A. INTRODUCTION
1. The ninth chapter of Romans represents the most straightforward presentation in all of Bible of the difficult doctrines of:
a. e __ __ __ __ __ __ __;
b. p __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __; and
c. the s __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ of God.
2. These doctrines have been debated in the church for centuries, and different understandings of them have led to broken personal relationships, split local churches, the development of entire theological systems, and the birth of whole denominations. The "hard line" endorsement of these doctrines -- "Five-Point Calvinism," for example -- is the result of taking what is stated in Scripture to a "logical" and understandable conclusion. The rejection of "hard line" responses to these doctrines -- "Arminianism," "Evangelicalism," and "Determinism," for example -- is also the result of forcing what God's Word says into a comprehensible paradigm. The strife which has come from these doctrines is the product of the various interpretations of them; it does not issue from the Scriptures themselves. It is only when Christians -- or groups of them -- insist that their own narrow convictions of what constitutes the "truest meaning" of a word, a phrase, or an entire passage of Scripture become "biblical" doctrine that "envying, and strife, and divisions" rend the fabric of the tapestry of the universal church of Jesus Christ.
3. Occasionally believers require a "reality check." We need to step back from the great pile of stuff -- some of it quite good, to be sure -- we have heaped upon the bare foundation of the Christian faith in order to separate our traditions, convictions and surmisals from what God's Word sets forth plainly as the very essence of Christianity. The apostle Paul took this approach when he wrote his first epistle to the church at Corinth, a congregation whose faith and practice had moved from basic Christianity to doctrinal and behavioural excess in an alarmingly short period of time.
ref: 1 Corinthians 1:10-11
1 Corinthians 1:17
1 Corinthians 1:23-24
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
4. Paul does much the same thing in this morning's text passage. Amidst all his difficult, complex theology regarding election, sovereignty and Israel, he declares the simple g __ __ __ __ __ of Christ, stripped down to its barest essentials, and assumes the role for which, it seems, God had
gifted him best: Paul the e __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __.
B. TEXT: Romans 9:30 - 10:21
1. Paul began chapter 9 with the great of paradox of God's election of Israel as His chosen people and Israel's subsequent rejection of the Messiah. How, Paul asked himself, can her unbelief be explained?
a. v.6-13: It is not because God is u __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ to His promises. He has, indeed, kept His word, but specifically to the "r __ __ __ __ __ __" of the elect within the people of Israel.
b. v.14-18: It is not because God is u __ __ __ __ __ in His "purpose according to election."
Neither His m __ __ __ __ toward some nor His h __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ of others is incompatible with His perfect j __ __ __ __ __ __.
c. v.19-29: It is not because God is u __ __ __ __ __ in holding people accountable. After all, He is the "p __ __ __ __ __" and we are the "c __ __ __." And it is true, in any case, that God has consistently acted according to His own c __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __, and in accordance with Old Testament p __ __ __ __ __ __ __.
2. Paul's conclusion is presented in Romans 9:30-33.
a. Israel, so passionate in her pursuit of the r __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ of God, has not succeed in obtaining it.
b. Gentiles, historically uninterested in the r __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ of God, have attained to righteousness.
c. How can this be explained? Why is this upside-down situation so undeniably true?
(1) Israel did not seek the righteousness of God by f __ __ __ __; she chose to pursue it by means of the l __ __.
(2) The Gentiles, even though they were not seeking the righteousness of God, gladly received it when God offered it, and received it by f __ __ __ __.
d. The crux of the matter for both Jew and Gentile was, is and will always be that "stumbling stone:" J __ __ __ __ C __ __ __ __ __.
(1) It is God incarnate -- God the Son, Jesus Christ -- that sets Christianity apart from all the world's religions. Obtaining the righteousness of God -- or whatever they call The Supreme Being -- is the obsession of every religion, and all of them provide behavioural framework for mankind to attain some level of acceptability to Him. Not so biblical Christianity, which alone declares that mankind is absolutely unable to please God in any way. The only way to the righteousness of God, Christianity says, is to receive as a free gift the righteousness of the One God provided for that purpose: Jesus Christ.
