SALVATION FOR WHOMEVER – PART 2 (Romans 10:11-21)
INTRODUCTION:
I remember when the Lord called me by His grace, and I responded in faith to the truth of the Gospel. I was young, possibly 6 or 7, and I was at a good news club that my mom and another lady did in the church my dad pastored in Montana. I do not remember what the lesson was that day, but I remember that at the end my mom gave an invitation for salvation. I knew I was a sinner and that I needed my sins forgiven, did I understand everything about salvation at that point? No, I did not understand that when I put my faith in Jesus Christ that I was immediately made righteous in Him, I did not fully understand that I was saved from God’s wrath and judgment against sin, but I knew I was a sinner and that Jesus Christ died for me, paid the penalty for my sin, was buried and on the third day rose from the dead. By placing my faith in Him my sins were forgiven and I became His child and I received eternal life. From that day forward I began to grow in my faith and understanding. Then one-time during the time I was in Junior High I heard a missionary from Brazil speak and heard the testimony of a Brazilian native who had been led to the Lord by this missionary and was now a pastor. It was while I was listening to that testimony and message that I knew God was calling me into full-time ministry and from then on I knew I would be in full-time ministry during my adult life.
This morning as we look again at Romans 10:11-21 which we began looking at last week and in the first three verses we learned the extent of the Gospel, that there is no distinction, it is for anyone who believes, anyone who calls on the name of the LORD as we learned from Paul’s quote last week from the prophet Joel. This morning as we move on, we will learn that this universal extent of God’s saving grace comes through hearing and believing the truth of the Gospel, salvation comes through faith and that through the hearing of the Gospel. Then Paul discusses the response to the Gospel, and finally the predictions in the Old Testament of the result of Israel’s rejection of salvation by grace through faith. Let’s pray and then get into our passage for this morning.
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles again this morning to Roman 10:11-21. I am going to read the whole passage, but my message will begin in verse 14. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
Romans 10:11-21,
“For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ 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; for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’ However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; ‘Their voice has gone out into all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.’ But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says, ‘I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation, By a nation without understanding will I anger you.’ And Isaiah is very bold and says, ‘I was found by those who did not seek Me, I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.’ But as for Israel He says, ‘All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.’” (Romans 10:11–21, NASB95)[1]
SALVATION BY FAITH BY HEARING (Romans 10:14-15)
Paul begins in verses 14-15 by asking several rhetorical questions concerning how a person comes to faith, anyone, Jew or Gentile. Paul asks, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14–15a, NASB95)[2] Paul shows us the progression that must take place for a person to be able to call upon the Lord and be saved. A person cannot call upon someone whom they have not believed in. A person cannot believe in someone whom they have not heard about. A person cannot hear about someone unless someone tells them about Jesus Christ, and someone cannot tell them about Jesus Christ unless he or she is sent. Do not get hung up on this word preacher, the word in Greek is the word for a herald, someone who announces an official message, heralds were used by the government of the day to relay messages, edicts, etc. from the government to the people. A herald of the Lord Jesus Christ is sent by Him to announce the Gospel to those who have not heard, so that they might believe, so that they might call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.
Our Scripture reading this morning that Daniel read to us said it in a different way, listen again to Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:17–21, NASB95)[3] Here Paul calls us ambassadors, instead of heralds. An ambassador is an official appointed by the ruler of a country to go to another country to represent to that foreign nation the nation from which he or she is from. As citizens of God’s kingdom, we have been appointed to represent Him to the world and to deliver the message of the Gospel to the world, that God through Christ is reconciling men, women, and children to Himself through Christ. How is He doing this? By making Jesus Christ who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we who believe in Jesus Christ by faith might become the righteousness of God in Him. We are sent by God to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world, because God’s offer of grace is universal. Paul uses these terms, ambassador, preacher, herald to describe the very important role that we have on this earth, a role that God has chosen His beloved children to fulfill.
If we were to look at Paul’s words in Romans 10:14-15 in the reverse order it says that if God would not have sent preachers or heralds no one would hear the Gospel and if no one heard then no one would believe and if no believed then no one could call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. What Paul is saying here in these verses is that for saving faith in Jesus Christ to take place it must first be preceded by a clear message which gives understanding of the truth of the Gospel. The whole earth was to be blessed through Abraham and his descendants, the ultimate fulfillment of this was the incarnation, that Jesus Christ was born a descendant of Abraham, but Israel was also to be a witness to the nations of the whole earth. They failed in that mission in the Old Testament. Since the birth of the church, God still sends His heralds to preach the Gospel and to witness throughout the world.
