A. When it comes to salvation, there are many paradoxes and ironies that go with it.
1. Salvation is free, but it costs everything.
2. Salvation is available to all, but few receive it.
3. Salvation is something that everyone needs, but few recognize it.
B. So when we talk about salvation and people’s need for it, many if not most people aren’t interested and don’t think they need it.
1. However, when people are asked about heaven, rather than about salvation, most people think they are going to heaven.
2. An interesting survey done back in 1997 asked people whether prominent public figures of that time were likely to go to heaven.
3. Here are some of the responses: What are the chances these people are going to heaven… Mother Teresa (79%); Oprah Winfrey (66%); Michael Jordon (65%); Bill Clinton (52%); and O.J. Simpson (19%).
4. But here is the best part about the survey, none of these prominent people received the highest scores.
5. Who received the highest scores? Of those being asked the survey questions, 87% of them believed that they themselves would go to heaven.
6. But who really is going to go to heaven and how will that be determined?
C. As we move into chapter 10 of Romans, Paul is going to address some of these questions as he explains why many of the Jews will be lost, while many of the Gentiles will be saved.
1. In last week’s sermon covering much of chapter 9, we stopped with verse 29.
2. We stopped there, because verse 30 begins a new section.
3. Most of the time, the chapter divisions are put in the right place to divide one section from another, but that isn’t the case here at chapter 10.
4. Beginning with chapter 9, verse 30, the words “righteousness” and “faith/believe” become dominant.
5. These words are at the heart of Paul’s argument in 9:30-10:13.
6. Three times Paul contrasts two kinds of righteousness:
a. “Righteousness that is by faith” verses “a law of righteousness” (9:30-31).
b. “God’s righteousness” verses “their own righteousness” (10:3).
c. “The righteousness that is by faith” verses “the righteousness that is by the law” (10:5-6)
7. These contrasts are at the center of the three paragraphs into which this section divides.
8. In each of these sections, Paul explains that Israel has failed to enjoy the blessings of salvation because she has been preoccupied with a righteousness based on the law, but the Gentiles, on the other hand, are streaming into the kingdom because they have embraced a righteousness based on faith.
D. With that introduction, let’s dive into the text: 30 What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. 32 Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written, “Look, I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and the one who believes on him will not be put to shame.”
1. As we saw last week in chapter 9, Paul focused on God’s sovereignty in election as God first chose the Jews to receive the law and the messiah, and then later God’s call included the Gentiles.
2. Here in chapter 10, Paul will now focus, not on God’s sovereign choices, but on the individual decisions of human beings to believe, or not to believe.
3. Paul starts with the Gentiles, explaining that they had not been pursuing their own righteousness, as a matter of fact they had been ignorant of God’s promises and had been excluded from the covenant and had no concept of right standing with God.
a. But when God offered the Gentiles His grace through the gospel of Jesus, they responded by faith and received the righteousness of Christ.
4. In contrast to the Gentiles, however, is the situation of the Israelites.
a. God had given Israel the law and the righteousness that is based on the law.
b. Paul is suggesting that the law of Moses, when rightly interpreted and practiced, calls for faith and not just for works.
c. Israel’s problem was that she was so preoccupied with the law that she missed faith.
d. The people of Israel focused so narrowly on the works the law demanded that they missed the larger demand of God to submit to him in faith.
5. Paul then explains that basic problem again in verses 32 and 33 by giving an illustration.
a. He draws the picture of a walker who is so intent on pursuing a certain goal that he stumbles and falls over a rock lying right in his path.
b. So Israel, so myopically concentrating on the law and its demands, missed Christ “the stone” that God placed in her path.
c. The Gentiles believed in that stone, who is Jesus, but the Jews stumbled over it.
E. Let’s see how Paul continues this discussion in the next verses: 1 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation. 2 I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes… (10:1-4).
1. We have already seen back in chapter 9, verses 1 and 2, just how deeply Paul feels about the failure of Israel to embrace the salvation God offers in Jesus.
a. Here we see how Paul continues to pray for his fellow Israelites that they will turn to Jesus.
2. Paul knows just how zealous his fellow Israelites are, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.
3. Here will learn the truth that it is possible to be sincerely wrong.
a. It is possible to be very devout and to be religiously fanatically wrong.
b. When we see Muslims strap a bomb to their chest and walk into a crowd and detonate the bomb, we must understand that they are most likely not insane, rather they are mistaken.
c. They are indoctrinated with a false understanding of God, and they are zealously, and fanatically wrong.
