We’ve reached Chapter 10. Let us recap on how we got here. Paul writes a letter to the Church at the center of the then known world, the capital city of Rome. He writes in the context of an early church who are still trying to understand what it meant to have come from the roots of Judaism yet become a faith that embraced the worlds of the Gentiles. Paul seeks to explain what the gospel is, how people receive the gospel and deal with some of the tensions that had arisen as the church developed.
Paul is proud of his Jewish heritage, and deeply concerned about the Jewish people. But he recognizes that when Jesus Christ had come to this earth the goal-posts had been moved. Whilst the way to God remained the same, namely through faith and trust, a lot else had changed, particularly in regard to the law.
Paul is confident that at the end of all things God will have the last word, but in the meantime how were people to deal with times of failure? Could they really be sure of the gospel? In chapter 9 he has spoken about some of the reasons for doing so.
He points out that though historically his own people had often broken covenant with God, God had always remained faithful. He delves into the mystery of God’s purposes and how when there are some things that we will never fully understand it would be best to swallow our pride and proclaim that we are not God. He concludes chapter nine speaking of Jesus Christ as being the rock upon which genuine faith could be built.
As he begins chapter ten he returns again to considering matters relating to the people so dear to his heart, his own people, the Jews.
Romans 10:1 Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God's righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. 5 Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that "the person who does these things will live by them."
We saw early in Romans that one of Paul’s concerns is righteousness. How does a person become righteous before God? He has explained that it was not something that we were capable of working our way into, but that righteousness was something God graces our life with when we place whole-hearted trust in Jesus Christ, by believing that He died for our sins and was raised to help us live in a kingdom orientated way.
This concept of righteousness as a gift was what he most fears his own people hadn’t got a handle on. They were still trying to work at things to bring themselves into a right relationship with God. And they worked so hard. He says, “I can testify that they have a zeal for God” (verse 2).
The tragedy was that it was misplaced zeal. No matter how hard they tried they always, always, always fell short. That was the whole problem with a “do everything the law says and you’ll be O.K with God” kind of system. There was always something you messed up on!
Now that Jesus had come it was time to say once and for all, “The only way to fix that old system is to get a new one!” I’ve had vehicles like that. You hang on and on to them but reach a point where it gets so costly and time consuming to keep them on the road that you realize that it’s time for the old jalopy to go.
The old jalopy of a law/works system had had its day. It was time for something new. And the wonderful thing about the gospel that Jesus had bought was that it was not the property of one nation or peoples but offered salvation to all people of all places and all times. Hear Paul in verse 4 “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”
Have you ever struggled with an old model of, lets say something like a computer, and then got a new one and thought, “Wow, this is so much better!”? In my spare time I like to mess around writing and recording songs and I remember trying to do that with an old Commodore C64 computer and a 4-Track reel to reel tape recorder. Trying to get the things to link together without crashing, to stay in tempo, it was a major job. But these days you can do the lot on your Family PC. The new is so much better than the old! Makes everything so much more immediate.
But giving up on old ways isn’t so easy. It was going to be hardest of all for those amongst the Jews, those who were ironically the most religious, who had spent their whole lives zealously working at their salvation, to accept that now God was offering salvation as a gift of grace! ‘But that’s how it is now that Jesus has come” says Paul.
6 But the righteousness that comes from 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, on your lips and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because1 if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
Before giving us the right way to follow Paul offers two mistaken ways. Briefly stated as as ‘trying to bring Christ down’… and ‘trying to bring Christ up.’ If you compare Paul’s passage with Deuteronomy 30 11-14, words Moses spoke to the people of Israel as they were about to enter the promised land, you can hear the similarities. Listen to Deuteronomy 30:11-14
“11 Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?" 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, "Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?" 14 No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.”
The point that Moses was making to Israel was that God’s commands for obedience were not unreachable. Paul paraphrases Moses words. It was not like saying, “Grab hold of your ankles and pull yourself to heaven to get Jesus and bring about the incarnation!” It was not like saying, “Dig down into the grave and bring up Jesus and raise Him from the dead.” Such things would be impossible for us to do. God had done the impossible so that we did not have to.
