Last week I was excited about the opportunity I had to watch
the Wimbledon men’s final match with my good friend Micky who recorded it
during morning worship. One of the many things I love about this particular tennis
tournament is all of the pomp and circumstance and all of the special
presentations that highlight traditions and contribute to the wonder of
this competition (i.e. the long walk from the locker room to the court, the seating
of the royals in their box, the dramatic reactions from the friends and family
on the sideline, etc.). All of these work to convey something of the severity and
significance of what is transpiring on the court. Romans behaves in much the
same way for Paul’s original audience. In Romans, Paul makes presentation after
presentation in this grand theological treatise, each with its own
significance, message, and hype. Our passage for today is no different. In
Romans 10:11-15, Paul gives TWO presentations concerning the scope and spread
of the gospel that will leave us encouraged and challenged to couple our
praying and our caring with sharing the best news of all with those around us.
a) PRESENTATION #1: Compendium of Salvation
Candidates-10:11-13
After explaining HOW people are saved (Romans 10:9-10), he
moves on to catalog the candidates for salvation, thereby answering “who can
execute this procedure and have salvation applied to them?” Paul argued in
verses 9-10 that those who confess “Jesus is Lord” and “believe in their hearts
that God raised Him from the dead” will be saved. With only this to go on, it
would seem that salvation is open to anyone who follows this process in faith.
Paul verifies this in verse 11 with an Old Testament proof text—“For the
Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed,…” (10:11).
This quote from Isaiah 28:16 was also used by Paul in Romans 9:33. There, Paul
was referring to the stumbling stone of offense and claimed that anyone who
dares to believe in the rock that is Christ will not be disappointed. Here,
Paul applies the same quote to the potential scope of salvation and adds a word
to the Isaiah reference to this end “pax”
(everyone/whoever). Neither the LXX nor the MT of Isaiah 28:16 contains this
verbiage, meaning that it is from Paul. Progressive revelation, under the control
of the Holy Spirit has determined that it is appropriate to reveal here that
“Whoever believes in Him (and follows the process indicated in vv. 9-10) will
not be disappointed.”
There is another important comment to make here concerning
the connotation of the verb “disappointed.” This word implies shame. Here, Paul
says that believers are not ashamed. A lack of shame and embarrassment can be
promised to believers because Jesus took on the shame of sin on their behalf.
Even further, Jesus overwhelmed the shame of His humiliating death by means of
the empty tomb. Shame is no longer possible for those who place their trust in
Christ! This is why Paul says earlier in
Romans “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that
brings salvation to everyone who believes…” (1:16). Though, to be sure, a
psychological benefit is possible for the believer given what Christ has
already done, what is also true because of the empty tomb is a future
vindication at the final judgment. Those who put their faith in Jesus as the
resurrected Lord know present freedom from the shame that sin creates AND
future victory from the condemnation to which sin inevitably leads on the Day
of Judgment (Schreiner, Romans, 561).
In both 1:16 and 10:11, there appears to be universal
efficiency inherent within the scope of the gospel. In other words, everyone is
able to know the freedom of shame and sin by trusting in Jesus.
Just to be sure he was clear, Paul reframes his point in
terms of ethnicity and heritage in verse 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,…” (10:12). Paul probably believed that this had to be
said given the unusually acute Jewish pride among many in his audience. Here,
Paul reminds the Jews that Jesus is the God of all people. As such, He can
provide salvation to anyone who believes.
Romans 2:11-“For there is no partiality with God.”
Romans 2:28-29-“A person is not a Jew who is one only
outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a
Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the
Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person's praise is not from other
people, but from God.”
After all…
Romans 3:22-23-“This righteousness is given through
faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew
and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,…”
And
Romans 3:29-30-“…is God the God of Jews only? Is he
not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God,
who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that
same faith.”
These verses and many others indicate what Paul says in
verse 12—“the same Lord is Lord of all (that is all people), abounding in
riches for all who call on Him…”. His grace exists in superabundance—it is not
limited to one people group or tradition. All who call on Him, Jew or Gentile,
can experience His benefits.
To drive the point home, Paul picks up the same word he
introduced in verse 11 (pax/whoever)
and borrows “call” in verse 12 to say the following in verse 13—“whoever calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved.” (10:13). There is a beautiful parallelism that exists between
verses 11-13 and verse 9-10. In 9-10, one was encouraged to “confess” and
“believe” to be saved for “belief” results in righteousness and “confession”
leads to “salvation.” Here, in verses 11 and 13, we have Paul explaining the
scope of salvation with similar themes. In verse 11 Paul says “whoever believes
in Him will not be disappointed” and in verse 13 he reveals “‘whoever calls on
the name of the Lord will be saved,’”. Therefore ANYONE who believes and
confesses, trusts and professes, will be saved. This means that our mission to
SHOW Christ and the calling to Share with others is as broad as can be. We are
to share and show Christ to all!
b) PRESENTATION #2: The Process of
Receiving the Gospel-10:14-15
After arguing that everyone regardless of background or
ethnicity is a potential candidate for salvation, Paul gives a presentation of
the process by which the gospel message is transferred to these candidates.
This presentation is given in reverse order, beginning with the terminus and
moving back to the inception (i.e. describing how the process concludes and
then providing the logical depiction of the steps that lead to that end). What
is communicated in these verses is equally applicable to both the Jews and the
Gentiles as these steps of the chain must be realized if ANYONE is going to
call on the Lord and be saved (Schreiner, Romans,
567).
