Righteousness by Faith - Romans 10:8-10
INTRODUCTION:
Last Sunday we began looking at the second section of Romans 10, actually it was just a continuation of the first three verses that declared the ignorance of the Jews who had rejected the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah, Lord and Savior. First, they were ignorant about God’s righteousness and their own unrighteousness. Over several centuries leading up to the time of Jesus the scribes and teachers of the Law had through their writings and teaching lowered the standard of God’s righteousness found in the Law. The Jews were no longer trying to obey and follow the Law of Moses, but instead they sought to obey and follow rabbinical tradition which could be followed without faith and gave them a self-righteousness that they thought was acceptable to God. They did not understand the truly perfect righteousness of God that was required by God to be accepted by Him, nor did they understand how unrighteous their own self-righteousness was in God’s sight when compared to His perfect righteousness. Because they believed themselves to be righteous before God, they were also ignorant of God’s provision of perfect righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. They saw no need for a Savior and Lord to provide them with righteousness believing they were already righteous and they saw no need for a righteousness by faith since they believed their righteousness was by works, external works of the law, procured by human effort. Paul, whose heart’s desire and prayer for his kinsmen according to the flesh, the Jews, was their salvation, and in the hope of reaching them in this passage that we looked at last week he contrasted works-righteousness with righteousness by faith. We read a quote by John MacArthur that summarized Paul’s teaching on works-righteousness, the truth that he was trying to get across to the unbelieving Jews. First, the person who seeks or pursues righteousness by obedience to the law will be judged on the basis of their effort. Second, no one can keep all of the law. Third, works-righteousness will fail and result in eternal damnation in the lake of fire separated forever from God and from His grace and His mercy. Paul then began to teach the truth of righteousness by faith and he began with some quotes from the law to show us that righteousness by faith is not something we must pursue, it does not require us to do some impossible task to acquire the righteousness that is in Christ by faith. Everything has already been done for us, it is even God who calls us to Himself and His Spirit who convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. In verses 8-10 Paul teaches us the truth that righteousness is available to us simply by faith in Jesus Christ. I barely touched on this last week, so this is where we will pick up this morning, looking at the righteousness that is by faith in Jesus Christ. Let’s pray and then look at our verses for this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles again this morning to Romans 10:8-10, I am backing up one verse to pick up the context, As I just mentioned, in the verses just prior to these, Paul had written about what righteousness by faith is not, what it does not say, in verse 8 he begins writing about what it is, what it does say. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Romans 10:8-10,
“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, 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; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” (Romans 10:8–10, NASB95)[1]
CONFESSION AND FAITH (Romans 10:8-9)
Paul begins verse 8 after telling us in verses 6-7 what righteousness by faith is not, what it does not say to us by asking the question, “But what does it say?” (Romans 10:8a, NASB95)[2] What does God’s Word say to us about righteousness by faith? Then quoting again from the law of Moses, from Deuteronomy 30:14, Paul writes, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” (Romans 10:8b, NASB95)[3] Just as God’s Word was near the Israelites before they crossed into the land of Canaan to possess it, Moses had just given them the Word that they were to love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul, in other words, they were to put their faith in Him completely. Paul says, God’s Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, it is all around you, it is the word of faith that we have preached to you. They had it, it was available to them, just like it was available to the Jews of Moses day. Paul then building off of this verse quoted from Deuteronomy writes how it is in our mouth and in our heart and it has to do with salvation and righteousness by faith. Paul from verse one of this chapter has been building up to this point, to the way to be saved and to secure the righteousness God requires for us to be acceptable to Him, for Paul this truth is the supreme need of sinful mankind to be made righteous in the perfect righteousness of God and to be saved from God’s wrath and judgment against sin. Paul writes, “…the word of faith which we are preaching, 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 10:8c-9, NASB95)[4] He writes that it is in your mouth through confession that Jesus is Lord and it is in your heart through belief or faith that God raised Him from the dead. Through confession and faith, Paul writes, you will be saved.