(2) 1 Peter 2:4-10 [ NIV ]
As you come to him, the living Stone -- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him -- you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." {Isaiah 28:16} Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone." {Psalm 118:22} and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." {Isaiah 8:14} They stumble because they disobey the message -- which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
(3) "The primary affirmation is that God himself has laid down a solid rock or stone. It is, of course, Jesus Christ.
....everybody has to decide how to relate to this rock which God has laid down. There are only two possibilities. One is to put our trust in him, to take him as the foundation of our lives and build on him. The other is to bark our shins against him, and so to stumble and fall." - John Stott: Romans: God's Good News for the World
3. In Romans 10 Paul continues and cinches his solution to his self-addressed questions about the place of the work of Christ in the past, present and futures of both the Jews and the Gentiles.
a. In v.1 he reiterates his passionate personal burden for the salvation of his own people, the Jews.
b. He reviews their peculiar problem in v.2-3.
(1) They have a genuine z __ __ __ for God, but it is of ill effect, since it has been pursued "not according to k __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __."
(2) They are I __ __ __ __ __ __ __ of God's righteousness.
(3) They have established their own "r __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __."
(4) They have not, therefore, "s __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ to the righteousness of God," thereby condemning themselves, since it is the very thing they are pursuing with such zeal!
c. Paul's declaration in v.4 is profound: For Christ is the e __ __ of the law for r __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ to everyone who b __ __ __ __ __ __ __.
(1) The coming of Christ did not spell finis for the law of God in any sense which might suggest that His advent made the law of no effect.
Matthew 5:17-20 [ KJV ]
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
(2) The Greek noun rendered as "the end" in the text is the word telos, which has no less than four common understandings: "goal," "exit," "end" and "cessation." It can be seen in the light of either the culmination or the completion of a process. Certainly Christ's teaching in Matthew 5:17 embraces the culmination understanding. But, we might well ask, in what way is Christ the completion of a process? The answer lies in the final phrase of v.4: Christ is the completion -- the definitive end -- of the law of God as a means of s __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __. Even the most devout Jew who persists in seeing the law of God in this way after being confronted with the person of Jesus Christ is guilty of deliberate unbelief and will be judged accordingly and justly by the very God he or she so fervently desires to please!
John 3:17-18 [ NIV ]
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
d. In v.5-8 Paul moves toward the evangelical conclusion which, by the power of the Holy Spirit, must befall all Christians to whom God has given a burden for the salvation of another: What can God do through me to help this person see and understand the truth? An important part of the prayer life of any believer is earnest intercession before God on behalf of others -- no matter the light in which you see "election," "predestination," or "the sovereignty of God."
(1) V.5-7 are difficult for even the most astute Bible scholars to comprehend. I like R.C. Sproul's teaching here:
"This is difficult to understand. I am not sure exactly what Paul means here, but there was a tradition among the Pharisees that if any single Pharisee kept all the Jewish laws perfectly for one day, that man's righteousness would be so pure that it would induce God to send the Messiah. The idea was that if a person was good enough he could have the merit to climb right up to heaven and bring the Messiah down, or if the Messiah had gone into hell, he could bring him back up. But who has that kind of righteousness, that kind of merit? We can't climb up into heaven and bring the Saviour down from heaven. The whole point is that only God can send a Saviour from heaven, and only God can bring one back from the dead. Only God can save you and that is where your faith must be." - R.C. Sproul: Romans
(2) In v.8 Paul makes yet another profound statement. His Old Testament reference for this entire section of verses is Deuteronomy 30:12-14, and he quotes from 30:14 in the eight verse of our text passage. His point: the Word of God is not obscure or"hidden" or so far removed from the realm of possibility that it requires people to go to great "religious" lengths to obtain it. In fact, Paul writes:
...the word is n __ __ __ you, in your h __ __ __ __ and in your m __ __ __ __.
What word?
...the word of f __ __ __ __, which we preach.
e. Romans 10:9-10 should be memorized by everybody.
