SALVATION FOR WHOMEVER - Part 1 (Romans 10:11-21)
INTRODUCTION:
This morning I will begin final part of chapter 10, it is 11 verses so we will see how far we get, I may have to finish it up next week. Two weeks ago, we looked at the high point of this chapter where Paul gave an invitation to come to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith and receive His righteousness as your own and salvation from the wrath and judgment of God against sin. Paul gave two conditions, believing in your heart that God had raised Jesus Christ from the dead, resulting in righteousness and confessing with your mouth the lordship of Jesus Christ, resulting in salvation. I told you that both the faith and the confession begin in the heart, it is in the heart that man decides his eternal destiny.
After giving to us the way of salvation, the means of becoming righteous before God with His righteousness, the perfect righteousness that He requires for us to be declared righteous before Him. It is only when we become righteous in Christ with His perfect righteousness that we can be saved from God’s wrath and judgment against sin. Paul then goes on in this chapter to give us the extent of salvation, for whom is it available? Then he speaks of how the message of salvation is declared, and what is the response to the message, and then he closes the chapter by looking at some predictions concerning Israel in regard to the Gospel, what was said concerning their response to the Gospel message centuries before Jesus Christ was born. Let’s pray and then get into our passage for this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Romans 10:11-21, we will at least begin this passage this morning. Please, if you are able stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word, these words are the very words of God written to us by the apostle Paul, follow along as I read.
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 MAKES NO DISTINCTINON (Romans 10:11-13)
Paul begins this section, after having given us the way of salvation in verses 9-10, by giving us the extent of salvation. Most Jews did not like and rejected the idea of God’s grace extended to Gentiles. As Paul already pointed out in this chapter, they were ignorant of the extent of God’s gracious provision of redemption through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they were ignorant of what the Law and the prophets said concerning salvation. They believed that because they were God’s specially chosen people, that they were also His only saved people. So, in the same way that they rejected Jesus and His teaching of salvation by grace through faith, they also rejected Paul and his teaching and opposed anyone who taught that salvation was by grace through faith to anyone who believed. But this teaching by Paul and previously by Jesus was not something new. The offer of salvation by grace through faith was not brought about by Christ’s death and resurrection, His death and resurrection was the means of salvation by grace through faith, but salvation and righteousness was always received by faith, either looking ahead to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ or looking back at it as a finished act. Paul had already declared this in chapter nine, but he repeats it here quoting from Isaiah 28:16, “For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’” (Romans 10:11, NASB95)[2] This message of salvation had always been available to anyone who believes, God had always been calling to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. The Jews, as a nation were to be God’s witness to the rest of the world, they were called to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation and they were to preach salvation in the one and only true God to the whole earth.
Paul had already made known the truth that the Old Testament Scriptures testified to salvation by faith in chapter 3, verses 21-23 where he wrote, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:21–23, NIV84)[3] That was from the New International Version, I felt the wording was a little easier to understand then the New American Standard. Paul is declaring in these verses and in our passage this morning that salvation through faith in Jesus Christ for anyone, whoever believes, has been God’s plan of redemption from the beginning. God’s Word from beginning to end speaks of His goal of redemption which includes His gracious and loving desire that as Peter says in 2 Peter 3:9 God “…not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9b, NASB95)[4] This truth is the balance to the importance that Paul has placed on the sovereignty of God in this book. These two truths seem to contradict each other in our finite minds, but in the infinite mind of God, His sovereign choice of every person who will be saved is in complete harmony with His promise that “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” (Romans 10:11b, NASB95)[5] This was not something new, but both the Old and the New Testaments clearly teach that salvation is available and is granted only to those who in faith trust in God and the redemption that He offers to all through His grace, Jew or Gentile. No one who comes to Him by faith will be disappointed by the salvation that He offers by His grace and universally offers to anyone who believes. In other words, the obstacle to salvation has nothing to do with race or culture the obstacle to salvation is personal rejection of the God who graciously offers it to you. Why do people, Jews and Gentiles, die in their sin? Because they refuse to believe in the truth of the Gospel. The Jews because of their pride and self-righteousness in believing they are acceptable to God because of their ancestry and their works righteousness failed to be the heralds to the rest of the world because they believed that they were God’s chosen people and no one else. The greatest example of this religious and racial pride and the Jews unwillingness to share the Good News of God is seen in the little book of Jonah. God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, a Gentile city, and warn them of impending judgment for their wickedness. Jonah did not want to go and went in the opposite way boarding a ship for Tarshish. We all know what happened, Jonah got swallowed by a great fish who later vomited him up on dry land and Jonah reluctantly obey God and went to Nineveh with God’s warning of judgment. Jonah’s concern in going and preaching in Nineveh was not that his message of judgment would fail and have no effect, but the opposite that it would succeed and God would relent from the judgment and spare the Assyrians whom Jonah and his fellow Israelites hated. What he feared happened and the Assyrians from the king down to the lowest slave repented in sackcloth and ashes. Jonah prayed to the Lord in Jonah 4:1-2, “But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.’” (Jonah 4:1–3, NASB95)[6] Did the Jews learn from this, that God loves all mankind as demonstrated in this event that the power of salvation is in God and His proclaimed Word, not in the prophet who proclaimed it reluctantly. God used this reluctant prophet to preach one message and the entire city repented. God’s reply to Jonah from Jonah 4:11, “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” (Jonah 4:11, NASB95)[7] God’s compassion and love is not just for the Jews, but for all mankind.