And because God had done the impossible, salvation was no longer unreachable. It was not a matter of hoisting our self up to heaven and getting Christ and bringing Him to earth. It was not a matter of going down into the grave to dig Jesus up and bring Him back to life. God had already taken care of all of that. It was not through any works that we might try to accomplish. The way to God was, just as it always had been, through faith.
The way of faith was the very thing Paul had taught ever since he came to the Way on the Damascus road. He hadn’t changed that message because it was the message that had changed him. Hear again these central words about salvation in verse 9 and 10:
“If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
I love the way Eugene Petersen transliterates this couple of verses in the Message transliteration;
Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what He did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting Him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"
If we want to know how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ Paul has laid it out for us as plainly as he can. It is about embracing with all our hearts the message that in Jesus Christ God has acted to make things right. Embracing the message that through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of resurrection and life, God can impact our lives with the power of grace in such a way as they are never again the same. And we will know that has happened to us because our mouths will not be able to keep quiet about it!
That’s why I’m compelled to be a preacher. It’s not that I am anybody special or noteworthy. It is all about what God has done in Jesus Christ. I’m free. I’m forgiven. I know why I’m on this planet. I am not afraid to leave it and I’m not afraid to live on it and I just can not keep quiet about the wonderful things that God can do, because if God can do it for me, I now He can do similar things for others.
And that’s exactly what Paul wants to tell us next. Paul quotes from Joel 2:32 in order to assure us that the way of salvation is open to all.
11 The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on Him. 13 For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Passages like this call us back to the center of our beliefs, to the core of why the church ever existed in the first place. The church exists because Jesus came to us and compels us to go into all the world and make disciples of others. The church is only the church as it responds to that mission.
And believe me, as one who is fully involved in the life of the church, not just in a local church, but also within the wider context of regional and national organization, I know how easy it is to lose sight of who we are and what we are meant to be as churches. I know how easy it is to be sucked into programs and budgets and committees about this and about that, and lose your center in the process.
Bottom line? Churches exist to proclaim to people the Good news about Jesus Christ. Because if we don’t do that, then who on earth are we expecting to do that and how on earth do we expect the world to know about Jesus Christ?
14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
I have to say that I always get a smile out of that last little verse. "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" I’ve seen my feet. I have lived with them all my life. And beautiful is not a word I would ever use to describe them. When it comes to feet I think of words like ‘corns, calluses, aches, itches and odors.’
“Beautiful’ and “Foot” sound like an oxymoronic combination. Even in the gospels feet are things that people wash. Things involved with humbling and needing attention. Not beauty.
All of which makes the grace of God even more amazing. Think of it this way. God gracefully works on our lives to bring us to a point where we recognize what Christ has done for us. God gracefully grants to us the faith to believe. God looks at our compromised, often so much less than they could or should be lives, and throws over us the mantle of righteousness.
And the angels look over the ramparts of heaven and whisper to each other, “See that, see that child of God. See what they are as a new creature in Christ? They are beautiful from head to toe!” It doesn’t matter who we have been, what we may have done in the past, when the Good News gets a hold on us in such a real way that we just can’t help ourselves from passing it on, then we are officially the possessors of beautiful feet!
That’s great news. It’s such great news that Paul is broken hearted over people who don’t want to hear it, particularly his heart is broken regarding those of his own people who refused to consider the implications of Christ’s coming. That’s how he started out in this chapter and that’s the thoughts he finishes with.
16 But not all have obeyed the good news;1 for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.1 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 Again 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."
It’s a distressing image that Paul closes on. A picture of Jesus holding out His hands to people and people just walking by, ignoring Him, not even noticing Him. A distressing image, but a realistic one.
Peoples hearts, then as now, can be so hardened against the gospel. People can be just too proud, too convinced of their own righteousness to come to Christ. They hear it plainly enough but they don’t want to respond. They don’t want to be broken. They believe they know better and can do better than listening to Jesus and trust more in other things than they do in God’s ability.
In the next chapter, chapter 11 Paul will tell us, ‘You know it’s always been like that’. But God has always kept the door open, always left the light on for those prepared to make a move in His direction, always been ready to offer mercy and grace to all who will come to Him.
That’s where we leave it today. Jesus reaching out His hands and seeking for us to respond.