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. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. [ NKJV ]
(1) v.9 constitutes what is believed to have been the first Christian c __ __ __ __. According to Webster's Dictionary, a creed is simply "a brief statement of religious belief. The great Creeds of Faith which are recited, Sunday after Sunday, by Christians the world over represent much more than that. Creeds are not Scripture, yet they must be seen as having more significance than "a brief statement of religious belief." The world around the church has attempted since its inception to "define" Christianity in their own terms and for their own purposes. The great creeds are the result of scholarly effort to clearly define the faith of our fathers so that all within earshot would know for certain exactly what those who call themselves "Christians" believe.
The earliest creeds were simplicity itself.
- Aramaic believers of Paul's day recited the simple phrase "Marana tha!" before partaking of the elements of the Lord's Supper. It means: "Our Lord Jesus has come!
- The confession of the Ethiopian eunuch at his baptism by Philip has been used for centuries as the simplest of Christian creeds:
"I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." (Acts 2:37b)
The stuff of Paul's creedal declaration in v.9 consists of the two core beliefs regarding Jesus Christ which form the essence of Christianity:
- the I __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __, and
- the r __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __.
Just as plain and simple as the theological facts of the faith in this verse is God's plan of salvation for His elect in regard to those facts. A Christian, we may assume, is one who c __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ those facts with his mouth after b __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ them in his heart.
(2) In v.10 Paul summarizes the argument and, in the process -- to my own satisfaction, at least -- helps make understandable the incomprehensible details of election. My former pastor and spiritual mentor was James Dixon, who ministered at the Grace Brethren Church of Greater Washington from 1962 - 1993. He was honest enough to admit that many of the implications of election mystified him and that no one had come up with an explanation of that doctrine which made it perfectly clear. Whenever he preached about or around election, he suggested that we understand it in this way:
When the time of our translation has come, we may well enter the presence of God through a great gate into whose capstone have been chiseled the words: "WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME."
As we walk through that gate, we may turn around to see the great gate from the inside of heaven. We should not be surprised to find these words have been chiseled into the other side of that same capstone: "CHOSEN IN CHRIST BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD."
Romans 10:10 provides for me a way to deal with both sides of the election debate.
- I can b __ __ __ __ __ __ in my heart all the ramifications of the risen Christ only after God has equipped me to do so. Nearly all Christians agree that no sinner has the power to change his own heart! That can be done by God alone, and I am willing to see that intervening part which God played in my own salvation. Before the dawn of time, God decided to "quicken" me Spiritually -- to change my heart so that I might be able to "see" His Truth about my hopeless sinfulness.
- After God has thus "quickened" my, I must c __ __ __ __ __ __ with my mouth "my decision" to receive Christ as my Saviour and Lord. I have, then, "exercised my "free will" in response to the miracle of God's merciful grace of election. "The lordship and resurrection of Jesus are the essence of salvation, and they achieve their full purpose only through confession and belief: if you confess....if you believe. The variable (the subjunctive) is with humanity; if; the certainty (the indicative) is with God, 'you will be saved.'
Belief without confession is betrayal; confession without belief is hypocrisy. The righteousness of faith consists of belief and confession. Belief means active trust in God's goodness to us in Jesus Christ, as opposed to mere intellectual assent to a propositional truth. And confession means a deliberate and public witness to that belief." - James R. Edwards: Romans (Volume 6, New International Biblical Commentary
f. That God's great salvation is made available to both Jew and Gentile is confirmed by Paul in v.11-13, wherein he again adds Old Testament references to support his teaching.
g. Paul asks four significant questions in v.14-15, questions which have been used for centuries as the great biblical apologetic for missionary evangelism. They are offered in response to Paul's quotation of Joel 2:32 in v.13.
(1) How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not b __ __ __ __ __ __ __?
(2) And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not h __ __ __ __?
(3) And how shall they hear without a p __ __ __ __ __ __ __?
(4) And how shall they preach unless they are s __ __ __?
h. These questions are perfectly relevant in the light of v.17:
So then f __ __ __ __ comes by hearing, and hearing by the W __ __ __ of God.
