Romans 10:1-13
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Last week we finished up Romans 9 and we are now moving into Romans 10. Let’s look at the first 13 verses together.
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on 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, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
OK, so the first thing we need to deal with is the fact that, as we have said numerous times, the chapters and verses were added later, in order to help us break up the text in to more consumable chunks. You see that fact is evident here as the start of chapter 10 is a continuation of what Paul was saying in chapter 9.
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
This is the context of going into chapter 10. Paul is reiterating his desire that his Jewish brethren would be saved. But there is a big stumbling block (Rom 9:33).
We see that Paul here is extolling some of their virtues: they are zealous for God.
But that isn’t enough, because to be properly zealous for God, you have to submit to God’s righteousness. And that is what they did not do. They were not looking at God’s truth, but their own righteousness.
ESV Study Notes:
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 10
The Jews’ zeal and sincerity does not lead them to salvation. The broader principle is that many sincere, “religious” people are wrong in their beliefs.
I love how Sproul puts it in his commentary:
The Gospel of God: Romans The Unbelief of Israel (10:1–21)
There is a certain sense in which this verse is terrifying. Paul is describing people who are under the judgment of God, and yet have a zeal for God. The problem with their zeal for God was that it was based on bad theology. Israel neglected the truth of God and were slothful and indolent with respect to their study of the things of God.
Bad theology can most certainly send you to Hell.
Now, I don’t mean to say that we must agree on every point of theology. Certainly there is room for disagreements on things, on differing interpretations. In 1627, Rupertus Meldenius wrote (a quote often misattributed to Augustine), “In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity.”
I think this is a valid way to understand things. There are essentials that bind us together as Christians. There are non-essentials that help denominate us from one another (hence the term ‘denomination’ to refer to Christians with differing viewpoints on baptism, church polity, organizational structure, etc.). We should be able to love and join together in fellowship with Christians even if we disagree on non-essentials.
The Gospel of God: Romans The Unbelief of Israel (10:1–21)
This is why orthodox Christianity declares belief in the resurrection of Christ to be essential. If a person denies the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, then he cannot possibly be a Christian. Christians can make mistakes in theology and not everybody is perfectly orthodox. Indeed, if we had to wait until we were perfectly orthodox before we were saved, none of us would be saved. But the denial of the resurrection of Christ is an intolerable error. You cannot be saved if you do not believe in the resurrection of Christ.
That’s the issue here. The problem is, the Jews that are the subject of Paul’s writing here in Romans 9 and 10 are failing in essentials.
That is literally the problem.
They thought the law was a path to God. But the law points to Christ.
Don’t misunderstand me, Christ is God, but the Hebrews rejected that. The Jews here would not accept Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah. They would view Him as a rabbi, certainly. But as God? Never!
And that is the issue for Paul, because the law points to Christ as its fulfillment.
Sproul:
The Gospel of God: Romans The Unbelief of Israel (10:1–21)
Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness (verse 3). God did not accept the Israelites because they put their faith in their own law-keeping, and not in the Saviour. But Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes (verse 4). The law which itself reveals the pattern of good works should drive us to Christ. Christ is the point of the law; Christ is the goal of the law; Christ is the meaning of the law. So if you try to follow and obey the law, but avoid Christ, you have missed the whole point of the law
The law was to point to Christ. The law was a guide for how God expected us to live, and a shackle on us because we could not keep it.
God’s demand is sinlessness. We cannot meet that demand.
But Christ did meet it.
When we think of Christ as the “end of the law” we can think of it like this (from the ESV Study Notes):
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 10
End probably includes the idea of both goal and termination. The Mosaic law has reached its goal in Christ (it looked forward to and anticipated him), and the law is no longer binding upon Christians (the old covenant has ended). Since Christ is the goal and end of the law, righteousness belongs to all who trust in Christ.
Now, our righteousness is found in Christ, not the law.
Paul looks to bear this out by first quoting from Leviticus 18:5:
5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
Look at verse 5 here:
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.
So the question is, is this Paul contradicting himself?
He just quotes Leviticus (written by Moses) that says that if a person does the law, or follows the law, they will live by the law. They will attain life by the law. They will gain eternal life.
