So one of the first works of the gospel is silencing the questions of our unbelief. Jewish pretensions were therefore disposed of; not here by new and fuller revelations, but by this divinely skilful employment of their own Old Testament Scriptures. Nothing can be more simple and essential. Have you been born again?" or who hath first liven to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? Did the call of God. Not all will accept the message, but Christians must proclaim it nevertheless. Does this sort of faith enable men to face death with courage? There was no law there or then; for Abraham died long before God spoke from Sinai. Pastor Mark Schlamann. But why talk I so? (2.) But we have had it fully in Romans 3:1-31. There is no mystery or obscurity about it. If you wish to be saved by the law you must do its commands and you shall live. They become angry and envious when they see their supposedly ignorant Gentile neighbours accepting the gospel, but they themselves will not listen to it (19-21). I. I invite your earnest attention to the first point WHAT MOSES SAITH: "Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them." He shall come, says one Testament, out of Zion. And I answered him, "That is a very difficult question for me, because I do believe that your father does love God, has a zeal for God, but what is he doing about his sin? We have all that we need to find salvation and be blessed by God. Calling for mischief or injury to fall upon a person. (that is, to bring, Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 2. Can it cry? They must admit they are helpless sinners and accept the righteousness of God through Christ (10:1-4).The language of law says, Do all this and you will live. Further, he would have real difficulty in believing that the way to God was open to everybody. It is not doing, but believing; therefore it is what is proclaimed to them, and what they receive and believe. Here was the very truth that every Jew, as such, denied. Consequently the call of God, and not the birth simply makes the real difference. It is not merely a call then; but as we have by our Lord Jesus Christ our access into the favour wherein we stand, so there is positive boasting in the hope of the glory of God. Moses does not allow any person to dream that under the law he can be saved in any other way than by perfect obedience thereto. (19) The testimony of Deuteronomy 32:21. It is part of the honour of Christ that every tongue shall confess, Philippians 2:11. Believe in him as your risen Saviour, declare him to be your Lord, and you will receive from God the righteousness that saves (9-10). 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth Therefore, Christians must be sent to proclaim it (14-15). What is remote, with difficulty. "He that doeth those things," that is, always, without exception, with all his heart and soul and strength "he shall live by them"; but nobody else. If he was called, so were they he an apostle, they not apostles but saints; but still, for them as for him, all flowed out of the same mighty love, of God. c. Believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead: We must also believe this. I am not sure, for I know little about it." God pronounces against the unrighteousness of such; for if the knowledge, however exact, of God's revealed mind was accompanied by no renewal of the heart, if it was without life towards God, all must be vain. Being Pure, blazing, glorious Godhead, "Light of lights, very God of very God," on a sudden they found him in a stable hanging on a woman's breast. This accordingly leads the apostle into the earlier portion of his great argument, and first of all in a preparatory way. We are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. Kurios Serapis is Lord Serapis. Why should this be so strange and incredible to you? Yes indeed: Their sound has gone out to all the earth, Salvation isn't way off in heaven some place. I. Paul here professes his good affection to the Jews, with the reason of it (Romans 10:1; Romans 10:2), where he gives them a good wish, and a good witness. The Bible describes confessing Christ in two ways. If you were to be saved by the law you should have begun without sin, continued without sin, and then it would be needful to end without sin. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." No, my dear friend, do not say that even in your thought. This blessed faith keeps men down when they are apt to go up, and up when otherwise they would be apt to go down. Would we follow up the heights of heavenly truth, would we sound the depths of Christian experience, would we survey the workings of the Spirit of God in the Church, would we bow before the glories of the person of Christ, or learn His manifold offices, we must look elsewhere in the writings of the New Testament no doubt, but elsewhere rather than here. So he essayed to join himself unto the church, but the brethren looked suspiciously at him and enquired, "What is your experience?" So that we have here a brief summary of the terms of salvation, and they are very reasonable; in short this, that we must devote, dedicate, and give up, to God, our souls and our bodies--our souls in believing with the heart, and our bodies in confessing with the mouth. Truly they had a zeal for the law. Consequently all turned, not on what man should be for God, but what God can be and is, as revealed in the gospel, to man. Now observe, first, that the gospel claims to be like the law in its clearness. 17 So then [ therefore] The words "so then" indicate the consequence of those who believe the message. You won't get glad tidings of good things. Moses spoke a word that had to be obeyed, but Paul proclaims a word that must be believed. Well, I can't either, but God didn't call me to reconcile it, He just called me to believe it.I tried to reconcile it for years until I was in such mental gymnastics I was worn out. In the argument so far as it has gone there is a paradox. Turn to Deuteronomy 30:11 . (1.) Not a pretty toy for Sundays, but food to live upon; a common-sense hope; a blunt man's religion that he can carry into business. These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features. He suffered agonizing pain, but his peace was as deep as the sea. Ask those who have seen them die. We are as full of evil as an egg is full of meat, and our heart is like a cage of unclean birds. Say not even in thy heart that by these doings or feelings thou canst be saved. In Romans Paul is clearly agonizing and arguing over the reality of Israel's call by God as well as Israel's rejection of Jesus. But there is a third. If you will go around and knock on a hundred doors a day and peddle the magazines and wake people up, continue this faithfully, and you will be saved. Oh, how I love that phrase.That is why I love the ministry so much, because I have the privilege to bring to men glad tidings of good things. The expression, The word is nigh thee, means Gods word is so close it is as if it were in our mouths. "The just shall live by faith" (not by law). This knowledge was readily available and known to all. The end of the law was to bring men to perfect obedience, and so to obtain justification. Let me hold you." III. It is done. