CALL TO FAITH

Background Passage: ROMANS 9:30-10:21

Lesson Passage:ROMANS 10:1-4,8-18,21

BIBLICAL TRUTH: GOD WILL SAVE ALL WHO PLACE THEIR FAITH IN JESUS BUT GIVES PEOPLE THE FREEDOM TO RECEIVE OR REJECT SALVATION.

KEY BIBLE VERSE: ROMANS 10:9

The southern California sun was setting as my wife, Trish, and I drove onto the church parking lot for the evening worship service. Before walking into the building, we noticed a crowd of people gathered on the patio. They were clapping and shouting and laughing. Naturally, we could not resist moving in that direction to join the fun.

What event attracted this crowd? People were being baptized in the church's outdoor baptismal pool—older children, teenagers, and all ages of adults, both single and married. Loved ones, small-group members, and friends gathered on surrounding bleachers to watch these persons declare publicly their faith in Jesus Christ as their only hope for eternal life. When each person came up out of the water, the crowd clapped and shouted. The baptized were dripping wet but wore big smiles, hugging the minister and family members nearby.

Someone encouraged each new believer to accept God's offer of salvation. The decision, however, was solely the person's to make. Yet someone was willing to offer encouragement, and probably did so in a way that was helpful for the spiritual decision-making process.

Is there someone today who might benefit in the same way from your encouragement? Consider this question prayerfully and write at least one name to the margin. What is the most helpful way you can think of to offer encouragement to that person?

BACKGROUND PASSAGE OVERVIEW

Keeping the law of Moses or following any other religious tradition does not provide salvation from God's judgment of our personal sin. Rather, salvation comes only through faith in Jesus Christ.

The sincerity of the Jews in their quest for God still left them falling short of God's holy standard of perfection. Trying to achieve righteousness through personal effort, no matter how sincere or admirable, is eternally worthless and misguided.

The gift of God's salvation is not at a great distance but near—as near as an individual's declaration of belief in and life commitment to Jesus Christ. God promises to save anyone who calls upon Him, whether that person is a Jew or a Gentile.

The fact that someone has the opportunity to receive salvation does not mean this gift from God will be received. Though God sends messengers, the message may be rejected

In the preceding verses (9:30-33), Paul identified two ways people have sought right standing with God. We could refer to them as “do” or “done.” Persons may seek God through what they are doing for God or through what God has already done for them. Only the latter is the true way of salvation.

Many Jews chased after righteousness along the useless pathway of their own effort at right living (human righteousness). Since no one can live perfectly according to God's holiness, their efforts fell short. Yet the true way to salvation—requiring faith in the Messiah—became a stumbling block to many Jews.

STUDY QUESTIONS 1.How would you describe the Jews' quest for God? (10:2)
2.What two forms of righteousness did Paul address? (10:3)
3.When Jews declared “Jesus is Lord,” what were they saying? (10:9)
4. What is the “gospel of good things”? (10:15)

WE CANNOT SAVE OURSELVES (ROMANS 10:1-4)

Romans 10 1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

VERSES 1 ~ Desire is an intense word meaning a “deep longing.” Though Paul had acknowledged God's sovereignty in chapter 9, he felt a heavy burden to pray for the Jews' salvation. However we interpret the role of God's sovereignty in the matter of salvation, Paul's example shows that we cannot dismiss our responsibility to pray for and seek the salvation of others, no matter how far from the kingdom they seem to be.

VERSE 2 ~ Zealmeans “boiling point.” The object of the Jews' zeal (or their boiling, religious intensity) was God. Paul knew this way of life firsthand and could testify to its sincerity. The Jews had a passionate and sacrificial commitment with a correct objective—being right with God.

What they did not have was a right pathway. Their sincerity was guided not by true knowledge (full and real), but by their own misdirected thinking. The Jews refused to submit to god's plan of righteousness in Christ and remained determined to seek righteousness on their own.

Religious practice alone, no matter how sincere, is sincerely wrong as a pathway to knowing God. In a culture that elevates tolerance over truth, this perspective is troubling to some. Yet the struggle must be with what God says in His Word rather than on cultural correctness.

VERSE 3 ~ Righteousness from Godprovides a person with standing before God that is right and acceptable to His holy nature. This righteousness, offered by God as a gift, may be either accepted or rejected. The person who rejects it may not care about righteousness at all. On the other hand, the person may care passionately but be determined to try constructing an acceptable righteousness based on personal behavior.

Their own carries the idea of pride. Here is a special, self-constructed righteousness that focuses glory on them and not God. They have not submitted (a military term) means the Jews did not subordinate themselves to God's plan of righteousness as a soldier because subordinate to a commanding officer. In their zeal to build their own righteousness, they disregarded God's way of righteousness as lacking credibility because it came through Jesus Christ. The truth about Jesus caused them to stumble and kept them form considering God's way of securing righteousness.

VERSES 4 ~ The end means the point at which something is terminated. The righteousness of God through Jesus Christ set the termination point for any attempts to gain righteousness through legal religion. Law refers to the law of Moses and any other legalistic system (government, religious, sect, or personal) that claims to provide a way to attain righteousness. Salvation comes only through Jesus Christ.

WE CAN BE SAVED BY FAITH (ROMANS 10:8-13)

8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

VERSE 8 ~ No extraordinary efforts are required of the person anxious to receive salvation. Christ's physical presence is not required. He does not need to be brought down from heaven (v.6) or brought up from the place of the dead (v7). On the contrary, salvation is received through means that are graciously available even to the weakest and least powerful.