4. The apostle Paul personally understood this all too well – he himself had once been a misguided fanatic.
a. Paul had led and collaborated in the persecution and execution of Christians.
5. Paul makes clear that what the Jews did not understand was the God now was offering a right relationship with Himself through faith in Jesus Christ, the culmination of salvation history.
a. The Jews failed to recognize that Christ Jesus was the culmination of God’ plan.
b. They failed to understand that Jesus was the rock on which the new people of God were being built.
c. The Jews were guilty of missing the decisive turn in salvation history that had come with Christ, for God’s righteousness was now clearly bound up with Christ who is the end of the law.
d. Israel’s ongoing pursuit of a righteousness based on the law completely missed the point that the era of the law had ended.
e. With the coming of the Christ, the goal toward which the law had been pointing had been reached and the law had been terminated.
6. As a result of Christ’s coming and bringing the law to its culmination, righteousness was now available for everyone who believes, both Jew and Gentile.
F. Paul continues in verse 5: 5 since Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: The one who does these things will live by them. 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: Do not say in your heart, “Who will go up to heaven?” that is, to bring Christ down 7 or, “Who will go down into the abyss?” that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. 8 On the contrary, what does it say? The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the message of faith that we proclaim: 9 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. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, 12 since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:5-13)
1. Here in verses 5-13, we see Paul elaborate on the two key points Paul made in verse 4, which are that Christ ends the era of the law, thus making available a righteousness attained through faith to anyone who believes.
2. Paul begins this section by contrasting the ways of righteousness through the law and faith.
3. Paul’s point is that any righteousness based on the law is, by definition, something one can get only by doing, but the righteousness that comes by faith comes by believing.
4. The way of righteousness through the gospel is not a complicated set of rules and regulations, but is a sincere faith in Jesus.
5. It is believing that God made righteousness available through Christ being brought down to earth (incarnation), and His being brought up from the dead (resurrection).
6. No one has to ascend into heaven or plumb the depths to discover salvation, all a person needs to do to attain righteousness is to respond in faith to the gospel as it is preached.
7. We know from the rest of the New Testament that the proper expression of faith that brings salvation includes repentance and baptism, but that is not Paul’s point here.
8. Paul’s intent here is to contrast the righteousness that comes from faith and from the law, and to reinforce that this new path of righteousness by faith is for both the Jews and the Gentiles.
9. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved – not just Jews or Gentiles.
G. In the final section we want to cover today, Paul seeks to explain further why the Jews failed to believe in Jesus and be saved through Him.
1. Paul begins by pointing out that a person cannot believe unless they first hear the good news.
2. Paul wrote: 14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. 16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. (Romans 10:14-17)
3. Paul begins this section with four rhetorical questions that outline the sequence of how a person is saved and Paul gives them in reverse order.
a. Obviously a person cannot call on a God they have not believed in.
b. And a person cannot believe in a God whom they have not heard about.
c. And they cannot hear about God without someone preaching to them about God.
d. So preachers must be sent, they must preach, and then faith and salvation will result.
e. And how wonderful and beautiful are the feet of those who bring the gospel!
f. And faith does come from hearing.
4. But guess what? Not all who hear believe.
5. Paul introduces the idea that preachers and preaching are needed, but they don’t guarantee results.
H. Paul continues: 18 But I ask, “Did they not hear?” Yes, they did: Their voice has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world. 19 But I ask, “Did Israel not understand?” First, Moses said, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding.” 20 And Isaiah says boldly, “I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me.” 21 But to Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.” (Romans 10:18-21)
1. Paul wants us to understand that the problem with the unbelief of the Jews wasn’t the fact that they had not been told.
2. The Jews were told the good news, they heard it, but they did not believe.
3. In addition to hearing in general, Paul points out that through the prophets, God had given them forewarning that He would try to get their attention by also working with the Gentiles.
a. God would try to draw the Jews to Him through their jealousy, much like a boy or girl sometimes tries to draw their girlfriend or boyfriend to them through jealousy.
b. God let them know that He would be found by the Gentiles even though the Gentiles were not looking for Him or asking for Him.
c. This was all a part of God’s plan and the Jewish people should have seen it and understood it, because God had told them all about it.
