Romans 10
McGeeCHAPTER 10THEME: Present state of Israel; present standing of Israel; present salvation for both Jew and GentileWe have seen the present state of Israel; they are lost. And that is their condition today. They are lost just as the Gentiles are lost. The reason is that Christ is the end of the law of righteousness. Now Paul turns from the sovereignty of God to the responsibility of man. He began this thought in the concluding verses of chapter 9.
Romans 10:1
PRESENT STATE OF ISRAELThey are responsible, you see; they are responsible to God. Our Lord has said to them, “For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side. And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luk_19:43-44). That is the condition of the nation over there today. They are surrounded by nations that want to push them into the sea. Why?
You can blame the Arab, you can blame Russia, you can blame everybody. You can blame God if you want to, because He says the reason they are in such a stateunable to have peaceis that they did not recognize their time of visitation. So Paul says, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” Now notice the three great features in His statement:
- Israel, with all it possessed (see Rom_9:4-5) of religion, was not saved. May I say that probably 75 percent of church members are not saved. They are just members of a religious club. They are in rebellion against God in that they will not accept the righteousness God offers in Christ. You can be religious and lost. Israel had a God-given religion, but they needed to be saved. They had religion but not righteousness. They had more than any other nation, but they were lost. Paul’s desire was that Israel might be saved.
- Israel was savable. Bengel says, “Paul would not have prayed had they been altogether reprobate.” They were savable. Who would have thought that my ancestors in the forests of Germany were savable? They were as heathen as anyone could possibly be. Yet at that time the Chinese had a civilization. Why didn’t the missionaries go in that direction? Why didn’t the apostles say, “Let’s not bother with those pagan Gentiles; they are not even savable”? Pagan Gentiles were savable, and the Jews were savable also.
- They are on the same plane before God today as Gentiles and should be evangelized as any other people without Christ. There is no difference today. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom_3:23). The idea of a superior race or an inferior race is ridiculous. The ground at the foot of the Cross is all level. Whoever you are, your social position, your church membership, your good works, or the color of your skin will not help you. Without Christ you are a hell-doomed sinner. God is just and righteous when He says that to you. Perhaps you say, “I don’t like what that preacher said,” Well, it is actually what God said, my friend. God is putting it in neon lights here. He doesn’t want you to miss it. There are those today who believe that the gospel ought to go to Israel first. I think Paul meant that chronologically it went to the Jew first. For the first few years in the city of Jerusalem and in all Israel there was not a Gentile saved. The church was 100 percent Jewish. Although I do not believe we are told to evangelize the Jew first in our day, I certainly do believe that the Jew should not be left out. He is in the plan and purpose of God, and he should have the gospel.
I disagree with a man like the late Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr, a recent liberal theologian, who is reported to have said (by Time magazine in 1958), “Do not try to convert Jews …Jews may find God more readily in their own faith than in Christianity.” He maintains this viewpoint, so he says, “especially because of the guilt they are likely to feel if they become Christians.” However, coming to Christ is the way to get rid of guilt. They should have the gospelall people should have it. God is prepared to show mercy today.
Romans 10:2
I know some churches, friend, where the members are as busy as termites. On Monday night they play basketball. On Tuesday night it is football. On Wednesday night it is volleyball. On Thursday night it is baseball. On Friday night they just “have a ball.” They have something going on every night.
They have a “zeal of God"they like to do it all in the name of Jesus. But all they have is religion. My friend, do you have Christ? Have you accepted the righteousness that God offers in Christ Jesus? You cannot be saved on any other basis. You have to be perfect to go to heaven, and I have news for you: you are not perfect.
Neither am I perfect. But I am going to heaven because Jesus died for me, was buried, and rose again from the dead. He was delivered for my offenses and was raised for my justification. He is my righteousness. I will go to heaven one day because He took my place. Is Jesus Christ your Savior?
Forget your church membership for awhile. I do not mean to minimize your membership, but do not trust it for salvation. The average church today is as dead as a dodo bird. A fellow said to me some time ago concerning the church, “I would just as soon go out and play golf on Sunday.” Knowing the church he attended, I understood how he felt. In fact, I believe he could be more spiritual out on the golf course than he could be in a service in that church. The point is that he should find a church that is really preaching Christ.