Paul wraps up these two verses by again turning to the pages of the Old Testament, he uses the Scriptures of his people that they so meticulously preserved over the centuries to support his words, again he quotes from Isaiah, this time Isaiah 52:7, Paul writes, “Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’” (Romans 10:15b, NASB95)[4] God calls the feet of His heralds beautiful not because their physical feet are beautiful, but because of the good news of good things that those feet carry to the farthest reaches of the world. This verse in Isaiah 52 was written for the joyous occasion of Israel’s release from years of captivity and bondage in Assyria and Babylon. But Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, uses it here to describe those who carry the greater more wonderous message of release from our bondage and captivity to Satan and sin.
RESPONSE TO THE GOOD NEWS (Romans 10:16-18)
Paul now moves on in this passage to the response of those to whom the heralds proclaim the good news of good things and it changes from a message of rejoicing to a message of sorrow. Paul writes these words to his readers, “However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’” (Romans 10:16, NASB95)[5] This word translated “heed” is a word that in Greek means to listen carefully and obey or submit to what is heard. In other words, Paul is saying that the proclamation of the Gospel, the offer of salvation that goes out to all the world is not obeyed or submitted to by all men. Paul again is giving us that balance between God’s sovereign choice and man’s need to receive God’s offer of grace by faith. For salvation to be produced, in the eternal plan of God, His unmerited grace requires man’s positive response. Built into God’s plan of redemption from the very beginning was man’s obedient faith. We see this truth in a verse that is familiar to most of us, if not all of us, the words of Jesus to Nicodemus is perhaps the most concise statement of the Gospel, “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)[6] Right within this verse is man’s need to respond to God’s offer of grace by faith.
Paul goes on in this verse in Romans 10 to quote again from Isaiah, this time he quotes from Isaiah 53:1. When Isaiah wrote these words, “Lord, who has believed our report?” (Romans 10:16b, NASB95)[7] the report he was speaking of was the contents of Isaiah 53 which contains the suffering and death of our Savior who died as our substitute. Isaiah writes concerning Jesus Christ centuries before it took place, “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5, NASB95)[8] His report was the same as Paul’s Good News that Jesus Christ has died in our place, our sins can be forgiven, and we can have new, eternal life in Christ. That we can be declared righteous before a holy God through faith in Jesus Christ. One response to this message of Good News is that both Jews and Gentiles do not heed the Good News, in other words they do not believe, and they remain in their sin. Going back to John 3, Jesus continued talking to Nicodemus and He made it clear that a person must make a choice. Listen to Jesus’ words, “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. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16–18, NASB95)[9] The choice that we make determines our eternal destiny, either no more condemnation or judgment which is the result of unbelief, of rejection of God’s offer of salvation.
Paul in verse 17 summarizes what he has been teaching in this chapter, and within this summary he gives the other response to the Gospel. He writes, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17, NASB95)[10] Paul says that the second response is faith, faith in what was said about Christ and His death and resurrection. In other words, salvation does not come through some difficult task that has to be performed, it does not come by intuition, it does not come through some mystical experience, or by meditation. Salvation is not found through speculation or in philosophy. Salvation comes by hearing and placing faith in the word of Christ. Paul is saying that this is what is essential in evangelism, we must proclaim the word of Christ, we must faithfully share the Gospel. In other words, the purpose of sharing the Gospel, the purpose of witnessing for Christ is not about using some gimmick or human persuasion to get people to make a confession of faith in Christ. Our role as heralds, as ambassadors, as preachers is to faithfully proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which the Holy Spirit will use to bring conviction and salvation to those who hear and accept the word of Christ. We are to be faithful to deliver the message and leave the results up to the Holy Spirit.
After making this summary of the first 16 verses, Paul then asks another rhetorical question and then answers it. He writes, “But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; ‘Their voice has gone out into all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.’” (Romans 10:18, NASB95)[11] Paul in answer to his question quotes again from the Old Testament, he quotes David from Psalms 19:4. Paul’s point was that even David knew that God’s offer of salvation was universal, he writes that their voice has gone out into all the earth, past tense. David begins this psalm with the following words, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard.” (Psalm 19:1–3, NASB95)[12] Their voice and their words are a reference to God’s revelation of Himself in creation that has gone out into all the earth and has been proclaimed by the heavens to the ends of the earth to all people who have ever lived.