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." The day hastens when the Redeemer shall come to Zion. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. i. Do not suppose that you can be a believer and conceal your faith. Though the whole might have been announced in one continuous sentence, yet a question is interposed for the sake of exciting attention: and his object at the same time was to show how great is the difference between the righteousness of the law and that of the gospel; for the one, showing itself at a distance, restrains all men from coming nigh; but the other, offering itself at hand, kindly invites us to a fruition of itself, Nigh thee is the word. May you experience the joys of His power, of His presence, of His glory, as God day by day showers you with His goodness and with His love. They too should live. This, he says, was his heart's desire and prayer, which intimates, (1.) If a man confessed faith in Jesus, as the Lord and Saviour of lost sinners, and really believed in his heart that God had raised him from the dead, thus showing that he had accepted the atonement, he should be saved by the righteousness of Christ, imputed to him through faith. If you will just confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord. It pronounced on the Jew then. There would not be a moment of your life in which you could be at peace, for there would always be the fear that in some unguarded instant you would transgress, and lose all. This same term occurs again in verses 14 and 15. If you trust in him with your heart, trust him openly, and confess him with your mouth, owning that he is your Lord, and your Savior. In doing so, he personifies righteousness based on faith. Once it was far otherwise. The righteousness of faith lies not in dreams and visions, delusions or depressions: it lies only in reliance upon the work of Jesus finished for you. Birthright from the same father would let in Ishmael on the one hand, as from both parents it would secure the title of Esau on the other. He was "declared," says the apostle, "to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" ( , ver. There are in reality very few times when we can honestly say: "I never knew that things would turn out like this." The nature of their unbelief. StudyLght.org. It is true that Christ was in the grave, and it is as true that he is now in heaven; but we need not perplex and puzzle ourselves with fancied difficulties, nor must we create to ourselves such gross and carnal ideas of these things as if the method of salvation were impracticable, and the design of the revelation were only to amuse us. If the good news of God goes out to man, entirely blotting out the difference between a Jew and a Gentile, what becomes of His special promises to Abraham and to his seed? Second Sunday in Lent Our Savior/Redeemer Pettibone/Woodworth, ND: Sun, Feb 20, 2005 Second Sunday in Lent : IN NOMINE JESU . 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. So Paul concludes his argument by citing two Old Testament texts to prove his case. "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. What canst thou need more than to rely upon the Anointed of the Lord? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? Accordingly, in chapter 2 the Holy Spirit shows us man satisfying himself with pronouncing on what is right and wrong moralizing for others, but nothing more. 4). The second passage is from Isaiah 65:1 where God says that, in a strange way, he has been found by a people who were not looking for him at all. "For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. Lectionary Calendar. But this does not content the apostle, or rather the Spirit of God; for he goes on to point out that Isaiah "is very bold" in a similar way; that is, there is no concealing the truth of the matter. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Several general exhortations proper for all Christians, Rom. in your mouth -- --when you confess Him. Surely if equal birth-tie could ensure community of blessing if a charter from God depended on being sprung from the same father and mother, there was no case so strong, no claim so evident, as that of Esau to take the same rights as Jacob. No, you see, this opens the door to every man no matter who you are, predestined or not, elected or not, chosen or not. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain. And he says to Israel: "All the day I have stretched out my hands to a people who are disobedient and contrary.". Thus, having shown the Gentile in Romans 1:1-32 manifestly wrong, and hopelessly degraded to the last degree having laid bare the moral dilettantism of the philosophers, not one whit better in the sight of God, but rather the reverse having shown the Jew overwhelmed by the condemnation of the divine oracles in which he chiefly boasted, without real righteousness, and so much the more guilty for his special privileges, all now lies clear for bringing in the proper Christian message, the. Romans 10 - Israel's Present Rejection of God A. Israel's rejection of the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. He at the same time unfolds the essential difference between the righteousness of faith and that of law. I would like to boast about what I have done, the dangers that I have braved for God, the sacrifices that I have made, the dedication that took me through those dark, smelly, dangerous swamps. We went astray from the womb, speaking lies; we were rebellious to our parents in our childhood, and wayward in our youth; in our early manhood we were carried about with this passion and with that, and since then all kinds of evils have led us astray. We believe and receive. