By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verses 17-33 of chapter 9.
1.1.1. In our last
two studies we mentioned the fact that it is startling to see how that chapters
9-11 which deal with
1.1.2. We continued
our discussion of the election of the believer in that study.
1.1.3. We looked in
our last study at God’s choosing of
1.1.4. We also
looked at that theological term called “Dispensationalism”
and noted that there had been distinct covenants that God has entered into with
people over time. We saw that a “covenant”
is an agreement that contains commitments and promises made between two
different people, or in the case of theology between God and men.
1.1.5. We saw that
on the basis of the covenants made by God to the nation of Israel, that God has
a distinct plan in the future for both the church as well as the nation of
Israel.
1.2.
In our study today, we are going to look at verses
1-11 of chapter 10.
1.2.1. In the
previous chapter, we saw how that Paul sought out to meet as many objections to
Christianity that the Jews might have, as well as to answer as many questions that
they might have.
1.2.2. WE ALSO SAW WHAT Some of the questions the Jews may
have asked are:
1.2.2.1. Well, you’ve
presented the gospel of grace and written that “whosoever” believes in
Jesus Christ for salvation shall be saved, however how is it that the Gentiles
are now allowed to have salvation?
1.2.2.2. Does the
gospel that you’ve presented include the Jews?
1.2.2.3. Has God
rejected the Jews today?
1.2.2.4. How is a Jew
to be saved today?
1.2.2.5. What
happened to the promises which God made to the Jews in the Old Testament?
1.2.2.6. How can God
be considered to be faithful to keep His Word if He isn’t today keeping those
promises?
1.2.2.7. Is God then
just if He has rejected the Jews and is not longer keeping His promises made to
them?
1.2.2.8. What are
God’s plans for the Jews in the future?
1.2.2.9. If God is
allowing the Gentiles as well as the Jews into the kingdom in the church age
today, what shall be their relative positions in His future kingdom when He
returns?
1.2.3. Paul’s
answers to the Jews involved the fact that God is sovereign, and thus that He can
and will do whatever it is that He wants to do, and, He has chosen the means of
salvation to be through Jesus Christ.
Likewise, He has allowed in the Gentiles to be saved through faith in
Christ.
1.2.4. We saw how
that the Old Testament scriptures reveal that not everyone who is descended
from Abraham automatically inherited salvation, but rather it was always the
remnant that the Lord chose to salvation.
1.2.5. We saw how
that the Old Testament stories of God’s choice of Isaac as well as the choice
of Jacob reveal that God is sovereign and that He chooses those who will be
saved.
1.2.6. We saw also
how that the Old Testament prophets prophesied the day to come when the
Gentiles would be allowed into His Kingdom during the times of the Messiah.
1.2.7. We saw also
that the Bible Exposition Commentary includes the following about the shift
that happens in the latter part of chapter 9 in Paul’s discussion of
1.2.8. Chapter 9 of
the book of Romans dealt with God’s previous choosing of
1.2.8.1. They have a
zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
1.2.8.2. They sought
to establish their own righteousness.
1.2.8.3. They will be
saved in just the same way as any other person.
1.2.8.4. The Old
Testament Scriptures predicted they would reject their Messiah.
1.2.8.5. They had the
chance to believe the gospel: the gospel
has gone out to all the world.
1.2.8.6. They have
always been a rebellious and obstinate people.
2. VS 10:1 - “10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire
and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.” - Paul states
here that his heart’s desire and prayer is for the salvation of his Jewish
brethren
2.1.
As Paul did at the beginning of chapter 9, he again
affirms the great love which he had for his own people, the Jews. He tells them that his ‘hearts desire’
is for them, indicating the depth of his love for them.
2.2.
Paul also tells them that he had been praying for
them, and specifically he was praying that they would come to salvation.
2.3.
As was mentioned in the previous chapter, if we will
pray for people, we too will have a great burden for them to come to know the
Lord, as did Paul for the Jews. God
wants to place a burden in our hearts for those who do not know Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior since He loves the world so much that He sent His only begotten
Son so that they might be saved.