Paul quoted Deuteronomy 30:12-13, where Moses explained to the children of Israel that they did not need to climb up to heaven or cross over the oceans to discover God's will. Paul used the passage to say that the message of salvation was near. Message of faith is the smaller nugget of truth that leads someone to salvation rather than the total body of teaching related to the good news.

VERSES 9-10 ~ The nugget of truth—that JESUS IS LORD—is thought to be the oldest confessional statement in Christianity. For the Jew, this declaration meant the acceptance that Jesus was Lord (kurios, a Greek word used to translate the Old Testament Hebrew word Yahweh, the personal name of God sacred to the Jews) over all of life. By speaking “Jesus is Lord” and believing thus, a Jew declared Jesus of Nazareth to be Yahweh in human form. Jesus' own statement of His Deity (considered blasphemy) led to the death sentence at His trial.

Confession means more than simply saying the words “Jesus is Lord”--it is a life declaration and heart belief, agreeing with all the Scripture says about Jesus Christ. Confession means literally “to say the same as”. To confess that Jesus is Lord means acceptance of and trust in the incarnation (Jesus is God in flesh), the atonement (His death paid the penalty for my sin), and the bodily resurrection (Jesus conquered death and is alive). The mouth...the heart affirms that saying “Jesus is Lord” has meaning only when it is backed up by an internal faith.

Salvation comes when we trust our every hope of heaven in Jesus Christ because of who He claimed to be (God in flesh) and what He claimed to do (purchase my salvation). Faith, therefore, becomes a channel through which we receive the gift of salvation. Put another way, the source of our salvation is not our faith but rather Jesus Christ. Our faith is the means through which we connect with the saving power of Christ. With the heart..with the mouth (v10) says the same thing as verse 9, except with a reversal of the clauses.

VERSES 11-12 ~ Isaiah's promise to Israel is applied by Paul to the gospel: one way of salvation exists for everyone, Jew and Gentile. The message of the gospel overcomes cultural, ethnic, and national barriers. Any person from any people group from any place in the world can find salvation in Jesus Christ. Put to shame means “disappointed.” When a sinner believes, he or she will never be disappointed in God's power to save.

VERSE 13 ~ By quoting from the prophet Joel, Paul repeated that the gospel was for everyone, Jew and Gentile. Though God's redemptive plan was worked out in history through Israel, the salvation offer is for all people everywhere. Paul connected the meaning of Lord in Joel's Old Testament quotation to Jesus Christ, evidence of Paul's belief in Jesus' Deity.

WE CAN ENCOURAGE OTHERS (ROMANS 10:14-18b,21)

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
21 But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

VERSES 14-15 ~ Notice how the six verbs (including v.13) in opposite order declare the work of missions: they are sent....they preach...they hear....they believe...they call...they are saved. Welcome means “full bloom or development.” At just the right time, the one who needs the gospel is given the opportunity to hear its message through one who is sent. Gospel of good things is “gospel of peace” in the KJV because it follows a different Greek manuscript than the Holman CSB.

VERSE 16 ~ Of those who hear, not all respond. The responsibility of the messenger is to deliver the message (as Paul did with persuasion and encouragement). The response is entirely up to the listener. The listener's response may make you happy or sad, but the listener is free to either accept Christ or reject Christ.

VERSE 17 ~ Faith means the saving faith that leads to the conversion of the hearer. The message about Christ awakens this saving faith. True saving faith is not awakened by the one who shares, but rather by the one who saves through the sharer. No one can force, intimidate, frighten, or enrage this saving faith to be stirred except as it is stirred through the Spirit of God in the heart of the hearer. At best, the one who shares is only a divine instrument.

VERSE 18 ~ Paul anticipated someone asking another question about the Jews: Based on the fact that faith is stirred through the message about Christ, then are the Jews not responding in faith because they have not heard? Paul's response was that they most certainly have heard. Paul used Psalm 19 as proof that Jews saw the glory of God revealed through creation and therefore heard. This revelation of God's glory through creation should awaken faith enough for one to seek, recognize, and accept the message about Christ .

VERSE 21 ~ Paul quoted Isaiah (Isa.65:2) to show that the disobedient and defiant attitude causing Jews to refuse God's plan of righteousness is the same attitude that was portrayed in Isaiah's day. Disobedient refers to the Jews' stubborn resistance even to being persuaded that Paul's gospel was true.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

No Christian was ever a better witness than Paul. Here are some lessons we learn from him about sharing the gospel:.

The Christian who cares is the Christian who shares. Paul's life of witnessing was motivated partly by a heart that cared deeply for others.

The gospel holds spiritual power. Paul knew his power was not in his position, his authority, or his knowledge, but in the gospel and Person of Jesus Christ.

A listener is free to accept or reject the gospel, Paul never assumed responsibility for a listener's response.

Engaging in dialogue orloving persuasion is different than in intimidation and disrespectful pressure. Paul never shied away from finding a bridge to share, but he always honored the person and the decision that was his or hers.

If possible, take away every barrier that keeps someone from considering the claims of Jesus Christ. Paul was a master at adjusting himself, his approach, and the way he communicated the gospel to the listener. Paul didn't want any listener to reject Christ before knowing about the Christ he or she was rejecting.

Witnessing is more about God and the person needing salvation that the witness. Paul knew his role—an instrument available to help fulfill the purposes of God.