Romans Chapter 10– John Karmelich

 

 

1.                  The title for this lesson is, “What we as Christians can learn about the Jewish nation today”.

a)                  This lesson focuses on the Jewish nation “Post-Jesus”.  That is the time frame between Jesus’ First Coming and Second Coming.  That is, the last 2,000 years of history.

b)                  Let me start by saying the emphasis of these bible studies is how the bible impact’s our lives and not say, the lives of Jewish people.  The purpose of these studies is for us to learn what about God and what He expects for our lives.

i)                    With that said, one needs to this study focusing on the Jewish people as an illustration for us to learn.  In other words, it’s not about learning about the Jewish religion, it’s about learning how to apply this illustration to our lives.

c)                  The main point of this lesson is how the Jewish nation failed to grasp God’s expectations of them.  Paul will cite many Old Testament verses in support of this concept.

d)                 The underlying point is that even Christians can make the same mistakes.  Because the Jews are “God’s chosen people”, they historically made the mistake of assuming “that’s all it takes” to get into heaven.  Christians make the same mistake.  We may think because our parents are Christians or we went through some childhood ritual that it’s now an “automatic ticket to heaven” and no further action is needed.

e)                  The issue at hand is salvation and our egos.  We do religious “things” and we think God is pleased by our efforts.  We think God must bless us today because we’ve been “good boys and girls” today.  God never owes us anything.  That is not how God works and we’ll get into that as the lesson progresses.

2.                  In this lesson, we’re going to talk a lot about the Jewish religion, what it teaches, what are its good points and what are its flaws.

a)                  For what it is worth, I have a number of friends who are religious Jews.  My interest in God and the bible gives me something in common with them.  I understand the basic principals of Judaism and I know the differences between the major denominations.

i)                    Personally, I would rather have neighbors who are devoutly religious Jews or Mormons than say, someone who claims they are born-again Christians but never practices what they preach.  As a general rule, religious people who understand they are accountable to God live better lives and are happier people. 

b)                  With that said, Chapter 10 is one of the most offensive chapters in the New Testament to a religious Jew.  It essentially says they are wrong about salvation.  To my Jewish readers of this study, please accept that this is part of the Christian view of salvation.  Most Christians I meet are very “pro-Jewish” and we’ll discussion why in Chapter 11.  As to this chapter, it explains some fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity.

c)                  Christianity was meant to be taught as so as to change a person’s heart.  It was never meant to be taught by force.  Unfortunately, the history of the Christian church is full of long time era’s where people were asked to convert at the threat of death or some means of bribery or violence.  The New Testament never teaches that and neither do I.

i)                    I state this to my Jewish readers so you understand I mean you no harm. ☺

ii)                  The worse thing that’s going to happen is that you’ll read arguments that you will disagree with.  Christians believe the only way into heaven is through Jesus.  We preach this out of love for our fellow humans as we don’t want to see anyone perish.  It is not meant as a physical threat.

3.                  Now, back to my opening premise:  This lesson is for the Christian as well as the Jew.

a)                  The mistake of “anyone” is think they are “holier-than-thou” and think they have some God-given automatic ticket into heaven because of one’s background.  Salvation is an individual issue, regardless of race, religion or national origin.

4.                  This brings up the other key issue of this lesson, which is on individual responsibility.

a)                  The last lesson had a heavy emphasis on the fact that God knows all things.  Since He knows all things, He knew in advance who would be saved and who would not.

b)                  This lesson deals with the “flip side of the same coin”.  That is, we as humans don’t have that perfect knowledge.  Only God knows who is saved and we don’t have that privilege of knowing that information.  We don’t know who is going to heaven.

i)                    Therefore, we pray for all people. 

ii)                  Therefore, we share the Gospel message with all people. 

iii)                From our perspective, salvation is up to “us” because it requires the acceptance of Jesus as God and our behavior should follow as proof of that acceptance.

c)                  Chapter 10 is one of the few places in the New Testament where salvation is actually defined for us.  It is in Verse 9 and it should be memorized.  That verse focuses on what “we” need to do in order to be saved as opposed to Chapter 9 when that issue was how God choose us.

d)                 Let me sum up the “pre-chosen by God” versus “personal responsibility” issue by saying it can never be fully reconciled in our minds.  One simply as to accept both facts as true.  The way I reconcile it is I accept God knows all things just as I accept I don’t know all things.  Therefore, I never “give up” on anybody. 

i)                    Salvation is “God’s problem” in that He knows who is saved and who is not.

ii)                  Salvation is also “our problem” in that God commands us to be His witnesses to the word and God desires to use us to spread that Gospel message.

iii)                My point is one has to accept both factors, although it is difficult to reconcile.