3. VS 10:2 - “2 For I bear them witness that
they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.” - Paul tells us that though the Jews have a
zeal for God that their zeal is not according to knowledge
3.1.
The Jews had the greatest of zeal for the Lord,
however they saw the Law as providing for them a stairway by which they might
ascend up to heaven. In their keeping of
the Law they sought to establish their own righteousness, something which the
Law was not able to provide for them.
The Law was never intended to be a means of establishing one’s own
righteousness, rather its function in men’s lives is actually the opposite. The Law is there to show us that we cannot
keep it, and that if we do want to be made right with God, it will have to be
only because of God’s mercy and grace.
3.2.
That zeal for God Paul referred to lives on in many
communities of the Jews today. Orthodox
Judaism is extremely zealous. Chaim Potok has written of it in
his novels of Jewish life. He writes
that you can see it on the street of Brooklyn and in the
3.3.
Many in the world today have misguided zeal. They desire and attempt to know the Lord but
they go about it in the wrong way. CC
pastor Lance Ralston writes, “May I say, that there are many very zealous people
in the church today, however their zeal is not according to knowledge. There are many today who are having profound
and intense spiritual experiences, and
they conclude that because they are taking place in church, and because they
are promoted and endorsed by their pastors, that they are from God. But they are not! It’s sad to say, but largely true, that the
Church of today is a ready parallel to the Jews of Paul's day. There is much religious zeal, but little
knowledge of God. There are a lot of
programs and activity. There is a lot of
motion and movement. There is a lot of
talk and action, but there is precious little real commitment to seek the Lord
in the way He has proscribed.”
3.4.
We in the church today must get back to God’s Word,
seek to know it thoroughly, and be people of God’s Word, for only when we align
ourselves properly with His Word shall we be able to receive salvation through
Jesus Christ. Trying to know God outside
the bounds that His word lays out will just result in offending the Lord.
4. VS 10:3 - “3 For not knowing about God’s
righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject
themselves to the righteousness of God.” -
Paul tells us that the Jews did not truly understand God’s righteousness
and thus they sought to establish their own righteousness and did not subject
themselves to the righteousness of God
4.1.
This verse describes where the Jews went wrong. They really are not any different than the
rest of the people of the world.
Religion is man’s attempt to reach God, and in man’s religions he is
seeking to establish his own righteousness before God, seeking by works to
become acceptable in God’s sight.
However, as is the case with all of man’s religions, including that of
the Jews, people fail to know God because we have all sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God. Our sin separates
us from the Lord and it is only through the way in which God has designed, that
is, through faith in Jesus and what He did upon Calvary’s cross in paying our
debt of sin, that we can be saved.
4.2.
Sinful men cannot be saved because of their sin
separating them from God, for as Paul states here, they have not subjected ‘themselves
to the righteousness of God.’ God is
totally holy and righteous and to know Him a person must be made righteous
enough to be in His presence, however that can on occur through faith in
Christ. Our faith in Christ is reckoned
to us as righteousness by God, as Paul has already written. The only righteousness that a man or woman
shall ever have before God is that which is “imputed” to Him through
Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ this righteousness can be “imputed”
to men and women because Jesus perfectly satisfied God’s full demand of a
righteous sacrifice needed to pay the full debt incurred by man’s sins.
4.3.
Do you realize today that you can only be saved by
meeting God on the terms which He has laid out?
Have you come to Christ and believed on Him and what He accomplished for
the payment of your sins? Nothing else
will get you into God’s presence, for otherwise the sin issue will forever
separate you from God.
4.4.
Also, you must give up your own efforts and works to
try to reach God, that which we call religion, because only by coming to God’s
terms shall man ever come to know God and be on favorable terms with Him.
5. VS 10:4 - “4 For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” -
Paul tells us that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone who believes
5.1.
This verse has been interpreted in a variety of ways.
5.1.1. Some have
said that ‘Christ is the end’ in that if a person is living a righteous
life, he will be like Christ.
5.1.2. Others have
said that ‘Christ is the end’ means that we ought to seek to be like
Christ in order to be righteous.
