The Revolutionary Power of the Gospel: 10:1-21

Recap and Background

Welcome to Episode 4 of Series 3. If you have been following these episodes, you will know that Paul’s topic in the last three episodes, has been the Jewish people and their situation in the purposes of God - a question that troubled the Early Church, troubled the Christians in Rome, and troubled Paul. It was difficult to explain how the Jewish people, despite all their history and their privileges, had by and large failed to respond to the gospel and believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

Paul explained, in Romans 9, several important things which are in the background as we move on to his next topic today. First of all, he explains his great love for the Jewish people. Secondly, he explained clearly that God chose the Jewish people for his purposes, and that choice was important and had a permanent significance, even now that Jesus had come and the gospel was spreading to all the nations of the earth.

In the last episode, we saw how Paul explained that God was working through a remnant of the Jewish people. A small part of their population were obeying God, following him, becoming disciples of Jesus, and forming a key part of the Early Church. Paul basically didn’t want the Romans to write off the Jews, or to consider the Old Testament as just a history book. He wanted to connect what God did in the Old Testament to what he was doing right there and then in Rome, and in his ministry all over the Roman world. Now he turns his attention back to the revolutionary power of the gospel and the need to spread the message of the Christian faith.

Jesus – the Culmination of the Law

“Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

Romans 10:1-4, NIV

Here Paul identifies the problem that the Jews faced in his time. The problem was the Law of Moses, and the grip that it had on the Jewish minds, and on their religious practices. They found it tremendously hard to believe that a time had come when the Law of Moses was no longer required. In fact, it was becoming out of date. The Law of Moses, as I have mentioned before in our collection on Romans, was a whole system of law set up by Moses early in the history of the nation, by which the Jewish people should live their lives: laws for law courts, family behaviour, temple worship, sacrifice, land distribution, and organizing the agriculture of their country. It was a comprehensive law system. But Paul makes the claim here, in verse 4, ‘Christ is the culmination of the law’. What does he mean by ‘the culmination’? It means both the goal and also the termination, or the end of the law.

Let me use an example: In a few days’ time I shall be making an important journey from my home in the UK, in the middle of the country, to an important meeting in London, and I shall be traveling by train. It is about 250 kilometres. When the train gets to London it reaches a station which is a terminus - you can’t go any further. That is where that rail line comes to an end. At that point, I need to get off the train and take a bus, or an underground train, to reach my ultimate destination. What would happen if I sat on the train and when I arrived at the terminus I say to the driver of the train, ‘Keep driving, we haven’t reached the destination yet!’ He would think I had gone crazy. I have to get off the train when it comes to the end of its journey and I have to get onto another means of transport in order to move further.

It was the same with the Law of Moses. It had reached the end of its function. It no longer had a function in the purposes of God and the Jewish people needed to get away from the law. They needed to get off the ‘train’ in order to get onto the next ‘bus’ that leads them to the next part of the purposes of God. The New Testament describes this process in a number of ways. Jesus said in Matthew 5: 17, “Do not think that I’ve come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.” Something better was happening through Jesus Christ. At the end of his life when he died, in Matthew 27: 51, as soon as he died, it says that, ‘At that moment the curtain of the Temple was torn into from top to bottom. And the earth shook’. This was a symbol that that Jewish Temple, which was at the centre of the law, was now no longer needed. That curtain held back people from going into the most holy place, where God’s presence was supposed to be - suddenly the way was opened. There was no longer any need for the priests and their sacrifices. This period of history was coming to an end. The train had reached the terminus. If you stay on the train long enough, it starts going in the opposite direction. You have to make a decision to move on, and that is what the Jewish people needed to do.

Paul described this in Romans 7:1 - 4, which we looked at in an earlier episode, when he wrote that the relationship that people had with the Jewish law was like a marriage - such a close connection. In order to be linked to somebody else, one of those marriage partners had to die, so that the other one was free to move on to something else. Paul said that, in Christ, we died to the law. No longer was it of any application to us. In Hebrews 8:13, the writer says that the Law of Moses is obsolete and fading away. This was the challenge for the Jewish people. They couldn’t let go of their religious system in order to embrace the gospel. Paul has explained clearly, in the earlier chapters, that no longer are we driven in our faith by rules and regulations, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, helping us to know the right thing to do. He explained that very clearly in the first part of Romans 8.

Here is the challenge for the Jews. They have to let go of their system of law so that they might take hold of God’s righteousness, putting them right with God through the death of Jesus on the cross. Paul makes it clear, in verse 4, that this righteousness is open to anybody whether they have a Jewish background or not.

The Christian Faith

“Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile - the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:5-13, NIV

Here Paul gives us one of the most important definitions of Christian faith in the whole New Testament. He is explaining this isn’t to do with the Jewish law, this is to do directly with the person and work of Jesus Christ. We have to confess with our mouth “Jesus is Lord”. The word ‘Lord’ means God. It is not enough to believe that Jesus was a prophet, or a moral teacher, or a healer, or a witch doctor. No, Jesus is God himself, the Son of God come to earth. By saying, “Jesus is Lord” we are acknowledging that our lives need to change. These are not just words that you repeat, these are words from the heart, to acknowledge he is going to be the Lord of my life. That is what Christian faith is all about. We need to believe also that God raised him from the dead. For Paul it was impossible to be a Christian unless you believed in the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Again, miracle working, teaching, loving the poor, and being kind to people wasn’t enough. Jesus died on the cross and he rose again from the dead. This is a miracle that never happened in history before - somebody who died for three days rose again, their body came out of the grave and was resurrected in perfect form, in perfect health. Jesus’ physical resurrection is a key part of the gospel.

