Faith, Then and Now

Series on Romans

XIV Election and the Plan

A All through Faith

Text: 10:1-15

Introduction

Today there is endless speculation about Israel ancient and modern. Many people are erroneously convinced that the Church only has a supporting role in the plan of redemption. They believe the star of the drama is Israel. Romans 9-11 should disavow them of that view. It is a carefully reasoned account of the role that Israel was to play in the drama. Our last study should have taught us that God’s purpose from the beginning was to bring His Word of grace to the nations. Israel played an important role but not an indispensable one, and their destiny is tied up in a Gordian knot with the overall aim of bringing the worship of the true and living God, Yahweh to all the world. Thus the plan involved the rejection of God’s ancient people and their divinely prescribed worship in favor of something better. The gospel is two things: 1) the fulfillment of all the old ordinances and promises, and 2) a superior revelation of God and the way of salvation. In our text for today Paul points out both the way the Old Testament anticipates the truth of the gospel, and the way the gospel is a better way. He does this under the image of a gift. Salvation is a gift from God, and we see here the gift despised, the gift described, and the gift delivered.

I The Gift Despised

In verses 1-4 we are confronted with the explanation of Israel’s failure, Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Here in chapter 10 Paul begins as he did in chapter nine with an expression of profound concern for his own people, where he said, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. The reason for this sadness is clearly stated. They were so preoccupied with establishing their own righteousness through obedience to a vast accumulation of commandments that they missed the lifeblood and essence of God’s revelation to them. The collection of commandments and regulations, to be sure, were partly God’s and partly of their own invention, but the commandments were the stipulations of a covenant based in grace and mercy. Even the prologue to the ten commandments makes clear that they were to be obeyed out of gratitude to Jahweh for delivering them from bondage. We read in Exodus 20:1 and 2, And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Gradually, the gratitude was edged out by their all-consuming passion for keeping the law as if doing that would make them acceptable to God. However, they never were acceptable and they never could be acceptable in their own strength. God loved and chose them of His free grace, and not because they were special. Listen to how God describes Israel in Ezekiel 16:3-6, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised. “ ‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!” That is what we call grace, mercy, love, but in their pride that is what Israel forgot and instead went about trying to prove how good they were. They despised the gift.

II The Gift Described

The Apostle further describes the gift in verses 5-11, Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: “The man who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’c” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That 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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” The gift is the righteousness of God, and it is free. The righteousness of the law can only be achieved by keeping the commandments, and that, we cannot do. But the righteousness of God is given in the gospel through faith. Thus Paul quotes Deuteronomy 30:11-14 saying, “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” The entire quotation is, Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. The obvious meaning of this passage in the Old Testament is that the knowledge of the will of God had been made perfectly accessible; no one was required to do what was impossible in order to attain it — neither to ascend to heaven, nor to cross the boundless sea then he adds, “that is the word we are preaching,” which is the gospel. The gospel teaches that Jesus has accomplished our salvation by Himself. We cannot get it ourselves nor is there any way to attain it. God’s grace comes to us through Christ, His death and resurrection and through the Word, and when we receive the Word through faith we receive the gift which is why John says in John 1:12, Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Believing and receiving are regarded as the same faith action in believers.

III The Gift Delivered

The delivery of the gift is the subject of the final verses, 12-15, For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” The logic of Paul’s argument is self-evident. Since the gift is conveyed through the message from God, the message must be preached to all, Jew and Gentile. First the Apostle is letting us know that this is not a new twist. There are important references to men calling on the Lord in the Old Testament, including Abraham of whom Paul wrote in Romans 4 as an example of being justified through faith. Calling on the Lord is a synonym for faith and worship of the true God. It is believing His Word of grace. What Paul is saying here in this passage is that the Old Testament predicts that the Gentiles will call upon the Lord. Joel who is quoted here with the words, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” is describing the blessings that will come after judgment has fallen upon Israel. This is the very passage that is quoted at length by Peter as being fulfilled on the day of Pentecost as he describes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which resulted from Jesus victory over sin and death. The full text of Joel 2:28-32 is, And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls. There is no question that this passage is fulfilled at Pentecost because Acts 2 says so. The Old Testament language of blood and fire and smoke, is simply a way to describe the awesome nature of God’s visitation in terms Israel would understand because this is how God met them at Sinai. But Joel is predicting not only judgment on Israel but a new era of salvation, and that era began with Pentecost. It is an era of bringing the Word of grace to the whole world. The meaning, then, of this verse is: “God has proposed the same terms of salvation for all men, Jews and Gentiles, because he is equally the God of both, and his mercy is free and sufficient for all.” The people of Israel could hardly reason that God didn’t warn them of the change in His economy when His salvation would be opened to the nations. Therefore says Paul, we must bring the word to all, Jew and Gentile alike, because the Word brings the promise of salvation, not my works of righteousness which we have done, but by God’s grace. Thus we become beautiful messengers.