5.1.3. However,
from the context and the words themselves this passages seems to mean that “what
Christ has done for us is to satisfy God’s righteousness which then qualified
Him to be the perfect sacrifice needed to pay our sin debt, and, therefore by
placing our faith in Christ, His righteousness can be imputed to us.”
5.1.3.1. We have
already noted a few times in this book that in order for man to be able to come
into relationship with God, God’s ‘righteousness’ must first be
satisfied. Man is currently separated
from God because of his sin, therefore when a man or woman believes in Christ,
his ‘faith is reckoned as righteousness,’ and because God’s
righteousness is fully and completely satisfied in what Christ did for man,
believing man can now have relationship and favorable discourse with God just
as if he had never sinned before (this is what the Bible calls “justification”).
5.1.3.2. In this way,
‘Christ is the end of the Law.’
5.2.
We as Christians must realize that even now that we
are saved we need to give up all effort to try to establish our own
righteousness before God since Christ is the end of righteousness for us. We must depend completely upon the completed
work of Christ for our righteousness, we must never try now by our works to
somehow become pleasing to God. The only
righteousness we shall ever have shall be by faith, imputed to us from
Christ. We need to accept that we shall
never be able to improve our standing since having Christ’s righteousness
imputed to us is as good as it could ever get.
6. VS 10:5 - “5 For Moses writes that the man
who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that
righteousness.” - Paul tells
us here that Moses wrote that the man who practices the righteousness that is
based upon law must live by that righteousness
6.1.
Some have interpreted this verse as simply saying that
if a person under the Old Covenant were to be accepted before God, then he must
be serious about trying to keep the Laws of God in order to be considered
righteous by God. This is a true
statement for those who are living under the old covenant, just as Ezekiel
wrote about in Ez. 20:11,13,21, “11 “And I gave them My statutes and
informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live.
13 “But the house of
6.2.
If a person is to live his life by trying to live
under the Law of Moses, then he must realize that this covenant does not
provide a “Cafeteria Plan” where you pick and choose what you want to
keep. The person attempting to live
under the Old Covenant must keep every single one of God’s Laws if he is to try
to be pleasing to God.
6.2.1. The thing
that a person who tries to conscientiously keep the Law of Moses will realize
is that no matter how hard he tries he fails to keep that law and falls
short. Thus, the Law was meant to be our
tutor to lead us to Christ so that we can be saved through the mercy and grace
of God, and by believing in Jesus Christ.
6.3.
However, from the context, I think that in this verse
that what Paul is writing about is a compliment to what he wrote in the
previous verse. In the previous verse,
Paul wrote that “Christ is the end of the Law,” and this is because when
a person places his faith in Christ, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to him,
and thus he can come into favorable relationship with God. However, in this verse I believe that Paul is
contrasting the righteousness which is by faith with the righteousness which a
person may try to establish based upon his works. What then Paul is saying is that if a person
is trying to establish his own righteousness based upon his works of the Law,
then he must keep the Law flawlessly, without one exception, in to be
acceptable in God’s sight.
6.4.
Paul wrote about the impossibility of keeping the Law
perfectly, and thus the curse that is upon those who try to establish their own
righteousness before God based upon law-keeping in Gal. 3:10-13, “10 For as
many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written,
“Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the
law, to perform them.” 11 Now that no
one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “The righteous man
shall live by faith.” 12 However, the
Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by
them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the
curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is
everyone who hangs on a tree.””
6.5.
Since none of us will ever be able to keep God’s Law
perfectly, we must realize that we need to come to accept the righteousness
that is imputed to the one who trusts only in the work which Christ has done
for us for our salvation.
7. VS
10:6-8 - “6 But the
righteousness based on faith speaks thus, “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 which we are preaching,” -
Paul tells us that the righteousness that is based upon faith does not
allow a person to say in his heart who will ascend up to heaven or descend into
the abyss
7.1.