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. ( Romans 10:5-8 ). It is not among the Gentiles, but in the honoured centre of the polity of Israel. and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. No topic is treated with anything like the frequency of God. Whatever man in all the world, throughout all the ages, shall come and trust himself on Christ shall never be ashamed of having done so. Oh, how nice you look today. In the first ten verses of Deuteronomy 30:1-20, Moses described the two paths that Israel could take: obedience that would result in great blessings or disobedience that would severely damage the nation. This maintains both the glory and the moral universality of Him who will justify the circumcision by faith, not law, and the uncircumcision through their faith, if they believe the gospel. Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Once, again, though your faith should only be strong enough to lead you to pray, yet it shall save you, for "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Check to enable permanent hiding of message bar and refuse all cookies if you do not opt in. 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. ( Romans 10:15 ). It seems to us that what we have here is not so much a finished passage as summary notes. The Word of God is essential for the development of faith within my heart. What could be conceived closer or more even than this? Having received, having heard, having known the grace of God through Jesus Christ, we are now obligated to let the world know of that same grace.I have a very good friend, Keith Erickson, whom I love in the Lord. Though Paul preached against them, yet he prayed for them. And they are broadening the gate so that you breathe, "Oh, God loves you," you will be saved because you are breathing. Zion shall yet behold her mighty, divine, but once despised Deliverer; and when He thus comes, there will be a deliverance suited to His glory. At the same time he connects, in a singularly interesting manner, this disclosure of the principles of the eternal judgment of God with what he calls "my gospel." The answer is found in this portion of our epistle (that is, from the middle of chapter 5). Christ's fullness is meant for our emptiness; Christ's righteousness is meant for our sin, salvation is for the lost. The Scripture; so some copies, and the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic version read, "what saith the Scripture?" But what saith it? You asked, "Who shall descend into the deep?" Its remarkable that Paul found something good to say about these Jewish people who persecuted him so mercilessly. Here it is not merely the negation of law and of circumcision, but we have the positive side. No man could believe this who did not also believe all the truths dependent on it. It was about eating pork. The information in verse 8 makes the point even more forcefully. The man who does those things shall live by them: The Law of Moses makes the path to righteousness through the law plain. Rather he means to say the same thing about the system of grace ("the righteousness which is of faith") that Moses says about the law. Rules for the conduct of Christians to one another, as members of the Christian church, Rom. The excellency of the gospel above the law. Furthermore, To question how they could ascend into heaven in order to find a way of perfection was a denial of the incarnation of Christ. But this may be comparatively a light question. a. Now as to the test of death. Again, we cannot neglect the emphasis on. "No, not if you pluck out my eyes, and consume my bowels in the fire. Nevertheless the apostle does not expressly mention heaven here. We all know where it is and must be for the Christian. Here now we have the basis for missionary activity by the church. This were indeed to deny the value of His death, and of that newness of life we have in Him risen, and a return to bondage of the worst description. Great preachers have known this. Such is the principle. He has Gods law; all that remains is for him to obey it. People cannot come to Jesus without the right information about the gospel, but information alone is not enough to save anyone. ", Oh, but this is a very blessed thing to have to say to you. IV. Compare verse 6 (where the margin, not the text, is substantially correct) with verse 4. Still, it is "man" not yet exactly the Jew, but man who had profited, it might be, by whatever the Jew had; at the least, by the workings of natural conscience. I wonder what my response would be if I came home in the evening and said, "Honey, I have decided to take you out for dinner tonight, thought we would go out and get prime rib." i. But this great work of Christ was not and could not be a mere vindication of God; and we may find it otherwise developed in various parts of Scripture, which I here mention by the way to show the point at which we are arrived. He saves those who are always confessors of sin, always needy in themselves, and therefore always glad of him. We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. So therefore it addressed itself to the obedience of faith; not by this meaning practice, still less according to the measure of a man's duty, but that which is at the root of all practice faith-obedience obedience of heart and will, renewed by divine grace, which accepts the truth of God. Hence, as is shown later in the chapter, Adam is a head characterized by disobedience, who brought in death, the just penalty of sin; as on the other hand we have Him of whom he was the type, Christ, the obedient man, who has brought in righteousness, and this after a singularly blessed sort and style "justification of life." It is not only a blessing in its own direct character, or in indirect though real effects, but the Giver Himself is our joy, and boast, and glory. There is no simple mind that can evade the plain force of this last expression. "By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith." He must know not only Christ the martyr: he must know Christ the victor, too. Retrieve. Thou sayest, "Who shall ascend into heaven?" They are merely persons who plume themselves on their orthodoxy, but in a wholly unrenewed condition. Next, he enters upon another branch of the truth the Spirit not as a condition contrasted with flesh (these two, as we know, being always contrasted in Scripture), but as a power, a divine person that dwells in and bears His witness to the believer. To my mind this word of Moses is conclusive that none of us can possibly live by the works of the law. The subserviency of the law to the gospel (Romans 10:4; Romans 10:4): Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. First of all the apostle points out that death has come in, and that this was no consequence of law, but before it. What about the doctrine of election? The word of faith is to be taken for the word of promise, that is, for the gospel itself, because it bears a relation to faith. 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