Oh, how wonderful He is! How important it is to have a personal relationship to Him.
Romans 10:3
This was true of Israel, and it is true of the average church member today. Dr. Griffith Thomas commented on this lack of discernment. “Is it not marvellous that people can read the Bible and all the time fail to see its essential teaching and its personal application to themselves? There is scarcely anything more surprising and saddening than the presence of intellectual knowledge of God’s Word with an utter failure to appreciate its spiritual meaning and force.” I have seen men, officers of the church, who carry such big Bibles under their arms that they leaned in that direction when they walked down the street. I watched them for twenty-one years and saw no spiritual growth. They just did not grow.
They had no discernment whatsoever. So many church people have no real discernment of what it really means to be saved.
Romans 10:4
“Christ is the end of the law” means He is the goal. Our Lord made it clear. He said in effect, “I didn’t come to patch up an old garment; I came to give you a new garmentthe robe of My righteousness” (see Mat_9:16). The Mosaic Law was given to lead men to Christ; it wasn’t given to save men. Paul said to the Galatian believers that “…the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal_3:24). The Law was not given to save us, but to show us that we needed to be saved.
It takes us by the hand, brings us to the Cross of Christ, and says, “Little fellow, you need a Savior.” The Law came to an end in Christ. “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (Gal_5:4). William R. Newell (Romans Verse by Verse, p. 393) made the statement: “The Law is no more a rule of life than it is a means of righteousness.” It is for everyone that believes, which suggests both the freeness and universality of salvation. “Everyone"universal. “Believeth"oh, the freeness of it! Why don’t you accept it?
Romans 10:5
PRESENT STANDING OF ISRAELGranted that you could attain a righteousness in the law, it would be your own righteousness, not God’s righteousness. It could never measure up to His.
Romans 10:6
He talks about ascending up to heaven to bring it down, or going down to hell and bringing it up. My friend, the righteousness that Paul is talking abouthe quotes from Deu_30:11-14is available!
Romans 10:7
You don’t have to make a trip anywhere to get it.
Romans 10:8
It is available right where you are sitting. A great many folk think they have to go to an altar in some sort of meeting to be saved. But salvation is available to you right where you are now.
Romans 10:9
There are many folk who maintain that a believer has to make a public confession of faith. That is not what Paul is saying here. It does not mean to go forward in a public meeting. In the church I served for twenty-one years I saw many people come forward, but they were not all saved. Paul is not saying that you have to make a public confession. Paul is saying that man needs to bring into agreement his confession and his life. The mouth and the heart should be in harmony, saying the same thing. It is with the heart that you believe. Your “heart” means your total personality, your entire being. You see, there are some folk who say something with their mouthsthey give lip service to Godbut their hearts are far from Him. When you make a public confession, you be dead sure that your heart is right along with you; that you are not just saying idle words that mean nothing to you personally.
If there is confession without faith, it is due either to self-deception or to hypocrisy. If there is faith without confession, it may be cowardice. It seems to me that Paul is saying here that James is accurate, “…faith without works is dead” (Jas_2:20). If you are going to work your mouth, be sure you have faith in your heart, my friend. “Believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead” means that the resurrection of Christ is the heart of the gospel. As Paul said earlier, He “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom_4:25).
Romans 10:11
Paul is quoting from Isa_28:16: “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.” The difference in our translation is not due to Paul’s changing the quotation. Rather, the word for confound and make haste is the same. It means to flee because of fear. Paul is quoting Isaiah to enforce his previous statement that the “by faith righteousness” is taught in other passages in the Old Testament. This passage also shows the universal character of salvation in the word whosoever.
Romans 10:12
There is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek (or Gentile)all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All, if they are to be saved, must come the same way to Christ. The Lord Jesus said, “…no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (Joh_14:6). You can’t come to Him by the Old Testament ritual or by the Mosaic Law. Salvation is offered to all people on the same basis of mercyby faith. Hear and believe the gospel.