In this verse, Paul returns to his argument concerning
the righteousness which is based upon faith in Christ, and in these verses,
what he is basically trying to say is that a person does not need to search and
search looking for God, depicted in going up to heaven or even going down to
hell, but rather God is right near each one of us. Each of us just has to respond to God’s Word
in the gospel by faith and obedience in order to be saved. That message is not rocket science nor is it
obscure. A child can understand the
gospel so as to be saved for God has made that word ‘near’ to us, its in
our mouths and in our hearts, Paul says.
7.2.
Paul said essentially the same thing about God being
near to each one of us to the Athenians gathered at the Aerogapus
in Acts 17:24-28, “24 “The God who made the world and all things in it,
since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with
hands; 25 neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything,
since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things; 26 and He made
from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having
determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, 27
that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though
He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as
even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’”
7.3.
The gospel is not “Rocket Science,” not beyond
our intellectual grasp, it is a simple message.
We simply are to trust that Jesus Christ has died for our sins and rose
from the dead, and then allow Him to be our Lord and Master, as we repent from
our sinful deeds. The gospel is so
simple a child can understand it, so surely a grown man or woman can comprehend
the gospel message, can they not?
8. VS
10:9-10 - “9 that if you
confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God
raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; 10 for with the heart man
believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses,
resulting in salvation.” - Paul tells
us that if a person confesses with his mouth Jesus as Lord and believes in his
heart that God raised him from the dead that he shall be saved
8.1.
In these two verses, Paul summarizes concisely the
gospel message explaining exactly what a person must do to gain his/her
salvation through Christ.
8.2.
It is important to keep in mind that Paul in these
verses is contrasting that which the Jews believed would gain them entrance to
heaven (works) with that which is the true requirement, that which the genuine
Christian meets (faith in Christ).
8.3.
It is interesting to note that Paul in his doctrinal
statement of what is required for coming to salvation first mentions that a
person must ‘confess’ something.
We would expect that Paul would state first that a person must ‘believe’
in Jesus Christ for salvation, especially since the Jews were working for their
salvation not realizing that that righteousness is obtained instead by the one
who believes. Why would confession come
before believing in Paul’s list here?
8.4.
Jesus said confession is essential to salvation in
Matthew 10:32-33, “32 “Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I
will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 “But whoever shall
deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” If a person is not willing to confess Jesus
Christ as his/her Lord and Master in this life, then that is an indication that
he has not received that true saving faith, of which confession is one of the
fruits.
8.5.
The confession referred to is ‘not a necessary work’
that someone must complete in order to come to salvation since a man is saved
by faith apart from the works of the Law. Rather, confession with the mouth is
a result or a fruit of the salvation which a person has received. Paul then is saying that “there are no
silent or secret believers in Christ” for when a person truly comes to
salvation he/she cannot keep silent about the Lord and the joy of salvation that
he/she has received. To truly believe
requires one to testify.
8.6.
Some have tried to say that the confession referred to
by Paul is really just believing, however to forestall that conclusion Paul
states that the confession is to be made ‘with your mouth.’ Thus, we know that it is a verbal confession
that is referred to.
8.7.
Notice what Paul says that it is that the person who
has truly come to salvation confesses: ‘Jesus
as Lord.’
8.8.
To confess ‘Jesus as Lord’ has a two-fold
meaning :
8.8.1. First of all,
it means “to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord over all, the Sovereign King,
who is seated on the throne of God, and as such it is a proclamation of Jesus’
deity.”
8.8.1.1. The Jesus
that a person believes in for salvation cannot be one which he has created in
the imagination of his own heart. A lot
of people believe in a God that they have created themselves. For instance, I sometimes hear people say
things about the Lord that contradict what the scriptures say. I have heard people say things like, “My God
would never send a person to hell!”
However, it is obvious from such statements that people make that the
God that they believe in is one which they have created in the imaginations of
their own heart.
8.8.2. Secondly, it
means “to allow Jesus to be one’s Lord and Master,” to yield complete
control to Jesus. Thus, to ‘confess
Jesus as Lord’ means to confess that your life is not your own but belongs
to and is completely at the disposal of the Lord. It also infers that one has “repented of
any known sins.”
