philip Melanchthon writes this when talking about this passage with these words, “God is found nowhere outside of His Word, or without His Word; He wants to be known through it. By means of this instrument He wants to work.” Our God is found in His Word, and this Word is found in our midst!
But what is this Word (and what does it do)? Paul tells us in the following verses. He says that it is the message that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead. The word that Paul uses here for Lord is kurios, which is the same word used over 6,000 times in the Greek Old Testament for Yahweh, or Lord in all capital letters in our English Bibles. The word kurios confesses that Jesus is true and full God!
The other part of that message, Jesus rising from the dead, includes His death for our sin. Jesus is the source of righteousness and salvation, and He is righteousness and salvation for anyone and everyone that believes. To believe this word and message is to receive righteousness and salvation. It is through this word that His righteousness is given.
Everyone who believes this Word will not be put to shame, for we have a loving and merciful God, not a strict, demanding judge. For His riches of grace are given to all who believe. Everyone who calls on the name of the resurrected and ascended Lord will be saved.
Two summers ago, I went to a Chicago Fire soccer game with my Uncle and his family. As a season ticket holder, he had probably the best seats in the arena, second row behind the visitor’s bench. On the bench for that game was Jermaine Jones, one of the best United States Soccer players of his generation, and hero of the last World Cup. Between halves, as nothing was going on, I called out his name, “Jermaine!”, and he slightly moved his head to acknowledge what I said. I did the autograph sign and he looked away. My wife did the same thing, and he fully turned his head and waved. She did the same sign and he motioned for her to come down for an autograph. I was excited that she got it for me, but was bummed that he ignored my call. Paul tells us that God is not like this. He says, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” He does not and will not turn a deaf ear to those who call in faith. He welcomes us with open, forgiving, and loving arms. This message and promise is for all people that call on Him with faith in Jesus.
It is because of this promise that God wants this Word to be proclaimed and it is through this Word that God works by the Holy Spirit. Paul says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” God’s Word is what the Holy Spirit works through in creating faith in people and sustaining it. The Holy Spirit gives the gifts of life, salvation, mercy, and grace through this Word as well. He works through this instrument. Whether it is through baptism, which is water and the Word, or the written Word, this is how God works to bring people to faith. He also does this through the spoken Word, which Paul focuses on extensively in our text.
He penned, “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!’” Our God works through the words that we proclaim about Jesus. Who have we been sent to proclaim this word to in our lives? We all have stations in life in which we are given opportunities to do this.
We can tell that lonely neighbor. We can say it to the stressed co-worker. We can spread it to a sibling or supervisor, or proclaim it to a parent. There are people in our lives that can hear this Word of salvation from us. We never know the impact that this Word will have on someone else, or when it takes root. God works through these opportunities. This is why we support mission. This is why we did Vacation Bible School this week. We believe that God works through this Word.
Martin Luther gives a helpful point about this with a thought from his second Invocavit sermon. He said, “I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.”
He is right. It was not Luther’s rhetoric, eloquence, power, or wisdom that gave the Reformation its success, but the Word of God. It is not our power, wisdom, or cleverness that does anything, but God’s Word, which He works through and is found. We just speak and proclaim, and God will take care of the rest. IN JESUS’ NAMEN, AMEN.