In God's economy there is not only room for evangelism, there is vital need of it. God has seen fit to bring faith to lost sinners through the process by which they hear the preached Word of God.
I. In v.18-21 Paul turns his attention again to Israel. Once more he invokes the Old Testament to support his conclusions about the plight of this "disobedient and contrary people." The righteousness of God by faith is required for them as well as for the Gentiles. And, just like the Gentiles, each descendant of Isaac is held accountable for his or her response to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
(1) "The only thing more astonishing than the Gentiles' faith is Israel's lack of it. 'The more I called Israel,' said the Lord, 'the further they went from me' (Hosea 11:2). With outstretched hands God offered Israel the gift of life, but Israel's hands were full of its own works." - James R. Edwards: Op. cit.
(2) "One thing remains to be said of this passage. In the argument so far as it has gone there is a paradox. All through this section Paul has been driving home the personal responsibility of the Jews. They ought to have known better; they had every chance to know better; but they rejected the appeal of God. Now he began the argument by saying that everything was of God and the men had no more to do with it than the clay had to do with the work of the potter. He has set two things side by side; everything is of God, and everything is of human choice. Paul makes no attempt to resolve the dilemma; and the fact is that there is no resolution of it. It is a dilemma of human experience. We know that God is behind everything; and yet, at the same time, we know that we have free will and can accept or reject God's offer. It is the paradox of the human situation that God is in control and yet the human will is free." - William Barclay: The Letter to the Romans
C. Application
1. Jane Austin never wrote a novel called Response and Responsibility. If she had, she might have used the complexity associated with and the perplexities stemming from Romans 9-10. Today's text in particular confronts us with different facets of responsibility.
a. Preachers, be they pastors or evangelists, are responsible for p __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ the Word of God. It should be noted here that one of the greatest achievements of the Protestant Reformation was the reclaiming of preaching for faith and worship. The proclamation of the gospel through preaching had all but disappeared from the Roman church.
b. Lost sinners to whom preachers preach the Word are held responsible by God to h __ __ __ it. The full biblical understanding of "the proper hearing of the good news" entails more than just "listening." It includes the r __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ of the gospel unto salvation.
c. Believers -- individually and collectively -- are held accountable by God for the following:
(1) growing in g __ __ __ __ and k __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __;
(2) being burdened for and, then, I __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ on behalf of others before the throne of God in p __ __ __ __ __;
(3) full participation in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) by any and all of the following means:
- s __ __ __ __ __ __ your faith;
- becoming a m __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ or p __ __ __ __ __ __;
- providing s __ __ __ __ __ __ -- prayerful and financial -- for those who are willing to be sent forth with the gospel.
2. Romans 10:13-15 [ TLB ]
Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
But how shall they ask him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them unless someone sends them? That is what the Scriptures are talking about when they say, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace with God and bring glad tidings of good things," In other words, how welcome are those who come preaching God's Good News!
D I S C U S S I O N G U I D E
1. Read Deuteronomy 32:15-21.
a. This is seen by scholars as a Messianic prophecy. Do you agree or disagree? Why, or why not?
b. Hidden in this passage is one of several Scripture-based reasons for God's establishment of His chosen people, the children of Israel.
(1) In which verses can this be seen?
(2) The reason presented here is
c. Discuss the way in which the apostle Paul was used of God to fulfill Moses' prophecy.
d. How did God use the apostle Peter to fulfill this prophecy?
2. Read Acts 8:26-39.
a. It was suggested in this morning's sermon that v.37b constituted one of the earliest Christian creeds of confession.
(1) Do you agree that this is "enough" of a creed?
(2) Why, or why not?
b. Re-read Romans 10:9.
(1) What does this "add" to the confession of Acts 8:37b?
(2) Why might a Christian choose one over the other?
(3) Is one "more true" than the other? Explain.
3. Read the 1 Corinthians 8:6 and 12:13 back-to-back. They also served as a recited creed in the early church. Try writing them as a single creed, taking care not to "add" anything to the text.
4. Read the well-known creeds in the pages that follow. Decide which you prefer, and be prepared to share with the group your reasons for choosing one over the other.