THE TWO ESSENTIALS OF SALVATION (Romans 10:9)
Sadly, there is a lot of confusion in the church today about God’s way of salvation, in verse 9 Paul gives us the two essentials of salvation, what is necessary for us to be declared righteous before God. First, Paul writes that we must confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord and second, we must believe with our heart that God raised Him from the dead.
What does Paul mean when he writes that we must confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord? Many believe that we must acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is the Lord of the universe, and while this is true about the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that Paul means something more here, I believe Paul is saying that this confession is a confession that Jesus Christ is your Lord, the One in whom you trust for salvation and because He is your Lord you will submit to Him as the sovereign Lord over your life. This confession is where we agree with God that we are sinners, that we are helpless to save ourselves, to make ourselves righteous. We have failed at being lord of our own life and we need Jesus Christ as Lord of our life. As we grow in our faith, I believe this confession of Jesus as Lord becomes more clear as we learn to trust Him in any circumstance and in every situation that we find ourselves in. It is by the Holy Spirit that we confess Jesus as Lord. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus is accursed’; and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3, NASB95)[5] When by God’s grace the Holy Spirit brings faith and salvation into the life of a sinner, that sinner proclaims the lordship of Christ. We as sinners saved by grace have the privilege now of confessing Jesus as Lord, Paul wrote in Philippians 2:8-11, “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:8–11, NASB95)[6] One day all will confess Jesus is Lord, as those who trust Him now, we confess Him as Lord of our life.
Paul goes on in verse 9 to say that not only must we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord, but we must believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. This truth is the second truth that must be believed to be saved. Wrapped up into this truth is all that is true about Jesus, that He is more than just a mere man, the incarnation is true, Jesus Christ was born of a virgin who supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is God in human flesh who lived a sinless life being tempted in every way like we are tempted, but never giving in, never sinning. He was arrested, falsely tried, and then went to the cross on our behalf, He died on the cross as our substitute, His death paying the penalty for our sin. The truth that God raised Him from the dead is the proof that all that Jesus Christ did was in obedience to God the Father and His resurrection was the divine approval of God the Father that Jesus Christ was who He claimed to be. His resurrection was the proof that God’s wrath was satisfied, that the penalty for sin had been paid in full. Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead demonstrated that He was eternally victorious over sin, death, and Satan. We must believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead because it is the proof that His death accomplished our salvation. When we believe that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead we are identifying with Christ’s death on our behalf, as the Sinless One who purchased our redemption on the cross, and rose to share His eternal life with those to whom He is Lord and Savior. The resurrection was necessary otherwise sin and death would have won and mankind would have no hope of ever being saved from God’s wrath or being made perfectly righteous before God. Paul said as much to the church in Corinth, that without the resurrection there would be no salvation. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:13-17, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:13–17, NASB95)[7] Praise God that the dead are raised, and Christ was raised as the first fruits from the dead guaranteeing a future resurrection for all those who believe in Him.
Verse 9 of Romans 10 is Paul’s personal invitation to believe, it is addressed to the reader, “…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 10:9, NASB95)[8] As we move into verse 10 Paul is presenting gospel truth concerning people in general.
FAITH AND CONFESSION (Romans 10:10)
As we move into verse 10 you should immediately notice that Paul reverses the order here from what it was in verse 9. Verse 9 was following the order of the quote in verse 8 from Deuteronomy 30:14. In verse 10 Paul gives us the chronological order of salvation. First, a person believes with his heart, resulting in righteousness. Second, with the mouth a person confesses, resulting in salvation.
Paul in this chapter and in many other places that we have been through in this book has been contrasting false righteousness with true righteousness. False righteousness is based on the law and human effort and is impossible for man to achieve. True righteousness is the perfect righteousness of Christ which He imparts to those who trust in Him by faith. In verse 10, Paul connects righteousness and salvation which is especially important because it is only the person who is righteous before God who is truly saved.