4. In spite of the fact that God has always loved and been open handed with the Jewish people, how have they treated God? They have been a disobedient and defiant people.
a. God extends His grace toward them, but Israel continues to rebel.
5. The only way anyone will be saved, Jew or Gentile, is to believe, submit and obey God.
I. What lessons can we draw from this section about salvation and about ourselves?
1. Let me offer a few.
J. First, We are reminded that zeal without knowledge is dangerous and damning.
1. Knowledge is important and truth is important.
2. We sometimes hear the mistaken notion that what is important is that a person believes in something, no matter what that something is.
3. Everyone’s truth isn’t equal.
4. Sincere faith in something that is false is of not helpful.
5. What a person believes and in whom a person believes makes a difference.
6. And even when it comes to the Bible, we must have a proper understanding of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.
7. Christ is the end of the law, and salvation can no longer be sought through the Old Covenant.
8. Salvation is now available through Jesus who is the way and the truth and the life (Jn. 14:6).
K. Second, We are reminded that we are saved by grace through faith, and not by works.
1. We might try to create a righteousness of our own, but it will never be good enough.
2. The only way to be saved is to receive the righteousness of Jesus that He established by His life, His death on the cross and His resurrection.
3. That righteousness comes to us by grace through faith.
L. Third, We are reminded that the gospel is for all.
1. There is no one who that is excluded from the call of God.
2. The gospel isn’t just for Jews or just for Gentiles.
3. The gospel isn’t just for the rich or just for the poor.
4. The gospel isn’t just for the good or the bad.
5. The gospel is for everyone and is needed by everyone.
M. Fourth, We are reminded that we have a responsibility to share the gospel.
1. How will others hear if we don’t share the good news?
a. God might use other people or other means, but that doesn’t negate our responsibility.
b. Our personal blessing and reward is connected to our obedience and faithfulness.
2. If we believe we have something precious in Christ, how can we keep it to ourselves?
a. It is hard to imagine us not telling someone where to find a great deal or the cure for their ailment.
b. What we have in Christ is the greatest cure for what ails everyone and it is the best deal in the universe.
3. But what if people don’t want to hear the good news?
a. If they don’t want to hear it, they may let us know, or they may just say “thank you, but no thank you.”
b. It isn’t our job to make them want to accept and believe, it is our job to point them toward Jesus.
4. But isn’t there a chance people will reject us and the gospel?
a. Yes, there is a chance they will reject not only the gospel but us as well.
b. We may be shunned or persecuted, but our mission is so important it is worth it.
N. Finally, we are reminded that each person has the choice to accept or to reject the gospel.
1. How sad it is that some people will persist in disobedience and defiance.
2. But God gives us the choice even to reject the salvation God offers – even though God knows that is not in our best interest.
3. Maybe you are someone who continues to reject God’s offer of salvation and are refusing to submit to God and God’s commands.
4. I hope and pray that you will turn toward God and receive God’s grace.
5. And I hope and pray that you will do it before your heart is too hard, or your time on earth is over.
O. Ty Cobb, one of America’s greatest baseball players almost waited too long.
1. On July 17, 1961 when Ty Cobb was on his deathbed, a preacher went to Ty Cobb to encourage him to put his trust in Christ.
2. Cobb looked up from his deathbed and said, “You’re not telling me that a whole life of sin can be done away with by a deathbed repentance, are you?”
3. The preacher said, “No, Mr. Cobb, I’m not telling you that a deathbed repentance can do away with a lifetime of sin, but I am telling you that the blood of Jesus can!”
4. Ty Cobb acknowledged his need for Christ and his desire to be saved by Jesus.
5. As the preacher was leaving the hospital room, Cobb said, “Now tell all my friends that I am sorry I did this in the bottom of the ninth, I should have done it in the top of the first!”
6. Truth is: some of us never get to the 9th inning, or any inning beyond this moment.
7. How sad to wait too long and for God to have to say to us, “Their whole life I held out my hands to them, but they remained disobedient and defiant.”
8. I want to be sure that doesn’t happen to me. How about you?
Resources:
Romans, The NIV Application Commentary, by Douglas Moo
Christ is the End of the Law, Sermon by Dan Williams