Paul goes on in Romans 10 to speak concerning salvation being for all as shown in the history lesson of Jonah, Paul writes, “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;” (Romans 10:12, NASB95)[8] These are humbling words for those who thought they were superior to all others when it comes to salvation. This verse could also be translated that there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Greek became in Paul’s day a generic term for all in the known world who were not Jewish. Paul declared this same message to the church in Galatia expanding on it even further, he wrote in Galatians 3:28-29, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:28–29, NASB95)[9] Not only did Paul say that there is no distinction, and all are one in Christ Jesus, but went on to say that believing Gentiles are Abraham’s descendants and heirs to the promise. There is no distinction, no difference between Jew and Gentile when it comes to salvation by faith, we are all sinners in need of grace.
Paul goes on in Romans 10:12 to say that the same Lord is Lord of all, the same Lord who called Abraham and told him to go to a place that He would show him, and promised to bless him and make him a blessing to the whole world, this same Lord is Lord of all who believe in Him. Why did the Jews not recognize their Messiah? Because they were looking for a deliverer from their physical enemies, not a Savior from sin, and because Jesus did not deliver them from Rome, they rejected Him as their Messiah and Savior and Lord.
Not only does Paul declare that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all, but that He is abounding in riches for all who call on Him. Gentile believers have equal blessings from God as well as equal salvation. His riches abound to Jew and Gentile alike, and just as God sovereignly calls all believers to Himself, all must call upon Him in faith to activate those riches, including His righteousness imputed and imparted to us.
Paul ends this section by again making clear the universal call of God to all mankind by again quoting from the Old Testament, from another prophet, Paul quotes the prophet Joel in which Joel in chapter 2, verse 32 proclaims to Israel again the reach of saving grace to all when he said, “for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (Romans 10:13, NASB95)[10] This phrase to “call upon the name of the Lord” is a phrase used in the Old Testament in reference to right worship of the true God. It spoke of adoration, praise, lifting up God’s majesty, righteousness, and power. In the Old Testament we often see the word translated LORD in all capitalized letters, when we see this it is the covenant name of God, transliterated it is Yahweh or Jehovah. So when Joel or the psalmists or other prophets said to call upon the name of the Lord, this was not a declaration to call upon just any god of your choosing, but to call on the one and only true God, the Creator and Sovereign Lord of all men and all things. This is the Lord we are confessing when as Paul said in verse 9, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your hearts that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. When you call upon the name of Jesus Christ as Lord you recognize and submit to the truth that He is God, you recognize and submit to His authority, His sovereignty, His power, His majesty, His Word, and His grace. And to whom is this salvation offered? It is for anyone, Jew or Gentile, slave or free man, male or female, child or adult, for anyone who will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
CONCLUSION:
I got threw the first three verses of these eleven verses, but I am going to stop here this morning and we will come back to the rest of these verses next week. Paul wants it to be abundantly clear to us that salvation is for all people, that the gospel must be shared with all people. That is what we will be talking about next week. There is no difference if you are a Gentile or a Jew, as Paul wrote, we are all sinners, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that all is all-inclusive, no one can escape being part of that all, there is none righteous, not even one. This means that we are all in need of a Savior, we are all in need of the Lord to save us. Paul says that salvation and God’s call of salvation is universal, it goes out to all men, women and children regardless of the color of their skin, their status in society, or their cultural background, if they call upon the name of the Lord in faith they will be saved.
I do not do this often, but I am going to make this offer to you this morning, I am going to invite you to call upon the name of the Lord, it is something that must begin in your heart, you must believe in faith that Jesus truly is who He claimed to be and you must believe and recognize that He is Lord and that God truly raised Him from the dead. Then in faith you confess to God that Jesus Christ is your Lord, that you want Him to be Lord of your life to know that Christ living in you is the only way you can have your sins forgiven and be declared righteous in Christ. This must begin in your heart, maybe you have gone to church your whole life and you know that you are a sinner and you know that Christ died for your sins, but you have never taken that final step of confessing Him as Lord of your life. You can do that today in the quietness of your own heart, recognize and submit to His authority, His sovereignty, His power, His majesty, His Word, and His grace. Confess Him as Lord in faith.
[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]The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984.
[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]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.