5.                  Chapter 10, Verse 1:  Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.

a)                  The last chapter dealt with “Israel past”.  That was the time frame from the first Jew, Abraham to the time of Jesus.  The main point of Chapter 10 was their failure to corporately please God as a nation.  That leads to the question of “Is God done with Israel?  Can individual Jews still be saved?  That is the main issue of this chapter.

b)                  The first word of this chapter is “Brothers”.  This chapter is address to fellow Christians.

c)                  The rest of Verse 1 is the purpose of the chapter:  It states that Paul’s desire and pray is for the Israelites to be saved, in that they accept Jesus’ sin payment for their salvation.

i)                    Notice what is not said in this verse, or this chapter, or the New Testament: 
Any call to violence to attack non-believers.

ii)                  Paul says his “heart’s desire and prayer” is that his fellow Jews would believe that Jesus died for their sins.

d)                 Paul understood that his primary mission was to bring non-Jewish people to Christ.  Paul saw how Peter was best effective in converting Jewish people to Christ and Paul saw how he was best effective in converting Gentiles, i.e., non-Jews.  (Reference Galatians 2:7-8).

i)                    Still, Paul has a heart for his fellow Jews.  Paul was a devout, religious Pharisee prior to his conversion (See Philippians 3:5).  He studied under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3) who is revered to this day by Orthodox Jews as being a great rabbi scholar.

e)                  For whatever reason, whenever Paul preached to a Jewish audience, very few people converted.  Whenever Paul preached to a non-Jewish audience, there were many converts.  I believe Paul just “figured out” that God called him to witness to Gentiles. 

i)                    My point here is a way to figure out “God’s will” for one’s life is often just to watch the results.  For example, one reason I do these bible lessons is I see how God is using them and blessing them.  Therefore, since it is “working”, I accept it as God’s will for my life for this moment.

f)                   One final point on Verse 1:  Notice Paul prayed for the salvation of his fellow Jews.

i)                    Even though Paul was not called to preach to them, Paul never stopped trying, which is what most of the Book of Acts indicated. 

ii)                  Further, it appeared Paul never stopped praying for the Jewish people.

iii)                The lesson for us?  Never stop praying for someone’s salvation.  God desires effective prayer and consistent prayer.  The reason for the “consistent” prayer is that it keeps our focus on God and not on us.  My point is we should never say, “I prayed for that guy once twelve years ago, and that’s that.”  God desires regular prayer, if for no other reason that God desires we never give up on someone just as God never gives up on someone. 

a)                  Remember that we work on God’s timing and not ours.  Consistent prayer means that we are waiting on God’s timing to answer the prayer. 

b)                  Again, God knows who is saved, but we don’t.  Therefore, we pray for anyone and everyone that is on our mind for that moment.

6.                  Verse 2:  For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.

a)                  Let me paraphrase Paul.  “Look, I understand my fellow Jews.  I’ve been there.  I know their lifestyle.  I know how they memorize scripture.  I know how they study the great rabbi’s of time’s past.  They have great head knowledge, but they are missing the key issue, which is, you can’t earn God’s favor by one’s attempt to keep God’s laws.”

i)                    My point here is that when Paul says, “their zeal is not based on knowledge”, it does not mean the Jewish people never studied.  It means they missed the key point of God’s requirements for salvation.  That is discussed in Verse 3.

b)                  Paul gives his fellow Jews a great compliment in that they are zealous for God.

i)                    That means that the religious Jews have a great desire for pleasing God. 

ii)                  Today, only a small percentage of the Jewish people are devoutly religious.  Unfortunately, most don’t even observe the Sabbath.  The same way there are “Christians” who rarely go to church; there are Jews who only go to synagogue once or twice a year at best. 

iii)                Still, there is the other faction of Jews that is very devout.  They know the Old Testament backwards and forwards.  They study thick books that are “official” commentaries on how to properly interpret the Jewish laws.  These interpretations are for the most part, good things and can cause one to live a happy and productive life.

iv)                The key point they misunderstand what God requires by “perfection”.  That is the point of Verse 3. 

7.                  Verse 3:  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.

a)                  Let’ start with the phrase, “did not know the righteousness that comes from God”.

i)                    This gets back to one of my favorite assumptions about God:  God is perfect.

a)                  If God is capable of making mistakes, then we can’t trust God.

b)                  If God is capable of lying or changing his mind, we can’t trust God.

c)                  Therefore, we accept that if God exists, He must be perfect in all his ways.

d)                 “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless.” 
(Psalm 18:30 NIV)

ii)                  If God is perfect, and God’s word is perfect, then that word must contain God’s standards for right and wrong.  One must read the bible laws and understand, “this is God’s standard for admission into heaven and how to live today”. 

iii)                If God is perfect, then we must perfectly obey that law for admission into heaven. 

iv)                If God is perfect, then He cannot tolerate any sin whatsoever.

a)                  “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.”  (Habakkuk 1:13 NIV).

v)                  In other words, if we want to spend our eternity with a perfect God, then we have to become perfect ourselves.  God cannot tolerate any sin whatsoever in heaven.

b)                  Now let’s get back to the term “God’s righteousness”.

i)                    This is the idea of being “perfect”.  It is the idea of never committing any sin whatsoever.  It is about getting a perfect score in our life.  Some disclaimers first:

a)                  There is an age of accountability.  God does not expect, say babies to comprehend this and I believe children are saved for that reason.

b)                  Further, God judges us based on what information we have about God.  Those who know more are more accountable.