But Paul has already shown in chapters 1-3 of Romans that we cannot fully follow the law. It is hopeless. We all violate the law. The Apostle James makes it very clear:
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
The law is not our hope. That is what Paul was driving at in the last verses of chapter 9, that the Jews had placed their hope in the law, which was futile.
Moses wrote down the words of God knowing that the law was not enough. The law (even then) pointed to the Messiah. Paul makes that connection here, basically restating the end of chapter 9.
6 But the righteousness based on 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, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
He goes back to “righteousness based on faith” he mentioned in 9:30, and he pulls from Deuteronomy 30, tying that passage to Christ.
12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
And we can read this and think it difficult to understand. In fact, some of the best theological minds have struggled with this passage:
The Gospel of God: Romans The Unbelief of Israel (10:1–21)
This is difficult to understand. I am not sure exactly what Paul means here, but there was a tradition among the Pharisees that if any single Pharisee kept all the Jewish laws perfectly for one day, that man’s righteousness would be so pure that it would induce God to send the Messiah. The idea was that if a person was good enough he could have the merit to climb right up to heaven and bring the Messiah down, or if the Messiah had gone into hell, he could bring him back up. But who has that kind of righteousness, that kind of merit? We can’t climb up into heaven and bring the Saviour down from heaven. The whole point is that only God can send a Saviour from heaven, and only God can bring one back from the dead. Only God can save you and that is where your faith must be.
Ultimately, when we look at that passage, we see the future-looking Moses talking about faith being in the mouth and heart.
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 30
30:12–14 in your mouth and in your heart. This is the result of the circumcised heart that enables obedience (see note on v. 6). Paul quotes from these verses in Rom. 10:6–8 to show that the Jews already had the message of faith through the Scriptures.
Moses was looking to the Christ. Paul is affirming that, and telling the congregation at Rome that they also need to be looking to Christ.
How do we know that?
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
This verse is part of the Roman road in evangelism. This is a well-known verse. Look, this verse sits perfectly fine by itself. We can quote this one. But there is a lot of context to it as well. But we do want to consider the context of this verse, and how that can better help us when we use this verse in evangelism.
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
So, Paul says, “what does scripture say about righteousness based on faith? That it is near to us, in our mouths and hearts, because if we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts, we will be saved.”
There are two parts of the process. Belief and confession.
Confession isn’t a work that must be done, but an outflowing of the belief and evidence of the faith that we have.
We see Paul sort of explaining that, justification comes through belief and the salvific process is completed in both the belief and confession. Again, like a marriage where the bride and groom affirm their commitment to one another by verbally saying “I do,” a regenerate person confesses their dedication to God by first believing and then confessing.
We can add to this baptism, but that is not something Paul covers right here. In our context, that is indeed a part of the confessing. When we baptize someone, we ask them about their salvation, and they confess that to the congregation, and are baptized as a member of the congregation.
In many contexts, particularly Muslim contexts, the baptism is the last step before the believer is cut off from their family, because to be baptized as a Christian is to be irrevocably linked to Christ. That is a public profession and confession of faith and it is the move that makes many Muslims severed from non-believing families.
Confession through our mouths and actions are integral to our faith. They display what our heart holds.
And, in both those Muslim contexts, and in the very dangerous Roman context of the writing of this letter, Paul reminds them again that they will not be put to shame.
Paul circles back to an idea from chapter 3:
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
This is where we will wrap up for tonight:
Paul reminds them that there is no distinction to God between Jews and Greeks. God is the same. He is Lord over all. And He bestows His riches freely on all who call on Him, and we see this beautiful verse 13:
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Paul quotes Joel 2:32
32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.
This isn’t the first time this verse from Joel is used in the context of conversion to Christianity.
On the day of Pentecost, when the apostles were preaching in Jerusalem as the Spirit came upon them, and then Peter begins to preach, he uses this verse as well:
21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Now, the apostles’ aim that day was for converting Jews to Christianity, no doubt. We understand that because it is only later when God comes to Peter in a vision to explicitly show him that Christ died for Gentiles as well, because Peter is thick-headed.
But the text in Acts is clear that it wasn’t just Jews listening:
5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
Again, Luke writing here is highlighting the Jewish contingent, but the context bears out that Gentiles were there as well.
And we see Paul reminding the church at Rome that God is for them too. That they are part of this beautiful family.
But it has responsibility. That is where we will go next week.
Let’s pray.