Romans 10:13
PRESENT SALVATION FOR BOTH JEW AND GENTILEThis is a remarkable statement, which Paul draws from the Old Testament (see Joe_2:32), to enforce his argument that salvation is by faith. This makes it very clear that both Jew and Gentile are to call on the Lord. To “call upon the name of the Lord” means to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 10:14
It is necessary to understand Paul’s position in order to appreciate these verses. The Jews, his own people, hated the apostle Paul even though they applauded Saul, the Pharisee. He is showing the logic of his position. They rejected his claim, or the right of any of the apostles, to proclaim a gospel that omitted the Mosaic system which had degenerated into Pharisaism. Paul shows that there must be messengers of the gospel who have credentials from God. Paul, you recall, began this epistle with the claim that he was a called apostle of Jesus Christ (see Rom_1:1). There follows a logical sequence. Preachers must be sent in order for people to hear that they might believe, for they would not know how to call upon God. Paul pinpoints all on believing. This, therefore, necessitated his ministry. Paul clinches this bit of logic with a quotation from Isa_52:7 which says: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” This quotation precedes the marvelous fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, which is a prophecy of Christ’s death and resurrection. He opened it with the prophet’s query, “…Who hath believed our report? …” (Isa_53:1). The law of Moses surely was not glad tidings of good things, but it was a ministration of death. We are told here that the feet of those who bear glad tidings are beautiful. I believe that my radio program is important, and I am giving the rest of my life to it. I feel it is important to get God’s Word out to needy people. One day I was making tapes for the program in my bare feet. I looked at them and concluded that they are not beautiful. There is nothing about feet that causes them to be an object of beauty.
But God calls beautiful the feet of His called-ones and His sent-messengersbeautiful. John Peter Lange has an appropriate word on this: “In their running and hastening, in their scaling obstructing mountains, they are the symbols of the earnestly-desired, winged movement and appearance of the Gospel itself.” That is one of the reasons I love the opportunity provided by radio today. We can scale mountains, go over the plains, reach over the vast expanses of water, and go into the inner recesses of the earth with the gospel. We can go into homes, automobiles, and places of business. We have been even in barrooms with the gospel by radio. It is wonderful to get out the Word of God.
It is wonderful to have feet that the Lord calls beautiful!
Romans 10:16
While we are amazed at the great number of folk who tell us that they have received Christ because of our ministry, when we look at the total picture, it is a very small minority. Who has believed our report? Not very many.
Romans 10:17
Oh, this is so important! Faith does not come by preaching philosophy or psychology or some political nostrum; it comes by preaching the Word of God. Until you hear the Word of God, you cannot be saved, my friend.
Romans 10:18
While I am not saying that Paul has reference to radio, it certainly applies to radio broadcasting. Radio is a marvelous way of getting God’s Word to the ends of the world.
Romans 10:19
Paul is quoting from Deu_32:21. Today God is calling out a people from among Gentiles. Paul will develop this thought in the next chapter.
Romans 10:20
Paul quotes from Isa_65:1: “I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.” Even Isaiah predicted gentile salvation. The Gentiles in darkness were finding Christ. What excuse could Israel who had the Old Testament Scriptures offer? They are entirely without excuse.
Romans 10:21
Have you ever stopped to think how tiresome it is to hold your hands out for a long period of time? Try it sometime and see how long you can do it. It is one of the most tiring things in the world. When Moses held up his hands in prayer to God for Israel’s victory in battle, Aaron and Hur had to prop up his hands because he got so tired holding them up (see Exo_17:9-12). But God says, “I have been holding out My hands to a disobedient people” (see Isa_65:2). No one knows how gracious God has been to the nation Israel. Stephen’s final word to this nation is revealing: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it” (Act_7:51-53). This is not confined to Israel. It could be said today that God is holding out His hands to a gainsaying world. I marvel at the patience of God. I do not mean to be irreverant, but if I were running the show on this little earth down here, I would make a lot of changes.
I would move in like a bulldozer! But God is just holding out His hands to our gainsaying world.