The last two links of the chain described (offered first by Paul)
take people from belief to confession. Paul asks “How then will they call on
Him in whom they have not believed?” (10:14a). This is the first in a series of
rhetorical questions that all demand the same answer—“They can’t!” or “They
wouldn’t!” Paul’s point is this: how will people confess Jesus is Lord if they
do not believe this in their hearts first? After all, “out of the heart the
mouth speaks.”
Here, confession is more than just a trivial statement made
on a whim; it is a pledge of allegiance to the proposition that Jesus is Lord
and to the person of Christ who is God made flesh. Such confession cannot be
made from a heart that does not believe in Jesus first.
Next, Paul wonders ‘how will they believe in Him whom they
have not heard?...” (10:14b). As Paul will say a bit later “faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of God” (10:17). However, this “word” or the
contents of what is heard is what is supremely important. The message that must
be heard is the word about Christ—His deity, death, and resurrection. In fact,
the idea of “hearing” ‘can refer both to the act of hearing and to the message
that is preached (as in the case of a judge awarding someone a
hearing).Therefore, belief is dependent on the quality of the message going
forth –a robust gospel message—and the apprehension of that message—hearing and
receiving it. One cannot expect that people will believe in the gospel if they
have not heard that gospel.
This also means that general revelation is not enough to
save. In fact, in Romans 1, Paul was very cynical about the capacity for
general relation to move anyone in God’s direction—"he does not
contemplate the possibility that people will be saved by responding positively
to natural revelation” at all (see Romans 1:18-32) (Schreiner, Romans, 567). Rather than be turned on
to God, the lost who see God’s general revelation are prone to idolatry.
This is why what Paul says in Romans 10 is so important.
People cannot believe the gospel rightly if they are not made aware of God’s
special revelation as found in Jesus Christ and witnessed in His completed
work!
Paul continues his presentation of how the gospel is
received in the last part of verse 14 when he says “and how will they hear
without a preacher?...” (10:14c). Taken with 1:18-32, it is reasonable to
conclude that people are not typically saved apart from the proclamation of the
gospel. Though there are exceptions, the ordinary means of salvation involves
the preaching of the Word. Calvin puts it this way, ”The gospel does not fall
from the clouds like rain, by accident, but it brought by the hands of men to
where God has sent it.” (Calvin, The
Epistle, 231).
This ought to provide a sense for why the church ought to be
so passionate about local, regional, and global missions. We cannot expect
people to respond to a gospel that they have not heard and we cannot expect
people to hear it when people are not preaching. This is just as true for that
neighbor down the street as it is for the pigmy in Papa New Guinea. In fact,
both are just as lost and in increasing numbers both are just as ignorant of
the gospel. Gone are the days in our country where we can assume that the
majority of people have an awareness of Judeo-Christian values, let alone Bible
stories, let alone the person and work of Jesus and its corresponding
implications. Unfortunately, instead of hearing the truth proclaimed by
faithful followers who know the gospel inside and out, the vast population is
being told what to believe about Jesus from the history channel, mainstream
media, and/or television personalities with no business behind the pulpit!
Paul understood this in the first century. In Rome,
Christianity was an infant movement in a brave new world. In his day, people
didn’t know about Jesus because He was a new phenomenon and word had not yet
spread about His ministry and accomplishments. In the brave new world that is
21st century America, people don’t know about Jesus because He is
“old news” and people could care less! Both contexts require preachers armed
with the truth to share that truth in compelling ways so that people hear it,
believe it, and confess it. However, Paul asks “How will they preach unless
they are sent?” (10:15a).
A missionary does no good if he/she doesn’t make it to the
mission field. Your witness and my witness will not be used if we fail to take
that walk down the street, make that call to that loved one, or write that
letter.
Imagine a church that was content with meeting, singing,
praying, preaching, teaching, and very little else. This would be akin to a the
men’s tennis finals competitors entering the court for the coin toss, warming up,
only to then remain seated on their sideline chairs waiting for something to
happen! Both scenarios are ridiculous!
This first step, shared last by Paul, is the step that so
many forget about—being sent. Just as Jesus was sent and then sent the twelve
to share his message so too are we to be sent in our respective worlds to
accomplish our role of preaching the truth of gospel in whatever ways make
sense for each of us. Then, and only then, can the gospel be received by those
who will embrace it.
In a celebration of this crucial first step Paul writes “how
beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!...”
(10:15). This statement is adapted from Isaiah 52:7 in which heralds were
celebrated for having spread the news that the return from exile was at
hand. There, salvation for the Jewish
people involved returning to the land of promise. Applied to Romans 10,
salvation for all people involves hearing, receiving, believing, and confessing
the preached gospel. How wonderful are the feet of those who share this gospel!
So What?
In this passage Paul gives two important presentations—a
presentation of potential salvation candidates and a presentation of how the
gospel is received by these candidates. In so doing, Paul has provided
reassurance and a challenge. First, people everywhere can be reassured that God
does not play favorites when it comes to those who are saved. All have sinned
and are, without distinction, in need of salvation. Similarly, people
everywhere, no matter what they look like or what tribe they come from, can
receive the grace of God that is found in the gospel. However, we also learn
that for people to receive the grace of salvation people have to be sent to
preach the truth. This truth must be heard, believed, and confessed thereafter.
This requires that the gospel be shared by those who have already been
transformed by it—that means you and me! This ought to propel us from our seats
and into our mission field. As those who have been guided through this process
ourselves by the grace of God, we are called to be God’s instruments through
which the gospel enters our world and is proclaimed to those around us. Now that
we know our mission, to know Christ, grow in Christ, and show Christ and the
first components of our strategy (to be a people of prayer and good care for
others), it is high time that we share the best news of all—the only news that
saves—with those God has placed around us!
No comments:
Post a Comment