ii)                  Here is the “flaw” in Judaism (in my humble opinion ☺).  First let me state there are lots of views within Judaism.  This is my interpretation of a consensus opinion.  Here is the argument: 

a)                  “If God gave us these set of laws, then He must expect us to have the capability to obey them.  God does provide a way of forgiveness through animal sacrifices.  When we sacrifice innocent animals for our sins, it reminds us that innocent people get hurt due to our actions.  The bible implies that the shedding of innocent (animal) blood is necessary for the forgiveness of sins.  We performed that ritual and our sins were forgiven.”

b)                  “Since we don’t have a temple today (destroyed in 70AD), we religious Jews have believe in verbal confession of one’s sins for forgiveness.”

iii)                The Jewish argument is that it is possible to be obedient to God by obeying His laws to the best of one’s ability and seeking forgiveness when they fail.

iv)                Some Jewish people interpret these laws very strictly and strive to obey them.  Others take a more loose interpretation.

v)                  The “flaw” is in the issue of perfection.  The purpose of God’s laws is to show us how imperfect we are before God.  God is perfect and expects perfection.

vi)                The great problem with Judaism is one never has assurance of salvation.  One has to keep striving to keep the law and hoping “they didn’t miss something”.  They pray for forgiveness of the sins they committed and ask forgiveness for any they might have missed.  Still, one never “knows for sure”.

vii)              With Christianity, there is assurance.  We know we are saved because the full price for our sins has already been paid.  It’s already a “done deal”.

c)                  This leads us back to Verse 3:  “they (Jews) did not submit to God's righteousness”.

i)                    It doesn’t mean the Jewish people did not try to please God.  It means that they failed collectively and individually to please God by their own efforts.

ii)                  If there is one idea I’ve stated over and over again in these lessons is that one cannot please God by a self-disciplined effort to obey God’s laws.  In that case, one is making an idol out of one’s self-discipline and not letting the power of God work through us for the better.

iii)                Let me state this from God’s perspective: “From the time of Abraham to the time of Jesus is roughly 2,000 years.  During that time period, has the Jewish nation ever gone through a period of time where they have collectively obeyed all of my laws?  No.  That historical period shows the failure of the Jewish people to keep all of My laws.  Now that history has proved it can’t be done, I’ve provided the “solution” to how to have a right-standing before Me.  That is the acceptance of Jesus’ payment for all of their sins”. 

iv)                The Jewish nation’s failure to recognize that payment is another way of saying, “they (Jews) did not submit to God's righteousness”.

8.                  Verse 4:  Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

a)                  Let’s start with the first phrase, “Christ is the end of the law”.  Look at what Jesus himself said on this issue:  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”  (Matthew 5:17 NIV)

b)                  What this means is that Jesus himself paid the penalty for all of our sins, once and for all. That payment is for everyone and anyone willing to accept that payment.

c)                  In life, when we violate a law and are “caught”, then we must pay the price.   In society, it is either a monetary fine, community service or jail time.  The point is we are punished when we are caught doing something wrong.

i)                    With God, we don’t get away with anything.  For everything we do wrong, (that is a violation of one of the bible laws), we must pay the penalty for that sin. 

ii)                  God then offers us a choice:  Choose Jesus to accept our penalty or suffer it ourselves.  Personally, I’ll pick “Choice #1”.  It’s a lot less painful. ☺

iii)                That is how Jesus made an “end to the law”.  It does not mean God’s laws are now null and void.  It means the penalty has been paid in full.  That is also what Jesus meant when He said He has come to fulfill the law.

d)                 Does that mean we no longer have to obey the law?  For example, one of the 10 Commandments is “do not steal”.  Are you saying we are now free to steal? 

i)                    In terms of salvation, technically yes.  You still may go to jail for your crime, but if you are putting your trust in Jesus for all of your sins, yes you can.

ii)                  The point is, “If I want to please God, why would I want to disobey His laws?”  If I am grateful for God providing that free gift of salvation, why would I want to do anything that displeases Him or others?  If God calls me to be His witness to the world, why would I want to harm that reputation by violating His laws?

iii)                My point is God still desires obedience.  It is not for the sake of salvation, it is for the sake of living a life pleasing to God.  The secret to living a life pleasing to God is to harness the power of God in order to be obedient.

e)                  A classic example is the issue, “Can Christians drink alcohol?”

i)                    The correct answer is, “The Christian can drink all the alcohol they want.  The question becomes, why would you want to?  If you have the internal peace that God gives us, why would we want to suppress that with a depressive drug?”

ii)                  The issue of Christians and drinking is more complicated than that.  The New Testament preaches against being drunk (e.g., Romans 13:13).  My point here is that one does not “have” to do anything else for salvation other than accept Jesus payment for our sins.  We’ll discuss that further in Verse 9.

f)                   The last phrase of Verse 4 says, “For everyone who believes”.

i)                    God does not discriminate.  God has an equal opportunity salvation plan. ☺

ii)                  There is no group or person that is any more special than any other.

iii)                It doesn’t matter what one has done with one’s life prior to salvation.  You don’t have to “clean up one’s act” before coming to Jesus.  God’s job is to work on us once we’ve made that commitment, not beforehand.

iv)                This verse is another reminder for us to not look down upon others who haven’t accepted Jesus. 