Notice in Romans 10:12 - 13, Paul makes it clear that now there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The privileges of the Jews no longer give them any higher status than anyone else. This was all part of that process of letting go of the Jewish law, because the Jewish law implied privilege. It meant you were set apart, you were different from other people, you were superior to other people, and you had a superior religious system. For the Jews to let go of the law, was to let go of any sense of racial or religious superiority. That is one of the things they found very difficult to do when Christ came. In fact, that is exactly the problem that Paul had. He resisted Christianity and the gospel. He was scared of the fact that Jewish privileges were going to be wiped away by the gospel. But then he came to believe in Christ and he rejoiced that now anybody from any nation can call on the name of the Lord and be saved. Isn’t that a wonderful reality that we live in with the Christian gospel? It is equal for anybody. The access to Christ is universal across our world, across all generations, and across all cultures. Thank God for that.

Telling Others

Paul is making his case for the gospel very clearly, and speaks passionately about the process of reaching people.

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

Romans 10:14-15, NIV

At the very heart of Christianity, in the first century, was the concept of people being ‘sent’. Jesus chose twelve Apostles as the foundation for his Church. The word Apostle means ‘one who is sent with authority’, like an ambassador going from one country to represent their government in another country: sent with authority. The Church grew in the first century, in Paul’s time, because there were people who believed that they had been sent from one place to another, from one community to another. They went: they left one place and went to another; they left a place of comfort and began to preach. There were twelve to start with and more were added. Then evangelists were added, who started going into their community and speaking the gospel, probably in their local communities for the most part. And then Paul was added, after his Damascus road experience, where he suddenly realised what the gospel was. He also received his incredible commission to go. He was sent. How can people hear unless someone comes to you and communicates with you? Christians are sent, missionaries are sent, church leaders are sent, Apostles are sent, and evangelists are sent, to people. When they arrive, when they meet the people they are reaching, they share their faith with them, they preach. Unbelievers hear, respond, and call on the Lord for salvation. This was the pattern for the growth of the Church in the early days. Paul was pleading for a Church where there were people willing to go out and to share their faith and very often moved from place to place to plant churches. Paul was in the forefront of this process. In fact, the book of Acts is the story of the Apostles and their colleagues being sent into new places, and new contexts, all the time.

This is a very moving and powerful passage and a great encouragement and challenge towards evangelism. The Church only grows as people share their faith.

Response to the Gospel

“But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: ‘Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.’ Again I say: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, ‘I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.’ And Isaiah boldly says, ‘I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.’ But concerning Israel he says, ‘All day long I’ve held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.’”

Romans 10:16-21, NIV

Paul notes here that, in his experience at that time, there is a distinct difference in the response to the gospel. Jewish people tended not to believe and Gentiles tended to believe. That was the experience of those in Rome, where there was probably a small Jewish group in the church, and a large Gentile group. Paul comes back to the question of the Jews. We still have this tension. He said, they are still chosen by God, there is a faithful remnant, don’t write them off, and keep the Old Testament history in mind. But still, he has to acknowledge that in general, at that time, the Jews did not respond to the preaching of the gospel. This leads Paul into his conclusions about the Jewish people, which we will come to in the next episodes, as we look at Romans 11. As I have mentioned before, he reveals to us a very surprising outcome to his discussion of the Jews later on in Romans 11.

Reflections

As we conclude Romans 10, and this episode, what things can we learn from this passage? First of all, there is a big call for Christians to consider themselves sent with a responsibility to speak to people, and share with people when we have opportunity, whether it is in our daily lives, through being missionaries, or through supporting the church in its evangelistic activity. We are sent people. I wonder how that applies to you. Think of the personal applications, and take responsibility for the people you can reach with the message of Christ, even if it’s only in your own household, or your own neighbourhood, or your own street, or the place where you work.

In Romans 10: 17 there is a wonderful principle that Paul gives us: ‘Faith comes from hearing the message.’ So, we have to trust God that our job is to deliver the message, but only he can bring faith. We give the opportunity for faith by delivering the truth. It might be telling your story, a testimony; it might be the offer to pray for people; it might be preaching the gospel; it might be giving them a Bible; or lending them a book; or some Christian message, encouraging them to tune into something on radio or satellite television or online. Faith comes through hearing.

It is because I believe that faith comes through hearing that I am committed to the Word Online project, which is aimed at reaching people all over the world with the simple and straightforward teaching of the New Testament, in the expectation that some people listening to these episodes will find faith for the first time.

Thank you for listening to this episode and I look forward very much to going on to Romans 11, where Paul’s complex reasoning concerning the Jewish people reaches a very exciting climax. I hope you will join with me in the next episode.