Paul has already emphasized this truth in the first chapter of Romans, he wrote in verses 18-20, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18–20, NASB95)[13] Every person to ever live has both internal and external evidence of God. Paul says that what is known about God is evident within them and God made it evident to them through His creation, it is His natural revelation to man, the evidence is there but those who refuse to trust in Him suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
God’s way of salvation has always been available to all men, Jew or Gentile, at all times. The truth of God is made evident in nature and if you recognize that and seek you will find Jesus Christ. Paul is seeking to show us in these first 18 verses that the gospel is not proclaiming a new religion but is the good news of salvation that God has been proclaiming from the beginning and it is available to all people everywhere. The Jews because of their works-righteousness and their prejudice against all people but Jews led them to reject the Messiah and His offer of salvation by grace through faith to all people. This rejection is what Paul deals with through the remainder of this chapter.
THE PREDICTIONS OF SCRIPTURE (Romans 10:19-21)
Paul begins to wrap up this chapter with another rhetorical questions concerning the Jews and their knowing or not knowing that God plan of redemption was for all people, Jew and Gentile. Paul writes, “But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? (Romans 10:19a, NASB95)[14] Israel was without excuse, they had the Scriptures, they knew God’s promise to Abraham was that the whole earth would be blessed through him and his descendants, they knew that they were to be witnesses to the rest of the nations of the earth. Because they knew these things, they had no excuse for not understanding God’s universal extent of salvation. Because they had no excuse, Paul quotes from the Old Testament again showing that God knew they would reject Him and His plan to bless the Gentiles who believed in Him was predicted in the Old Testament. Paul first quotes from Moses and he writes, “First Moses says, ‘I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation, By a nation without understanding will I anger you.’” (Romans 10:19b, NASB95)[15] This blessing of Gentiles who put their faith in Jesus Christ would make God’s chosen people, Israel, jealous and angry. This prediction by Moses was made about 1500 years before Paul wrote this letter, Moses had declared that the message of salvation was to reach Gentiles as well as Jews.
Paul then quotes again from Isaiah, and he writes that Isaiah was very bold to say the words of the Lord spoken to him. His words would have made the Jews incredibly angry, so he had to be bold. Paul writes, “And Isaiah is very bold and says, ‘I was found by those who did not seek Me, I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.’” (Romans 10:20, NASB95)[16] Paul quotes from the Law by quoting Moses, and now from the prophets by quoting Isaiah covering the two main sections of the Old Testament. Paul in this quote again shows that Israel’s rejection of the Messiah was no surprise to God, Isaiah predicted because Israel rejected Jesus Christ, God would be found by Gentiles who had not looked or searched for Him and God says that He became manifest or was revealed or shown to Gentiles who were not asking for Him. This quote that Paul uses is from Isaiah 65:1 and Paul quotes it from the Greek Old Testament, but he does not stop with verse 1, but goes on to quote verse 2 which concerns Israel who ignored God’s Word and sought righteousness by their own way and by their own terms and standard. The Lord said through Isaiah, “But as for Israel He says, ‘All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.’” (Romans 10:21, NASB95)[17] God has lovingly and mercifully stretched out His arms in grace and mercy calling His people to Himself, and they have throughout their history been disobedient and obstinate. This word translated obstinate means to contradict, or oppose, and disobedient means to not be persuaded to believe, or not believe. This has been Israel throughout her history, she has opposed, or contradicted God’s truth given to her and has not believed in His offer of salvation by grace through faith even though He has lovingly and patiently called her.
But the history of this nation is not finished yet, and in three weeks as we move into chapter 11, we will see what God has planned for the people of Israel. But this chapter ends on a sad note, because the Jews did not recognize their Messiah, because they refused to believe, in doing so they rejected God, they rejected Jesus Christ, and they rejected saving faith because of their self-righteousness, and they did not understand the universal extent of salvation because of their proud prejudice. This is tragic, but God is not finished with Israel yet, they have a future.
CONCLUSION:
Why did I share my testimony at the beginning of this message? Because I am one of the Gentiles who has received the blessing of salvation because someone shared the truth of the Gospel with me and I responded in faith. Not only that, but God called me into full-time service for Him, not because I some special person, not because I’m famous, not because I have some gimmick, or I am good at persuading people to turn to Christ. He called me because I am His child and He has chosen me to be in this place at this time. He could have used me in a secular job as well, but that was not His purpose for my life. What I am saying is that we each are placed by God where we are so that He can fulfill His purpose in our lives and so that we can share the Gospel with those in our circle. This is the role of every believer, to be a herald, a preacher, an ambassador for Christ, so that others who have not believed can hear the word of Christ and can call upon the Lord and be saved. Salvation is available to all people, even a wretch like me. “Amazing grace! how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”[18]
[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. (emphasis added)
[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]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[14]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[15]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[16]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[17]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[18]Webb, Philip, editor, Hymns of Grace. Los Angeles, CA: The Master’s Seminary Press, 2015.