9.                  Verse 5: Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them."

a)                  This is quote of Leviticus 18.5.  By the way, get used to Paul quoting the Old Testament.  In Romans Chapters 9-11, there are roughly thirty Old Testament quotes.

b)                  Paul is using the Old Testament to show how the Jewish people didn’t grasp the true purpose of God’s law:  It is to show our imperfection and need of a “suffering Messiah” as well as a ruling Messiah for our lives.

c)                  The idea of Leviticus 18.5 is if we want God to judge us based on our ability to keep the laws, then we better do it 100% right all the time or we will fail.

d)                 A classic joke that applies here: “There are two ways to get into heaven.  One is to perfectly obey every Old Testament law one’s entire life.  Then, when we get to heaven, we tell Jesus to move over.  ☺The other way is accepting Jesus’ payment for our sins”.

i)                    That is the idea of “The man who does these things will live by them.”

ii)                  It is the idea of “You want God to judge you based on your ability to keep the Old Testament Commandments?  Terrific, just don’t mess up even once as God’s standards are perfection and He doesn’t grade on the curve!” ☺

10.              Verse 6:  But the righteousness that is by 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 deep?' " (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

a)                  Paul does what I am guilty of on a regular basis:  Quoting the bible with my own thoughts added in parenthesis.  The difference is I’m not God-inspired literature. ☺

i)                    Paul quotes Deuteronomy 30:12-13.  In the parenthesis above, Paul adds references to Jesus.  He is stating that this text in Deuteronomy is about Jesus.  I’m betting a few Jewish rabbis might disagree with that, but I’ll save that for another day. ☺

b)                  Let’s discuss the text itself and understand it’s context:

i)                    The context in Deuteronomy is about understanding God’s commands.  When Moses wrote that, he meant in effect, “All of these laws that I’m commanding you to learn, you are capable of understanding.  You don’t have to go up to heaven and ask for clarification.  Neither do you have to travel to great lengths to find special wise men to interpret it for you.  It’s pretty “black and white”.  Just read it and obey it.  If you think you’re violating a law, you probably are.” 

c)                  It might help to give a Jewish rabbi’s understanding the Messiah at this point.  There is a tradition that when the Messiah comes He will give the proper interpretation of the Jewish laws.  There will be no more internal debate.  That would make “sense” as the Messiah would be God-ordained, and therefore, he would have instructions from God on proper interpretation.

i)                    With that in mind, if you study the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus pretty much does that:  He gives an interpretation of God’s commands and says they must be obeyed to the strictest, most extreme interpretation. 

d)                 Remember that Paul believed one can be obedient to God’s commands.  The secret is the power of God working in us to give us the ability to be obedient.  In other words, it’s not through self-discipline, its God working through us.  The underlying theme of the Sermon on the Mount speech is all about turning over different aspects of one’s life to God so He can work through us.  To use another classic Christian cliché: “Let go, let God”.

e)                  This brings us back to the point of these verses:  Obedience to God’s laws.

i)                    Let me bring in Verse 8 at this point and tie Verses 6-8 together.

11.              Verse 8:  But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:

a)                  Remember that Chapter 10 of Romans is about the Jewish nation “post-Jesus” and what it takes to have salvation.  Jewish people believe that salvation is about obedience to God’s laws.  They are “half-right” in that God’s laws are still His requirements for salvation.  They miss the point in that it is impossible to keep those laws under their own power.

b)                  Salvation is about accepting Jesus payment for our sins.  Salvation is also about letting Jesus “take over” our lives.  We sin partially because we tell God at any given moment, “Well yeah, you’re generally in charge of my life, but I want to be in charge of “this” aspect for this moment.  We try to do things in our own power and we fail.

c)                  Which leads us back to Verses 6 and 7:

i)                    When Moses wrote those verses in Deuteronomy, he is saying God’s word is near to you.  You don’t have to travel to heaven or the ends of the earth for interpretation.  Paul is saying in effect that one needs Jesus in our lives in order to have salvation and grow in our relationship with God.  That is why Paul adds in parenthesis references to “finding Jesus” to those Deuteronomy verses.

d)                 The main point of Verses 6 to 8 can be summarized as follows:  We don’t have to travel to heaven or to far out reaches of the world in order to “find Jesus”.  We don’t have to take seminars on “finding your inner-Jesus”.  It is simply a matter of stating one’s belief in Jesus as Lord of one’s life.”  It is when one understands that Jesus is God, Jesus paid the price for our sins and we want to live our lives to serve Him.  We don’t have to travel anywhere to go search out Jesus in order to have salvation.  It is a matter of a true confession based on that knowledge.