Paul’s focus on these two truths, righteousness, and salvation, give us both the positive and the negative sides of God’s gracious plan of redemption. On the positive side we have God’s perfect righteousness which He in His grace imputes and imparts to the person who in faith trusts in His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The person who puts his faith in Jesus Christ is immediately declared righteous (which is justification) and made righteous in Christ (which is called regeneration), we are made new in Christ, we are righteous in Christ and declared righteous before God the Father. Paul proclaimed this truth in his life in Philippians 3:8-9, he wrote, “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,” (Philippians 3:8–9, NASB95)[9]
The negative side of God’s plan of redemption is salvation or God’s gracious deliverance of a person from the sin that separates a sinner from holy God. John MacArthur writes, “Righteousness has to do with what we become, and salvation has to do with what we escape. The first [righteousness] has to do with the eternal life we receive but do not deserve, the second [salvation] with the eternal punishment we deserve but do not receive. The first relates to entering into blessedness, the second relates to escaping cursedness.”[10] Righteousness is who we become in Christ, salvation is what we escape in Christ. Righteousness in Christ is an act of grace, salvation in Christ from God’s wrath is an act of mercy.
Often, sadly, these two truths are out of balance when the gospel is presented or when we are witnessing. I am guilty of this myself. When we lean heavily on deliverance from sin and hell, then the gracious imparting of God’s perfect righteousness on believers is minimized. Those who have been often asked by Christians if they are saved, might be willing to listen if we asked instead if they have been made holy in Christ. At the same time, however, we must not focus solely on God’s love and grace so that we exclude the need of salvation from sin and its judgment. To do either of these to the exclusion of the other is to cheapen the gospel.
Faith in Christ’s lordship and His resurrection both begin in the heart. It is in the heart that man decides his eternal destiny. As we believe with the heart that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead, the result is righteousness, we are given God’s perfect righteousness in Christ and we are declared righteous because of faith, just as Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, so we believe God and it is credited to us as righteousness. Abraham was looking forward to the promised Lord and Savior who would become his substitute and the pay the penalty for his sin, we are looking back at the promised fulfilled when Jesus Christ came to this earth and became our perfect substitute for sin. We were both believing in God’s promise and it was credited to us as righteousness. The natural outcome of our faith and our being declared righteous is confession. The word translated “confess” means “to say the same thing as another, to agree with.” When we confess Jesus is Lord, we are agreeing with God concerning what He has told us about His Son, when this agreement is mixed with trust it results in salvation. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NASB95)[11]
CONCLUSION:
To know that Jesus Christ died for us, that He who knew no sin, the One who had lived a sinless life, a perfectly righteous life, became sin for us. All our sin was imputed to Him, He became our substitute on the cross, suffering God’s wrath against sin, and paying the penalty of sin with His death. To know that our sins are forgiven by Christ’s sacrifice is wonderful and it carries with it the promise of eternal life, the escape from death and God’s wrath and judgment against sin. But it is not salvation that makes us right before God, it is Christ’s righteousness imputed and imparted to us so that we become the righteousness of God in Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is what makes us right before God, Christ living out His righteousness, His perfect righteousness in us who have put our faith in Him believing that God raised Him from the dead and believing through confession that Jesus is Lord. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the wonder of salvation is not what we have been saved from, but what we have become in the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect righteousness of God. I heard a quote this week from a 20th century evangelist by the name Major Ian Thomas, he said, “The life that [Jesus Christ] lived qualified Him for the death that He died, and the death that He died qualifies us to live the life that He lived.”[12] Christ living out His perfect righteousness in us through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Let the truth of that statement sink into your heart this morning, you are by faith in Jesus Christ the righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[10]MacArthur, John, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Romans 9-16. Chicago, IL : Moody Publishers, 1994
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[12]Thomas, Major Ian, Christ in You, The Hope of Glory. YouTube.com/watch?v=mVyJj993YsU