8.9.
Next, Paul states that the one who has truly come to
salvation must “believe something.”
What he must believe though is not what we might expect that Paul would
state. We might think that Paul would
state that a person who has truly come to salvation must believe that Jesus
died on the cross for his sins.
However, what Paul states that a saved person must believe is that “God
raised Jesus Christ from the dead.”
8.10.
I have mentioned previously in my study of Romans that
the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most central doctrine of the Christian
religion, and the one upon which all else depends.
8.10.1.
If Jesus be raised from the dead, then we know that we
can trust that everything that Jesus has said concerning His mission on earth
is true, for Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the confirmation of all that
He said concerning Himself.
8.10.2.
Likewise, if Jesus is risen from the dead then He is
in fact the Messiah who has come, the lamb without spot or blemish, the One who
paid the penalty for the debt of man’s sin.
8.10.3.
Finally, if Jesus is risen from the dead then He is
God the Son, the second person of the Trinity.
8.11.
To believe that Jesus has risen from the dead, we have
then also to have believed the entire reason for which He Himself claimed to
have come to the earth in the first place as our Lord and Savior.
8.12.
To believe that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead
ensures salvation. This is proven by the
fact that in verse 10 Paul writes that the “believing in your heart”
that Jesus has raised from the dead will have the effect of ‘resulting in
righteousness.’ Paul has written
previously in this book that a person’s faith is reckoned to him as
righteousness, the righteousness of Christ being imputed to him. Thus, being made righteous is the one
prerequisite for a man or woman to be brought into favorable discourse with the
Lord, and thus bring salvation.
8.13.
Further, Paul writes that a person must believe in his
‘heart.’ No mere intellectual
assent of the truth is good enough to bring salvation. Saving faith is not to believe in God like
you believe that Heinz makes ketchup.
This was not what faith meant in Paul’s day. The ‘heart’ in scripture refers to the
seat of all emotions and feelings. To
believe in one’s heart means to place all of one’s hopes in the claims of
Christ to be Lord and Savior for mankind.
It also implies complete commitment to Jesus Christ by the one who has
genuine faith in Christ.
8.14.
It is interesting to note that in the last clause in this
statement about what is required for a person to do in order to inherit
salvation that Paul states that the person ‘confesses resulting in salvation.’ This is just further evidence that confession
with the mouth and believing in the heart are two inseparably conjoined twins
both of which are required for salvation.
9. VS
10:11 - “11 For the Scripture
says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”” - Paul reminds us that the scripture foretold
that whoever believes in the Messiah will not be disappointed
9.1.
In this verse, Paul again appeals to his Jewish
readers from their very own scriptures which prophetically proclaim the
importance of believing in the Messiah when He shall come. If the Jews had just examined honestly before
God their scriptures they would have come to faith in Christ, for Jesus said
that the He was written of “in the volume of the book,” or throughout
it.
9.2.
Paul quotes
here from Isaiah 28:16 which states, “16 Therefore thus says the Lord God,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for
the foundation, firmly placed. He who
believes in it will not be disturbed.”
Jesus is that chief corner stone, the one that is central to the
structure and stability of the entire building.
Isaiah prophesied that when the Messiah would come that men and women
must believe upon Him and that doing so they would never be disappointed. Salvation by faith in Christ should not have
been a mystery to the Jews.
10.
CONCLUSIONS:
10.1.
As we consider this study and how that we ought to
apply it to our lives, I would ask you whether or not you are depending upon
your own works to make you righteous in God’s sight so as to be accepted by Him
or whether you are depending upon Jesus Christ’s righteousness to be imputed to
you. Don’t make the mistake of the Jew
in trying to establish your own righteousness before God. Trust what Jesus has already done on your
behalf to be your righteousness.
10.2.
Are you daily confessing that Jesus is Lord (deity and
master of all) and believing in your heart that God has raised Him up from the
dead? If not, I invite you to take this
most simply injunction to heart and receive salvation through Christ today. Confess Jesus before men, don’t be a silent
or secret witness. Believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead, for this results in righteousness.