12.              Verse 9:  That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

a)                  If I had to pick one verse to memorize in Romans 10, this is it. 

b)                  Notice the last four words:  “you will be saved.”  In other words, if we do whatever “Verse 9” tells us to do, one has eternal salvation.  It must be pretty important stuff. ☺

c)                  Let’s start with the first phrase, “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord,"”.

i)                    Tying this back to Verses 6-8, this phrase is saying we don’t have to travel to great lands or go to any special church in order to “find Jesus” for salvation.  It is a simple matter of confessing Jesus as Lord.

ii)                  The term “confession” means to “agree with”.  It is the idea that we agree with God that what we did was wrong and we desire to act differently.

d)                 It is important to understand the concept of “Lord”.  It is best to think of it as if one is a slave and “lord” is your slave-master.  If you call someone lord, that means you desire to obey all of their commandments. 

i)                    Some English bible translations put the word “LORD” in all caps when the reference is to God himself.  The word “LORD “is a translation of “Jehovah”.

ii)                  When it is someone addressing God, the word “Lord” is put in title case.

iii)                There are occasions where one uses the word “Lord”, but their heart is not in it.  Peter once said, “not so, Lord” (Ref: Acts 10:14). That is a contradiction.  One cannot call someone “Lord” and use the word “no” at the same time.

e)                  Let’s look at something Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

i)                    This is a quote of Matthew 7:21 (NIV).  Jesus is saying that not everyone who calls Him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. 

ii)                  Here in Romans 10:9, Paul says that anyone who does call Jesus “Lord” will be saved.  It is not a contradiction.

iii)                The idea is salvation is not just “head knowledge”.  You can believe Jesus is from God and He died for the sins of the world.  The question then becomes “what do you do with that knowledge?”  If you change your life accordingly, then Jesus is then “Lord” of one’s life.  That is what Jesus meant by the second part of Matthew 7:21 when He says, “but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”.  Jesus is saying salvation is about the desire to do “God’s will”, which is about living in obedience to His commands for our lives.

f)                   This leads us back to Verse 9.  It says, “And believe in your heart”.

i)                    The bible term for “heart” is not a reference to your blood pumping organ.  It is best paraphrased as “all of your inner beings”.  Just as the heart pumps blood to every aspect of your inner being, so your belief in God must cover every aspect of one’s inner soul.  In other words, salvation is not just “head knowledge”; one must believe God is “taking over” their lives in every aspect.

ii)                  There is a classic expression that says, “Many people miss heaven by 18 inches”. 

a)                  That is the rough distance from the brain to the heart.  It is the idea that people understand the concept of Jesus as Lord, but never act upon it.

b)                  That is also the idea of what Jesus meant in Matthew 7:21 that many people who call Jesus “Lord” will not be admitted into heaven.

g)                  The last salvation requirement of Verse 9 says, “that God raised him from the dead”.

i)                    It is one thing to believe that Jesus died for your sins, and assume He is still dead.

ii)                  It is another thing to believe God “accepted” Jesus’ payment by resurrecting Him.

iii)                If we believe we are to be resurrected to eternal life with 100% forgiveness of sins, then we must equally accept Jesus being resurrected as well.

iv)                Further, if we understand Jesus “living in our hearts”, then we must accept an “alive” Jesus and not a “dead” Jesus.

v)                  All of this sounds fundamental to the veteran Christian, but it is a radical concept to the Jewish reader that “God Himself” could become a human, pay the price for sins and then be resurrected as “fully God and fully human”.

h)                 Before we move on, stop and think about what salvation does not require:

i)                    There is no discussion of baptism.  One should be baptized as a visual expression of one’s salvation, but it is not listed as a requirement in Romans 10.

ii)                  There is no discussion on any of the classic “debatable” issues of Christianity.  There is no discussion of “free-will” versus “pre-destiny”.  One’s position on the events of Jesus Second Coming is not discussed.  There is no discussion of membership in any particular Christian denomination.

i)                    The only requirement is to accept Jesus as “perfect” so that a perfect sacrifice was made for sin.  If Jesus is “perfect”, then He is also God.  “God himself” (i.e., Jesus) paid the price for our sins.  For God to be perfectly forgiving and perfectly just, He must pay the price Himself for our sins.  That is part of accepting Jesus as “Lord”.  We accept Jesus’ commandments as being God’s commandments.  We must also accept the fact that Jesus is alive.  We can’t be submissive to a “dead god”.

13.              Verse 10:  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

a)                  In the beginning of the lesson, I talked a little about “free will” and “pre-chosen” by God.  I see these two issues as “two sides of the same coin”.  Let me tie that to Verses 9-10:

i)                    Verse 9 is salvation from our perspective. 

a)                  It is about our confession of Jesus as Lord.

ii)                  Verse 10 is salvation from God’s perspective. 

a)                  It is about how God “justifies us” when we make that confession.

b)                  When we believe in our “heart” (again, it means all of our inner-most being) that Jesus is Lord, we become “justified”.  That means “just-as-if-I-never sinned”.

i)                    The belief is from our perspective.  The justification is from God’s perspective.

c)                  Whenever anything comes out of our mouth, the thought has to come first.

i)                    We think a thought, and then choose to express it verbally.

a)                  Often we don’t think enough before verbally expressing a thought, (i.e., the classic “foot-in-mouth” disease), but that’s another issue.

ii)                  My point here is that if we “think” Jesus is the Lord of our lives, and truly believe it, we would have no problem then verbally expressing it.  The “thought” leads to the verbal expression.

iii)                Paul’s point is that when one confesses it with their mouth, they are saved.

a)                  Again, Verse 9 is from “our perspective”, and Verse 10 is from God’s.

iv)                The point here is that “justification” and “salvation” are a simultaneous and instantaneous thing.  Once we make that realization we are both justified and “saved” for eternity into heaven.

