Chapter 10
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 5 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
The Doctrine of Righteousness:
1 This goes on to show that the context of chapter nine was dealing with ‘national election’ but not ‘spiritual election’ unto salvation. It is important to pray for ‘your people’ or your nation for salvation.
2 So many millions of people are zealous, sincere, about ‘God’, but it is not based upon the knowledge of the Bible, but rather upon what they have heard others say and what they themselves ‘want to believe’. They are sincere, but sincerely wrong. There will be a lot of zealous people for God that will burn in Hell for eternity.
3 These zealous millions out there are ignorant (willingly?) of how God has defined righteousness for them; which is, through Jesus Christ’s shed blood and death on the cross. They want to rationalize it to their ‘own righteousness’ ; their own view of how one is considered righteous by God; they think that ‘being pretty good’ does it; and going to church, and being baptized, and partaking of communion, and helping the poor, etc..
4 In dealing with the law, Christ has fulfilled it all, and you can’t, and must obtain what He has obtained for you;
this is the righteousness that you need.
“Where the law ends, Christ begins. The law ends with representative sacrifices; Christ begins with the real offering. The law is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ; it cannot save, but it leaves us at his door where alone salvation is to be found. Christ as an atoning sacrifice for sin, was the grand object of the whole sacrificial code of Moses; his passion and death were the fulfilment of its great object and design. Separate this sacrificial death of Christ from the law, and the law has no meaning. Thus he was the end of the law, in respect to its sacrifices.” (Adam Clarke’s Commentary)
5 -8 To ‘follow the law’, you must truly live by the rules of the Law and not break any part of the law one time. You have to be perfect. God’s righteousness is not based upon the law, but rather on ‘faith’. Man’s righteousness leans on what he can do; God’s righteousness leans on faith in what Jesus Christ has already done.
The deep is Sheol; the place of the departed, Hell. Jesus went there to preach to the saints held captive.
“The way of justification and salvation has in it no such depths or knots as may discourage us, no insuperable difficulties attending it; but, as was foretold, it is a high-way. We are not put to climb for it—it is not in heaven; we are not put to dive for it—it is not in the deep. First, We need not go to heaven, to search the records there, or to enquire into the secrets of the divine counsel. It is true Christ is in heaven; but we may be justified and saved without going thither, to fetch him thence, or sending a special messenger to him. Secondly, We need not go to the deep, to fetch Christ out of the grave, or from the state of the dead:” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary)
The word is nigh thee… the truth from God’s word is right before you… there is no excuse for being ignorant about God’s righteousness.
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
The Doctrine of Salvation: What does it take to get saved? Just believe? Go through a 32 to step soulwinning plan?
This section of scripture clearly states that there are 2 main ‘steps’ to getting saved: Believe and Confess/Call.
A. Believe in thine heart:
▫Not a head knowledge, but an actual heart belief. Often misses by 18 inches… Was your ‘belief’ more just a mental
assent?! Did you simply agree that you understood what the preacher was telling you was true?
▫Believe what? believe in Jesus? the devils believe and tremble! believe what about Jesus?…
▫Specifically here, it is believing ‘in thine heart’ that God hath raised him (Jesus) from the dead; which implies that
He did indeed die (crucifixion) and that He is now indeed alive, and that God had and has the power to do all this. Of
course, we know from other Scripture that one must believe that He is God, and that our works don’t figure in at all,
and that He shed His blood for our sins, and that we must repent of our sins;
▫This brings about ‘righteousness’…God’s imputed righteousness from Jesus Christ, The Righteous.
▫So, do you believe that?! Is that all that’s necessary to be saved? No. There is the other step…
B. Confess with thy mouth:
▫At ‘confession’, salvation occurs. Does it involve confessing of one’s sins?
▫Does one have to ‘confess with your mouth’ the Lord Jesus before they can be saved? What about a ‘mute’? What
about someone who just states the ‘confession’ but doesn’t really believe it? One must from their heart confess the
Lord Jesus.
