The same Rock of offense was the Chief Cornerstone – it was for stumbling, or to be believed.
All for His glory, all to demonstrate His power.
‘God can do what He wants, but you can trust Him. How do I know this? Because of Jesus Christ.’
I feel I’ve spent too much time in Romans 9 – even after the quick leaps we took as we closed the previous article. What we have included from that article above – well, that’s the main point I have from it, according to this time and season.
Let’s keep going.
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them 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, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
Something that I feel Paul failed to explain earlier in Romans 9… or, rather, what he failed to mention was an explanation as to why he was willing to lay everything down himself, and also more detail as to what he meant when he said it was for the sake of his countrymen.
I mean, I could have made assumptions, but it’s all clear here. It’s Paul’s heart’s desire, it’s his prayer – earlier, he was willing to be the one accursed – for his kinsmen, the Israelites, to be saved. And what’s keeping them from being saved is a combination of ‘a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge‘, but ‘(ignorance) of the righteousness of God’, and an insistence ‘to establish their own’.
They have a zeal for God, and seek to establish their own righteousness. They refuse to submit to the righteousness apart from the Law, and by faith in Christ – Even if, as mentioned in the previous chapter, they ‘pursued a law that would lead to righteousness (but) did not succeed in reaching that law.’
No matter what race you belong to, no matter whose offspring you are, I think a general lesson for all of us to learn is that zeal and ignorance are a perfect formula that leads to disaster. The zeal pushes us further down the wrong road that ignorance points us to. The ignorance serves as rocket fuel for the zeal.
No matter what race you belong to, no matter whose offspring you are – pride comes before the fall.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Romans 10:1-4
This verse goes around a lot in my church circles, but considering what we’ve just talked about on the verses prior to this superstar one, well, I’m reminded – humbled – by the nuance beneath Paul’s choice of words; The one that gently emphasizes that it takes humility to believe.
It takes humility to cast the zeal aside. It takes humility, at least on the Jew’s part, to confront the ignorance and to not merely hear, but listen to this news – that what you’ve insisted on following your whole life has ended, and one of your own has been revealed to be what you’ve always been wanting… if only you believe in Him. If this Law is what was passed on, from your ancestors to generation after generation, to you – well, I don’t think it’d be as easy to hear, much less listen, much less believe in One (out of others) who claims to be the Messiah.
As a Gentile I suppose I could understand why we took in the good news of Christ, and how we understood and received the power of the Gospel unto salvation – One huge reason being, we were never entrusted with the Old Covenant.
The way I see it, while the Jews had the Law give life to sin, the rest of us beheld the wages of sin, and all of us sinned, and nobody was righteous – no Jew, no Greek, no Gentile.
So we praise God! Why? Because, to the Jew, Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness, and to the Gentile, Christ is righteousness to everyone who believes!
To the proud, Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness, and He is righteousness to everyone who humbly believes! To the zealous, Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness, and to the ignorant, He is righteousness to everyone who believes!
…and I’m sorry, again, for lack of time I’m going to have to really fast track on what follows:
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on 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 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 that we proclaim);Romans 10:5-8
I’ve had to watch the 2017 movie Dunkirk for this one.
Without going into too much detail, the movie was about the real-life incident of French and English soldiers trapped in the port of Dunkirk. Surrounded from all points of access by land by the Germans, their only hope was to escape by sea, from mainland Europe to the shores of England.
Imagine hundreds of thousands of soldiers running out of supplies and morale, trying to cross the dangerous English Channel with whatever equipment they had on hand, and even resorting to radioing civilian boats on the side of safety to go all the way there, pick up as many soldiers as they could, and then going all the way back, all that time attempting to evade German U-boats and aircraft trying to sink them. It was a nightmare!
But as I watched the movie, it opened my eyes, just as it also gave Dr. Andrew Farley a realization: Not all the soldiers were going to make it… and, consequently, we ought to realize that in our own real-life wars, whether we are thinking top-brass or as soldiers, our focus is in gratitude of our own salvation (“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”), and in sharing it to as many people as possible (‘that is, the word of faith that we proclaim‘).