14.              Verse 11:  As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

a)                  This is a quote of Isaiah 28:16.  This verse was also quoted in Romans 9:33.

b)                  Remember what Paul is doing here:  He is writing about the Jewish people and how they “misunderstood” God’s requirement for salvation.

c)                  With this quote, Paul is saying in effect, “Look my fellow Jewish people, it’s not too late.  All it takes is the confession of Jesus as Lord.  God will not punish you for your past unbelief.  In fact, Isaiah 28:16 says you will never be put to shame.”

i)                    “Never” means never.  God will “forgive and forget” all of our past sins.

d)                 As I stated in the last lesson, I take comfort in this concept of “no shame”.

i)                    There is a mistaken view that when we get to heaven, we have to watch a rerun of our lives and somehow, relive our embarrassing moments.  That is a myth with no biblical basis.  Isaiah teaches that those who trust in God will not be put to shame.

ii)                  If God is going to forgive our sins, then He does “just that”.  God will not remind us of our sins, nor shame us.  God’s “forgives and forgets” our sins in heaven.

e)                  Here is an Old Testament verse and a New Testament prediction I’ve tie together:

i)                    Micah said, “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:9 NIV)

ii)                  Revelation says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.”  Revelation 21:1, NIV).

iii)                When people study Revelation, they ponder why God would mention that in a “new heaven and new earth” there would be no more sea.  What would surfers do? ☺ Tying Revelation and Micah together, the word-picture is “God throws our sins in the sea (Micah 7:9) and then throws away the sea (Revelation 21:1).” 

iv)                It is another word picture of the idea that we will never be ashamed for our sins.

15.              Verse 12:  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

a)                  Here comes the radical concept to the religious Jewish person:

i)                    The first line says, “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile”.

ii)                  The religious Jewish person might then ask, “Wait a minute, what about the promises to the Jewish nation?  Are they now null and void?  The answer is no, and that is what Chapter 11 of Romans is all about.

b)                  As I stated a few pages back, God operates an “equal opportunity salvation business”.

i)                    That means there is no discrimination based on religious background, race, life events, amount of sin, etc.

ii)                  Everyone and anyone has the opportunity right now to confess Jesus as Lord of their lives and have eternal salvation.  One does not have to do anything else first or change “things” first.  One’s background is irrelevant.

iii)                It is similar to the American idea of “all men are created equal”.  No one is superior to another in God’s perspective and therefore man’s perspective.

a)                  That does not mean we should live in this socialist world where we all have an equal amount of “stuff”.  The bible also says “don’t steal”.  If we are not allowed to steal, God must condone private ownership.

b)                  The verse is about everyone, regardless of race, stature or whatever having the same opportunity to confess Jesus as Lord of one’s life.

c)                  Notice Verse 13 says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”   This is a quote of Joel 2:32.  “Everyone” is pretty inclusive.

c)                  Let me now compare Verse 12 with the next chapter of Romans:

i)                    Chapter 11, Verse 12 says there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.

a)                  That verse means for the “present time” there is no distinction.

b)                  Yet, Chapter 12 talks about a future day when the Jewish nation is saved. 

c)                  There will be a day when “All Israel” will be saved” (Romans 11:26).

ii)                  My point here is Romans 10 makes no distinction between a Jew and a Gentile.

a)                  Romans 11 does make a distinction between a Jew and a Gentile.

iii)                This would be a contradiction, unless one is talking about different time eras.  It is like saying, “today there is no distinction, tomorrow there will be a distinction”.

iv)                This is why it is important to understand that Romans 9 is about “Israel past”, Romans 10 is about “Israel present” and Romans 11 is “Israel future”.

16.              Verse 14:  How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

a)                  Here is an important principal to understand about salvation.  God works through people to spread the Gospel message.  This is often by prayer for some individual, but it is usually by some person sharing the Gospel message with another person.

b)                  In Verse 14 we have “reverse-time logic”.  This means, “in order to have “c”, first we must have “b”.  In order to have “b”, we must first have “a”. 

i)                    It is the same as “a leads to b” and “b leads to c”, but stated in reverse order.

ii)                  For people to get saved, someone has to tell them about Jesus.  They can’t believe the Gospel message if they never hear it in the first place.

a)                  Therefore (reverse-time logic) a “believer” has to be sent to preach to the unbeliever.

b)                  Therefore (reverse-time logic), some “believer” has to be called by God to go send this message to the unbeliever.

iii)                To restate this in proper chronological order:  A Christian has to be called by God to go preach the gospel message to others so that others will be saved. 

iv)                Paul is giving that simple order of logic, but in reverse order.

c)                  The point of Verses 14-15 is that it is written to the believer as much as the unbeliever.