▫What do you confess? You confess the Lord Jesus…that He is Lord, the Saviour, your Saviour, God Almighty, the
only Saviour of the world. You confess that you are a sinner desperatly needing to get saved from Hell by this
Saviour….your only hope of salvation!
▫It involves ‘calling’ (v.13). This involves an actual moment in time where there is an official ‘calling’. It is a calling
for salvation. Someone who is in a building on fire, or is drowning out in the middle of a lake, will call out for
‘help’, for someone to save them… they will be crying at the top of their lungs! It surely won’t be half-hearted.
▫Is this confession in public, before other people? Is it done through a priest? Can one get saved privately, alone? Is
it just between you and God? The latter 2 are correct.
▫What happens if you are not willing to tell others about ‘getting saved’; i.e. you are ‘ashamed’? The passage states
that the person who truly does believe on Jesus will not be ashamed… and thus if they are ashamed it reasons that
they did not truly believe on Him. Have you ever heard of someone who said they just got saved but were too
ashamed to tell their family, friends, or the church body about it? I would greatly question this person’s salvation.
▫Did you ever boldly tell others about your salvation once you were saved?….
C. Shall be saved:
▫Saved from what? Our sins? A bummer life? from non-existence? From a literal, eternal, burning Hell !
▫Shall…surely will be…no doubt about it. When someone is saved from a burning building or from drowning out in
the middle of a lake, the rescuer surely wouldn’t ever throw them back in the fire or in the middle of the lake…that
would be absurd! Likewise with God saving someone from the fires of Hell…when He saves you, you are indeed,
totally, 100%, forever, saved! The word ‘shall’ here is a definitive; it will happen.
▫The Jews had a hard time with the Gentiles supposedly getting saved (v. 12). God is saying that anyone can get
saved (v. 13). There is no talk of the elect here; it is ‘whosoever’; the context doesn’t point to any special group; it
is going to be anyone and everyone.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
The Doctrine of Salvation: Can someone get saved if there was no preacher to tell them how to get saved?
But, what about deepest, darkest Africa?! Well, they see creation (Rom 1) and know there is a good God; they have
the witness of the Holy Ghost in their consciousnesses to help them see their need; and if they desire to know the truth,
then God will undoubtedly send them a preacher…someone to tell them the truth of salvation! There will be no-one
standing before Jesus who says “I would have believed, but there was no-one to tell me the truth; this isn’t fair!” For
those of you who are still struggling with this, just take a quick look at v. 18.
Can someone get saved by reading a tract? Yes. The person who put that tract together would qualify as the
‘preacher’.
Church sends: not just any church, but one of the Lord’s churches. They are officially sent out to do this. This can
include Saturday morning church evangelism, or sending out a Missionary to Africa. Sent ones…apostles.
The Hearing: what about a deaf person? what about someone who hears with their ears but doesn’t understand your
language? Thus, there must be an understanding of the truths being preached (or written). Don’t just rattle off the
Roman’s Road and then have the person pray. Make sure they truly do understand (hear) what you have said.
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
The Doctrine of Faith: One must ‘obey the gospel’ in order to be saved. And, oh so few obey it; probably less than 2% of the world’s adult population will get saved. Faith isn’t to be a ‘blind faith’; it is to be based upon something… the word of God. The gospel did get preached throughout the whole known world in the 1st century A.D.. It needs to go again… then maybe Mt 24 can be fulfilled.
19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. 20 But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. 21 But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
The Doctrine of the Gentiles: Once again, the overriding context is Jews vs. Gentiles. Moses said that the Jews would be provoked to jealousy by a foolish nation, the Gentiles.
Count Zinzendorf: “I have but one passion – it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.”
Charles Spurgeon answering a student’s question, ‘Will the heathen who have not heard the Gospel be saved?’
‘It is more a question with me whether we, who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not, can be saved.