Romans 10.13-Paul Cites Joel 2.32 To Support His Teaching In Romans 10.12 That The Offer Of Salvation Is For Both Jew And Gentile
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday May 27, 2009
Romans: Romans 10:13-Paul Cites Joel 2:32 To Support His Teaching In Romans 10:12 That The Offer Of Salvation Is For Both Jew And Gentile
Lesson # 342
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 10:1.
This evening we will note Romans 10:13 in which Paul cites Joel 2:32 to support his teaching in Romans 10:12 that the offer of salvation is for both Jew and Gentile.
Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”
Romans 10:2, “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.”
Romans 10:3, “For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”
Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Romans 10:5, “For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.”
Romans 10:6, “But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: ‘DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down).”
Romans 10:7, “Or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”
Romans 10:8, “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.”
Romans 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 will be saved.”
Romans 10:10, “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
Romans 10:11, “For the Scripture says, ‘WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’”
Romans 10:12, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him.”
Romans 10:13, “For ‘WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’”
In Romans 10:13, Paul is quoting Joel 2:32 to support his teaching in Romans 10:12 that the offer of salvation is for both Jew and Gentile.
Joel 2:32, “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered.”
In context, the statement in Joel 2:32 is a prophecy in relation to the prophetic subject known as the “Day of the Lord” and is addressed to the citizens of the nation of Israel during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week, which is also known by students of prophecy as the “Great Tribulation.”
This statement promises them not only deliverance from the Tribulational armies, Antichrist and Satan during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week but it also promises eternal salvation.
Romans 10:13 advances upon Paul’s statement in Romans 10:12 and intensifies it.
In Romans 10:12, Paul teaches that anyone whether Jew or Gentile who places their faith in Jesus Christ will never be disappointed because there are no racial distinctions since Christ is Lord of both racial groups, who is infinitely generous on behalf of those who call on Him.
The advancement upon this statement in Romans 10:12 is that anyone who calls on the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved.
“WHOEVER” refers to “each and every” member of the human race without exception, both Jew and Gentile and is a reminder to Paul’s Jewish audience of the universal availability of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone since the teaching of the Pharisees, excluded the Gentiles from salvation.
Romans 10:13, “For ‘WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’”
“WILL CALL ON” is the verb epikaleo (e)pikalevw) (ep-ee-kal-eh-o), which is a synonym for exercising faith in Jesus Christ as Savior as indicated through a comparison of Paul’s statements in Romans 10:9-11 and 10:13-14.
Paul is writing rhetorically in Romans 10:9-10 indicating that when he speaks of righteousness and salvation, he is speaking of the justified sinner’s new relationship with God and not two different ideas that are not connected.
That Paul is writing rhetorically is indicated in that Romans 10:10 he is following the same word order of Romans 10:9 in that in both verses he speaks of believing with one’s heart and acknowledging with one’s mouth.
However, in verse 10 he believing with one’s heart precedes acknowledging with one’s mouth whereas in verse nine acknowledging with one’s mouth precedes believing with one’s heart.
That Paul is writing rhetorically not only suggests that righteousness and salvation are both speaking of the justified sinner’s new relationship with God and not different ideas that are not related but also it indicates that acknowledging with one’s mouth and believing with one’s heart are one in the same.
Believing in one’s heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead is the same as acknowledging that Jesus is God since the resurrection demonstrated that Jesus is God and faith alone in Christ alone is the only way to receive eternal salvation.
In Romans 10:9, Paul teaches that if the Jew acknowledges with his mouth to the Father that Jesus is Lord, which is equivalent to believing in his heart that the Father raised him from the dead, then the Jew will receive eternal salvation.
Paul in Romans 10:10 continues his thought from verse 9 by teaching that a person believes with his heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead resulting in righteousness while on the other hand with his mouth he acknowledges to the Father Jesus is Lord resulting in salvation.
In these two verses, Paul is not presenting two conditions for salvation or teaching that there must be a public affirmation of Christ’s deity as well as faith that the Father raised Jesus from the dead.
Rather, he is speaking of salvation from two different perspectives: (1) The sinner must acknowledge that Jesus is God. (2) The sinner must believe that the Father raised Him from the dead.
Now, in Romans 10:10, Paul teaches that with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness and with his mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Notice that both confessing with one’s mouth and believing with one’s heart have the same results since both righteousness and salvation speak of the justified sinner’s new relationship with God from different perspectives, which indicates that to acknowledge is to believe and vice versa.
Therefore, in Romans 10:9 when Paul teaches that if the Jew confesses with his mouth Jesus is Lord and believes in his heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead he is referring back to what he taught in Romans 1:4, which teaches that the resurrection of Christ demonstrated the deity of Christ.
Thus, when Paul teaches in Romans 10:9 that if the Jew confesses with his mouth Jesus is Lord and believes in his heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead he means that to believe in one’s heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead is in fact, an acknowledgment to the Father that Jesus is Lord, i.e. God.
To acknowledge to the Father that Jesus is Lord is to believe that the Father raised Him from the dead since by raising Him from the dead, the Father was demonstrating that Jesus was His Son and thus God.
Therefore, in Romans 10:9, Paul is giving only one condition for salvation when he teaches that the sinner must acknowledge with one’s mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in his heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead.
In Romans 10:11, he quotes the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 28:16 to support his teaching in Romans 10:9-10 that salvation and justification is through faith alone in Christ alone who is the subject of the gospel.
Paul’s statement in Romans 10:13 makes clear that calling on the name of the Lord is synonymous with faith in Christ since he says to do so results in salvation and the Scriptures teach that salvation is only through faith alone in Christ alone.
So, we can see that in Romans 10:12-13, the verb epikaleo is synonymous with exercising faith in Christ in the sense of calling Him Lord, i.e. God, which is an acknowledgement of His deity, as a result of believing that the Father raised Him from the dead, which demonstrates that He is God.
Romans 10:13, “For ‘WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’”
“NAME” refers to the unique person of the Lord Jesus Christ in that He is undiminished deity and true humanity in Person forever and thus the unique theanthropic Person of history and creation.
“THE LORD” is a reference to the second member of the Trinity, Jesus Christ since in Romans 10:9 the word is applied to Jesus Christ and is the implicit antecedent of autos, “Him” in Romans 10:11.
“Will be saved” refers to being delivered by God from eternal condemnation as well as the sin nature, personal sins, Satan and his cosmic system since Paul is speaking with reference to unsaved Israel in our present context.
Therefore, in Romans 10:13, Paul quotes Joel 2:32 to support his teaching in Romans 10:12 that the offer of salvation is for both Jew and Gentile.