i)                    “Somebody” needs to go preach the Gospel to nonbelievers, so why not you and me?  You don’t need a burning bush telling us to do this.  Jesus commands that all of us do this.  (Reference:  Matthew 28:19).  I take the view all Christians are missionaries and should preach the Gospel when the opportunity arises.

d)                 Some people have a spiritual gift to preach the Gospel.  I could give the exact same sermon as say, Billy Graham, word for word, with the same emotions.  My results would not be so good.  ☺ When Billy Graham speaks, many people step forward to accept Christ.  The point is God gives some people this gift more than others.  That does not mean the rest of us should not try.  Sharing the gospel with others includes praying for others, getting involved with “outreach programs”, inviting people to church, etc.  Further, it’s not “quantity” that counts.  God may want us to work on an individual or a small group as opposed to a large group.

i)                    Getting back to Paul, he is saying in effect, “Look folks, Christianity is not designed to be an exclusive club.  Now that you’re “in”, it doesn’t mean you can sit on your behind and not help others.  You would not be “in” unless someone else worked on your behalf.  It’s time for you to do the same for others!”

e)                  Verse 15 says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

i)                    This is a quote of Isaiah 52:7.  It does not mean Evangelist have outstanding feet that a podiatrist would admire as special! ☺  It means “special” are the people who make the effort to tell others the good news about Jews.  The “feet” are special in that they are moving to share the gospel with other people.

17.              Verse 16: But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"

a)                  Paul’s point here is that the Old Testament predicted that not all Jewish people would be automatically saved just because they are Jewish.  There is no “automatic ticket” into heaven due to one’s background or family upbringing.

18.              Verse 17:  Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

a)                  In the original text, the words “the message” is not included.  The original Greek reads more like, “faith comes from hearing and hearing is through the word of Christ”.

i)                    With that said, I approve of the NIV translation adding the term “the message”.

ii)                  Without that embellishment, one can think, “All I have to do is hear someone read any part of the bible, and that will increase my faith”.

b)                  Reading Verse 17 in context of Chapter 10, Paul is saying that for someone to be saved, they must hear someone preach the specific Gospel message in order to have the faith that leads to salvation.

i)                    You cannot read Verse 17 and think, “My faith is weak today.  Maybe I should do some bible reading to increase my faith”.  That is taking verse 17 out of context.  The context is salvation.  Bible reading can help one’ faith, but that’s another topic.

c)                  The point of Verse 17 is back to the “reverse-chronological logic” that in order for one to be saved, they first have to hear the Gospel message preached to them.  Then that newly saved person can have faith in God.

d)                 Let me end this discussion on the topic of “hearing” the Gospel message.  This verse indicates there is something special about hearing the Gospel message.

i)                    My wife is a trained audiologist, so I have to get this in. ☺

ii)                  Most Christians do get saved by hearing the Gospel message being preached.

iii)                Most of the world was illiterate at that time.  That may have been a big part of it. 

iv)                Can one read the Gospel message on paper, think about it and get saved?  Yes.  Can God give a special vision about Jesus to someone and they get saved?  Yes.  Can a deaf person comprehend the Gospel message?  Yes.  You can’t put God in a box and limit the methodology of how one actually gets the Gospel message.

v)                  Jesus liked the cliché, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  It is used often in the Gospel messages.  The vast majority of people who get saved did so by hearing the Gospel message preached in one form or another.

19.              Verse 18:  But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:  "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."

a)                  Suppose the Jewish person tells God, “I never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel message in the first place”.

b)                  Paul answers that with Verse 18.  It is a quote of Psalm 19:4.  That verse in Psalm 19:4 is a prediction that the Gospel message would be preached “to the ends of the world”.

c)                  It is important that we understand that prediction in context:

i)                    Paul is not saying that at the time of Jesus, every person in every nation immediately understood the Gospel Message.

ii)                  Remember who Paul is talking about:  The Jewish people.

d)                 Was every adult in Israel aware of Jesus around the time he was there?  I would argue that most were.  The Gospel message, in the first 20-30 years spread real fast in the Roman World.  There is evidence of that in the Book of Acts as well as outside biblical sources.

i)                    Almost all Jewish people during that time era lived within the realms of the Roman Empire.  My point is the prediction of Psalm 19:4 “did” come true in the sense that “the entire Jewish world” was aware of Jesus.

ii)                  A good support of this is in the book of Acts.  When Paul first arrived in Rome, he went to a Jewish synagogue.  The Jewish people in that synagogue wanted to know about Jesus as “word was already out” about Him.  (See Acts 28:22).  My point is a 1st Century Jewish person had no excuse that he didn’t hear about Jesus. 

iii)                Even if a Jew person in that time era “lived in a cave”, they don’t have an excuse in that they should have been going to the Jewish festivals and synagogue attendance.  They “should” have heard about Jesus.

e)                  Let me give the modern application:  There is no excuse for any literate adult today who has access to a public library, a radio, television or a computer.  One can walk into many churches and get a free bible.  The gospel message is preached regularly on radio and television.  One can go on the internet and get the Gospel message.  An adult living in say, the United States or a free country in the Western World has no excuse for not hearing the Gospel message as it is readily available.

