18 Romans 10:1-13
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Romans 10:1-4
1Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them
witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to
knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s
righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not
submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Paul continues to express his desire and prayers
for his fellow Israelites to put their faith in Jesus, and be saved. He
recognises that they do have a passion to get into an intimate relationship
with God, which is a good thing, but adds that their passion is not accompanied
by knowledge. Merely desiring to do something, and not knowing how to do it can
be frustrating. They were desiring to be righteous, but yet when Jesus came and
offered it to them free of cost, they rejected both Him, and His gift – how sad
is that? He says that they were not aware of the gift of God’s righteousness
that was being made available to them through Jesus, but instead, were clinging
on to their own righteousness, which was no righteousness at all.
Isaiah says in Isaiah 64:6: “But we are all
like an unclean thing, and
all our righteousnesses are like
filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have
taken us away.” Jesus was the one who fulfilled the law, and therefore
could be called righteous. He then offered this righteousness free of cost, to
anyone who believes in His work on their behalf.
Romans 10:5-10
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is
of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” 6 But
the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say
in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from
above) 7 or, “‘Who will
descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the
dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is
near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we
preach): 9 that 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. 10 For with the heart one
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
Moses (and the OT prophets)
said in several places (Leveticus18:5;
Nehemiah 9:29; Ezekiel 20:11,13,21) that for one to be made righteous in
God’s sight he would have to obey the law and he would then be able to live
well and long on the earth. But we’ve already established that no man (except
Jesus) could obey the law completely, and therefore no one but He could be made
righteous by the law. Since He was made righteous, He was eligible to be the
spotless ‘Lamb of God,’ who could ‘take away the sins of the world.’ Since
He bore the penalty for the sins of the whole world when He died on the cross,
was buried and resurrected from the dead. All those who put their faith in His
work on their behalf, can be freed from the penalty of sin, receive forgiveness
of their sins and be justified (made righteous) by God.
Paul goes on to quote from Deuteronomy 30:11-14 - 11 “For this commandment which I command you
today is not too mysterious for you,
nor is it far
off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend
into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Nor 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?’ 14 But the word is very near you, in your
mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15 See, I
have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in
that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep
His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and
multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.”
He says that those who are
made righteous by faith will no longer say, “Who can go into heaven to bring us
the Word of God so we can live by it?” because Jesus had already come down from
heaven. Nor will they say, “Who will go down to the abyss to bring the word of
God from there, because Jesus, after His death, went down to, and ascended from
the abyss. But rather, those of us who believe in Jesus have the Word of God so
close to us – it’s in our hearts and mouths and so we can live by it now. It’s
this message of faith that Paul is preaching about. He goes on to say that
those who profess the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and who believe that
God the Father raised Him from the dead, will be saved.
We receive the righteousness
of God by faith (not by works), and once we are made righteous we need to
confess Jesus as Lord and live life, led by His Spirit so we are saved. So what
Paul seems to be doing here is connecting Deuteronomy
30:11-14 where Moses writes that what God is asking of us is not something
that is too lofty for us to attain. He says in Deuteronomy 30:16 that we are called to love the Lord and obey Him.
That’s the same teaching of Jesus in John
14:15, “If you love me keep my
commandments.”
Romans 10:11-13
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever
believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is
no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever
calls on the name of the Lord shall be
saved.”
Paul goes on to quote from Psalm 25:3; Joel 2:32; Isaiah 45:17; Isaiah
49:23 which say that those who wait on the Lord, or put their trust in the
Lord will never be put to shame. He seems to be telling his readers that
whoever believes in the Lord Jesus – Jew of Greek alike, will not be
disappointed or put to shame. He goes on to give a reason for this assurance –
the Lord who is over both Jews and Gentiles, abounds in grace to all who call
upon Him. It doesn’t depend on one’s works, but rather on one’s faith in
Christ’s work on their behalf. He further reiterated by saying that whoever
(Jew or Gentile) called upon the name of the Lord Jesus would be saved.
Michael Collins
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