Christ saved us – Get the word out!!
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”Romans 10:9-13
We need to get the Word out, we need to get the Gospel heard and known, we need to proclaim Christ! For anyone who calls on His name would be saved, just as anyone who confesses with their mouth and believes in their heart that God raised Him from the dead would also be saved!
It’s no accident that I was going through social media today (as in every day), and saw one post in particular where the point of discussion between some missionaries (who belonged to a sect I’d rather not name) and a seemingly knowledgeable bystander was Romans 9:13. You know, where Paul quoted from Obadiah: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’… and I think this was the (unfortunate) point the bystander raised, contrary to the shallow claim of the missionaries regarding God loving everyone (which I’m assuming was mentioned before the video clip)
I wanted to reply to that post, but I held off.. but I think here’s a good place to put what I wanted to say. You couldn’t take one verse and attribute it to the entire Scripture. You need the context of the surrounding verses, considering the environment and the setting of the entire chapter and book, in line with the Spirit of the entire Word.
I’d like to apply something close to that here, particularly in Romans 10:9, which people have taken and made into what we all love to call, a ‘Sinner’s Prayer’. I don’t think the formula is to convert it into a spoken prayer or proclamation, and to leave it at that – far from it!
Here’s what I believe, putting the surrounding verses into consideration:
Every Jew or Greek who believes with the heart that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead is justified and shall not be put to shame.
Every Jew or Greek who confesses with their mouth that Christ is Lord, and calls on His name (‘the name of the Lord’) will be saved.
And considering that Christ HIMSELF indicates a link and connection between the heart and the mouth (‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks’ Matthew 12:34 and Luke 6:45, and ‘what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart’ Matthew 15:18), I venture to say that whatever you confess with your mouth comes with participation of belief in the heart, just as whatever you believe in your heart eventually comes out of your mouth.
In other words, I’m saying that you can’t believe with your heart without confessing with your mouth, nor can you call on the name of the Lord without believing in your heart that He rose from the dead.
14 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? 15 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!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.Romans 10:14-17
As I tried and struggled sharing on Romans 10 last Sunday, there were some quirky thoughts here and there – one being, if you want beautiful feet, preach the Good News.
But obviously, we don’t just preach and proclaim Christ for a foot spa, Paul points something out here that brings everything to full circle of sorts – Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
So, let’s start with appending directly to what we’ve been saying: Get the Word out!
By faith, get the word of Christ out!
By faith, get the word of Christ out! For hearing comes through the word of Christ, and through hearing, faith comes!
The famous John 3:16 says whosoever believes in God’s only begotten Son shall not perish but have everlasting life.
What does it mean to believe? It means to have faith. That’s where we put what I’m calling ‘The Cycle of Faith’ in: By faith, get the word of Christ out! For hearing comes through the word of Christ, and through hearing, faith comes!
What is the word of Christ? That God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and that Jesus Christ is Lord. Therefore:
Every Jew or Greek who believes with the heart that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead is justified and shall not be put to shame.
Every Jew or Greek who confesses with their mouth that Christ is Lord, and calls on His name (‘the name of the Lord’) will be saved.
Finally, you can’t believe with your heart without confessing with your mouth, nor can you call on the name of the Lord without believing in your heart that He rose from the dead.
And we proclaim this to a zealous, ignorant world. We are aware that not everyone will be saved, but the Word of Christ is as Christ HIMSELF – Close to OUR hearts, to proclaim to the world, by faith!
…and, for lack of time, I think I’ll stop there. I will acknowledge the rest of the chapter, though, considering it as context for Romans 11:
18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for
“Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.”
19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
“I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;
with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”
20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
“I have been found by those who did not seek me;
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” Romans 10:18-21
God bless you!
248690/365000
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
Leave a comment