20.              Verse 19: Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, "I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding."

a)                  Here we have yet another Old Testament quote.  This one is of Deuteronomy 32:21.

b)                  Remember that Paul is trying to teach how Jewish people “missed” God’s concept of salvation.  He is using their own scriptures to make his points.

c)                  Let me paraphrase the thought of Verse 19 from God’s perspective, “I, God, desperately want individual Jewish people to be saved.  I’ll use any method I can think of, as long as it doesn’t violate free-will and as long as it is not so obvious that people still have to come by faith.  One method that I (God) want to use is jealously.  The Jewish people spent centuries trying to please me, as a nation, based on their efforts to keep the Laws.  They have failed.  To “drive” them to the Gospel message, I’ll let them watch lots of non-Jewish people all around them accept the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” and see if that gets them to wake up to the truth.”

i)                    If you study the Book of Acts, you do get the impression that jealousy was an issue.  Paul was persecuted by religious Jews who didn’t accept the Gospel.

a)                  Again, this is not an excuse to persecute Jews in revenge.  We’ll deal with that more in Chapter 11.

d)                 Whenever I hear the arguments against Jesus as the Messiah, I can “sort of understand” how they believe the Messiah to be a ruling king and not one that dies for their sins.  There is a logic to it, as Jewish people believed they are saved based on “who they are”.

i)                    The one thing that is illogical to me is the following:  One of the predictions about the coming Messiah is that he will be a “light to the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6).

ii)                  You have to admit, after 2,000 years, billions of non-Jewish people have accepted Jesus and accepted the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Are you going to tell me “another” is going to come along, another “Son of David” who is going to do more in terms of being a light to the Gentiles?  That is a reason one has to accept that Jesus is the Messiah.

iii)                Many Jewish people will then argue, “We agree Jesus is the Messiah to the Gentiles, but we are expecting another for the Jewish people”.  My answer is “where does the bible say there is to be more than one Messiah?  Some argue there will be two Messiah’s, but I don’t see that written anywhere in the text.

a)                  There is a classic joke that says when the Messiah comes, the Jewish people will ask, “So, is this your first visit or your second?” ☺

e)                  Getting back to Verse 19, the point is this did come true.  Moses predicts that God will bring “His people” to jealously by saving non-Jewish people. (Ref.: Deut. 32:21)

21.              Verse 20:  And Isaiah boldly says, "I was found by those who did not seek me;  I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me."  21 But concerning Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." 

a)                   Here we have to more bible quotes.  They are from Isaiah 65, Verses 1 and 2.

b)                  Let’s start with the phrase, “And Isaiah boldly says”:  Let’s face it, if you were a Jewish preacher and you were saying to the Israelites in effect, “Look God is going to save a whole bunch of non-Jewish people and not you”, that takes a lot of “hoospa”.  That’s the Yiddish term for boldness.  Isaiah’s message was not popular.  Jewish tradition and some outside biblical sources records that Isaiah was murdered by the Jewish people, mainly for giving an unpopular message.

c)                  To paraphrase Isaiah in these verses, “Here is a future prediction to Israel:  God is going to reveal Himself to a nation that didn’t ask for such revelation.  At the same time, I God have preached through prophets for centuries for repentance to you, and collectively, you have not done it.”

d)                 That prediction started to come true by the time Paul wrote Romans and is still true to this day.  Billions of non-Jewish people have come to accept Jesus and accept a “Jewish God”.  All of us Gentile people didn’t have the Red Sea parted, didn’t have a burnish bush and didn’t have prophets giving us new direct revelations about God that are written in the bible.  Gentile people were given “a lot less” and still got the Gospel message.  Jewish people were given “a lot more” and didn’t get it.

22.              Let me wrap this up with an understanding of a “purpose of modern history”:

a)                  That time frame of this chapter goes from Jesus First Coming to His Second Coming.

b)                  Every aspect of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and Second Coming can be found somewhere in the Old Testament.  My point is Jesus’ life to come was not a secret.

c)                  The only “secret”, from an Old Testament perspective is the Christian church.  Paul describes the church as a “mystery” in Ephesians 5:32.  A mystery in the original Greek refers to something unrevealed up to now. 

d)                 Part of God’s purpose of “spiritually blinding” the Jewish people is to “give the Gentiles a shot at it”.  The “church era”, which is the time between Jesus First and Second Coming is for God to collect a subset of those in heaven that we call Christians.  We are living in a special era of time, “post-Jesus”, where God is seeing how many people, Jewish and non-Jewish alike are willing to accept Jesus payment for sins as basic salvation requirement.  

e)                  During this time era, there is no difference between Jewish people and non-Jewish people in terms of salvation.  That is Paul’s point.  Paul is also about to say that this time era is not permanent.  That is what Chapter 11 is all about, which is the next lesson.

23.              Let’s pray:  Heavenly Father, Help us to read these lessons about the Jewish nation with a sense of compassion.  We pray for those around us who are not saved.  We pray that their hearts may be open to Your truth.  We understand that You desire to work through us to preach the Gospel message.  Give us the boldness and discernment of how and when to preach to others.  Help us to see others as “needing You” and not look down upon others.  Work through us to make a difference for others “one heart at a time”.  We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.